Disk Utility hangs

[BeeoHat]

I hadn't backed up my MacBook Pro for two months due to a house move. When I reconnected the USB backup drive, Time Machine doesn't see the drive. When I run Disk Utility, it just hangs and doesn't find ANY drives.

 

[BeeoHat]

Finally got Disk Utility to recognize my 500 GB Toshiba USB drive, but when I run First Aid, the msg is "First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired. To repair the startup volume, run First Aid from Recovery".

Where do I find this Recovery program?

 

[pigoo3]

Moved thread to better area.

- Nick

 

[MacInWin]

IF you are running a more recent version of macOS and your system is not too old, boot holding down the Option key. One of the Options that will eventually appear (keep holding the key until options appear), will be Recovery. If your system is older, from before recovery, you may need to make a bootable USB thumb drive and boot from that using Option again.

 

[BeeoHat]

Your suggestion worked perfectly. I gained access to the drive, totally erased and formatted it, and it's now back to normal.

As always, thanks so much for the prompt and accurate assistance.