best format for a hard drive connected to a mini

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Level 2

173 points

best format for a hard drive connected to a mini

Since I got my new mini a month ago. I started having errors messages that I didn't eject my external drive properly when in fact, I didn't eject it at all. I had a Mini prior to this and had no problems. Now I'm getting error messages saying I need to re format my external hard drive or I will loose everything. Now is this a sign the external hard drive is going bad. Or is it that the format isn't really working with the latest OX. And since I have to re format the hard drive. What would be the best format for it. I just reformatted it using MS.DOS-Fat32. But now I can not move certain movies back on because they are too large. There is plenty of space. Thank you . :-)

Posted on Dec 16, 2017 1:10 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

K Shaffer

Level 7

34,972 points

Dec 17, 2017 9:24 AM in response to David Gurga

A precaution would be backup the externally enclosed drive and then reformat

to HFS+ Journaled; as that could support storage of system files if needs be.

Although the latest Sierra & High Sierra are made to run with a new Apple format

the storage drives need not have that in use; and if you use peripheral devices or

non-Apple gear, their files can still be drag/dropped or stored. However that said

I'd still have additional external storage for any non-Apple gear you may want to

archive separately. (A good backup external enclosed storage would have its own

power supply, & be sufficient for clones [of present or past] running Mac OS X.

And be capable of connecting to the Mac at sufficient data rate for boot reasons.)

While I've some externally enclosed HDDs including FireWire (for clones) there are

some fairly good examples at OWC macsales for most Apple backups. Be sure to

have a separate drive(s) for incremental backups, and for Time Machine activities.

In any event...

Good luck & happy trails! 🙂

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Answer 2

Dec 17, 2017 9:22 AM in response to David Gurga

I have run into that similar situation in the past and it

turned out to simply be a bad cable.

As for formatting, if it will only be used with your Mac

or other Macs, then HFS+ is the best option. If you need

to use it with Windows machines, the best option would

be exFAT which over comes file size limitations.

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Answer 3

David Gurga Author

Level 2

173 points

Dec 17, 2017 9:27 AM in response to K Shaffer

It's a Western Digital ( I think ) that I've been using for the was 6 years. I use it to store copies of photos, music and movies. I tried the Time Machine but it ended up eating all the space on it. So I stopped the time Machine backups.

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Answer 4

David Gurga Author

Level 2

173 points

Dec 17, 2017 11:58 AM in response to David Gurga

New cord didn't help the external hard drive. I tried formatting it with HFS+ and then it wouldn't boot up at all. So I connected it to my old Mini. I was able to reformatted it back to FAT35 on that. But when you try to put files on it from the computer. Iit just disappears and the error message that it was ejected properly pops up. I'm thinking it's going bad.

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