Cannot reformat WD drive

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Level 1

9 points

Cannot reformat WD drive

I have a WD my passport ultra, and I haven't used it for a while until now, but it is corrupt. There is an NTFS volume, and an HFS volume. The NTFS volume mounts, but the HFS won't mount, and I can't reformat either volume, or initialize the disk to begin with. I get various errors about posix including permissions, and I get the error unable to open device. I have a utility that allows me to write to the NTFS partition, but it is slow. I used a disk speed test, and it starts at 100 mbps, then drops to 42 then 8, and eventually 1. Is there anything I can do or is the drive dead. I have tried multiple computers, windows, linux, and MacOS. Unfortunately this is a "legacy product," and WD doesn't provide support. The weird thing is I can still store files pretty reliably. I don't care about data, just want the drive.

Thanks!

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 12:35 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,237 points

Feb 21, 2021 6:51 AM in response to The-mac-gu

Did you try in recovery mode?

Recovery creates 25 or more RAM disks so that the actual drive(s) are completely not in use. This sometimes allows them to be opened, repaired, or erased when the running MacOS system can not do those things.

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Answer 2

Ronasara

Level 6

14,595 points

Feb 20, 2021 3:22 PM in response to The-mac-gu

Since you are able to mount one of the volumes on the drive, I therefore assume that it isn't a bad drive, It is likely that the HFS volume is corrupted. Have you tried opening Disk Utility, then select the upper icon for the drive, and next erasing it completely? If it does that, then you can reformat it as needed and then be able to use it. Keep in mind that being a "legacy" drive it won't last forever. Incidentally, these days external drives are very reasonably priced, very compact, easy to install with a provided USB cable and most do not even require external power. You might have to reformat it, though. I have bought a couple I like from crucial.com.

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Answer 3

Feb 20, 2021 3:25 PM in response to The-mac-gu

The solution to save the DRIVE (which was the prize 20 years ago) is to write new data such a Zeroes to every block during initialization. This either substitutes spare blocks, or dumps the dying drive off the cliff.

To initialize on a Mac, you likely need to select the entire Device by its immutable manufacturer-name, not any Volume-name. It will likely refuse (because there are non-Mac volumes on it) just ask again immediately, and sometimes it will go ahead and try. One click off the default security setting should write zeroes. More is not better, it just takes longer.

"initialization failed" means more than 10 blocks were substituted, the Mac limit for a "good" initialization. You can run it again if you like, but the more times you have to, the wi=orse off the drive has already become, and it should be retired instead.

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