Cannot format external harddrive

snow · snow #1 (**permalink**)

04-08-2012, 01:40 PM

I have a Seagate 1.5 TB external. I can no longer read data from it. I want to erase all data and reformat.

Conventional Efforts:
When I plug it in to my MBP (via Firewire 800), it shows up on the desktop as mounted. However, when I try to access the files on it via Finder, Finder crashes (beachball). I open disk utility, and I can see the disk. When I press erase, the dialog is stuck at "Unmounting Disk".

Why does this happen?

louishen · louishen #2 (**permalink**)

04-08-2012, 03:10 PM

Sounds like the disk has gone south

But first try a disk repair in Disk Utility

snow · snow #3 (**permalink**)

04-08-2012, 03:13 PM

Ya, I figured as much. Any operation in DiskUtility leads it to hang. I "fixed" everything by erasing the disk through diskutil then repartitioning it.

louishen #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Oct 22, 2007 Location: London Posts: 8,656 Mac Specs: Mac Mini Core i7 2012 \| White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz \| 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver	04-08-2012, 03:10 PM Sounds like the disk has gone south But first try a disk repair in Disk Utility Member of the Month September 2008 & August 2012 \| Found advice useful? – use the rep system
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Cannot format external harddrive

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snow #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 08, 2012 Posts: 4	04-08-2012, 01:40 PM I have a Seagate 1.5 TB external. I can no longer read data from it. I want to erase all data and reformat. Conventional Efforts: When I plug it in to my MBP (via Firewire 800), it shows up on the desktop as mounted. However, when I try to access the files on it via Finder, Finder crashes (beachball). I open disk utility, and I can see the disk. When I press erase, the dialog is stuck at "Unmounting Disk". Why does this happen?
	QUOTE Thanks

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