Re: Reformatting External Toshiba HD

Re: Reformatting External Toshiba HD

Hello, I have a Toshiba Canvio External HD with 500GB. I'm using it on a Mac with OS 10.
I was able to copy files to it, until a new internal HD was installed into my desktop computer. Now it's formatted for Windows and the external will not accept any files. I receive an error box that the external "cannot be modified". I've gone to "Disk Utility", changed from Windows format to Mac Extended(Journaled) etc. I'm still unable to copy files to the external drive. Please help! Thank you.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Do you mean you are using OS X, if so what version, or do you mean OS X.10? As you have tried to format the drive HFS, did you go into Partition and check under Options GUID is selected? Otherwise the Toshiba may be failing. With it connected to whatever Mac you are using, no information on that either, go to Disk Utility on the internal, select the external if it appears, and hit Repair Disk and see what is reported.

Yes. my computer has Mac OS 10.4.11. When I go to Disk Utility on the external, the "Repair Disk" and "Verify Disk " are grayed-out and unusable. I've been to Partition">"Options" and changed to Macintosh "Extended" and "Extended (Journaled). It defaults back to Windows format.

If the Toshiba drive is still formatted to NTFS (Windows proprietary format) you will be unable to write to it or perform repairs with Disk Utility. The only thing you can do is erase it and reformat to the Mac format. The Toshiba Canvio drives come pre-formatted from the factory for Windows.