Disk Utility won't format my WD Elements 1TB Hard Drive.

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Level 1

8 points

Disk Utility won't format my WD Elements 1TB Hard Drive.

I've searched the forums for this and have seen several questions addressing this but none of the solutions are working for me. Here's my problem:
My IMac died on me the other day and would not reboot. Spoke with Apple support and they decided my OS had become corrupted and that the only solution was a complete reinstall. To save my data the rep walked me through installing the OS on an external HD. This has worked great and I'm currently working off that drive and have managed to pull a lot of my data off the IMac's HD to that external drive. But I've run out of space; it was only 120GB and I've got about 144 GB of data left to retrieve. So I purchased a WD Elements 1 TB external HD and want to do the same thing that I did with other drive...install the operating system on it and pull all the data off the original computer HD to it. But I cannot for the life of me get anything to work. Unfortunately I purchased a drive that is formatted for windows (NTFS). I've gone through the steps found in this forum, and they're the same steps the rep walked me through with the first drive: launch Disc Utility, select the drive, click Partition, give the volume a name, click options to choose GUID Partition Table, and then under Volume Scheme: choose Partition 1, click apply.
But what happens with this drive is the minute I change the Volume Scheme from "current" to "partition 1", all the options and buttons go grey. So I'm unable to click apply to make the changes. I've tried several different times and nothing is working. I've even tried to just format it using the "current" volume scheme but that gives me an error...something about partition failed...permission denied.

At this point I'd be happy with just formatting the drive so I can just drag the files I want off onto it...but I can't seem to find any solutions. I took the drive to a Windows XP machine I have and tried to format it from NTFS to Fat32, thinking maybe the Mac would work with it then but my XP machine won't format into Fat32...only EXFat. Tried that but the Mac wouldn't even show the drive then. Have reformatted it back to NTFS now.

I'm probably going to end up calling Mac support again but they're closed now I'm just curious to see what you folks might be able to come up with.

Good thing I shave my head as I'd have probably ripped it all out by now.

IMac 7,1, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Sep 12, 2010 11:04 PM

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Answer 1

ruichico

Level 1

8 points

Nov 22, 2017 3:25 PM in response to laetitiasparrow

hello,

i have taken the mac and the HD to the store were i bought it.

The technician said that there was a problem in the HD. He haven't been able to format it either for mac or windows. So i changed the HD to a better (i hope) and more expensive one, a SP armor A65.

Until now it is working just fine.

Better luck to your HD.

Cheers.

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Answer 2

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 12, 2010 11:31 PM in response to Igpajo42

Hi
Just wondering whether you've actually bought a drive that's not compatible with the Mac. Looking at the Western Digital site they seem to split their drives into Mac-ready and Windows-ready: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=8
Given the problems you're having is it possible that Windows-ready won't work on a Mac and vice versa. What's the chances of changing it to a Western Digital Mybook - they definitely work, it's what I've got.

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Answer 3

Igpajo42 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2010 12:47 AM in response to Paul_31

I was kind of wondering the same thing, so I checked out their website earlier and it says "Preformatted for PCs - Designed for use with Windows-based computers. Can be easily reformatted for use with Macs." So I don't think that's it.
This is the specific drive that I bought:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=760

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Answer 4

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Sep 13, 2010 5:12 AM in response to Igpajo42

Hi,

try setting the partitioning to 2 partitions and see if it works.

If successful you can then try repartitioning to one partition.

Hope it helps

Stefan

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Answer 5

Igpajo42 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2010 9:53 AM in response to Fortuny

Tried that at your suggestion and it still greys everything out as soon as I change the volume scheme from anything other than current. Thanks for the reply though.

Here's some more information on the drive from the disk utility partition tab. The following is underneath the volume information section the right side:
-------------------------------------
"This volume will not be erased.
Size: 931.5 GB
Available space: 931 GB

This disk is not writable and can not be partitioned."
-------------------------------------

Further down the page it says this:

-------------------------------------
Total Capacity:: 931.5 GB (1,000,202,043,392 Bytes)
Write Status: Read Only
S.M.A.R.T Status: Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme: Master Boot Record
-------------------------------------

Hope some of that helps shed some new light on it.

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Answer 6

Igpajo42 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2010 12:00 PM in response to Igpajo42

Just got off the phone with Western Digital support and they were completely stumped by this. When I explained to the 2nd rep I was escalated to and I explained that I'm currently running the operating off an external HD, he said he thinks that could be the reason it's not working and said that WD can't help me any further if that's the case. Still waiting for a call from Apple.

