How do i reformat/unpartion a hard drive i do not want partitioned anymore?

i have a powermac g4. i partioned my hard drive when i bought the computer. now i would like to "unpartition" it. i backed up my files on another hard drive. then reinstalled os x. i want to erase everything on both partions and make the hard drive just one volume. is this possible? thanks.

In Disk Utilty, from the Install DVD or from your backup drive, click on the drive ID, not any of the partition/volume names, and it should show a window with the volumes on the right that are currently used, then change it from "current" to 1 partition.
You could also click on drive name, click on ERASE tab instead of the PARTITION tab above, and the erase will remove the partitions and leave you with one volume.

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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 can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

how can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
It's impossible to format a hard drive without losing the data. One thing you can do before formatting is to copy the files from the external drive to your internal drive, and then, format the external drive. After formatting, copy the files to the external drive again, and everything will be as before formatting it

How can I reformat my external hard drive from the time machine format to regular format?

Ok so when first starting out I got an external hard drive for my time machine, little did I know I would run out of space really fast and would need to buy a bigger and better hard drive. Now that I did that, I have my old hard drive that I would like to use for copying material form my laptop to my desktop. However, it is still set as my time machine and tries to back up my lap top every time I plug it in. Also, it says that about half of it is still filled with stuff. I erased everything on it. I just want to reformat it so that it is like I just bought it.

Tirrel wrote:
I had the same idea as you however when I tried going to Disk Utility and I tried to erase it an error message came up telling me that it is unable to erase.
Unable to erase, or unable to unmount?
If Time Machine is trying to back up to it, or some other process is using it, Disk Utility won't be able to unmount it. Turn Time Machine OFF; if you have the drive open via the Finder or any other app, close it or quit the app(s).
At worst, start up from your Install disc or other alternate source and erase it from there. If you're not sure how to do that, see the yellow box in #1 of Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.

How do I reformat my external hard drive from operating on a mac to a PC?

I have a Lacie 1TB hard drive that was initially formatted for a mac, but now I need to reformat it for a PC. I've read some reformatting forums, and I've gone on discmgmt.msc to assign a letter to the partition but I can't. It doesn't show up on my computer
at all. I don't have access to a mac. How can I change my hard drive?
Thanks!

Similar problem.
I have a toshiba 500gb external hdd. I formatted it to a mac and then sold the mac. Now I want to reformat it back to a pc, but when in disk management every option is greyed out besides help. On a few of the partitions the delete option is available, but there's
one where it's not available. I wanted to try to save the files, but at this point I don't even care, I just want to external hdd to reformat. I know this thread is really old, but hopefully someone can help me out. Thanks!

How do I reformat my external hard drive from fat32 to HFS??

I have an iomega hdd 160gb hard drive and need to move files larger than 4gb to my external hard drive. Hard drive is currently formatted to fat32. How in the world can I reformat this drive to the mac friendly hfs so that I can backup my files?? Any help would be appreciated.....

Hi, Amy!
Connect the drive, start up, launch Disk Utility, click to highlight the drive on the left side of the window, click the Erase tab over on the right side, name the volume, select Mac OS Extended for the format, check the box to install the OS 9 drivers, and click on the "Erase" button to execute the reformatting.
Please note that reformatting will erase any data that may be stored on that drive.
Gary

How can I reformat my portable hard drive?

I have a Seagate 1TB portable hard drive, connected by USB to my MacBook Pro.
I use it as my Time Machine.
I have been getting error messages saying the drive is not working.
I have tried to repair it via Disk Utility but get this message:
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
1. How can I repair it and protect the files I have on it?
2. Alternatively, how can I wipe it and start again as a new Time Machine?
Thank you

In Disk Utility select that external drive then click the Partition tab. Then select One partition from the Partition Layout drop down and make sure it is set to a GUID partition table, that is under the Options button, and the format is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Then Click the Apply Button. If the drive is still good it will be partitions and formatted and then can be used for a TM backup drive.
But I suspect either the drive is failing or the electronics in the drive enclosure are failing. In the first case there isn't much you can do about a failing hard drive except replace it. On the second part if the enclosure electronics are failing then you can take the physical hard drive out that enclosure and connect it to your mac with a SATA to USB adapter or put it in another enclosure.
Then you have the simple fact the Apple Mac notebook computers always seem to have a problem with these USB Bus powered external hard drives. It seems the USB port on Mac notebook don't put out enough power on the USB port to fully power up these type of drives. They do some times but not always. One work around for that is to use a Y USB cable that connect to 2 USB ports at the same time to supply more power to the drive.

