Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

iMac 2017 OS 12.5.1
Connection USB
Last week I got a message one of my storage drives was full , no big deal.
I looked up the price online and locally, the price was the same, I ordered online because its a 178 mile round trip tp MicroCenter Thats 4 hrs travel + $24.00 gas .The brand is the same that I have been using for over 20 yrs.
Drive arrived Tuesday (4tb ) I replaced the full drive with the new drive got the box to initialize the drive, clicked
Disk utility opened , message drive uninitalized, plus partition not supported, did a disk first aid (okay) and none of the (switches) were highlighted) tried two more times The Mfg of the drives web sight was no help at all.
Yesterday made the trip to St.Louis bought two drives same Mfg. back home installed drive S.O.S but I got support from MicroCenter after a few mins The tech found the problem , I hade to Erase the drive and format it twice naming setting MAC extended journaled and Partition as "Guid" (a first for me) is always been "Apple something".
This is the first time this has happened when installing a drive Windows or Mac, but I haven't replaced or installed a drive in close to 7yrs. WHAT changed ?

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

Hopefully you have multiple copies of your drives.
One is unacceptable.
There is safety only with multiple drives.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Did you read the post ?
IT states Drives!!!!

Laramie Loc: Tempe

Was your new drive formatted to NTFS (Windows)?

JBRIII

I've purchase several 8tb and just recently 2 14tb, no problems. Check box and see it somewhere stated needs formatting, just curious, maybe they save something not doing it?

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

All hard drives I have EVER installed needed formatted.
But I have never had to erase a NEW drive to format it.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Your answer lies within.. The link is to support.apple.com.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Thank you Bob
This I learned while formatting the new drives
But nothing says why I have to erase a NEW drive twice before I could finish a format !
It's not important, just a bit confusing.

Just Shoot Me Loc: Ithaca, NY

Sometimes drives come with software pre installed. Quick erase and partition as Mac extended journaled. Everything OK so far. Partition as Guid, never had to do that. Erase twice, never had to do that either.
Been running Mac for 15 years and installed a new drive about 2 years ago. Strange problem you have. I used "G" drives, part of Western Digital and Sandisk. They come pre formatted for Mac. so no prep is needed for them but other drives, I'm not sure. What brand did you purchase?

Ron

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

'Last week I got a message one of my storage drives was full , no big deal.'

Couldn't tell if you're talking about 5 drives all with different data.
Or 5 drives all with the same data.
If they all have the same data. Great.
But if you have 5 drives and they're all have different data, then one drive isn't safe.

Old Coot

If you have a Mac, you probably bought drives intended for the Windows system (That is what I did) by mistake.
So had to erase and format with Apple system. Used to be all drives were useable by either system, but they now record some programs (Backup, Security etc) so thay need to format them first.

rck281 Loc: Overland Park, KS

Must be another crabby day.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Been running Macs for about 20 years
Seagate have been using them since Maxtor went away

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

MacOS Extended, Journaled with GUID partition is standard on Mac spinning hard drives and has been for well over a decade. I've formatted many drives that way. Now, if you use SSDs or m.2 NVMe drives, you should use APFS, which is Apple's Professional Filing System for solid state drives. ExFAT is a cross-platform compatible option if you have to move drives from Mac to Windows. It can be VERY dangerous to your data if the external drive is unplugged while data files are open or the drive is writing or indexing... Avoid it when possible.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Thank you very much Ben
I can't remember exactly when I started this drive as a back up on my Macs but this is the first time I have seen the GUID partition
I use three drives and backup files manually to one drive at a time, my enclosure is a Microsonic Probox according to them they are Hot Swap capable , But I just don't trust the hot swap or disconnect so Never do it.This is my hobby not a business.
I know my method seems clunky and slow but it works.