MacBook Pro :: Reformatting USB Drive?
Jun 8, 2012
Many times in the past I have had to reformat USB drives once I have bough them so that they will work properly with my Macs and have never had any problems. I was just about to buy a USB online and thought I would check the Q&A for anything suspicious. Someone had asked the question; "is it possible to use this drive with a Mac", and someone from the store replied; "No, and it is not possible to reformat".Â
The drive is a Toshiba 500GB Canvio Basics USB3. Can some drives not be reformatted as this bloke seems to think or does he not know what he is talking about?Â
I have attached screenshots from the site.
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Jun 12, 2006
I read in this thread that hard drives have to be formatted with HFS+ to work with OS X. I want to buy a hard drive on eBay that is wiped clean but formatted with NTFS; my question is this, how can I reformat the hard drive to work in my yet-to-arrive MacBook?
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Feb 22, 2009
I recently bought a 640 GB Comstar external hard drive for my macbook, and it came out of the box formatted in NTFS. I know that if the drive was in this format, I could not use it with my mac. So I opened up disk utility and tried to reformat it into Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but disk utility showed an error and the drive wasn't reformatted. So I tried FAT32 instead, and it worked. The drive has been working fine now, however, I have realized a limitation of FAT32: the files can only be smaller than 4 GB. This is a problem for me, so I need some advice. So here is my dilemma: I need to be able to share the contents of the drive over a local network that has both windows and mac computers. (Users on the network only need to be able to read the drive, not necessarily write). However, I can't use FAT32 because of the file size limitation. I'm not sure how to format the drive so that I (using my mac) can read and write it, and users on the local network can read it. I'm thinking HFS+ (mac os extended, journaled), but will windows users be able to read it then?
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May 3, 2009
I have a new external Hard Drive and I am trying to reformat it to Mac OS Journaled however It will not let me stating that "The underlying task reported failure on exit". However I am able to reformat it to MS-DOS and change the name of the drive but I am still not able to reformat it to MAC OS. Anyone have any ideas or should I give Western Digital a ring tomorrow?
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Aug 15, 2009
I am reformatting an internal hard drive in an enclosure to use as a media storage drive. I attempted to reformat the drive and partition it as a Mac OS X Extended however it will not erase the current volume and reformat. The volume on there currently is literally the HD with the old OS and Files and such on it, so am I missing a step in the reformatting process? Do I need to reformat as Free Space or FAT or what?
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May 3, 2010
I have a 24" 2.66Ghz 4GB RAM iMac with 640GBs of internal HDD space, and a 2TB external drive I use to store stuff. About a month ago I tried partitioning the drive during an ubuntu install, and it messed the [external] drive up. I have had some more problems caused by the install (OS X didn't boot, didn't show up when restarting+alt etc.), so I had backed up my entire internal drive to my 2TB external one, and re-formatted my HDD.
Everything went back to normal, till I noticed I have ~600GBs missing from my 2TB drive. I tried iPartition and it shows that I have 20KBs or something like that that are used by the filesystem, and no other partitions (so my drive has one partition and everything's supposed to be there). I'll provide you with a DW log shortly. What can I do to get my 600GBs back?
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May 8, 2009
How long should it take to reformat an empty external hard drive? It's a GForce MegaDisk two terabyte hard drive and it's been going for about 11 hours with no sign of stoping.
Shouldn't it be pretty quick, since the hard drive is empty?
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Jun 21, 2012
I had to reformat my hard drive due to some bug I had. I don't have Apple hardware, but did have Quicktime (Pro?)- the version where you can create a .mov. I have forgotten how to download the software, and don't have an installment disk.
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Nov 29, 2008
I would like to reformat my previously partitioned startup drive into a single partition. (G4 dual 533 running OS 10.4.11) I have carbon-cloned the startup drive contents to an external fire-wire drive which I hope to re-transfer back after reformatting my original drive into a single partition. I have designated the fire-wire drive to be the new startup disc.
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Apr 1, 2012
I am running an early 08 MBP w/os10.7.3.I really screwed up this morning with a backup disk. my backup system consists of several external, stand alone drives and a HD dock and several internal HDs that plug into that dock.I had a stand alone Iomega/200G/USB that i wiped to give my son who doesn't "get" backups yet. I simultaneously had the USB dock plugged in w/ a Samsung 1.5TB HD powered on. I had moved the Iomega data to the Samsung prior to erasing the Iomega w/ Disk Utility. I had chosen the 7pass wipe on the iomega last night following the data transfer. it had completed 2 passes this morning w/ fourteen hours still showing til completion. i decided that three was plenty and disconnected the iomega to reconnect and select the 3 pass option to expedite. USB dock w/Samsung still powered on and plugged into MBP. disk utility defaulted to the samsung when iomega was ejected. I hit the three pass option and started the wipe without seeing Disk Utility default to the samsung. I did immediately see the flashing red data transfer light on the dock come on and realized my mistake. Immediately disconnected the USB HD dock. Disk Utility was showing "preparing disk" in its status bar. It appears that the formatting has been wiped as reconnecting the dock gives me a "the disk is not readable by this computer". I'm sure the data is still there, but the disk needs to be reformatted. The disk appears in the disk utility sidebar. all disk repair options are greyed out.
