Disk utility won't erase and reformat a new external drive in Catalina

Hello,

RE: Problems reformatting a new external drive in Catalina

I recently bought a 4TB Western Digital external hard, formatted in NTFS.

I attempted to reformat it in disk utility (clicking on the disk, not the volume, clicking erase, choosing APFS and GUID)-- but it would get stuck-- the progress screen made no progress, event when I let it run over night.) I understand the process should only take a few minutes.

Thinking the problem was with the drive, I exchanged the drive at the store for a Seagate 6TB drive, but now am experiencing the same problem. So I'm thinking the issue is with Catalina?'

Has anyone experienced this, and what are some trouble-shooting steps?

I should also note that I only recently upgraded to Catalina (10.15.17) in 2021 from Mojave, so this is the first I'm using Disk Utility in Catalina.

thanks,

Keith