Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!newsreader4.netcologne.de!news.netcologne.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Tom Stiller Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: What app formats a hard disk? Date: 9 Mar 2014 23:10:54 GMT Organization: Old Men With Beards Lines: 29 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: clusterfux X-Trace: individual.net J2SchLXHLOSSLNC0SeDTsAk3xePV+18CoxK2qpb/o8G1fFdp35 Cancel-Lock: sha1:n9ipFuXOApriBp4iLteh2mZzBvo= User-Agent: slrn/1.0.1 (Darwin) Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.apps:21435 On 2014-03-09, Brian Gordon wrote: > In article , > Alan Browne wrote: >>On 2014.03.09, 15:12 , Brian Gordon wrote: >>> A few years ago I bought an external disk for backups. It came formatted for >>> a PC, and gave me great pain until I reformatted it as a Mac f/s disk, after >>> which all went well. >>> >>> That disk is dying, and I have ordered another one. I'm pretty sure I will >>> have to format that, too -- but I can't find a utility that does it :-( I'm >>> pretty sure I used Disk Doctor, DiskTool Pro, or DiskWarrier before, but none >>> of them seem to have that option now. Neither man or apropos seem to offer >>> help either. >>> >>> What do I need? >> >>Disk Utility from your Applications folder. (Spotlight "Disk utility" >>will find and run it.) Select the disk, erase, and select the format. >> [...] > > So "format" is a byproduct of "erase." Not seeing the word "format as a > command option had thrown me. Thanks to all who took the time to make the > suggestion. Modern disk drives cannot be "formatted" in the old sense. They are factory and permanetly formatted into 512 byte blocks. The "Erase" function of Disk Utility writes an new, empty filesystem of the type specified to the device or partition.