How to reformat an external drive?

I have a 1 TB Lacie external drive. it was originally formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). It also might have been formatted as a bootable drive, but I am not certain. Today I mounted the drive, entered the decrypt key and want to re-format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I am using Disk Utility to do this. When I click on Erase within Disk Utility, I get this error:
I am using Mac OS X Mavericks. Anyone know how to fix this so that I can re-format the drive?

Still struggling to solve this. I tried booting from another external drive as suggested, but once booted I still could not reformat the Lacie drive. Same error.
I also tried the following Terminal command: diskutil erasevolume HFS+ UntitledHFS /Volumes/Lacie But I get this error in Terminal:
Who would have thought that simply re-formatting an external drive could be so hard? Any other ideas?

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Use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to erase it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID as the partition map format(or APM if you're using a PowerPC Mac running 10.5).
(73291)

Since you can no longer backup to disk, how to restore from external drive without losing all ratings and playlists

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My own opinion is that you should install the later appropriate version of Silverkeeper. That said, I would in fact recommend if you can wait a few days for an answer, that you email the La Cie Silverkeeper backup team via the email link on the site at http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/
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Windows 7 wants to reformat my external drive?

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Hi,
This issue can be caused by a corrupt file system. However, there are still data for you stored in this disk. Please attempt to fix the errors on this disk.
select the corrupt disk, right click and select Properties. Head for the "Tools" tab and select "Check this drive for errors".
Or you can use the Check Disk tool to check the integrity of disks.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee872425.aspx
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How do I reformat my external drive for Time Machine?

I think I might have messed up My Passport (external hard drive) when I disconnected my iMac to take it to the Apple Store to have the screen repaired (was replaced). I turned Time Machine off before I disconnected the external hard drive but didn't eject it. I reconnected everything Monday morning and it was backing up fine until this afternoon but suddenly stopped and gave me warning messages about it not being able to back up. The message directed me to Repair Disk which I tried but that didn't work. and I was "told" to reformat the drive. But when I reconnect it to my mac, the mac doesn't recognize that its there. I don't know if its worth trying to fix, or if I should just get a new one. (I have an on line back up service so all my data is safe and backed up elsewhere). I've only had the drive for maybe 6 mts, or a little longer and I know it was far from full. I have Time Machine turned off now and the drive disconnected . Is it worth repairing. If there is something wrong with it a new one might make more sense. I hope I have explained this okay. Thanks for any suggestions. It is a Western Digital external drive.
laverne's mom

WD drives are not all that reliable according to some reports going around.
And BUS powered drives are not good choices for backups if it's drawing too much current, Apple can cut if off in a update, use self powered drives instead.
You can use the drive, but as a transport drive, not as a vital backup.
TM drive isn't quite as good as a backup as it could be, and online storage is slow to upload and can be compromised or lost (it's happened before) so you should diversify more with clones and storage drives in addition to TM drives.
Read my backup, bootable clones, troubleshooting, performance, wifi security and restore info/advice here
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How do I reformat a external drive to read MAC and windows

I purchased a WD external drive and found that someone had returned it to the store with info on it. I have switched from a windows PC to a MacBook Pro. I would like to transfer some info from a old external to the new one but I need to reformat the new one to clear the info already on it. Also I was told that I could reformat a external so that my Mac could read both Mac and Windows info.

errollflynn2000 wrote:
I was told that I could reformat a external so that my Mac could read both Mac and Windows info.
Aside of using crappy FAT32 with its 4GB limitation or the not really better ExFAT, there are two alternative ways:
Enable your Mac to "understand" Windows NTFS.
There also at least two ways. MacFuse/ntfs-3g for the more experienced user ( http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ ) or Pargon's NTFS for Mac ( http://www.paragon-software.com ) for the not so experienced.
Enable your Windows machine to "understand" Mac's HFS+ filesystem. on a similar way.
Lupunus

Reformatting an External Drive to make it Bootable in OSX

I want to buy a 1TB Desk External Hard Drive to store all of my images and video etc. I could buy a LaCie formatted for the mac but they are 1/3 more in price so I 'd prefer to buy any drive and reformat it.
So I phoned the store an they said all drives they sell are PC and they need to be "Reformated" for the mac to make them bootable.
He said I can buy "Any" External HD and reformat it so it can be "Bootable" from the Mac.
So my Questions are:
1) Is this true? Can buy any 1 TB External Drive and reformat it so it can be "Bootable" by the mac OS?
2) How would I reformat the drive for OSX? Is this something Super Duper can do?
I appreciate any help you may be able to give me.
pg

1. Yes.
2. See the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, 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 Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
You cannot do this with SuperDuper! which is just a backup utility. Of course after prepping the drive you need to put a bootable copy of OS X on it either by installing it from an OS X installer DVD or cloning an existing system. See the following:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box to Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive.
Source means the internal startup drive.

