Problem with encypting an external hard drive

I copied some files to an external hard drive (formatted OS X Extended) that is connected to an iMac, right-clicked on the volume on my desktop, chose the encrypt option, and created a password. Now the iMac can no longer mount the drive. If I unplug and replug the drive, I can enter the password, but then get a message that the drive is not readable by the computer, along with an option to initialize, which opens disk utility.

What happened here? Can you not encrypt an external hard drive without first erasing it? Is there no way for me to now get the drive to be readable again without first erasing it?

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Oct 29, 2019 8:11 AM

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1 reply

zanzen Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 29, 2019 3:34 PM in response to zanzen

Update, I'm replying to myself: I was able to resolve by not using the encryption password window that would pop up each time I uplugged/replugged the external hd. Typing in the encryption password would then result in a message that the drive was unreadable, and steer me to disk utility, where an erase attempt also would not work. Instead, I ignored the encryption password window, went directly to disk utility, and was then able to erase.

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Problem with encypting an external hard drive

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