Deleting data from my external hard drive - stalls and does not complete

Many thanks, I used Disk utility to erase the My Book 2Tb disk. It failed first try, then I put back the 'deleted' backups from my Trash to My Book. It looked like this would take ages - but it just appeared there again after ~I think I cancelled the move! Then another try at erasing the My Book with Disk Utility worked and it remounted as a 'clean' disk and First Aid showed it was working OK. and my Trash is empty!

Thanks for you help - all sorted now

Peter

Is it better to use Disk utility or my WD Drive Utility to reformat the disk? Or doesn't it matter? The WD Drive utility gives me the option of an HFS+J or ExFat format option. The Disk Utility 'suggests' a MacOS extended (journaled) (as it is at present) and a few other options.

Think I have answered my own question here - but still would appreciate your input - I assume using Disk Utility with MacOS extended (journaled) as before is the best!!!

However I do have another question regarding Time Machine back-ups - especially if you can't erase them. My 2Tb disk got full after a while with Back-ups last time - and then of course smartly started erasing the earliest ones to continue with backing up. I also have a WD Duo 6Tb doing backups as well so I have 2 disks with back-ups BUT I want to use the WD Duo with its 6Tb for other file back-ups.

Question is can I limit the 6Tb duo (or any disk) to a certain capacity for Time Machine back-ups so it does not just get full with Time Machine and has space for other files? Would I have to partition the disk - or is there a way to limit the capacity Time Machine can use in another way?

to continue ---- stop deleting' cancels the whole job.

Thanks, I was not aware that was the case. I will reformat the drive.