I really appreciate your help and the time you are spending, jpollard; unfortunately, I think you are assuming that I understand way more than I do. Most of what you said in your last post just is over my head.
I don't want to waste your time, but if you could answer these questions, that would be great; if you don't have time, I understand.
1. The "symbolic link" that points to /dev/sde name; do I create that name? And if so, how? Or, I noticed that the bottom left cogwheel does ask for a name, so I can name it anything, and that is the link?
2. How do I create partition tables, as you mentioned? Is that like drive C, D, E, etc., in Windows? I don't know how to do that.
3. Losing ownership metadata...don't know what that is at all. I don't have anything that needs to be protected, if that is what it's about? The rest of the sentence, the line terminator, carriage return, etc., even more obscure to me.
Basically, I want to be able to use this drive to back up my movies, documents, music, etc; and, I would like to be able to open these things on other operating systems besides Linux. If it's too difficult to do that, maybe I shouldn't use the drive on Linux at all. I was hoping that Linux was becoming much more user friendly, for us folks that are not so computer inclined. I like the idea of no viruses, open sources, etc, but I can't spend my whole time trying to figure everything out to make it work. Anyway, I do very much appreciate you trying to help me.

beachboy2; thanks! But, I'm just wondering, can't I just click on the little cogwheel, bottom left of the printScreen pic I sent above? I mean, instead of entering all the commands on the terminal. When I click on the cogwheel, it gives the choice of formatting to NTFS.
I'll attach another copy of the printscr. here.

Attached Thumbnails

 

zealbert,

Your earlier comment suggested that you were confused, so I thought my method would simplify matters for you.

Your last comment suggests that you have found the right option:

Click on Format and select NTFS. This will format the whole of the EHDD (e) in NTFS.

NB Do make sure to highlight the e drive and not one of the others.

beachboy2, thanks again, it worked perfectly. I made the stupid mistake of disconnecting the usb cable while I was transferring data, so now I can't mount the thing anymore for some reason; I am erasing the drive completely and doing the reformat; at least I know what to do now.
Thank you very much for your time and expertise!

zealbert,

Glad to hear that you finally fixed it.

When can I expect that pint of real ale?

If I ever make it to Wales (only about 6000 miles from where I am), I will definitely ply you with that Real Ale!

Cheers zealbert!