Need to set external hard drive for GPT using a PC?

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Level 1

10 points

Need to set external hard drive for GPT using a PC?

Hey all! I hope I can get some help here, as I'm proficient with PC and not with Mac's. The research I've done hasn't done too much to help with my (from what I understand) unique predicament.

Few days ago my gf's Mac got some malware on it. She has Avast which cleaned up all the corrupted files, of which there were some core programs which were corrupted and that I accidentally deleted (had to input the password). This has caused the laptop to basically become a very expensive paperweight, and we're working on resetting it.

We want to backup the files on her computer for her music and photos, mostly, however all of her harddrives are full. We purchased a new one which we thought would work, but when trying to backup data I get an error reading "recovery partition restores can only be done on gpt partition maps." I had read somewhere that the hard drive needed to simply be reformatted. I had done that on my PC laptop but I'm still getting an error. Obviously, I need to reformat to GPT set-up but I can't seem to do that on my PC.

So, my question is this: is there a way to backup using this hard drive using a PC? I'm sure this process is easier with a working Mac, but hers won't even let us log in (screen flashes to black as soon as you press a key). Would we be better off returning the one we bought and finding one that's for Mac only? Is there a point at which we'd need to bite the bullet and just reset her laptop and lose the files (I really hope not)?

Thanks for reading and all your help!!

-JC

P.S. - her OS is Yosemite, but not sure which OS X update that is.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jul 29, 2015 6:58 AM

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Answer 1

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,156 points

Jul 29, 2015 1:20 PM in response to JRDuryea

sure, I'll get on that for you. I don't know if you can truly format a spare hard drive in Windows to the Mac standard (setting GUID, etc) but you can do something that at least works. this is for windows 8. tap the 'search' icon on the windows start screen, go to "create and format hard disc partitions", the disk management utilty opens. I am assuming here that the new or spare hard drive is already plugged in to your PC. Click the drive you want to format, click on "Action" then "All Tasks" then "New Simple volume" choose next. make sure the space is the same as the maximum disk space on the hard drive itself. choose no drive letter, then next, then format it as ExFAT, choose "perform a quick format" and then "finish". Exit the Disk management utility and eject the drive

and unplug it. If you hold down the "Shift" key on startup, it should boot up in Single User mode with the most basic stuff loaded. Holding down command, Option and R will boot into Internet Recovery. Holding down option on startup will show you all potentially bootable hard drives. At the top of the screen when you do that, you should be able to get into OS X Tools, and from there, run Disk Utility and then verify hard drive, repair hard drive or Disk First aid. If disk Utiilty cannot repair it at all, assuming the hard drive is removeable, remove it, and transfer it to another mac, such as a Mac Pro Desktop if you can find one, or if you don't want to do that, see if you can find another Mac laptop, connect either a Firewire or thunderbolt cable, reboot 'em both, hold down T on your gf's old Mac until you see its hard drive appear on the desktop of the new Mac. IF you cannot borrow another Mac laptop at all, you have a few choices left. buy Data Rescue 3 and see if that'll work (around $100), take it to your local Apple repair place and see if they will help you with data recovery and repairing her Mac, or take it to a specialized data recovery place. That may work, but I must tell you it's expensive. If your gf's mac doesn't boot, you could try resetting the SMC or zapping the PRAM, which you find out how to do in Apple's support section (takes too long to describe here) . from now on, maybe you might consider buying and using a backup system. All you need is a spare mac formatted hard drive. Apple makes one with wifi built in. it's called an airport time capsule. It's easy to use, very reliable, easy to setup, and it might solve 2 problems at one time.

good luck

John B

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Answer 2

JRDuryea Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 29, 2015 8:10 PM in response to Johnb-one

Unfortunately formatting the hard drive into ExFAT didn't help. I tried a few others using the erase feature in disk utility but no luck there either. We'll probably go and get a hard drive specifically for Mac. If that doesn't work I think we'll call it quits as I really screwed up some system files. I don't think she wants to spend $100 to recover, either. Repairing did nothing to help, either. Still get the black screen flashes when trying to put in her password. We don't have access to another Mac and are currently living in Korea so we'd have to travel to Seoul to go to a repair center which is bit... not close.

I'm fairly certain it does not have a removable hard drive but I'll look into how to check for that.

The computer boots just fine. I suspect it's also an issue with her user account, so if there's a way for me to create another user from disk utility or anything like it would be worth looking into. Even booting in safe mode, however, has the same issue.

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