I am considering using partition in Disk Utility as that would reformat the samsung disk. However, the data on the disk would normally appear as a blue segment on the rectangular disk setup diagram. there is no blue. According to partition docs, you can partition a disk w/out the data being wiped. However, if the disk is unreadable when the partition process starts, will it wipe all the data as it partitions and reformats? Very reluctant to initiate this process w/out knowing more.
Info:
macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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Feb 27, 2012
I need to reformat my iMac G5, but my optical drive doesn't work. How can I restore my iMac to factory settings and then reinstall from the purchased discs, Aperature, Final Draft and Final Cut Studio 7? Can I use my Ibook unibody's drive to somehow do this? Desperate to edit footage from my trip to South Sudan for CNN and NBC, and my macbook's screen has a 3 inch black line down the middle (that's another matter entirely!)... hence using the iMac. (Which by the way, has 2GB RAM.) Also, while I'm here, is it easy the replace the optical drive myself? I've successfully done it with my MacBook, but the imac looks like not possible.
Info:
iMac
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Sep 6, 2014
l I now have to completely wipe, re-format and re-load OSX onto my iMac's internal HD, My iMac is a late 2009 27" and at present has OSX 10.8.5 loaded, ( loaded but with many miss-functions ). Prior to the problem the iMac was running OSX Lion, what version though I can't remember.I installed 10.8.5 the other day to see if that would fix things, but it hasn't. It was not a "clean install", just regular one from downloaded OSX 10.8.5.
I have run Disk Utility and TechTool Pro' 7 to try to make repairs to address the problems so far to no avail. Main problems are that my most used applications, FCP-7 Studio, Aperture and Photoshop CS5 amongst others, open but then immediately crash. I've reloaded the troubled applications, de-installed them properly with de-installation app's then clean re-installed them, but that's made no difference. They will not mount.
I reckon there must be a fault or corruption on the HD, probably caused during the Optimisation as everything was functioning well before I did that. So, the only OSX install disks I have are the original disks that came with the iMac, OSX 10.6.2 and a Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD OSX 10.6. I do have the downloaded copy of OSX Mountain Lion that I pulled from the App Store the other day and that copy is now on an external USB / Firewire 800 HD.Â
As I said I would like to be able to clean off the iMac's internal 2tb drive completely and install a fresh newer OSX. If I first have to load OSX.6.2 then upgrade via the App Store that's fine, but I'd rather just go straight to Mountain Lion if possible. Whatever works best. Getting rid of any corruption on the iMac's HD is the prime motivation.Â
All my applications and files are backed up to a 2tb LaCie external drive.The iMac has approximately 900 gb's of content onboard and the rest is free / unused space.
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Sep 10, 2009
I'm trying to reformat my MBP and I think I'm having a little trouble. This is the first time I've reformatted a mac. I put the OS X disk in, went into disk utility and did the erase. I then restarted, again booting on the disc and I've seen nothing but a white screen for the past 2 1/2 hours. The optical drive is making noises like it is reading, but I'm not sure if it can't read from the disk or it is actually formatting. Any ideas?
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Oct 9, 2010
So yesterday I decided to reformat my new MBP. I had it dual booting with Win7 and I just didn't like how hot my MBP got so I got rid of it. So I decided to reformat and pop in a fresh install of OSX, but I'm not sure if I reinstalled it properly. The reason why I say this is cause traditionally when reformatting my previous macs I would just follow the steps of the CD where then formatting the drive option was part of the step if I remember correctly. This time after putting in the OSX cd once it reboot.
I had to go to the utilities option select my drive to format or it would just reinstall the OS over top what was already there. After installing I noticed I had to rename my drive as well cause it was unknown. I never had to rename my drive before, so I'm not sure if I did this properly. So did I correctly format my MBP? Is there another way to do this to bring it back to exact factory specs? If not can someone let me know how to properly format my MBP?
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Dec 22, 2010
I used to use an iMac as my main machine, but my macbook has now taken over as I was traveling alot. I now want to wipe everything off my iMac and copy my macbook across to my iMac, so it becomes my master computer. Basically I need to free up some memory and use the desktop to control my home AV requirements (itunes, iphoto etc). I use a hardrive with Time Machine to back up my laptop, so if I plugged this into a reformatted desktop would it turn it into a copy of my laptop?
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Jan 9, 2010
A while back i decided to get bootcamp up and running on my macbook. that's all and good except i made it a 20gig partition, which is good for practically nothing. i would like to increase it to 50 gigs or so and my computer wont let me do that. So i've decided to go with a back up on a 500GB western Digital Elements and start over new.
