Mac OSX is telling me to reformat my external hard drive - HELP!

I have Fantom Drives external hard drive which I use to backup my Mac (via Time Machine) as well as for general storage. Recently, when I turned on my external hard drive I was given the following message:
"The disk "Time Machine Backups" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible."
Basically, I can use anything on the external hard drive as well as copy files FROM the drive, but I cannot add anything new to it. I went to Disk Utility to try and repair the disk, but the button is not available so I clicked Verify Disk. The results in red were the following:
"Incorrect number of thread records
Invalid sibling link
Volume Check failed
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed"
I wondered if erasing the external hard drive would possibly fix the situation. Is it even worth it to try? I was able to copy the most important files to my iPod, but I don't have nearly enough room to copy everything I need (otherwise I would just do it).
My other option is to by a new hard drive and move everything over, but I am hoping I don't have to do that.
Does anyone have any other ideas?

if the drive can not be repaired you should try reformatting.
you can try the following link first that sometimes helps with invalid sibling link errors
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070204093925888
also, try unmounting (not ejecting) the drive and see if you can use "repair disk" then.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Similar Messages

  • I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Mac

    I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Machine, there are only about 5 backups recorded on the ext. hard drive. There were many more before. Any idea what happened and if I have to buy a new back up hard drive?

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

  • Greeting,  I want to reformat my external hard drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted ) but before formatting it, I want to make sure that if I loose the hard drive or the hard drive get stolen, no one will be able to retrieve or recover the in

    Greeting,
    I want to reformat my external hard drive using Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted ) but before formatting it, I want to make sure that if I loose the hard drive or the hard drive get stolen, no one will be able to retrieve or recover the information on it so could you tell me what kind of encryption will be used or is there any way to recover the information?
    Thanks!

    I think FileVault is used to encryp internal hard drive but I wanna encrypt an external hard drive with Mac OS Extended Journaled Encrypted which is completely different!

  • 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.

  • HT3764 How to reformat an external hard drive using Snow Lepard to use for Time Machine

    How to reformat an external hard drive using Snow Lepard to use for Time Machine

    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)

  • HT1660 I have two iTunes libraries on two different pc's (one windows and one Mac).  Can I consolidate these on an external hard drive?

    I have two iTunes libraries on two different pc's (one windows and one Mac).  Can I consolidate these on an external hard drive?

    I'm sorry I just saw the last post. I had two users on my hard drive, one for me and one for my daughter, but I am not sure what you mean by partioning my external????? I have heard the term before, but don't know how to do it. I am having serious crashing issues with this computer and believe I really need to do a clean install. I just want to make sure everything for both ipods is safe (is???? I think so, everything is......I hate when the English language does this to me!)

  • I have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

    i have a new mini mac and i want to use my existing external hard drive but it needs to be reformated how do i do this without loosing all my old photos?

    Formatting will erase the drive.
    You need to copy the photo's to either your old computer, the Mac Mini or to a new external drive and then decide what to do with your existing external drive.
    For example: You could use one External drive for Photo's and one external drive for Time Machine to backup both your Mac Mini and the Photo 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

  • URGENT HELP: Need to reformat an external hard drive for Mac/Win!

    We got a Desk Hammer external hard drive and my hubby chose to format it as Mac Only when it first initialized. We needed it to be formatted for Mac/Win usage. Now we cannot figure otu how to reinitialize and reformat it. It's been years since I messed with his Mac. Help--right now we just have a big old doorstop instead of a hard drive! BTW Desk Hammer is no help with support (I guess that's why they were on sale); their website isn't even complete!

    Use the Disk Utility application found in /Applications/Utilities to format the Drive as MS-DOS File System. This will be readable by both Mac and Windows platforms.
    Hope this helps! bill
    1 GHz Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

  • Reformatting an external hard drive from mac to pc

    i have a 320GB simple tech external hard drive that i used for my mac book pro. My mac book pro broke down completely so i bought an Asus laptop which runs Windows 7. I go to plug in the external hard drive, however i cant access it. It does show up under devices and printers but i cant open it in anyway. The only option i get is to eject it. is there any way that i can get it so that my new laptop can read it ?

    i have the same issue, but when I right click on the partion, the option to assign a drive letter is grey'd out.  i do not see a disk format either, it is blank in that section (FileSystem).
    What can I do?  i have Windows XP
    Hey I had the exact same problem. I was using my external hard drive on a MacBook and wanted to format it so that it would work on XP but when I opened Disk Management all the options were greyed out. Here's how I solved the problem:
    1. Connect your external hard drive to your mac
    2. Open Disk Utility (command+F and type 'disk utility')
    3. Click the drive you want to format in the left hand pannel
    4. Click the 'partition' tab
    5. Select under Volume Scheme '1 partition'
    6. Under Volume Information, under format select 'MS- DOS (FAT)'
    7. Click 'Apply'
    The disk should now be formatted in FAT32 which is compatible with Windows XP. After completing those steps I connect the hard drive to my PC and I was able to read and write in the volume. Hope this helps!

  • 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 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 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 to reformat an external hard drive after time machine?

    I have an external hard drive upon which I put movie files that I view through a Sony box (like the Roku box). I brought my MacBook in for a repair and connected the same external HD and used Time Machine to make a back up. It did reformat it in order to do so, but since the Sony box isn't a pc or mac I didn't think it would make a difference, but now the Sony box won't recognize HD. Is there a way to reformat it on my MacBook so that I can use it on the Sony box again, or do I need to reformat it with a Windows computer? I had no issues when transferring files only and using the Sony box.
    If you give any instructions, please write them out specifically, don't just post "you have to partition it" and leave it at that. I am computer challenged when it comes to these things. Think instructions for a person one step above being vaguely aquainted with a Mac please. Thanks.

    You can find a decent guide to formatting your drive here.

  • URGENT HELP: How to reformat an external hard drive?!

    We purchased a Desk Hammer external hard drive with USB. My hubby plugged it into his Mac G4/OS 8.6 and when it was recognized, he selected to format it for Mac only. We needed it to be ISO Whatever so I can use it on my Windows systems too. The Desk Hammer people are no help with how to get access to this thing and reformat it (in fact, WARNING they say they do not even support Mac usage for these drives!). What can I do to reformat it to work on the Windows side? thanks for any help....
    Mac G4   Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier   Mac OS is 8.6

    Windows machines support Windows formats some of the time.
    The Mac formats and supports many common formats, and is nice about it.
    You use the exact same utility you used to format it for the Mac, only you select MS-DOS as the type. If the drive is of a modest size, that is all you need to do.
    The Mac will also happily read and write files on it, even though it is an MS-DOS drive. It may not properly show their Icons (everything may be generic MS-DOS documents) until the files are copied to a Mac drive.
    A very large drive will need a third-party utility to format all the space on it into Windows format.
    ISO-whatever and High Sierra and a few others are CD-only formats, you will not be able to format a Hard drive to that format.

Maybe you are looking for