Blank new 2TB HDD - Why is 852mb used? Erasing does not free this 852mb, 74 files stuck on HDD

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi All,



Learning new stuff tonight.

Blank new 2TB HDD - Why is 852mb used?

I originally assumed that the 852mb was Western Digital software, which researching on the internet is a straight "get rid off" erase whole new HDD, ready for Time Machine only.


Erasing did not free up this 852mb. See details below - there are 74 files, which I presumed was using up the 852Mb space.

852Mb seems alot in my mind, but I suppose it is 0.4% of total 2TB on the new HDD.

Is this just Mb that is unusable for a 2TB drive?


Hope you can advise.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

A thought.

Are these files the "Journals" - for transaction logging for roll backs etc?!

 

[Longkeg]

Those are things that tell the drive to be a GUID, Mac OS Journaled drive. Think of it as the Drive’s OS. I think you’ll find any freshly erased drive will have some space taken up with these mystery files. Completely normal. The bigger the drive, the more lines of code are required to make everything play nice.

Regarding formats... this for your files Señor McFly:

The Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT

The three Mac file systems - APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT - have slight differences that you will learn throughout this article.

recoverit.wondershare.com

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Mr L to the rescue again!


Hi Longkeg,

Thanks for the sanity check and the reference there, much appreciated!
I was a bit concerned about mysterious phantom files being on blank HDDs etc.


Best wishes

Martin

 

[IowaLynn]

Those are things that tell the drive to be a GUID, Mac OS Journaled drive. Think of it as the Drive’s OS. I think you’ll find any freshly erased drive will have some space taken up with these mystery files. Completely normal. The bigger the drive, the more lines of code are required to make everything play nice.

Regarding formats... this for your files Señor McFly:

The Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT

The three Mac file systems - APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT - have slight differences that you will learn throughout this article.

recoverit.wondershare.com

that is the worst page ive seen in a long time for pushing ads and chat bubbles, which AdGuard misses.

 

[Quackers]

Just the act of formatting the drive takes up some space.

 

[IowaLynn]

There is that GPT partition. It isn't nothing. There traditionally reserved spare sectors. And SSDs have even more spare cells.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

There is that GPT partition. It isn't nothing. There traditionally reserved spare sectors. And SSDs have even more spare cells.

oooohhhh my head hurts! 😆

I'm getting there... I'm getting there... I'm getting there... I'm getting there...

..If I keep telling myself that! 😀

 

[Fishrrman]

Did the drive come with any "proprietary" pre-installed software from WD?
Such as encryption, etc.?

You may need to go to WD's tech support site, and download a utilities app they provide for their drives.

IF there is proprietary software on the drive, or a "locked partition" that disk utility can't erase, the WD utility software should be able to remove such things.

Once that's done, you should be able to completely erase the drive.

But... as others have mentioned... even an "empty" drive has a fair-sized "chunk" of space reserved for internal needs...

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Did the drive come with any "proprietary" pre-installed software from WD?
Such as encryption, etc.?

You may need to go to WD's tech support site, and download a utilities app they provide for their drives.

IF there is proprietary software on the drive, or a "locked partition" that disk utility can't erase, the WD utility software should be able to remove such things.

Once that's done, you should be able to completely erase the drive.

But... as others have mentioned... even an "empty" drive has a fair-sized "chunk" of space reserved for internal needs...

Hi Mr F,


There was a *.DMG file there for macs

On you Tube, and the internet, it was a straight case of ignore and reformat the whole drive.

ah, perhaps I should have asked on MR 1st before doing anything!

No time to do any more playing around with it until the weekend now.



Regards
Martin