Unable to format external hard drive
so I'm trying to replace the hard drive in my MacBook Pro. I bought a 2.5 inch hard drive and a caddy to transfer the data with.
according to the internet, I had to "erase" it, first. which is fine. but every time I try to erase it, it says "file system formatter failed", and the disk isn't recognised by OSX (although it does appear in Disk Utility).
what can I do?
When you look at it in DU, select the device (starts with the size in GB or TB, then some alphanumeric jibberish, left justified in the column). Choose Partition, and partition Mac OS Extended (journaled) and GUID partition table (may need to select that under Options... I forget). Name your partition (I'll assume you just want one), then press Apply. When DU has finished partitioning, another entry should appear indented a little below the device - with the name you gave your partition. You should be able to select this partition and then use Erase to erase the partition. Report back if this doesn't work.
Similar Messages
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I have a windows formatted external hard drive and a macbook pro. I was wondering if i could use the windows migration assistant to transfer files from my external hard drive to the mac
No.
Just connect the drive to your Mac. The Mac can read most Windows formats (it cannot WRITE Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) formatted drives. -
Can I install my time machine back up onto a properly formatted external hard drive?
I have a MacBook Pro with a 750GB harddrive, with 500+ Gb of data on it. Just before I traverse to Europe, I did a TimeMachine back up.
I now want to give my Mac to a friend, and buy a AirMac when I get home. Even if I get the one with the largest drive it will not hold the full 500+'back up.
I have an 8 year old Mac Book pro at home as well. It will be a few months before I can buy the new AirMac. So my question is ....
Can I install my current backup on a properly formatted external hard drive, and will it then run like a computer --until I get my new AirMac?
Thanks for your help (and please don't be too tough on me for what may see to de a dumb question)
Soper777The Time Machine backup is not bootable
You will have to install Leopard first -
I was backing up my MacBook with Time Machine and using my new (correctly formatted) external hard drive. All was going well when my 2 yo knocked the disk leading to a "failure" by time machine (Latest Backup: Failed). Now the MacBook will not even recognize the hard drive. I have rebooted, tried all I can think of, but no acknowledgement of the drive. The drive itself makes noise and vibrates as if working, but nothing from the Mac. Please help or $100 down the drain... Thank you.
You may have already done these resets in the "tried all I can think of " portion of your post.....if not then here they are.....
PRAM
support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
SMC
support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
.....hopefully that is all that is required..... -
FAT formatted external hard drive is not 'readable by this computer'
Hello support community
The problem: when I insert my 'FAT' formatted external hard drive (Samsung M3) into my mac book pro it comes up with the error message that says "the inserted disk is not readable by this computer" and I therefore cannot access the files.
The story (potential further details):
1. I had a problem with my mac where it took hours to load each time I turned it on, would only work when power was plugged in etc. so I had to reformat my mac hard drive (when I tried to veriify it said repair, that wouldn't work). So i'm starting with a recently reformatted, clean mac.
2. Before doing this I reformatted my external hard drive (whilst on windows machine) to FAT32 (so I can use on both windows and mac) so that I could back up my files.
3. I then transferred files from mac onto external hard drive and then also put them on a windows machine.
4. After reformatting mac hard drive when I then tried to transfer files back onto the mac I get the 'not readable' error.
The technical details:
Thank you very much indeed anyone who can help or can try and help
Cheers
AndyErase the drive and reformat using your Mac (Disk Utility)
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hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive? please help for i only have around 618mb left out of 189GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If what doesn't work?
If cloning your internal drive to the external drive is not successful, I expect CCC will tell you so. Assuming that doesn't happen, you will have a bootable replica of the internal drive on the external drive once CCC has finished.
You can then do any of several things:
1. Replace your internal drive with a much larger one (320GB or 500GB, or even larger), and clone the external drive's contents onto the new drive so you'll have all your data in one place. Note that if you do this, you'll also need to buy an external drive that's large enough to back the new internal drive up on.
2. Boot from the external drive as a temporary measure while you clear at least 30-40GB of data off the internal drive, allowing you to keep using it and saving small amounts of data to it. The external drive will then contain the only copies of the files you've deleted from the internal drive, so you'll need a seond external drive large enough to back both the other drives up on.
