external hard drive

hello all,
some external hd questions

Do you have to format the external hard drive through the mpc before using it?

Is it alright to bring the external hardrive to gigs?
Cos i'm thinking about the vibrations from the loud speakers during gigs which might cause problems to the hard drive.

Thanks

Do you have to format the external hard drive through the mpc before using it?

Yes.

Is it alright to bring the external hardrive to gigs?

Probably.

For gigs I would meave the harddisk at home and rather opt for zip disks (make sure to bring a copy of every zipdisk you bring to a gig and possibly a backup zip drive.)

All of the above.