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Mar 12, 2012
Is it possible to reinstall Lion like the following?Â
Download os x lion from app store
Burn the .dmg to a disc
Insert disc into Mac
Boot, holding down CÂ Â (?)Â
There are several types of dvd's. One i found is dvd +r, the other one was dvd -r.Whats the difference? How do i boot up with the dvd which contains the os x? Holding down C, like the real disc? My original disc is broken after moving my computer while the disc was spinning. It got scratches from it. My computer won't boot for some random problems I know. Â
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 2.26 ghz, 4 gb ram
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Mar 18, 2012
I am trying to reformat my Macbook pro. I run the reinstall disc. When I type in my user name and password then click restart, the system reboots but get stuck on a grey screen. You hear the cd spinning for a minute or so but then it goes off. Do I have a bad disk(doesn't appear to be scratched anywhere) or am I not being patience enough.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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May 9, 2012
I am in the process of purchasing a (barely) new Macbook Pro. It has only seen a few weeks of use and the original owner paid for and had Microsoft Office installed at the time of purchase. If the original owner restores the computer back to new, will Microsoft Office be lost in the process? Can it be saved & reinstalled somehow ? There was no disc apparently.
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Jun 21, 2012
Internal SD reader initially worked then became touchy, and now never works.
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Jun 12, 2010
I have a MacBook that I'm trying to backup because my husband wants to sell my computer and buy an iPad. I have a WD external hard drive with an iPhoto library currently on it, chronicling the first 28 months of my first child's life; needless to say it's important! The problem is that Time Machine won't back up to the external drive without erasing everything on it! Is there any way around this?
I will probably also need tips on how to put the iPhoto library (28 months to present time, about 2,200 pictures!) on my MacBook onto the hard drive (does that automatically happen upon backup?). Obviously I've done it once, because there is a library currently on the hard drive, but I can't remember how I did it.
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Oct 30, 2010
following the issues I had with not being able to install ANYTHING or do any software updates, i've decided to reformat and reinstall Mac OSX. First problem, when I boot from disc, it allows me to select language then says 'Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer' so I completely format the hard drive and try again. No luck. Same message. WHY can't the Mac OS X be installed on this computer?!
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Feb 22, 2009
I have never reformatted a mac as of yet so I'm not really sure how to go about it.
I've had my Powerbook G4 for around 4-5 years and I simply have NO CLUE where all the discs are that came with it. The other day I just upgraded to Leopard so I was wondering if it possible for me to reformatted the HD by using only that Leopard install disc?
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Jul 2, 2009
I decided I want to make my Mac HD one whole partition again but I don't know how to do it. I had tried using boot camp, but it was giving me an error. So I cloned my HD and now I've booted into the clone and am wondering how I can delete everything on the Mac HD and reformat it into just one partition. I tried searching but couldn't find it.
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Aug 15, 2010
I'm planning to reformat the osx partition and I'm wondering if the bootcamp (or any other) partition will be affected. I'm not sure how it works... Or can I only reformat the whole hard drive?
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May 13, 2010
I have a Sandisk m240 Mp3 player 1GB. I use it almost every day. I have had it since Sept 2008. I have had a few problems with it, but they were small issues that I could overlook. One of those problems is, every time that I put more than 100 songs on my mp3 player (it can hold about 240 depending on size of file), there would always be one song that came up as "unknown". I could play the file, but it would still be "unknown", even when I knew perfectly well that the file was ripped off a cd (that I own) to my computer (which plays it perfectly fine). That problem I was able to overlook because the file would still play.
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Apr 11, 2009
I have a HD in my Mac Pro that is about 80% filled. I wanted to add another HD and configure the 2 as a RAID, Can I do this without reformatting the existing drive, or loosing my 80% capacity data?
The first HD is a 1TB and im looking to add an identical HD to make a 2TB drive.
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Aug 30, 2009
I'm trying to reformat my MBP and I think I'm having a little trouble. This is the first time I've reformatted a mac. I put the OS X disk in, went into disk utility and did the erase. I then restarted, again booting on the disc and I've seen nothing but a white screen for the past 2 1/2 hours. The optical drive is making noises like it is reading, but I'm not sure if it can't read from the disk or it is actually formatting.
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Sep 7, 2009
I have a Macbook Pro 2.16 Core Duo, and I'm wanting to install 10.6, but about a year ago, I cracked my screen to the point that I cannot make anything out on it, and haven't replaced it. Instead, I have just been using it in clamshell mode, which has worked out fine so far. My problem is that I cannot get the 10.6 install to show up on my external monitor.
I searched around, and could only find one other similar thread that just ended with the author putting it in clamshell and having it work fine. When I boot to the install and close the screen, I just get a grey box on my external display with a black bar on either side of it. I can't seem to find any other resources, so I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point.
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Oct 9, 2009
I seemed to have had a keylogger or virus on my MAC. I had to reformat it. I used google, I am relatively new to MACs, and the method I used was inserting the disk 1 while holding down the option key. It is reformatting as I type this. My question, does it completely erase everything? I know with PCs, a simple reformat like this does not always remove all the problems.
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