Portable H Drive 4 T - bytes Format on PC?

[Willabong]

I have a 4 T - byte portable drive with data on it, but I no longer have an iMac as mine has gone to that great computer graveyard! I don't need the data on the drive, but I would like to format it so that it works on my desktop PC - But the PC does not recognise the drive? Is there a way I can format it on the PC?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Most folks format external drives as exFAT so that it can be used with a variety of devices. However, if you've formatted the drive to be HFS/APFS or something, that won't be usable on a PC. The drive, however, should still be seen on the PC and it should automatically prompt you to format it in an accessible format.

If the drive isn't being recognized, that's a different story all together. Perhaps you should try connecting the drive to another Mac or someone else's PC to see what they see.

 

[ferrarr]

You have to be signed in as an administrator. Then go into File Explorer and right click on This PC. Then select Manage (you may have to select show more options), or if you know ha different way, get to Computer Management. In the CM window that opens, select Disk Management. As long as the disk is connected and readable, it should be available to format.

If not there are other options available for most versions on winOS.

 

[Rod]

As usual, a tiny bit more complicated than launching Disk Utility and clicking erase.
If you have a friend with a Mac, I'd try that way. It's possible you might run into Permission problems but it only takes a second to find out. If it mounts you can format it as ExFAT then your PC should read it and you can reformat again however you like.

 

[Willabong]

Thank you all for trying to help! I found the solution eventually from another source, the problem is now fixed!

 

[Rod]

Good to hear, thanks for letting us know.

 

[IWT]

Thank you all for trying to help! I found the solution eventually from another source, the problem is now fixed!

Maybe worth sharing the source from which you got the answer?

Ian

 

[Willabong]

A member of pc Forum provided the answer:

Another way is with disk manager
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
-------------------------------------------------------
diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 2
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)
----------------------------------------------------------
Following this, sorted the problem, cleared the disk, and re-formatted the drive to enable it to run on a PC.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Yeah the MBR (Master Boot Record) didn't exist since that drive was likely formatted for Mac. It's odd, though, that Windows didn't automatically prompt you to say "I can't use this drive, but I can make it usable if you wish" and do the steps you've listed above for you.

But either way, glad you got it sorted out.

 

[ferrarr]

It's odd, though, that Windows didn't automatically prompt you to say "I can't use this drive, but I can make it usable if you wish" and do the steps you've listed above for you.

Windows, only recognizes Windows, they consider everything else inadequate.