Should that make a difference as to being able to format a Hard Drive, the fact that I'm running the OS from a USB powered external HD?

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Answer 7

den.thed

Level 9

77,356 points

Sep 13, 2010 5:41 PM in response to Igpajo42

If it has that stupid SmartWare partition, then you will need to get rid of that before you can repartition and format it GUID/Mac OS Extended (Journaled).....

http://acletras.com/2009/09/28/wd-smartware/

I've been able to get rid of SmartWare on a MS-DOS/FAT-32 drive, but I'm not sure if the iMac can do that on a NTFS formatted drive because I only use Macs. Try getting rid of the stupid SmartWare with your windoz box and Partition/Format it MS-DOS/FAT-32, then Partition/Format it GUID/Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the iMac.

edited by: den.thed

As near as I can recall, I was able to open SmartWare folder and drag the files to the trash, then Partition and Format the for-mentitioned drive.

Dennis

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Answer 8

Igpajo42 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:19 PM in response to den.thed

den.thed....that's interesting. The drive I have been having problems doesn't say anywhere on it that it has that Smartware software on it. Didn't see any files on the drive at all. After tech support at both Western Digital and Apple said they'd never heard of this before, I'm returning the drive and buying one that's preformatted for Apple. The drive I ordered does have that software on it, but since I have no fancy plans for this drive other than just backing up files with Time Machine I'll probably just install their software and be happy if it works. If it causes a problem I'll look into that link you suggested.

The Mac support guy I spoke to thought that if I could get the drive formatted into Fat32 it should be able to be reformatted by my Mac. But after having to download software so that I could get it formatted into Fat32 (My XP machine only gave me the option of ExFat), it still wouldn't work. As soon as I tried to assign the partition under the volume scheme all my options greyed out and I could proceed no further. Very frustrating.

So we'll find out tomorrow if the new drive does the tricks.
So even though my problem was not solved, I appreciate the feedback and advice.

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Answer 9

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:24 PM in response to Igpajo42

Sorry to hear that it doesn't work.

Have you tried Apples solutions as described in here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2176 yet ?

Stefan

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Answer 10

babowa

Level 9

78,115 points

Sep 13, 2010 8:48 PM in response to Igpajo42

+The drive I ordered does have that software on it, but since I have no fancy plans for this drive other than just backing up files with Time Machine I'll probably just install their software and be happy if it works.+

If I may add to this: you do not need any software on an external hard drive; if this was mine, I would not install it. If necessary, I would partition and format it properly (thereby erasing the entire drive first) - actually, I would probably do that just to be sure even if it claims to have been formatted already.

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Answer 11

Igpajo42 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 13, 2010 9:42 PM in response to Fortuny

Fortuny...those steps are exactly what the Mac customer care rep did with me over the phone. It failed each time.

Barbara...I'll consider that when I start working with the new drive. My main concern right now is to use that drive to backup a bunch of data off the computer with the corrupted OS so I can do a reinstall and get it back up and running. Once that is done I'll look into the SmartWare software issues a little more.

Message was edited by: Igpajo42

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Answer 12

Fortuny

Level 7

21,455 points

Sep 14, 2010 5:34 AM in response to Igpajo42

Hi,

since you have access to a WIndows XP PC you might wanna use this little helper tool http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm or the GUI-version of it to format the WD to FAT32.

While Windows itself will only format with FAT32 when the harddisk/partition is not bigger than 32GB, the above helper tool will format the whole 1GB with FAT32.

A bit 'clumsy' to do but if it helps...

Stefan

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Answer 13

Nov 14, 2010 2:09 AM in response to Igpajo42

You should not use "Partition" in Disk Utility, but "Erase".
Select the proper filesystem, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and off you go.

See picture for details:
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8105/kw6c.jpg

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Answer 14

den.thed

Level 9

77,356 points

Nov 14, 2010 9:17 AM in response to Pieter_from_Ehv

Not necessarily true, many off the shelf drives are partitioned Master Boot Record and for bootable Cloning and Time Machine the Partition Map Scheme also needs to be changed to GUID Partition Table for Intel iMac's.

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Answer 15

yukeduke

Level 1

0 points

Feb 11, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Igpajo42

Hello Igpajo42,

So I'm not the only one that have this problem. What you have described is exactely what is happening with "WD Elements".
Did you manage to get a solution to use this HD on your MAC ?

Thanks !

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