Rusty Razor Blade
I just bought a 1TB Western Digital drive. I am stoked.
However, I tried to format the drive on my Mac (Leopard) and got the error “File system formatter failed” when I tried to format the disk as MacOS Extended (Journaled). Not cool.
I found this forum thread which suggested using multiple partitions to solve the problem. When I was trying this, I went into options and changed the partition scheme from Master Boot Record to GUID partition table. It formatted fine.
To test things further, I changed the scheme back to 1 partition, and left the format as GUID partition table. This time it worked flawlessly.
The GUID type says it will not work as a start up disk MacOS older than 10.4. So if you’re still on Panther you can’t boot up off my backup drive. Try not to cry too much.
Update: here’s a few reasons why GUID owns MBR
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Great post! This was driving me nuts with my TB drive. So much for it just works :/
Thanks a lot! That was getting really frustrating!
Thank you so much. Just brought back a 1tb WD USB drive and this post helped me format the disk. Thank you again.
I just got my 1tb Lacie working – thanks!
Hi,
I have an issue with a WD 1TB firewire HD. I can format it on my 10.4 system, but on my 10.5.5 it does not even show up in the finder window or on the desktop, so cannot get to it.
Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks.
Worked for me with my 1TB Fantom Green Drive. Thanks for the instructions, I probably wouldn’t have clicked on the “Options” button unless I was looking for a way to turn off MBR.
Hope this post stays here forever!
Hey onno: did you try opening up disk utility and checking if it’s recognized there?
Yes, Jon, did that too.
It does come up with USB though – just tried that yesterday.
However, I prefer firewire for video editing.
congrats – you are the #1 google hit for “File system formatter failed” and it works! Should have known, but I was just following along with the printed instructions… DRTFOM (don’t read the f@#kin outdated manual). Always check the google before getting the RMA.
So glad I found this at the top of the google hits! It worked great and saved a ton of time.
I stumbled on to this thread ad said to myself, “You have got to be kidding. Mac users do not know how to Partition and Format a New Drive.”
I’m a new Mac user and recently bought the iMac 24″. Last week I bought a 1.5TB drive. Yesterday I installed it with no issues. The problem looks like it is with the “Erase” function. A New drive is already “blank”, there is nothing to erase because it is not formated. Maybe the Erase process is trying to find something to erase and the App hangs because there is nothing to erase. Anyway, with any “New” drive always uses the “Partition” option, not “Erase”.
Thanks also for this. I wouldn’t have thought to switch to GUID otherwise.
Thanks a million, I bought 2 of these and i thought i was in real trouble.
Thanks! had the same problem, you helped me out!
Thank you so much! Your solution also worked with a Packard Bell 1TB drive – it is ethernet capable, but only for Windows (also via Parallels ®) so I wanted to reformat it
Worked perfectly. Thanks for the tip!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
You’re so money, you don’t even know it
Your original post is almost a year old and it’s still helping people. I like to think I’m pretty savvy, but I’d have never figured this one out on my own. A thousand thanks.
Thank you so much. You just saved my day.
Same problem. The solution worked. Sure wish I’d looked here first. Apple Support was useless.
Thanks, I had the same problem too and this fixed it. Appreciate the post!
HOLY SMOKES! Thanks so much. I was so frustrated, but that simple tip worked!!! wooo!
Wow…I actually returned a MyBook that I thought was defective and I’m definitely not a noob. Got the replacement and had the same issue until I found this. Guess I should have checked first. Oops.
Thanks!
Joe
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!!! That option is sooo sneaky hiding in there like that. Wouldn’t have been starting to format at this very moment had it not been for this post! Thanks again!
Thank you for posting this – saved me from snatching my head bald!
My 1TB Western Digital drive wasn’t erasing but doing the one partition worked, thanks for giving me the idea!
Thanks so much for this! I was having a hell of a time figuring out why my new 1TB Hitachi drive wouldn’t format. This worked perfectly!
Thanks a bunch!! Surprised Leopard defaulted to MBR with a USB drive on a PPC Mac…
Thanks again!
Same problem with my WD essential book 1 TB which I bought for my new cheap multimediacentre WD TV. Did not work either om my iMac with PPC or my iBook with Intel. Noted some place in the thread that the problem is caused by Disk Utility trying to erase a disk without content and that in Mac world it is the same as it will not work as it is nothing to erase. Tried the partion-trick and it worked superb (and remembered that the first ting my intel IBook asked me about when plugging in the disk was that if I wanted to use the disk as time machine backup… In other words it would have worked if I accepted my iBooks offer).
thanks bro, worked on my hackintosh with a 750gb
Thank you. I totally appreciate the post.
First:
Thank you for the post.
Second:
One doesn’t need to make multiple partitions.
Just make ONE!
With either a APM or GUID.
This works perfectly!
thanks again!
Thanks – helped me out too. Couldn’t get my mac to see my 1TB Fantom drive or reformat it until I used Partition, set it to 1 partition then it made it in a few seconds.
I regret allowing it to set the drive to “All Zeros” last night which took 7 hours just to have an error at the end and doing nothing.
Exact same problem, spent all day trying to fix it. Even zeroed out a whole 1 TB disk right out of the box (took 8 hours, just like guy above). This worked right away, thanks.
fdisk and wipe the default partition on the new drive away, then format via disk utility should do the trick.
Thanks man. Your little post saved me hours of trouble on a brand new Seagate drive.
Exactly the hint I needed. Kudos.
I have tried all of the things everyone above did but I am still getting the Resource Busy error when I try to partition. I have tried partitioning one and two. Both give an error. Any suggestions? It’s a 2TB and I’m on a MacBook Pro running 10.5.2
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!
You saved my day (and night)!
Thanks very much. Has sorted my same problem with a Seagate Barracuda ST31000333AS.
Thanks
Freakin awesome. I hope this stays as the #1 google hit for this error. Easy fix.
I cannot express how awesome you are mate. Spared me a lot of pain and suffering. You are a godsend.
Absolutely brilliant! Thank you!
I have a problem i cant copy files to the external hard drive more than 2 gb why is that? CAN U HELP ME PLEASE?
Awesome. Fixed. Thanks. Was about to cry due to failure of a 12+ hr erase.
thankyou, your advice worked perfectly!
Glad it worked out for you – any know if this is still an issue in Snow Leopard?
Brilliant. I had spent an hour on this problem; the advice here fixed it in under a minute.
Awesome, exact same problem and that work around worked perfectly!