Can´t format external harddrive iomega 250 MB

I'm sure that you're doing it correctly if the drive is mouting in Disk Utility. Is it showing "S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified"? If the Iomega drive enclosure is compatible with iMac Intel (however, I found nothing to that effect at the Iomega site), try using a different USB port on the back of the iMac.

I found someone apparently having a similar problem with what might be a similar Iomega: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2690148&#2690148

Try powering down and leaving both unplugged and disconnected for a while.

If you are having no success with the Disk Utility version in your iMac's Applications>Utilities folder, you might try booting from Install Disc 1 and seeing if that Disk Utility version will see, mount, and reformat the external drive. Can't hurt to try it. And if neither version of Disk Utility will complete the reformat, I'd start to suspect a compatibility problem.

Check the Iomega website:
http://www.iomega.com/na/landing.jsp
click through "Support & Downloads" >"Hard Drives">"External (Desktop) USB">"MAC OS X">"What do I do if my Iomega Hard Drive is not detected?">"What should I do if my Iomega Hard Drive does not mount on Mac OS X?"

Benno Bradler, are you sure it is supposed to be compatible with Intel Macs?

Hello Benno,

Try this:

Go into disk utility, and then choose the drive on the left (not the partition or volume - but the actual hard drive).

Now, go to the "Partition" tab.

Click "Options" and choose

"Apple Partition Map" for a drive that can be read from any Mac, but is not bootable on an Intel Mac (but bootable on a PPC Mac if it can boot from USB).

Or, "GUID Partition Table" if you want to be able to boot from the drive only on an an Intel Mac.

Then click on the O.K. button to proceed out of that box.

Now, select 1 partition under "Volume Scheme"

For Format, choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"

Enter a name, and then click on the button labeled "Partition"

It should work this way.


I hope this helps.

Hello,

The only other suggestions I can think of at the moment are to try using a PC to get the drive into a state that the Mac will work with.

You could try using a PC to simply remove all partitions from the drive. I'm not sure where you would find that option in Windows since it likes to just format everything. But, there should be an option for that. I know how to do it from DOS with FDISK. But, never tried it in Windows. You might see if FDISK is still in Windows XP though using the DOS / Command Prompt.

Otherwise, you might try formatting the entire drive in one partition as FAT32. The Mac is more compatible with FAT32 than NTFS. So, this might just enable you to reformat the drive with the Mac.

Give that a shot and see what happens.


I hope this helps.

Hello.

Partition Magic uses some custom routines. So, that may be your problem.

Try using the routines built-into Windows XP to repartition and reformat the drive.

You should be able to right-click on the drive, and choose format. Then, choose your partition type and format.

There is also a built-in utility somewhere on the machine. I think it's in the System Utilities folder in the Start Menu. You'll have to look through the submenus in the Start Menu to find it. I'm not in-front of a Windows machine to look for you.

O.K., since I'm not at a PC at the moment, I looked it up on the Internet.

You should be able to remove partitions completely and re-create them using the tool that comes with Windows XP here:

My computer > manage > disk management to create and format the partitions you want.

I would use Windows XP's built-in routines to remove all partitions completely. Then, save that configuration. Re-start, then go back into the utility, and make sure that there are still no partitions.

Then, see if it will work on the Mac.

If not, then go back into the same Utility, and reformat the drive as FAT32. Then, see if it works.

I've had my share of problems with Partition Magic on PC's creating non-standard partitions that couldn't be properly removed (even with Partition Magic). So, I would do everything I could without Partition Magic just to make sure it isn't the problem.

The one other thing you might try, is downloading the trial version of MacDrive:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/

The 15-day trial is free, and it should be long enough to get this working.

With MacDrive, you can read, write, and even create Macintosh compatible disks on the PC.

So, if nothing else works, try using the trial version to setup the drive as a Macintosh drive. Then, take it to the Mac and see if you can reformat it and do what you want.


I hope this helps.

Hello,

Thanks mhunter!

You're quite welcome 🙂

Following your advice i formatted succesfully the
Iomega MiniMax External USB drive with MacDrive under
WIndowsXP Pro.

Glad to hear that it worked for you 🙂

Now let me ask one more thing:
- i did not tryed to reformat the drive within OSX
wit AppleDiskTools...do u believe it should/can work
now?

If the Mac can read the drive now, and it's currently in a Mac format, then reformatting it would be optional.

But, I don't see any reason that it wouldn't format correctly now. So, if the drive is still empty, then go ahead and give it a shot. At least then you'll know for sure 🙂

Thanks for ur help annyway....;-))

You are most welcome. I am always happy to help.



P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Solved" or "Helpful" buttons on any of the posts / replies if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.