| 3 CarlaMac, on May 21, 2008 9:57:55 pm BSTI had the same problem with the Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External Drive that I bought. It kept failing when I tried to reformat it for my Mac as Mac Extended (journaled). I was ready to return the drive because it was so frustrating!
I called WD customer support and they walked me through it over the phone:
This is what worked perfectly:
Use the Apple Disk utility software that comes with your Mac.
PARTITION your Mac as 1 Partition and while you are in that same window, SELECT OPTIONS.
THIS IS THE KEY: There are 3 radio buttons in the popup window for formatting options. The drive was preset as the bottom button PC formatting and you have to chose the middle button which is for Mac.
Click apply and finish formatting your drive. Works perfectly.
One other thing, it is a good idea not to have any applications running when you format the drive.
Hope this helps. | 5 emurphy, on May 26, 2008 5:35:09 pm BSTI want to say THANK YOU for posting how to format a WD 1TB drive for a Mac. I've spent an hour going crazy. And your steps worked perfectly. :) |
| 6 sergam, on May 29, 2008 5:07:21 pm BSTThanks a lot, i was loosing my head until i read your post!!!! |
| 10 fraser, on Jun 7, 2008 4:50:42 am BSTYou rock! Thank you for posting these steps. I was pulling out my hair! |
| 15 richelieu, on Jun 18, 2008 6:45:18 am BSTI was close to returning the drive. Thanks a lot! |
| 16 Kev, on Jun 23, 2008 2:50:27 am BSTYou're awesome! I actually returned a drive, bought another one, and had the same problem. |
| 17 thank you so much!, on Jun 24, 2008 5:53:54 pm BSTI found this on a Google search. Thank you so much for this info. Of course, it works perfectly as others have stated.
Matt |
| 23 Casual User, on Jul 9, 2008 1:44:03 pm BSTCarlaMarc,
I would like to join the othes and thank you for those instructions. I too just got a My Book and was frustrated as I was unable to format it using disk utility. The options setting was what I was missing.
Regards
Nic |
| 26 JD, on Jul 17, 2008 7:27:26 am BSTWow! You saved my ass on this one.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
JD |
| 27 Silvertooth, on Jul 17, 2008 3:17:02 pm BSTHey - you're a life saver (not like the candy)
Thanks for these steps! I was struggling with it myself too.
Appreciate you sharing!
Just a note - when I called Mac support, they told me to choose the top (GUID)
I don't know what kind of difference it makes, but I never would have found it without you!
Cheers! | 144 Noah, on Nov 19, 2009 7:02:58 pm GMTVery helpful post, thanks. I found that the difference between the middle and top buttons is that selecting GUID will allow you partition part of the drive in FAT-32 format in case you want to use the drive for both a Windows and an Intel-Mac based machine. |
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| 29 Fretbuzz, on Jul 23, 2008 7:57:55 pm BSTI have to thank you! I was just about to return this drive when I came across your post. THANKS! |
| 30 brage, on Jul 25, 2008 5:26:30 pm BSTCheer mate, works like a charm! |
| I'm just sign up to the forum to say thanks. Your help is very appreciated and it works good! Thanks a lot |
| 37 RideAHarley, on Sep 27, 2008 12:39:58 am BSTWant to add my thanks to the others on the forum - saved me a lot of time - well done. |
| 45 Jonas, on Nov 6, 2008 12:21:57 pm GMTHere you go, yet another thank you! :D |
| 50 waveshredder, on Nov 24, 2008 4:29:12 am GMTTo Carlamac,
thank you, thank you thank you,
As all have said before, thank you. After reading all rel: FAQ on WD site pointing at disk utility, again and again, and emailing WD, who pointed me back to disk utility, full stop. no other instruction? I took mine back to Magnum Mac here in NZ. They also didn't know after both of us re google-ing found your answer, I know we are in a download everything world, and should get lastest updates, but an install disk included with the drive AND INSTRUCTIONS could help, after all these HD aren't cheap.
Clearly a few people have had an issue with this. Forwarded to WD email help desk also.
Thanks again. |
| 53 Tommy, on Dec 12, 2008 10:36:30 am GMTCarla, I could kiss you .. Cheers Tommy |
| 57 khadije, on Dec 24, 2008 8:43:29 am GMTHi
i had problem with hard and ur guide was perfect
very very very thank u |
| 65 Scott, on Dec 31, 2008 3:22:33 am GMTThanks so much for posting this response -- worked like a charm!! |
| 68 jimmybivona, on Jan 7, 2009 9:28:18 am GMTThis was your post. I have a comment:
I got similar help but for Time Machine: some of my folders were case sensitive so the format had to be Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled). Of course it didn't tell me that. I had to stumble on the solution after I did a total format. My MBP chose this on its own even tho I had selected plain journaled. And the drive must be virgin. And TM will still erase the drive before it begins. Picky, ain't it.
( This message seems useful, vote!
* Report this message to moderators
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CarlaMac, on Wednesday May 21, 2008 09:57:55 PM
I had the same problem with the Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB External Drive that I bought. It kept failing when I tried to reformat it for my Mac as Mac Extended (journaled). I was ready to return the drive because it was so frustrating!
I called WD customer support and they walked me through it over the phone:
This is what worked perfectly:
Use the Apple Disk utility software that comes with your Mac.
PARTITION your Mac as 1 Partition and while you are in that same window, SELECT OPTIONS.
