How to format EXT4 (or best format) and best hard drive?

In my opinion the drives inside of the current WD Mybook/Easystore 8TB and larger (single disk versions) are preferable to other current options including running more than one smaller drive. I also run a full drive scan with the manufacturer’s utility before I put anything on it to act as a stress test and performance optimizer. It is probably worth noting that this is a slow process (8+hrs on the largest drives).