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Format HDD on macbook

Probably the answer is to find someone with a 'proper' PC windows or linux to use gparted to recover your HDD. I don't know of any other tool which can be used.
 
1999gtv said:
Once iso is written mac will not recognise the format so reboot and during boot process press/hold option button choose to boot from usb follow onscreen instructions then follow steptoes advice above and make sure you are formatting correct disk instructions here for boot process https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201255
Click to expand...
i ran gparted and reformatted using ext2. when i restarted computer and loaded hdd it did not recognise the hdd. I then tried it with ext 4 and same issue. Do i have to go through the same process to find one that works and allows me to have full capacity of 3TB?
 
Yes pretty much trial and error as you have found so far. I take it drive does not recognise ntfs format which windows normally uses for large drives. One thing may be worth trying but I haven't used as I dont have a drive as large as yours mine is 2tb. When in gparted and your disk selected click the heading named device then click create partition table, In the window that opens try changing from msdos to gpt followed by clicking on heading named partition and create new fat32 partition. I dont know whether it will work as as I tend to stick with ext4 as my pcs and boxes all run linux and my drive is not over 2tb but I know msdos partitioning is limited in size you can go and using gpt you can get away with more.
 
OK
so what do you mean by not recognising your drive.?
your box,
or your PC.?
your PC , like a windows PC, will be pretty much useless at this, as it cant see most proper filesystems

EDIT : did Gparted recognise it as 3TB and partition/format it as such.?
 
steptoe said:
OK
so what do you mean by not recognising your drive.?
your box,
or your PC.?
your PC , like a windows PC, will be pretty much useless at this, as it cant see most proper filesystems

EDIT : did Gparted recognise it as 3TB and partition/format it as such.?
Click to expand...
Hi Steptoe. Yes when i reformatted using ext2/4 my macbook did not recognise the hdd. What i have done is used gparted and reformatted to ms dos fat32 as i know my blu ray player recognises this format I have created 2 partitions, one is 2.2TB and the other 800gb. It isn't ideal but i am happy enough as it is a way around it and allows me to play my files on blu ray player. I really appreciate all your help and advice and patience lol. Thankyou
 
1999gtv said:
Yes pretty much trial and error as you have found so far. I take it drive does not recognise ntfs format which windows normally uses for large drives. One thing may be worth trying but I haven't used as I dont have a drive as large as yours mine is 2tb. When in gparted and your disk selected click the heading named device then click create partition table, In the window that opens try changing from msdos to gpt followed by clicking on heading named partition and create new fat32 partition. I dont know whether it will work as as I tend to stick with ext4 as my pcs and boxes all run linux and my drive is not over 2tb but I know msdos partitioning is limited in size you can go and using gpt you can get away with more.
Click to expand...
Thanks 199tgv for your help and everyone else that gave advice.
 
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