Format WD Elements Drive for Mac

Solved
MarieMacLife -  
 MarieMacLife -
Hello,
I'm desperate; after reading tons of advice, I can't format my new hard drive to use on my Mac: it's a 1TB WD Elements model, and my Mac is currently running OS X El Capitan (10.11.6). When I try to partition it, I get the following error message:

Executing operation 1 of 5...
Unmounting the disk
Mediakit reports that there is not enough space on the device for the required operation
The operation failed...

Thank you for your help...

Marie

Configuration: Macintosh / Safari 11.1.2

2 answers

_Ritchi_ Posted messages 21152 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   6 134
 
Hello,

To format a disk for a Mac, you need to do the following:
1- Open "Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility"

2- Select the hard drive by clicking on the first icon, which indicates the size of the disk (if you’re unsure, take a photo or a screenshot and share it in this discussion - see the end of my message)

3- Choose the "Partition" tab

Here’s the important step:
4- Select "One Partition" (or two or more) for the "Volume Configuration" field. If you leave this field as "Current," all other fields will remain grayed out, preventing you from completing the formatting.
5- Give a name to your future hard drive ("MacIntosh HD" for example)
6- Choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for the "Format" field
7- Click on "Options" and choose:
  • "GUID" for an Intel Mac
  • "Apple Partition Map" for a PowerPC Mac


8- Start the formatting process by clicking on "Apply"

If you encounter a problem during these 8 steps, let us know which one you encounter

In case you need help with:
- Taking a screenshot on Mac

- How to insert an image into a discussion

Note: Select the interesting part and not the entire screen, otherwise the image will be too large and the text will be unreadable.

Ritchi
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dede74000 Posted messages 26996 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   5 370
 
Good evening Ritchi,

I deleted my message, which was similar to yours but I was asking which Mac it was and if it was a laptop, to specify whether it was self-powered or only powered by USB, you know the rest ;-)
0
MarieMacLife
 
Thank you very much Ritchi!
It worked wonderfully! I think I must have made a mistake right from the start because it was indicating that the hard drive was full (?) by following your steps I was able to format without any problems... thanks again!
Marie
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