If I am still seeing an amber flashing dot and a red number 1 in Airport Utility, what does that mean?

I bought a second-hand Airport 2TB external NAS drive and decided once I had initially switched it on to make sure it was working (as I saw a small written note on the internal box that the seller had written 'will not boot up) which immediately got my suspicions raised. So I went through the instructions from Apple online and did what it stated and then mistakenly started to let become a backup drive. I stopped and thought, hang on, I must make sure it is fully and completely erased now, so I opted for the 35-pass erase option. Which I thought was going okay until I had to restart my machine for something else and doing that interrupted the erase process, the next thing I now see, as it was counting through the erase numbers before, was just a flashing orange dot in the Airport Utility and a red dot with the number one inside. I have included screenshots and the Airport drive is also showing a flashing orange LED on the front.


Please help me, I am technical but I am still learning about how my Apple products work to be honest.


Neil


AirPort

Posted on Aug 16, 2023 7:45 AM

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Aug 16, 2023 8:17 AM in response to RobbieBurns1986

On a 2 TB drive like the one in a Time capsule, 35 pass erase is likely to continue for nearly 35 DAYS. Each erase pass is sequential, so it will be extremely slow.


There is no benefit to you of changing what used to be recorded before recording your new data.


I recommend you cancel that erase and just use the drive normally. Old data will be over-written as the drive fills, and there is no difference whatsoever between having old data and erase patterns there when over-writing your new data.

6 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Aug 16, 2023 8:17 AM in response to RobbieBurns1986

On a 2 TB drive like the one in a Time capsule, 35 pass erase is likely to continue for nearly 35 DAYS. Each erase pass is sequential, so it will be extremely slow.


There is no benefit to you of changing what used to be recorded before recording your new data.


I recommend you cancel that erase and just use the drive normally. Old data will be over-written as the drive fills, and there is no difference whatsoever between having old data and erase patterns there when over-writing your new data.

Aug 17, 2023 11:52 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for this.

As I looked at the Airport utility this morning to see if anything had changed, on right-clicking it now shows 'Internal disk needs repair' so, in that case, I will now hard reset it (if I can find the document that shows me how to physically do the hard reset on Apple's website!!) and then I will use Disk Utility to reformat the disk. On that note how long do I keep the button pressed for the 'Hard rest' ?

Secondly, on Disk Utility what do I need to set for the parameters when I format the drive?

Aug 18, 2023 7:49 AM in response to RobbieBurns1986

if it now shows "internal disk needs repair" then you should ERASE the drive (just regi=ular, not security erase of any description.


when it completes, you can try making backup to it again.


-- if that works without error, you have more time with that drive.

-- if that fails, it is no longer in good enough condition to hold your precious files, and the drive should be retired. Whether you continue to use the Time capsule as a WiFi access point, or switch to something newer (splitting the backup and access point functions into two devices) is your judgment call.


Since there are newer, more capable access points on the market now, and Apple has stepped back from this part of the business, In my opinion it would be a mistake to do a direct replacement with the SAME model old unit.

If I am still seeing an amber flashing dot and a red number 1 in Airport Utility, what does that mean?

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