How do I reformat an external hard drive from an IMac 10.4.9?

I am new to Mac, having migrated from PC recently. I just purchased a new external hard drive but it is formated as NTFS (read only) and I need to reformat it as FAT 32. Does anyone know how to perform this reformat from my new IMac? Sorry, but I am totally new to Mac and I need all the help I can get. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thanking you in advance.
IMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi rubenrodz;
May I welcome you to the Apple Discussion Forums.
Just be aware that while FAT32 can be used for both the Mac and the PC, it does have limitations. You can't have files larger then 4 GB. Plus FAT32 doesn't keep all of the Mac files.
If you are only going to use the disk on the Mac if would be better to format it as HFS+, the native Mac format.
Allan

How do I reformat the second hard drive in the Mac Mini Server (Late 2012)?

In Disk Utility, I don't see the second hard drive, I only see the SSD that I installed myself in the main boot drive. How do I gain access to reformat the second drive?

Did you reinstall the OS after you installed the SSD?
If so it would have created a Fusion drive that looks like one drive.
If you go to System Report, what shows under the SATA bus? You should see both the SSD and the HD if it is recognized to some degree.

How do i reformat a external hard drive back to fat32

i have an external hard drive that worked on windows then i installed it onto a mac book pro laptop and i emptied it now it does not work how do i reformat it with a mac computer

Drive Preparation for MS-DOS (FAT)
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 one. Set the format type to MSDOS. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

How should I reformat my external hard drive?

I have just purchased a new 21.5" iMac and I will be moving from PC to iMac. I currently have a 2.5TB external hard drive which I have connected to my PC laptop that I use to store and watch movies. My question is how should I format/partition my external hard drive so that I can use it with my new iMac? The external hard drive will solely be used with my new iMac (it won't be connected/used with my laptop again) and I am ok with losing the data on the external hard drive as I have backed up the data currently on it onto another hard drive. I have tried to research what format to use but I am a little confused as to which one is the best and I am looking for some advice.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
(73546)

How do i reformat an external hard drive for mac

i just bought a new external hard drive to back up my mac but it is not formatted for mac yet

You can do that in Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
With your new drive attached, choose it on the left. Choose the Partition tab. Decide if you want one or more partitions. Give each partition a name and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format. Then click on Options and choose GUID partition scheme. Click on Apply. Your new hard drive will be erased and formatted properly - when done, it is ready for whatever you want to put on it (you do not need any software that may be on the drive currently).

How do I use my second hard drive for storage, not back up?

Hi, I bought a second hard drive to store files (not back-up for my system), but when I moved some files over to drive two and then deleted the same files from drive one, they also deleted from the 2nd drive! Fortunately I could reverse the process and there was no loss, but what now? How do I disconnect the two so I can use the second as storage?
Thanks and happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it. Kate (Porter)

Whilst I normally drag files around, a copy and paste still should have created a replica on the destination drive.
That the second is mounted internally makes my describing it as an external drive inaccurate, but wouldn't cause the problem.
So that still leaves the scant possibility that the original source is itself an alias.
Was the copy and paste done in a Finder window or was it done via some other application's window?
I look forward to an update on this unusual event.

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.

How do i reformat a external hard drive and how do i partition a drive?

hi,
i have a seagate free agent desk 1.5 tb external harddrive! i have the back up software installed on the home pc. i have a macbook now! so i still want to be able to use the pc for photos and stuff because if i were to transfer everything onto the macbook i wouldnt have much room to spare. so the pictures are all on the pc.
this is my problem: i have a pc and a mac that both need a external harddrive for backing up things. so i was going to set up time machine, but it said i need to use a different format so i need to re-format the drive, into a format that is mac and windows readable. is there any format that allows me to do that? the drive is currently in nfts format!
i was thinking that if i partioned the drive i could format one side mac and the other nfts! does anyone know if this is possible? i need to find out! i have a dell windows xp sp3 i have a macbook osx10.6.8. does anyone have any step by step steps? in order for time machine to work i have to reformat everything (witch will delete every thing on my external harddrive). so is it possible to reformat the other side to nfts? i was thinking i would do the reformate/partion on the mac. can you do it on the mac? or the pc? for free?
thanks all your help would be nice because i dont want to call apple because i am past the 90 support.
austin

Item #5 of this post implies that Time Machine is happiest with a drive with a "partition map scheme" of either APM or GUID. I'm not sure if either of those is compatible with NTFS. It might be better just to get another disk drive.

How do i reformat/unpartion a hard drive i do not want partitioned anymore?

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