Reformatting a WD external backup drive.

I have a 20" iMac and use a WD My Book 500GB external backup drive. This drive is now full and won't perform any more backups; I want to reformat the drive to clear everything out and start again but am having problems. I go into: Applications/Utilities/Disk Utilities and then select the external drive - only one icon is showing for this on the LH side of the screen - but instead of 4 or 5 tabs coming up that would allow me to format the drive, all I get showing is the contents of the ext drive, showing in two folders. Anybody any ideas as to how I can get round this problem?? Many thanks for any suggetions.

Hi Barry,
Many thanks for that but I actually found a way of doing it! Going into Applications/Utilities/Disk Utilities didn't bring up the info I needed but I started playing around and found that the way to do it was to hit CMD and the Spacebar which opened Spotlight and then type in: Disk Utility. This took me to a screen that DID contain the info I needed and it was then very simple to erase everything that was on the backup drive!!
Why I couldn't get to this using the former route I don't know but the latter route works!

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External (Backup) Drive No Longer Recognized After Mavericks

Since installing Mavericks on my iMac (was running Snow Leopard) I can only see partial information from my WD My Book Live external backup drive. Finder lets me see the two partitions but only some of the files on that drive. However, the Disk Utility does not see the external drive at all. This is mostly impacting Time Machine which also does not seem to recognize the external drive at all. I cannot enter Time Machine to access my old backups and cannot create new ones.
I would prefer not to re-format the external drive since it has other files on it that I don't want to lose.
All helpful suggestions appreciated!

lettertosteve
PROBLEM SOLVED! It was as simple as going to the WD (Western Digital) site and downloading a few updates for the My Book Live.
You need to NOT connect any WD MyBook right now under Mavericks, you have a high likelihood of severe data corruption
WD is telling its customers to REMOVE WD SOFTWARE especially on WD MyBook
keep your WD MY BOOK unconnected right now until a resolution unless you have a backup of ALL DATA on your MyBook stored elsewhere
http://community.wd.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/bd-p/passport_mac
Bill_S
Community Manager
External Drives for Mac Experiencing Data Loss with Maverick OS (10/30/13)
There are reports of Western Digital and other external HDD products experiencing data loss when updating to Apple's OS X Mavericks (10.9). Western Digital is urgently investigating these reports and the possible connection to the WD Drive Manager, WD Raid Manager and WD SmartWare software applications.
Until the issue is understood and the cause identified, WD strongly urges our customers to uninstall these software applications on their systems before updating to OS X Mavericks (10.9), or delay upgrading. If you have already upgraded to Mavericks, WD recommends that you remove these applications and restart your computer. WD has removed these software applications from our web site solely as a precaution as we investigate this issue.

How do I delete a folder that I moved to Trash from my external backup drive when a virus was detected? Trash will not delete the folder.

I have tried unsuccessfully to remove a folder from Trash. My anti-virus program (Sophos) detected a virus which had to be manually removed. I tried (unsuccessfully) to find and remove the infected file. I moved the Folder from my external backup drive and placed it in Trash. Now I cannot get Trash to delete the folder. It asks me if I wish to delete "unlocked" or "all" items. Either selection does not delete the folder. I went to change the permissions to "read & write" and unlocked the folder, but it is still there. I tried to "move" the folder from Trash back to the external harddrive but it seems I can only "copy" it and not "move" it. I am afraid that by copying it, I will not have the folder in two locations (Trash & External HD).
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Thank you!

Before deleting it we should know more about this folder and its contents.
If it is invected and is using other apps, or other apps are still using it, then it cannot be deleted in the normal manner.
You might contact Sophos and ask them about it.
If you are using TM or have a backup of your system before the infection occurred, then you can delete the item(s) in Trash, but there is the possiblity of system corruption and the need for a reinstall, if any of these files are necessary for the OS to work properly, even though they are infected.
Sophos may not have been able to remove the infection from inside a file which is why they suggested manual removal.
You might consider downloading and running ClamXav first and see if it can't do better than Sophos.
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Bonjour to find my external backup drive?

I have a Western Digital My Book that is attached to my router. It regularly backs up items from my older Mac.
I want to do the same for my new MacBook Pro but don't know where to begin,
Do I use Bonjour to find my external backup drive?
Thanks.

Hey MMilesGray13
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. The external hard drive is it part of a networked attached storage; it would just show up on the side bar of Finder.
Mac Basics: The Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2470
It would show up in spot number 8
Regards,
-Norm G.

External backup drive connected to airport router giving "... backup disk image ... /.../... is already in use" error.

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Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

You can't use that configuration for Time Machine backups, if that's what you're doing.
Mac 101: Time Machine

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It didn't work because you told iTunes where to store media from this point on, not where the old media are located. Your "library" is more than media the way a city library is more than a pile of books in an empty lot somewhere.
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I have a MacBook Pro and it cannot locate my Western Digital External Backup Drive.