How to reformat my hard drive

I have a macbook pro laptop. Right now it has mountain lion on it. I need to reformat the hard drive. I'm told that I need to install the start up disc in order to do that. So I use the original start up disc that came with the computer and then upgrade back up to Mountain Lion?
Also, how do i reformat the hard drive? I believe you do that with disk utility, is that correct? Do you go to applications, utilities, disk utility and then select Erase and go from there.

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
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3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
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No trouble for a few minutes, then I have to go out.
Re 'Too much detail'   When you ask a question such as the one we are working on, suitable detail would be ...
I have an (Apple item, iMac,model etc) running on (OS X 10.7.4).   I have just purchased a Seagate (size, model etc) external drive and would like to use it for (list uses).   Then ask specific questions.
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Most decent shops will oblige.
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Message was edited by: seventy one

How to reformat usb flash drive after formatting it in mac

I know this might sound stupid but I used a 16gb kingstonflash drive for a backup for my macbookpro since there are only few to back up and I was thinking I can copy the backup files to an external disk after. With that said, I used the time machine and it said that it would erase everything on the USB. I clicked okand then once the flash drive was "made compatible", it started to backupbut the total file is 34gb so I can't use the flash drive as back up.
I tried reformatting the flash drive, but the total free space is 198mb and even if I removed the partition or erase ( I see a hitachiand kingstonpartition when I looked at the disk utility) it never goes back to the 16gb. I checked it with windows and the USB space is also 198mb out of 198mb (free space) I don't know where the 15.9gbwent.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Them do it on a Mac with Disk Utility.
On Windows you might have to first delete all the partitions before you can select Convert to MBR.
But try it on OS X.
Open Disk Utility with the drive connected and select the Top name of that drive in the left most area of the window.
Then in the Partition Layout drop down select 1 Partition. Then the Options... button will become active, select that button.
Select Master Boot Record and click OK. The format should already be MS-DOS (FAT) but if it isn't select that. You can give it a name or not. Then Click the APPLY button.

Basic Question: How to partition an external drive and then set up TM?

Hi. I am going to be using an external hard drive (Western Digital - 640GB) on my MacBook for the first time and I think that I'd like to partition it so that part of it is for Time Machine and part of it can be used to just manually drag and drop my files (like any other USB external drive).
1. How to I partition the external drive for Mac?
2. If I insert my drive (not yet partitioned) in my MacBook for the first time and the MacBook automatically asks me if I want to use it for Time Machine, I'm assuming that I need to say "no" so that I can first partition it, right? If yes, then after partitioning it how do I set up the one partition for Time Machine?
3. If I have 640 GB external hard drive space and my MacBook has about 100GB of space, how much of the 640 should I allocate for Time Machine?
Thanks! Happy New Year!

coffeecoffee wrote:
Hi. I am going to be using an external hard drive (Western Digital - 640GB) on my MacBook for the first time and I think that I'd like to partition it so that part of it is for Time Machine and part of it can be used to just manually drag and drop my files (like any other USB external drive).
1. How to I partition the external drive for Mac?
select the whole drive (the model, not the name) in disk utility and click on the partition tab. set the number of partitions. set the partition scheme to GUID in options. set the format to mac os extended journaled. hit apply.
2. If I insert my drive (not yet partitioned) in my MacBook for the first time and the MacBook automatically asks me if I want to use it for Time Machine, I'm assuming that I need to say "no" so that I can first partition it, right? If yes, then after partitioning it how do I set up the one partition for Time Machine?
in system preferences->Time machine.
also see TM 101 for basic usage instructions.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
3. If I have 640 GB external hard drive space and my MacBook has about 100GB of space, how much of the 640 should I allocate for Time Machine?
it depends on your computing habits but it's generally recommended to have TM drive to be at least 2-3 times bigger than the total amount of data you are backing up.
Thanks! Happy New Year!

How to share an external drive?

hello helpful mac folks!
I have a PC networked to my mac, and I am able to see my harddrive from it and share the files on that, but I have recently added a firewire external harddrive to my imac and I would like to be able to access one of the partitions on that drive from the PC in the other building. I am able to log onto my home on the imac but cannot see the external. I think I need to tell the external that it can be shared ... how do I do that??
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Mac novice needs to know how to format an external drive

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Thanks!

In OS X, there's an app called Disk Utility that allows you to do whatever you want with hard drives and external drives.
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How to format an external drive used for time machine

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So I would like to know how I can format this drive again to get it to accept a brand new time machine backup. Or how do I get time machine to recognize the drive as empty instead of full.
I now know I should have at least a 500 gig drive to let time machine make it's plethora of backups. But the 150 gig drive is what I have right now to backup an 80 gig hard drive and I would like to start from scratch.
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With the files in the trash the drive still shows full
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How to reformat an external drive?

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