USB drive still erasing/formatting after 30 hours

[MrMister111]

I had a USB 4Tb that I had formatted as journaled (encrypted) and partitioned into two partitions of 2Tb each.

I changed idea and so wanted to have this as one 4Tb journaled (encrypted) to use for Time Machine.

So using disk utility, I deleted one partition, did an erase and format to same type. However it’s been running the erase for 30+ hours now, surely this isn’t right?

How long will it take? Is this normal? Should I force eject it and format on a windows machine first or something?

Thanks

 

[Ifti]

Which erase option did you select?

 

[MrMister111]

Which erase option did you select?

Didn’t tick security options think if that’s what mean? I know you can do a secure erase.

It did have Time Machine backups on it, with encrypted, but surely shouldn’t take this long?

I’m giving it until tonight then surely something is wrong? I was expecting it to take 5 mins?

 

[Ifti]

If none of the security options were chosen then it should be done within a minute or two!

 

[MrMister111]

If none of the security options were chosen then it should be done within a minute or two!

That’s what I would have expected. I’m going to force quit then and try again I’ll try a different format first.

 

[MrMister111]

Well left another 12 hours and still busy....

I force quit it and shut down iMac. Will have to get back to it. I may try format it in Windows first.

I want it in a Time Machine compatible format, and encrypted eventually.

 

[jpn]

do this:
1 stop all activity trying to format or encrypt. just pull it out if you have to.
2 do it all again from the start only this time, with nothing on the drive at all, select it for Time Machine and at that time choose encryption.
this way the process takes seconds, and not hours/days.


i assume you are using a mac for all this...
if you want you can also simply erase it using Disk Utility in a few seconds, then do the above.
it doesn't matter what format you choose, as Time Machine will reformat it anyway.

 

[MrMister111]

Tried twice with disk utility on a Mac and same, strangely.

Only other factor is it was 2 partitions of 2Tb each previously.

Not sure why I decided to leave it that long tbh, just thought maybe as encrypted.

I had another post about Time Machine and encryption though, and was quicker to encrypt the drive before the first time Machine backup as after would take ages.

 

[MrMister111]

Thanks I’ll try it this way then. Just want to make sure that I’ve got rid of both partitions as want it all as Time Machine drive now, in case something has got mixed up

 

[MrMister111]

Had to force stop, and do a few other tries and eventually worked. Shouldn’t hand left it hoping for that length of times really.

Anyway, 1 partition more and Time Machine has backed up.

Thanks all