I have a MacBook Pro and it cannot locate my Western Digital External Backup Drive. It used to work prior to Maverick but now it doesnt. Do I need a different cord or what can I do so I can use Time Machine with this drive?

Your problem is really with "Time Machine", backup software included with OS X since version 10.5, not with your Time Capsule router. For more information on Time Machine, check these Web pages:
Time Machine FAQs
Time Machine Troubleshooting

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Hi,
In System Preferences > Start Up Disk is one device set as the Start Up Disk ?
It may not be clear just looking at the left to right scroll area (depending how many drives and Partitions) but selecting one can often help.
At Start Up the computer looks for a valid Boot Disk.
If it does not seem to be set it is supposed to go through some checks to find out which one to Boot from. Most occasions it will pick the last Drive/partition that it was Booted from. However the order in which the Internal Drives are connected to the system may also pay a part, particularly of the Current required Boot drive is not the original hard drive (Or at least in it's physical place, cable connection-wise).
Also Click on the desktop and open Mac Help (Help Menu in the Finder) and see what that has to say.
11:30 AM Thursday; August 26, 2010
Message was edited by: Ralph Johns (UK)

Weird startup screen from (external) backup drive

Whenever I boot from my external backup drive it starts up with this screen:
http://mysite.verizon.net/oliverlu.lu/startup.png
I don't where it's coming from, it started doing it on its own, how do I get rid of it? tia

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Hello all,
I tried to install Leopard on my G5 and came across an Error that did not let the installation finish. My issue is that all of my Applications and updates were moved to my backup disk. My external backup drive is bootable and does have all of my Applications and Documents. I would like to totally erase the original internal HD and then reinstall the Apps from the external backup drive. Can this be done?
Now when I about to try a reinstall of Leopard I will need to bring b ack my Applications from my backup disk, I hope with out the difficult of reinstalling all of the Apps and the various updates to the install.
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DickB

Dick Barrett 2 wrote:
Hello all,
I tried to install Leopard on my G5 and came across an Error that did not let the installation finish. My issue is that all of my Applications and updates were moved to my backup disk. My external backup drive is bootable and does have all of my Applications and Documents. I would like to totally erase the original internal HD and then reinstall the Apps from the external backup drive. Can this be done?
Now when I about to try a reinstall of Leopard I will need to bring b ack my Applications from my backup disk, I hope with out the difficult of reinstalling all of the Apps and the various updates to the install.
How can I just get back all of my Applications from the backup disk.
Thanks for you thoughts.
DickB
If you backup is bootable, then you should be able to move everything properly by using the Leopard migration assistant.
Moving an app directly may cause file/app ownership problems which can be fixed, but it is best to use the migration assistant to move as many apps etc, as possible first.

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Thank you!

encrypt it with what?
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My external USB backup drive is not lage enough. I purchased a Western Digital My Book USB 3 Tb drive and need help transferring all the data from my old drive to the new one.

Clone it:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
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.
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What's the best way to safely eject external backup drive

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Thunderbolt / USB3 questions about external backup drives for my new MacBook Pro

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Is it common for drives to have both Thunderbolt and USB2 connections?
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Is USB3 like USB2 in that if you have even 1 USB2 device (e.g. my Logitech headset) connected to a USB3 hub it will slow down everything on that hub to USB2?
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Doug

Hi Doug,
Lets see if we can address some of these:
If I get a USB3 drive and need to use it to restore things on my older iMac, which just has USB2, will it generally connect and run with USB2 at a slower speed? Or would I have to get a drive with both USB2 and USB3 ports?
USB3 is "backwards compatible" with USB2 so plugging a USB3 drive into a USB2 port should work, but at USB2 speeds.
Is it common for drives to have both Thunderbolt and USB2 connections?
Drives sold as Thunderbolt often (not always) have USB as well, drives sold as USB never (in my experience) have Thunderbolt connections.
Are there "hubs" for Thunderbolt like there are for USB? Considering the limited number of ports, I'm wondering the best way to connect 2 external drives. My iMac has 4 USB2 ports on the back, and I connect one drive separate to each of those ports, rather than going through a hub.
Yes there are (but don't expect them to be comparable in price to a USB hub) e.g. see here: http://www.belkin.com/uk/p/P-F4U055/
Is Thunderbolt just an Apple thing? Or is it a new standard widely used by peripherals now? I just never heard of it before. Is it faster than USB3?
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Hope this helps.
Jon

Boot drive failed; external backup drive not being seen

I've had a Windows Server 2012 Essentials machine (6 drives + 1 external USB 3TB dedicated backup) running fine for over a year now. The system backup was configured through the Essentials Dashboard, the backup drive was found automatically by
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the dedicated external USB backup drive isn't being found (the restore list is empty). I tried using other USB ports (they all work, as tested with the keyboard), but the backups on it still aren't showing. Moving the backup drive to a nearby Windows
8.1 machine, it shows up correctly in the Disk Manager (the name is correct; no drive letter assigned, as expected). From the system-recovery command-line on the server, wbadmin get drives show it, but as [not mounted].
What should my next steps be? Is it safe to mount it to a drive letter on the Windows 8.1 machine and share it out, or will that irreparably damage the backups? Is there something obvious I'm missing? Why isn't the Windows Server 2012 Essentials
install media's repair functionality finding it (this should be a no-brainer, right?)?
The drive in question is a Seagate model SRD00F2.
Thanks!

