How do I erase an older Western Digital 1TB mirrored hard drive? Newer drives can be erased via a WD Utility, but the WD site says to "ask Apple" about the older ones.
I have a MacBook Pro with OSX 10.7.5. The hard drive is approx. six years old - a Western Digital for Macs, mirrored with 1TB on each half.
Because the drive is "infected" with Time Machine backups that I can't erase, I have removed all important files from the drive and now want to wipe it clean. I've done this with new drives, via the WD Utility that came with the drive, but the older drive doesn't have such a utility. The WD site only has a protocol for PCs.
I find nothing on the Apple site itself. Can you community members help??
(I've tried various ways of deleting the Time Machine backups, but nothing has worked. The instructions for that, which I read on a community support site, were too advanced for me to understand. A Mac IT guy tried to erase the backups, but he didn't know how either. So that is why I'm erasing the drive totally. I've learned my lesson and have a dedicated Time Machine drive now.)
Please be clear:
This is a mirrored RAID that you use as the startup disk?
You now have a different startup disk and wish to erase the RAID mirror?
Do you wish to continue using the RAID for backup?
If all you want to do is erase the RAID to get rid or the Time Machine backups, the use Disk Utility to erase the mirror disk mounted on the Desktop.
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I have a brand new Western Digital "My Book" Hard Drive that I would like to use for SuperDuper clone backup. I am attempting to format the disk for Mac-OS Extended first.
When I connect the HD to my MBP via USB, an error message pops up saying "Disk Insertion - The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." I then enter Disk Utility. The Western Digital HD is shown in the left pane as a 596.2 GB External Media. The Volume Format is shown as MS-DOS (FAT).
I attempted to erase/format for Mac-OS Extended (Journaled). Selecting the volume in the left pane and then clicking erase returns the error message "Disk Erase Failed with the error: File System Formatter Failed." Just for kicks I tried to erase/format for regular Mac-OS Extended, same result. It will let me erase/format for MS-DOS (FAT), but that's how it's already formatted and doesn't help me.
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Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
BarryThanks for the feedback. Good computing and welcome to the Mac world. Since you're new, see these:
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
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how do I figure out if I have usb 3.0? I am trying to buy compatible external hard drive (western digital my passport for mac) and I can not figure out if it will work with my mac book.
Dont buy a Western Digital, get a Hitachi or Seagate (Toshiba is made by Hitachi). These are the most reliable, and the HD used inside Macs.
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