How do I erase a Passport hard drive?

I am converting a 500 GB Passport drive from my back up disk to the disk for my iTunes. How to erase the disk wasn't obvious. I moved the contents to trash, but I'm having no luck "securely emptying" that trash. The trash queues up, but then the emptying abruptly stops before it even gets going.
What do I need to do?

See here > Format, Erase, or Reformat a drive
From Here > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

Similar Messages

How can I erase my external hard drive?

So I've been having this problem for a while now. Here's my setup: Macbook OS X 10.5.8 and a WD 10EAVS 1TB External Hard Drive. That's all. I was given this by a fellow student on campus who was graduating. So I want to use this to store my iTunes Library (my Macbook's hard drive ran out of space). Here's what I do:
- Macbook is turned on and running
- I plug the external hard drive into a working outlet --> Hard drive turns on
- I plug the external hard drive into the mac using a USB connection --> Disk Insertion Error message: the disk you insterted was not readable by this computer
- It is not readable so I open it in Disk Utility (the hard drive is listed/recognized)
- I attempt to erase and/or partition the hard drive in order to format it in Mac OS Extended OR Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but I get one of these two messages: "Disk Erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed." OR "Disk Erase failed with the error: The underlying task reported failure on exit."
I attempted to look up what these mean or how to fix the problem but nothing is really working. I was able to format the hardware line to MS-DOS (FAT) and the sub-line as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but I don't even know if that's right or not.
Basically, I need my computer to recognize this hard drive whenever I plug it in and to run smoothly as "extra space" to store my music on.
I haven't had A LOT of experience with external hard drives but enough to get things done. But this problem is a killer.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Please don't hesitate to ask for more info in order to figure it out. I'll do my best with the knowledge/information I have
Thanks so much!

Read carefully to the end, it is not a long text.
Let us resume the required steps, after putting inside a new, virgin disk:
1. Start up machine and as soon as possible put CD/DVD, press key C to force boot from CD; if the sequence is not fast enough and machine passed over the initial phase, and ? was displayed, force shut down by pressing button key, then start again, with CD/DVD inside
2. Press key C after start, and wait until the Apple logo in displayed, wait
3. You will see a list of install language, choose one, and
4. Go to Apple bar and choose Disk Utility; on the left side, you will see the disk, select it, then, on the cenral-lower part of displayed windows go to Options and choose Apple Partition Map (APM), go back and choose, if not already chosen by default, Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+), 1 partition (or more, some prefer more than one), click to partiion/erase disk. Note that you MUST have both conditions achieved: APM and HFS+
5. Close Disk Utility and revert to installation proper, proceed.
If you do not see the disk on the left side of Disk Utility, then disk is damaged or badly connected.
P.S. The same procedures are applied to any disk, with the note that:
- for Intel Macs, partition map should be GUID, not APM
- for external disks or flash drives intended to smoothly work with Windows, format should be FAT 32 and Master Boot Record; NTFS may be done with an additional utility like NTFS-3G or NTFSmounter

How do you erase an external hard drive which will not show up on your computer?

I bought a LaCie porsche design 2TB external hard drive from the Apple Store to use with time machine on my MAC 2 months ago. It will no longer show up on my desktopn. After speaking with LaCie, they sent me a replacement. However, I have to send the brooken one back to them and since we could not erase it or anything on my Mac is there anyway to erase the hard drive before sending it back to them with all my information on there?
Message was edited by: carolsh

I know. But after Yahoo, Target , Neimans and others. But I agree. They even sent me a more expensive replacement as they did not have my model in stock and is backordered. So, a win win situation. I was impressed that the tech person spent about an hour on the phone with me trying a variety of options. At first, they were going to charge me shipping- but then she changed her mind and shipped the replacement 1 day fed ex. I guess that is why I always buy LaCie vs others. My older LaCie which I still had but was smaller- I plugged in and did a back-up and I had just enough room on it so I have that for safe keepings now as well.
Thanks again for your pleasant response. I guess I need to limit my profile to "registered members" only. I hope Apple monitors these discussions and people's responses periodically.

I have booted in Tech Tool; now how can I erase the Mac Hard Drive?

I bootrd my MacBook Pro in Tech Tool, and want to erase the Hard drive completely. I can't do it. Any suggestions?

A Late 2008 MacBook Pro should be able to boot off a disc that looks like
And says Mac OS X 10.6 to erase the hard drive. But before we even go that far, why do you want to erase, and is your data backed up?

I am selling my broken Macbook for parts, how can I erase my old hard drive without the computer working?

I destroyed my Macbook in a car accident and have found somebody to buy it for parts. To be safe I want to make sure the Hard Drive is void of all personal information before I hand it over. What are my options?

they do sell them at best buy. I just went to the best buy website and searched for "external enclosure". Make sure it is 2.5" as that is the size of laptop hard drives, not 3.5" as that is to hold desktop hard drives.

How long to erase 3TB external hard drive 7x with disk utility?

Just wondering, started Sunday afternoon and its still going 2 days later.

The 7x erase formatting was added to Disk Utility because of government agencies who have it as a requirement for their security. For most people a 1x erase and zero all data is sufficient. Do you really need to do the 7x?
Best of luck.

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus).