If you can't comfortably clear a minimum of 30GB off the internal drive, you really need a larger internal drive right now, and you shouldn't bother fooling around with the inadequate one you have — you'll just quickly overfill it again.
3. Replace the optical drive in your MBP with a large conventional hard drive, giving you two hard drives inside the machine. You will then need one or more external drives large enough to back up both of the internal drives.
If you sense a theme here — back up, back up, back up — you are correct. It's flat-out foolhardy to own or use a computer without maintaining complete, up-to-date backups of everything at all times. -
How to access a PC formatted external hard drive
I am trying to access a PC formatted external hard drive, however when I attempt to mount it I get a message saying the drive is not recongnized and if I want ti initialize, which i believe if I execute will remove the files I am trying access..Is there a way to access the files on the external hard drive...it is a avi file i need to edit..
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
Paragon also has a program (suite) that will convert NTFS <=> HFS+ without data loss (but have backup never use something wo one!)
And Pargon has kept up with Lion while others have not or have stopped development and works best with PC drive cases with low overhead and fast reliable copy operation.
The demo is also fully functional for 30 days. -
Can I bring files from a NTFS formatted external hard drive (from Windows XP 32 bit desktop) to my new macbook pro retina?
What are these files you are trying to copy over?
If they are program specific and there is no program on a Mac to read them then you'll have to find either a Mac version of that program or one that does the same thing and can read those files.
The file extension should not change just because you connect a NTFS formatted drive to a Mac computer. A Word Document is still a .doc/.docx ad the same for all other office type programs. Music files with an extension of .MP3, or whatever, should read the same on both system. Same goes for all other files like images with a .JPG extension.
Yes I would network them.
I would not use Migration Assistant. There is nothing on your Windows PC that can be used on the Mac other than your personal data files. No programs or settings can be carried over from Windows to OS X.
marimbapony1 wrote:
Also, when I view the files from the external hard drive, they show up as .nbz and are not recognized by any program on the Mac. Should I just abandon the hard drive option and start sharing files through the LAN approach? -
Formatting external hard drive for mac
Hi I am having trouble reformatting an external Hard drive from my Windows computer to my new Mac any guidance would be appriciated thx.
http://www.cultofmac.com/92845/formatting-external-hard-drives-in-os-x-video-how -to/
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Formatted external hard drive from PC to Mac - Data Recovery Needed
I formatted an external hard drive configured to (PC) for a Mac.
I clicked erase data by accident during the process of formatting -- My old files are no longer there now.
Is there a way to recover the old files that I had on there before the reformat?
Someone please say yes and tell me it's possible......Not very likely.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery. -
How to open my apple formatted external hard drive in my pc?
Hi guys. I have [or had...] an Australian Imac 27". I do not have the specifications now because the computer died last night. I was working and than suddenly everything slowed down. I tried to open Itunes and icon became an interrogation mark after I clicked it; in the aplications folder several programs had a red mark (sign) in their icons.
Well, I already did all kind of boots and resets and I think I probably my computer died [internal hd]. I live in Mali (Africa), thousands of miles from the nearest genius bar or apple stores.
My immediate problem is with my partitioned 4TB My Book II external hard drive [do not know how it was formatted]. It had in one HD my time machine and in the other some crucial files.
Now I am using a PC and I do not see the contents of the HD. Sure, the PC connects to it showing that there is a partitioned hard drive. But it does not open.
Do you think is a MAC OS - Windows problem? [fat x ntfs] How can I solve this problem?MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write Mac HFS+...
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/ -
Formatted External Hard drive won't work
I formatted my external hard drive using the MS-DOS(FAT) in Disk Utilities so I could use it on my windows and on my mac. After the formatting finished, I copied some folders to my hard drive from my macbook and ejected it, then plugged it to my windows laptop and I get an alert "You need to format the disk to be able to use it" or something like that. Of course I don't want to format it because I don't want to lose the files since I already deleted them from my macbook. So I plugged my hard drive again to the macbook and i can't find it. I went to Disk Utilities and tried repairing but it couldn't repair. Now my external hard drive is not readable on both and I don't want to format before I can at least copy my files.
What to do?!If you can see it on the computer not much.
There are disk recovery services that can retrieve data from such disks but their service cost $$$$
How much is the data worth to you?
