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Level 3

704 points

Can't format an ext. drive? High Sierra/AFPS issue?

For some reason, I'm unable to format an external HD.

Is this because I've upgraded to "High Sierra?" The new "AFPS" file system?

Details:

I've tried TWO DIFFERENT, brand new external HD's (a trusted brand of bare drives that I use for archiving)
Neither would format on my iMac nor my MBP!
Tried "Disk Utility>repair and/or format, etc. (MacJournal, ExFat...)
Quite simply the disks are not recognized by my both of my Macs.
Older HD's that have already been formatted (same brand) are still recognized
Reiterating, I sent back the first drive thinking it was defective. I was sent a NEW one. Same issue.

The ONLY variable I can think of is, I have updated to High Sierra since I last formatted this brand of HD's.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), macOS Sierra (10.12.3), 3.4Ghz Intel i7 32GB FCPX 10.3.2

Posted on Nov 13, 2017 10:16 PM

Best reply

Level 8

42,554 points

Posted on Nov 14, 2017 11:22 PM

Sure he means Disk Utilities and from the menubar select View> Show All Devices.

you should now see the Disks and not just the Volumes. Format the Disk as you have done in the past.