WD Elements 1TB hard drive -- not readable

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WD Elements 1TB hard drive -- not readable

I recently plugged in a WD Elements 1TB hard drive as I'm trying to back-up with Time Machine to this drive. When I selected the disk in Time Machine it asked if I wanted to erase. I figured why not, it's brand new, but thought it would confirm I'm starting with a blank slate. Next thing I know a window pops up saying it's now unreadable, and I can initialize, ignore or eject. When I go to disk utility, the drive is right there, but not in my finder. When I run First Aid however that also fails.

How can I get this drive to work?

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)

Posted on Apr 4, 2018 6:46 PM

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Answer 1

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Apr 5, 2018 12:36 PM in response to mmehus

Hello mmehus,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

I understand from your post that you erased an external hard drive and now it is unreadable. In a situation like this you can use Disk Utility to format it for use with Time Machine. Make sure to format it using the Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The following articles have information about formatting external hard drives and using them with Time Machine which you may find helpful:

Disk Utility for macOS Sierra: Erase a volume using Disk Utility
Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support

Best Regards.

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WD Elements 1TB hard drive -- not readable

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