Certainly you can erase/initialize HDDs and install HDD drivers with Apple-provided software. Whether that is HD SC setup or Drive Setup will depend upon the System with which the utility is provided. (Some Systems offer both.) If you have not used either of them before you will see that they are bare-bones: a not-especially informative GUI, and incapable of refinements such as mapping out bad blocks, 'taking over' drives set up with another utility, partitioning and other delights of HDD management. LaCie's Silverlining, FWB's HD ToolKit, InTech's HD SpeedTools and ATTO's utility (the name escapes me for the moment) all offer these facilities and more.
While you still have but a few Macs is the time to test and choose one or other of these HDD utilities, so that you can use one only on all Mac drives that come into your possession. This permits fewer conflicts of management at a later date. Setting up your HDDs with Silverlining (as I do) and popping an alias to the application (in Control Panels) into your Apple menu gives a convenient means of interrogating your HDDs at any time. Silverlining 5.8.x can be downloaded; otherwise most of the utilities above either come with some item of the makers' gear or can be purchased.
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