1. What updates has been installed. See info in WindowsUpdate.log.
2. Hope you has not installed optional drivers. It this is true try to return back or reinstall drivers from server vendor support page (perhaps support for USB 3)
3. What do Event lods and Device Manager say?
Rgds
Milos
The reboot was overnight (about 4am) on Sunday, 2014-04-13. It was for the latest updates from Microsoft at that time (so the prior Tuesday's batch; see below for the details from WindowsUpdate.log).
No optional drivers installed, other than the motherboard ones at initial system load. They've been running great for a year or so now. They weren't part of the update.
Not possible to check. Trying to boot into safe mode also blue screens fairly early on during boot (about 15-20 seconds; same error). Boot logging never generates a log because it doesn't get far enough to dump to disk.
From WindowsUpdate.log:
Updates to install = 2
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Title = Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows Server 2012 (KB2936068)
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * UpdateId = {783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532}.200
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Bundles 1 updates:
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * {1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9}.200
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Title = Update for Windows Server 2012 (KB2928678)
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * UpdateId = {8F7E4DBD-BE3F-463B-BB5A-55B33039A023}.201
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * Bundles 1 updates:
2014-04-13 03:06:45:513 492 f30 Agent * {8D7948A9-3FD9-4430-B790-0511A7CB4502}.201
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report *********** Report: Initializing static reporting data ***********
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report * OS Version = 6.2.9200.0.0.131377
2014-04-13 03:06:46:093 492 f30 Report * OS Product Type = 0x00000032
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Computer Brand = System manufacturer
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Computer Model = System Product Name
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * Platform Role = 1
2014-04-13 03:06:46:109 492 f30 Report * AlwaysOn/AlwaysConnected (AOAC) = 0
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Revision = 0211
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Name = BIOS Date: 07/02/12 16:24:26 Ver: 04.06.05
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Release Date = 2012-07-02T00:00:00
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Sku Number = SKU
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Vendor = American Megatrends Inc.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Family = To be filled by O.E.M.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Major Release = 4
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Bios Minor Release = 6
2014-04-13 03:06:46:125 492 f30 Report * Locale ID = 1033
2014-04-13 03:06:46:702 492 f30 DnldMgr Adding revision ID 200 for update 1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9 to the lock revision cache.
2014-04-13 03:06:46:702 492 f30 DnldMgr Preparing update for install, updateId = {1BBB8E66-7F5E-4CA2-9EB2-80117D4D84D9}.200.
Other pieces of interest after that:
2014-04-13 03:20:12:900 8984 30e0 Handler FATAL: CBS called Error with 0x80071a30,
...and...
2014-04-13 03:20:21:047
492 26dc
Report REPORT EVENT: {E979933C-EE46-4395-8C2C-8E09543CAABE}
2014-04-13 03:20:15:665-0700 1
195 [AU_SCHEDULED_INSTALL_FAILED] 101
{783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532}
200 80071a30
AutomaticUpdates Failure
Content Install Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80071a30: Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows Server 2012 (KB2936068).
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report WER Report sent: 7.8.9200.16731 0x80071a30(0x80071a30) 783D8F98-1563-4735-B1A3-3E3BB2D86532 Install 101 Unmanaged
2014-04-13 03:20:21:172
492 26dc
Report CWERReporter finishing event handling. (00000000)
2014-04-13 03:30:34:845
8984 1084
Handler Requesting post-reboot reporting for package Package_for_KB2928678~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.1.1.
2014-04-13 03:30:34:845
8984 1084
Handler Completed install of CBS update with type=3, requiresReboot=1, installerError=0, hr=0x0
...and...
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 33a8
AU # WARNING: Install call completed, reboot required = Yes, error = 0x00000000
...and...
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 1f9c
AU Install complete for all calls, reboot needed
2014-04-13 03:31:09:364
492 1f9c
AU CAUInstaller::OnAllCallsComplete | result of install HRESULT hr = 0x80071A30
...and...
2014-04-13 03:41:11:933
492 1f9c
Misc WARNING: SUS Client is rebooting system.
After that, there's just some shutting down client and such notices for the reboot.

Reformatting a WD external backup drive.

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