Formatting disk takes hours?

Question

Formatting disk takes hours?

What is the average time to format a Seagate 1TB disk in the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) mode? A few hours ago Linc recommended that I back up my system and upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan due to panic log information, with the "hope that this will fix a possible OS X bug, or else a hardware fault in the wireless module, the logic board, or the startup drive." The Seagate drive I bought yesterday says it will take up to 4hrs to "Erase free space" and that number keeps climbing. Prior to the formatting I performed a disk verify/repair on it (it needed repairing). And what should I do if my computer crashes while it is formatting?

Thank you — Kim

Posted on Mar 17, 2016 12:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:20 PM in response to kimfromsandiego

Did Linc tell you to erase free space? Because simply erasing the hard drive should be done relatively quickly but erasing free space can take a long time to complete. I'm not sure what the average time is but considering you have a 1 TB hard drive, I am not completely surprised that it is taking 4+ hours.

While erasing free space is more secure, it is not really required unless you are deleting documents that are a matter of national security. A regular erase will suffice unless you are paranoid about your documents being recovered. (The only other time it may be required is if you are unable to erase your hard drive using a normal erase, or if your hard drive is failing and needs to be reformatted. Sometimes a secure erase will work when a normal erase doesn't)

Also, there are a few options for "Erase free space," one of which takes a very long time. See Apple's article about erasing free space. Linc Davis is a very knowledgable person around this support site, so if he told you to do something I'm sure it was the right thing to do.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 17, 2016 1:10 PM in response to Pmintz25

No he did not. I did that because I had dragged many files onto the disk last night—before I did the "verifying/repairing" (I didn't even know that option existed until this morning). So I did the verify/repair this morning and then deleted all my files from last night. That was why I chose to do the Erase Free Space option.

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 17, 2016 1:20 PM in response to Csound1

Thank you all , and I appreciate all that good information about security! Sadly, I think I have a bad drive. I just received an error that says "Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files." and when I try to format it, it says it can't find the disk. 😟

Reply

Answer 4

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:24 PM in response to kimfromsandiego

Do you already have your files backed up? If you do, erase your hard drive and follow Linc's advice.

If Disk Utility no longer sees the hard drive, try restarting the computer and then hold Command-R to boot back into the Recovery drive. See if the hard drive shows up again and erase it.

Reply

Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,562 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:24 PM in response to Pmintz25

Out of curiosity, how would that result in damage? I've stopped an erase process and started over with no damage to anything. Since the OP is trying to erase the entire thing, it should work just fine.

@ kimfromsandiego:

There is also no need to erase the drive in order to format it: You can simply choose the Partition tab, select 1 Partition, select the format (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and make sure it is GUID Partition scheme under the Options button - then hit apply. It will erase, format, and partition all in one process which takes no more than a couple of minutes.

PS: we cross posted. If you need to repair the drive, follow CSound's suggestion.

Reply

Answer 6

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:30 PM in response to kimfromsandiego

It said it would take 7 hours because you were erasing free space, at least that's how I understood the issue.

If you want to try a simple erase, click the hard drive, then press the Erase tab, and click Erase.

To boot into Recovery: Turn the computer off. Turn it back on and immediately press and hold Command-R until you see the Apple logo. Then open Disk Utility and try the steps above.

Best of luck

Reply

Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:13 PM in response to kimfromsandiego

Don't waste your, time there is nothing to be gained from erasing free space. Just format the disc as Linc asked you to.

Reply

Answer 8

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Mar 17, 2016 1:19 PM in response to kimfromsandiego

If you have already started the erasing process then I would leave it until it finishes. If you interrupt the process you could damage the hard drive.

Let us know how it goes.

Reply