THIS IS THE KEY: There are 3 radio buttons in the popup window for formatting options. The drive was preset as the bottom button PC formatting and you have to chose the middle button which is for Mac.
Click apply and finish formatting your drive. Works perfectly.
One other thing, it is a good idea not to have any applications running when you format the drive.
Hope this helps.) |
| 71 bryan4134, on Jan 12, 2009 8:21:48 pm GMTMany many thanks - was also going crzay!! |
| 74 grrrr, on Jan 15, 2009 3:28:53 am GMTSame as all the above posters - thank you so much. I found your answer through Google and am very relieved. |
| 88 danielx, on Mar 5, 2009 2:16:10 pm GMTThank you very much, it worked perfectly. Bless you :)))))) |
| 91 krbristol, on Mar 12, 2009 3:56:27 pm GMTMany thanks
I was going bananas over the same problem. Even my one to one Mac man couldn't work it out
Keith |
| 95 BILL, on Mar 25, 2009 5:08:19 pm GMTThanks, your suggestion worked perfectly. I actually took the WD drive I bought back to best buy thinking it was defective as I have reformatted WD drives in the past for Mac and it had worked fine. But with these 640 GB drives I wasn't getting anywhere. I googled for some ideas and your advice has helped me to properly format my 2nd WD hard drive for Mac OS. Thanks again. |
| 96 Steve, on Mar 26, 2009 12:26:38 pm GMTIt worked!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, I thought I was going to loose my mind. |
| 98 xttom, on Apr 3, 2009 8:36:07 am BSTThanx carla... u really saved my ass... :) Was goin nuts over this issue.. well, i selected the GUID partition option. I guess the difference is that u con also install Mac OS X, so that the system can boot form this drive with a GUID partition. |
| 99 Gator, on Apr 10, 2009 2:22:18 am BSTThe steps to resolve this are not working for me. The drive works fine on my new imac with 10.5 OS, but on my 10.4.11 when I try these steps to reformat (because its not recognized) I get an input/output error when I press partition.
Any ideas? | 113 Smylight, on Jul 8, 2009 5:56:21 pm BSTHello,
I have the same problem as you. Did someone steer you towards a solution?
Thanks! |
| 116 sunflower, on Jul 20, 2009 10:32:59 pm BSTDear Gator,
I had the same problem as you with my MyBook external hard drive. I was able to format it and put data on using my Mac running OS 10.5, but got an input/output error when i tried to partitiona and mount it on my other computer runing 10.4.11. Did you ever find a solution? |
|
| 100 Cloud, on Apr 14, 2009 1:47:46 am BSTThanks so much for this. Saved me hours. |
| 102 NilsRensen.com, on Apr 14, 2009 3:53:07 pm BSTTHANK YOU VERY MUCH
I'm in the middle of a production, lots of stress for the producers. Needed a backup instantly. |
| 109 d man, on May 23, 2009 1:06:12 am BSTThis worked perfectly. I have the same frusteration, and thanks to your post got to the answer quickly. |
| 110 enceph, on Jun 6, 2009 6:33:24 am BSTDitto on the SimpleTech [Re]Drive 1TB. . . THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! |
| 114 sibo, on Jul 17, 2009 9:19:12 am BSTMany thanks for straight forward explanation. |
| 119 SNOW, on Aug 11, 2009 1:16:19 pm BSTYOU ARE THE BEST MAN !!!!!
I WOULD'VE NEVER FIGURED IT OUT BY MYSELF !!!!
CHEERS ! |
| 121 w33zy16, on Aug 15, 2009 9:38:29 pm BSTI followed your steps and it still wont allow me to use time machine and it wont even open infact saying that there is a error. if there is anything else that might work please let me know |
| 123 Yiako, on Aug 22, 2009 7:53:02 pm BSTI just want to say you a big THANKS for your help.
so
THANKS
:D |
| 126 bugalug, on Sep 7, 2009 5:26:21 pm BSTI have just purchased a WD Elements hard disk and have just dragged some files into it. Not sure I've done this correctly though - I have tried some of your suggestions, but keep getting an error msg:
Partition failed with the error:
Could not unmount disk
Is this a problem with the actual hard drive? I've also tried to erase the disk and get the same error msg. |
| 127 teach, on Sep 18, 2009 5:21:13 pm BSTHi
It was a while ago but you answered a question on installing a WD hard drive on a mac. I too got the error input/output and tried following your advice but even if I pick the middle radio button I still get the same error - any more ideas? |
| 128 davefilms, on Sep 19, 2009 5:54:02 am BSTWOW! Fast and good. Totally fixed the problem. Thanks so much!
ML
David |
| 129 Tomboys, on Sep 20, 2009 12:33:12 am BSTI LOVE YOU! Thank you so much. You just saved me. An hour long tech support with Apple got me nowhere but 2 minutes following your instructions fixed my problem. Thank you Thank you Thank you! |
| 131 Zephyrbob, on Sep 27, 2009 6:33:54 pm BSTThank you ever so much for doing the leg work to get the answer to the Mac formatting problem with the WD My Book. I tried it and it work perfect. |
| 135 jeff, on Oct 16, 2009 4:38:35 pm BSTThank you sooooo much. so much. |
| 136 empytmtm, on Oct 19, 2009 6:02:15 pm BSTTHANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Finally an answer after many hours of no success!!! Can't thank you enough!!! |
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1tb wd book users manual