How can I re-format my external drive without erasing the contents of my disk?

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Level 1

7 points

How can I re-format my external drive without erasing the contents of my disk?

My LaCie 3 TB Backup Drive stopped backing up my LaCie 6 TB external drive. This happened a few days ago immediately after I had my iMac HD replaced by a 1 TB SSD and re-installing my OS. After doing some web research, I realized my 6 TB drive was formatted in Ex-FAT.

I read in an earlier post that Time Machine doesn't work with Ex-Fat. Can someone please tell me how I can re-format this drive without erasing my 1.72 TB contents, as I have nowhere to store this amount of data in the interim.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 25, 2021 12:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Roger Wilmut1

Level 10

131,344 points

May 25, 2021 1:56 PM in response to Spectral45

Journaling applies only to the 'Mac OS Extended' format, not to Ex-Fat. You will have to actually reformat the Ex-Fat disk to 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled') and that process erases the disk. There is no way round that.

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Answer 2

Spectral45 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 25, 2021 1:41 PM in response to Spectral45

I just saw the following post:

"Kappy

User level: Level 10 (361,284 points). Desktops Speciality level out of ten: 1

Feb 6, 2010 12:43 PM in response to artmat55

Open Disk Utility, select your drive from the left side list, then click on the Enable Journaling icon in the toolbar. This will do what you want without losing anything."

"Enable Journaling" is greyed out. How do I turn it back on?

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

419,881 points

May 25, 2021 12:46 PM in response to Spectral45

You can't.

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Answer 4

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,741 points

May 25, 2021 1:01 PM in response to Spectral45

Like Limnos said you can't. Get yourself an inexpensive drive and copy the data over and then reformat.

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

419,881 points

May 25, 2021 1:51 PM in response to Spectral45

Are you sure you're selecting the "volume" level of the drive rather than the entire thing?

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Answer 6

Spectral45 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 25, 2021 2:18 PM in response to Limnos

I am positive - there's only one line for this disk.

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Answer 7

Spectral45 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 25, 2021 2:20 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Roger, you are right! I went back to the original post, which confirmed your idea. I will proceed to copy the data onto another disk and go from there.

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How can I re-format my external drive without erasing the contents of my disk?

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