? Formatting 1.5T 1414 Responses

Last post: 2 years, 5 months ago | Thread started: Sep 8, 09, 8:54 a.m.

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• sea_sea

  I started formatting an external hard drive last night and the darn thing is still not done! did i break it? or is this normal? i know it's a big drive. I'm not big on the tech part.. any idea? should i start over? do something else? throw it out the window? any help much appreciated. :)

  btw I'm running it on a Mac Pro OS 10.4.11 dual-core Intel. and it's connected by USB 2.0 because my firewire connector is not working properly. thnx.

  Sep 8, 09, 8:54 a.m. – Permalink

• GeorgesII

  just unplug the damm thing

  • NO DON'T– GeorgesII

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 8:56 a.m. – Permalink

• designbot

  Dude that's 1.5 Terabytes of space and your trying to format it over (slow) USB. I would say be patient as it can take some time. Is there an indicator as to how far done it is?

  I don't have much experience formatting drives on mac, but on PC there is basically 2 options...quick format and regular format. The quick format only takes a few minutes and the regular format can takes hours sometimes.

  • yeah, i tried the firewire but it doesn't work. so USB is the only way. and no indicator as to where it's at. just looks like it's still running.– sea_sea1/9

    still running.– sea_sea2/9

    I would put your ear up next to the drive...if it's doing a low level type format (secure) you will definitely be able to hear the drive cranking away.– designbot3/9

    drive grinding away.– designbot4/9

    yeah it's doing something.– sea_sea5/9

    K, I would leave it. That's a huge drive, very likely it's just formatting still.– designbot6/9

    Maybe run some checks on it when its done formatting like kvgs72 said just to be sure nothings wrong with it.– designbot7/9

    I used to fix computers btw, so I would run into this alot ;)– designbot8/9

    :) thanks. i'll just wait then.– sea_sea9/9

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:05 a.m. – Permalink

• acescence

  well, if you do a plain ol format, it should take seconds. if you do a low-level or secure format, it takes forever (and is pointless in most cases). secure writes zeros to every sector 8 times, which as you can imagine, takes forever.

  • Does OSX have a secure format option?– designbot1/5

    secure is only necessary when you don't want anyone to recover the data that was there.– acescence2/5

    it does– acescence3/5

    that's cool, but yes your right....if this is what sea sea did it is going to take forever...especially over USB :)– designbot4/5

    i can wait i just would hate for it to be idle and me thinking it's doing something... i can feel the gray hair sprouting.. lol– sea_sea5/5

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:07 a.m. – Permalink

• kgvs72

  I bought a Western Digital 500GB HD about two months ago. I ran an extensive disk check and it was defective, so I went and got a new one.

  I would do an extensive disk check before putting anything in that drive.

  • I'd say shut it off, do a quick format, and then run a disk check before anything else.– kgvs721/2

    ok thanks– sea_sea2/2

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:11 a.m. – Permalink

• sea_sea

  ok so what I did exactly was I went into disk utility and under Volume Format I chose: Mac OS Extended and hit erase... did i break it? lol

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:18 a.m. – Permalink

• Horp

  Punch it. Not hard enough to break it, but enough to send it skitting across the table.

  • i can do that.– sea_sea

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:20 a.m. – Permalink

• ribit

  that should take only a few seconds... The only one that should take a long time is if you go into Security Options and choose to write zeros and stuff over the whole drive..

  You should use Mac OS Extended (Journaled), thats the default now.

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:21 a.m. – Permalink

• designbot

  Did it bring up this box when you went to erase the drive?

  

  • The way you did it, this would only come up if you clicked on the "Security Options" button.– designbot1/6

    no. it only gave me the option to "erase free space" or "erase".
    of course i hit erase. 8 /– sea_sea2/6

    i didn't click security options...– sea_sea3/6

    damn, 35-pass erase, the pedophile and secret agent option– acescence4/6

    35 pass? Might as well destroy the drive.– kgvs725/6

    LOL! I know like what the hell is on your drive that your that concerned about it, right :)– designbot6/6

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:29 a.m. – Permalink

• sea_sea

  ^so should i stop it. and try again by hitting security options first? i suck. thanks for the help.

  • No security options, just a quick format.– kgvs72

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:34 a.m. – Permalink

• designbot

  Yeah what ribit said....if you just did a regular format it wouldn't be taking so long.

  Time to start it over :) If it does the same thing again (takes ages), something might be wrong with the drive. Just to ensure you're doing a regular format...click the "Security Options" tab and make sure "Don't erase data" is selected.

  Let us know what it does

  • k let me try..– sea_sea

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:37 a.m. – Permalink

• sea_sea

  ok it's started again..... and i think it's friquen DONE!! :D

  • just copied over my first file! TEAR!! LOL!!– sea_sea

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:46 a.m. – Permalink

• designbot

  good stuff!
  well maybe run a few checks on it just to make sure it's ok, before you start loading it with your secret agent files :)

  • I'd say you're golden though.– designbot1/5

    runs meaning?? member i suck at this?!– sea_sea2/5

    Under the "first aid" tab in the disk utility you can click the "verify disk"– designbot3/5

    Passed ! yaay! off to drag and drop for a while! :) thank you!! xoxo!– sea_sea4/5

    glad to help!– designbot5/5

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:48 a.m. – Permalink

• sea_sea

  THANK YOU!! you da besss! :) lols

  • QBNer's unite! ;)– designbot1/2

    yes!! :D!!– sea_sea2/2

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 9:50 a.m. – Permalink

• raf

  Recently, when I was getting a MacBook LCD and battery replaced, I talked to a technician who turned out to be from the same country and city I was. Outside of a few good maintenance tips for me he gave the computer extra checks using diagnostic software/hardware/whatever and was able to tell that the hard drive was on its last legs, despite regular tests not showing any signs of trouble. It wasn't the original drive that came with the MacBook, so he couldn't replace it under Apple Care.

  I was wondering, do you know some software that can do this kind of advanced diagnostics? It would be nice to know of hard drive problems ahead.

  BTW, the drive died in a few weeks, but I had been well prepared by then.

  

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  Dog-earSep 8, 09, 1:06 p.m. – Permalink