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format an old external hard disk

One of my old Macs (from 2010-2011 something) runs High Sierra 10.13.6.


It has an external hard disk used for Time Machine backups. This seems to have broken down. "Copying failed." The disk appears on the desktop and can be opened in Finder but that's as far as I get.


Used Disk utility to verify and repair the disk. Repair failed.

The buttons on top in the Disk utility window (erase, partition etcetera) are all greyed. out.


The files on it cannot be moved to the trash.


How do I re-format this?


iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 2, 2021 8:28 AM

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Posted on May 2, 2021 11:24 AM

You are right, DiskUtility is what you use to reformat. Since you can not do so, it sounds as if the external disk has finally died. Eventually all do. Is it as old as the "old Mac"? If so, the could be why.

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4 replies

May 3, 2021 12:00 AM in response to Ronasara

Thanks for the comments. This disk is only used for Time machine backups, so it doesn't need to be very fast.

However my idea to connect it to a Windows machine and format it there, doesn't seem to work. It comes up as a CD containing the Western Digital built-in software which I can't get rid of. Not very knowledgeable about Windows… So I'm stuck anyway.

format an old external hard disk

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