Hello everyone. How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus Portable Device). I accidentally clicked to use it with Time Machine and my hard drive is of little use now. When I open my hard drive, it just shows 'backup', the same thing when I open it with Windows. Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine. New to Apple, appreciate the help

Hello,
"Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine"
If you want to format the External drive as universally compatible, your best bet is to format it as exFAT. Note that reformatting the drive erases all contents of the drive.
1) Open Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities/ (or simply type it in spotlight and the application will show up)
2) Select the external Hard drive
3) Click the 'erase' tab.
4) Under format: select exFAT
5) Click "Erase" in the lower right hand corner to reformat the drive.

How do I Use my Old Hard Drive as a Portable Drive to Transfer and Back Up

Hi
Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I couldn't find another topic area.
So I recently upgraded my hard drive on my Macbook to a 300gb from an 80gb and now I want to use the 80gb as an external drive like a USB pen (it's already in an enclosure so I can plug it in via USB)
What I don;t understand is how I can clear the hard drive of the stuff I backed up from my computer and How i can keep updating the hard drive without the information on it being erased.
I am looking to be able to transfer movies and music from my brothers iMac to my Macbook and vice versa as well as storing some word documents on it.
Any help will be gravelly appreciated.
Thanks!

You should be able to do a complete reformat in Disk Utility. The utility calls this "erase" and gives you the choice of format. You might use MS-DOS (FAT32) if you want to swap files with PCs, but there a 4GB file limitation, which I've run across with large archived DVD images. Normally people use HFS+ if it's exclusively going to be used in the Mac enviroment.

How can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

Hello everyone, how can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

OK. Start with:
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Click on the Erase tab in DU's main window. Select one of the two partitions, preferably the first one, change the Format type: to MSDOS then click on the Erase button.

How do i copy all my hard drive files to an USB iBook?

How do i copy all my hard drive files to an USB iBook (with a progrgram (no drag-and-drop everything), so I can change out my hard drive, I have a MacBook Pro. Thanks.

Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the Lion startup volume.

Transfer photos saved in aperture to my passport (hard drive)

I have 6, 000 photos saved in aperture and the same photos are saved in my iphoto program. I want to move my aperture pictures to MY PASSPORT hard drive. How do i do this?

If you use Aperture's default Managed-Masters Library and are trying to back up, create a vault on the Passport.
Better is to use a Referenced-Masters Library and in that case you would still do a Vault but also create a separate backup of the original images.
-Allen

I just transferred "all movies" to "My Passport" hard drive. Several images of the same clips appear. Is each image a valid clip? Why do I have so many?

I just transferred "all movies" to "My Passport" hard drive. Several images of the same clips appear. Is each image a valid clip? Why do I have so many?

Okay. Trash the stuff on the External Drive.
All Movies is not a place - it's a list. Specifically its a list of all the movies on your Mac. Never interact with anything in iPhoto via these All Movies or All Images lists.
In iPhoto select the Movies you want to move and go File -> Export. Set the Kind: to Original and export from iPhoto to this external drive.
Then once you're sure the export has gone correctly, erase them from iPhoto.
Regards
TD

Does resetting PMU erase files on hard drive?

My wife dumped a bud light on my ibook G4. After drying it out, it appears that the system is functioning (software programs still work), but the display is very dim....almost too dim to read.
I saw someone recommended resetting the PMU, since it controls the display backlight. But Apple noted "Warning: Resetting the Power Manager on any PowerBook or iBook will permanently remove a RAM disk, if present, and all of its contents."
Is this going to erase my saved hard drive files?
Also, my date/time settings reverted to 1969. Does this diagnose the problem I now have? Anyone have solutions on what will need to be done/replaced to clear my display of its beer hangover?
Thanks for your help!

Hopefully you unplugged the iBook and removed the battery and turned the iBook over and let it dry thoroughly before powering it up again.
If you removed the battery, that is why your date reset. You just need to go to System Preferences>Date and Time and reset the date and time. This will always happen if the battery is out for a while. If it is out only very briefly, there is a capacitor that might remember the date and time for a very short time.
Did the Bud Lite land on the keyboard? If so, the keyboard could have been damaged. Go to System Preferences>International>Input Menu and check the box that has "Keyboard Viewer". This will install a little flag in your menu bar that you can click on and show the keyboard viewer. As you activate a key, it will be highlighted in the viewer. If it is not, then the key isn't working. If the F1 and F2 keys are not working, they won't dim or brighten the display. I believe there is a very tedious way to clean the keyboard, but replacement might be a better option. Please post back if you have keyboard problems.
As for the RAM disk, I believe that this does not refer to the hard drive, but rather to a separate disk, but I hope that someone who knows what it is for sure will post a clear explanation. But it would certainly be a good idea to back up your files anyway since the beer spill could cause more problems in the future. I believe it would be safe to reset the PMU, but t wouldn't hurt to wait for a knowledgeable posting on what the RAM disk actually is so that you will know whether or not you have one present.
One thing you could do is to find the original gray discs that came with your machine and run the Apple Hardware Test. If you have Applecare or have had it, there is a disc called Tech Tool Delux that also tests the hardware. You could run that too. If you get an error code, it would indicate a hardware problem.
How much beer actually got into the computer? If very little and you were able to keep it from going inside, you may have nothing worse than a damaged keyboard. Please post back with more details of the spill, as that might indicate what steps you should take to be sure that there is no further damage.
Good luck!

How can get formatted data from hard drive

how can get formatted data from hard drive?

No chance without special tools/knowledge. There are companies that can do it, unless you use multiple format or rewrite data with special erase ustility or unless you have done low level format.
Regards
Milos

How do I erase a Passport hard drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for