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Malveaux5

Q: how to unformat my external hard drive

I formatted my external hard drive to the desktop and now none of my other devices will recognize the external hard drive. Now I'm looking for help to format it back so i can use it on any of my devices.

iMac

Posted on Apr 7, 2016 8:36 PM

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Q: how to unformat my external hard drive

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  • by theratter,

    theratter theratter Apr 7, 2016 8:41 PM in response to Malveaux5
    Level 4 (3,907 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 7, 2016 8:41 PM in response to Malveaux5

    You cannot "unformed" a drive. You can re-format one, however. But I can't answer your question without knowing how it was formatted before and how it is formatted now. I can simply say that if you want to use it on a Mac, then do this:

     

    Drive Partition and Format

     

    1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
    2. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the side list.
    3. Click on the Partition or Erase tab in the Disk Utility toolbar depending upon which is activated. If both are activated, then choose Erase.
    4. Use the adjustable Pie chart to set the number of partitions if you want more than one. Otherwise leave at the default of one.
    5. In the drop down panel set the partition scheme to GUID. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
    6. Click on the Apply button and wait for the Done button to activate.
    7. Quit Disk Utility.