I rec'd an external hard drive that does not work I was told it needs to be formated how do I do that

1) Connect the Hard Drive.

2) Right Click My Computer --> Manage. Or Run --> 'compmgmt'

3) A new window titled "Computer Management" comes up. Select "Storage" from the left hand side, then select "Disk Management(local)".

4) Then select the Hard Drive u want to format and Right Click Select Format.

Note: When you format a computer hard drive you will lose everything that is on the drive.