erase/format an external HDD on Mac; how long does it take?

I noticed an earlier post with a very similar title and subject matter but I couldn't reply to it so I have reworded it as a new question!

In MY experience, this should NOT take long to do at all.

I bought a Seagate 8TB Expansion drive today and set it up to erase/format, I was advised it would take a week. It depends on many factors but I wasn't accepting a week; I did a Force Quit on Disk Utilities, and then did a restart (quite an important part of this process). I went back in and set up Disk Utilities again, selected the correct drive and data and started it.

It took barely a minute! Its now formatted and mounted.

I reckon the restart played a big part in this, had I not done it, the process would still take a long time. A simple restart can sort out many things in a computer, it helped sort this!

I also say, take care, take your time; make sure the info you are inputting is correct before you start the process. Take the time to do it this way. Never fails for me.

I read a post earlier that says it will take 5hrs to format a 1TB drive; that means mine 8TB) should have taken about 40 hours!