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Just got a WD My Book to replace my old external HD for Time Machine backups. However, after the drive was erased and formatted, I get an error message that the disk couldn't be unmounted.
What do I do now so that I can use the HD?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
How is the disk currently formatted? Is it NTFS? Is it APFS? You may need to try formatting it again like so:
Drive Preparation - El Capitan or Later
How is the disk currently formatted? Is it NTFS? Is it APFS? You may need to try formatting it again like so:
Drive Preparation - El Capitan or Later
The ExFAT formatting is the issue. That's a Windows format and Time Machine needs Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as Kappy says. So yes, you need to erase and reformat with Disk Utility. We have no idea how you came up with "ExFAT )per Catalina" as that's totally wrong.
Do not use that format for Time Machine. Use the procedure I posted which will produce the desired results for using the disk with Time Machine.
During the Time Machine process of initiating the new HD, and the disc info erased, the new HD was formatted to ExFAT (per Catalina).
The new HD was set to GUID during the initial formatting to ExFAT. Are you saying I should still erase and reformat through DiskUtility?
See my previous reply.
Time Machine can't unmount new external HD to initiate backups
