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Reformat external hard drive mac error

And no this is not the Dell site. Is it okay to keep it and reformat it for mac or am I much better off returning it and buying another one specifically for mac? Yes just format the drive for the Mac as described in this article on formatting an external hard drive to Mac OS X compatibility. Same here! This is the exact message. It came straight from the box:.

Erasing a partition deltes all the data on that partition, but does not affect other partitions on the same disk. Same here. Click Done to continue. The Disk Utility has changed, you might want to update the screen shots to reflect the new version, the Partition tab is noticeably different. It Fails and says: Disk Erase Failed. I get similar errors constantly when using USB hubs on Mac with external drives, but when plugged directly into Mac the hard drives work. Having the identical problem connected directly to USB on the back of iMac.

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How do you tell if it is locked? I have a new maxone external drive, and it is not recognized in the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility. It is connected by USB cable, plugged directly into mu iMac. I have an Iomega Ext. The storage is half full with over MB of storage left. Am I able to continue with the formatting without erasing the current files that are already on it? I have a 1TB Toshiba external hard drive, I have been using on my iMac and have been able to read an write on it. Why is it working on my iMac and not on my macbook pro?


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It seems that the hard drive is formatted for Windows but it does work read and write on my iMac. Do I need to format this external drive to be able to use in more than one Apple computer? The one single thing, arguably one of the most important bits has been skipped altogether from this guideā€¦.

Majority if not all flash drives come not only with Windows dominant file systems, but also MBR formatted, vs the Mac where the operating system is always installed to a GPT partitioned disk. Format for Mac compatibility as described, I use it with every disk. You do not need to mess with schemes, this is not Windows. This is Mac. In this case you are formatting the drive to be Mac compatible. This is not about Windows. Just trying to figure out if I need to back my pictures up to a second hard drive before I do this. Backup everything you want to save. Nothing is left on the external hard drive after formatting is completed.

This post is a lifesaver even 5 years down the track! Hi, I did what it said. But two of my USB are ruined, my computer cannot read them anymore. I kinda wanna cry. If you format a hard drive it erases the data on it. That is what formatting does, it erases a drive.

Fix External Hard Drive 'Read Only' Error on Mac Without Losing Data

What else do you think erasing a drive is supposed to do except erase the data? I purchased a 4TB WD external drive and having a heck of a time reformatting this drive. I have tried all the above advice without getting to have this new hard drive formatted. Any other suggestions? I just keep getting the error Disk erase failed.


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There must be something new with High Sierra Is there an option besides just declaring the data irretrievable, and more importantly, how does a USB uninitialize itself? Will I be able to copy and share media across both Mac and Windows? I am Computer-Eleteret lol. Now My Mac is about There.

How to fix MAC OSX Hard Drive formatting issue 2018

I just have no Clue how to do it. Name required. Mail will not be published required. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. Enter your email address below: Posted by: Andy Robinson says: January 4, at 4: Fernando says: January 4, at AppleExpert3 says: November 12, at 2: AstroExpert2 says: July 6, at 3: Emaven says: January 4, at 8: April 22, at 4: Joe says: June 27, at 8: Sam says: July 28, at 8: August 21, at Roger says: April 10, at NYCer says: January 8, at 7: Ahmed says: November 26, at Lina Alvarez says: September 17, at 9: January 25, at 3: Thasleem says: March 17, at Debbie says: March 25, at 4: Timothy says: April 3, at 1: May 6, at Deon says: January 13, at 8: Yes says: January 13, at 9: January 13, at Noreen says: September 14, at 2: April says: October 10, at 8: Sayna says: April 29, at 3: July 6, at Jared says: September 24, at 1: Keith says: December 17, at 6: December 17, at December 21, at December 22, at January 9, at 9: The drive does not appear on the desktop or the Finder.

Attempting to Initialize it gets the same message as before. Turn off your computer, unplug the drive, plug it back when the computer is back up and try to reformat it again. Let me know if that works. Again, thanks for your continuing efforts to help. Did you delete the partition before formatting the drive?

disk utility - Unable to format / erase hard drive - Ask Different

If not, you may be attempting to format on top of a Windows partition. Thanks for attempting to help. Otherwise you may have a failed drive in some way. I was actually following the instructions in that same article and getting nowhere. I have a number of cables, but none that match the one that came with the drive. This happened to me, too. The screenshot shows that you should delete one level lower in the hierarchy than actually works. Hi, someone could already solve this problem?.

I bought two WD Elements discs and the same thing happened to me. I already tried to format it in an PC with Windows, but it does not see it. You should see it succeed now. Thank you. That was exactly it.


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  8. Problem solved. You need to select the disk name one level higher.