Allan -
Formatting a PC-formatted External Hard Drive to work in Mac OS
So I have a 300 gig external hard drive formatted for Windows XP with NTFS. I recently got a Macbook Pro and as it stands in Mac OS X the hard drive is read only. I can copy files from the hard drive to my Mac, but I can't edit files on the external HD or copy from my Mac to my external HD. This of course is a problem and so I need to reformat it to work in Mac OS. While I will not be using PCs anymore, if possible I would like for the external HD to be Mac and Windows compatible.
First things first I have to get all 300 gigs of files off the external HD in order to reformat it. This will be a pain but I have the means to do this. Once I get everything off, how and with what method should I reformat it to work in Mac? Should I use the HFS file system or MS-DOS? Also, what utility in Mac OS lets me reformat it. As I said, I probably won't be hooking up this external HD to Windows anytime soon, but if there is a way to format it in Mac to work with Windows, then fine.
So what exactly are my options here? I understand that I can format the hard drive in Mac OS with either MS-DOS or FAT32. I just don't know which is better/faster/more reliable in Mac OS, as I'm still a Mac newbie. I don't have files that are over 2 gigs as far as I remember, so I don't think that will be an issue. If it helps, it is mostly media files (videos, music). I've read up online about formatting a drive to work with Mac OS, but there's just so much info I'm getting confused. Thanks.Thanks for the suggestions so far.
So from what people are saying, I can format the drive in Mac OS as FAT32 (aka MS-DOS) and it will work fine between the two operating systems.
I've been reading more though and it seems that FAT32 drives can not be larger than 130 gigs? Or is that just for partitions.
I have a 350 gig hard drive and I don't plan on having any partitions. Can I just format the drive as FAT32 in Mac OS and the whole 350 gigs will be available? There's so much conflicting info in articles I've been reading.
thanks -
Formatted external hard drive, trying to recover files I missed off when backing up.
I recently formatted my seagate 500gb external hard drive, thinking all the files/projects were backed up.
Some of them weren't (I'm not sure how/why, could be human error or the transfer failed but unfortunately i was rushing and didn't check)
but this includes includes my current FCPX events and projects which were on the library of the external hard drive.
I've run Stellar Phoenix Mac Data recovery on said hard driveSo..
I ran the recovery software on the hard drive, I've managed to salvage some .mov media files and a bunch of other stuff I think could be related to what I need.
I've recovered these onto another external drive but when I go to play them it says 'error quicktime cannot be used to play'
The thumbnail is quicktime and it opens in quicktime as default.
I was wondering if anyone knows how I can access the files or do you need me to provide more info than that to know how to do so.
If anyone has any further knowledge of recovering any sorts of FCPX or video files from a formatted hard drive then I'd be very appreciative.
I imagine the FCP projects and events or anything to do with that are gone forever, just can't work out anything else I can do to salvage clips.
Anything you think may help my situation would be great, I've just lost out on a lot of money from these projects just before christmas so even moral support will help ha!
Cheers. -
Unable to Unlock External Hard Drive w/ Correct Password
Specs
Retina MacBook Pro
Mac OS 10.9.4
Encrypted External Hard Drive with Time Machine application
Issue
I’m not able to unlock my ext. hard drive with the password stored in Keychain Access or by manually entering the password. When I plug my ext. hard drive on another computer the password works just fine.
I also noticed that when unlocking the ext. hard drive with an incorrect password the window will shake. When I unlock using the correct password it'll stall for about 10 seconds before it shakes. I’m not sure if that’s an indication of anything.
I formatted the ext. hard drive and encrypted it again. It works fine for a little bit before the same issue crops up again and the same password no longer unlocks the external hard drive. Again, it’ll unlock just fine on another computer.
Steps I've done so far in attempt to resolve the issue:
Keychain First Aid
Reset My Default Keychain
Repaired Disk Permission
Unlocking via Disk Utility
Formatting the external hard drive
Help!
I’ve come to the conclusion that it must be related to Keychain Access, the OS, or something else on my computer that’s preventing me from unlocking it. Does anyone have any clue why this is happening and what I can do to repair the issue?Hi Kevin,
Its "Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)" and its partitioned
kind regards,
thanks
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