NVME fail to mount after Time Machine filled the drive.

[aylward-drm]

I have a NVME 1TB drive inside an enclosure and connected via USB on my MAC Pro 6.1 running Big Sur.
I used this drive to save Time Machine data.
I have a 1TB drive that was being backed up in my Mac Pro.

After a couple weeks, An error showed saying the drive was improperly disconnected and no longer available.
Ever since, the drive will not mount or be recognized. It was formatted in APFS.

How do I format the drive to use it again for another purpose?

 

[Fishrrman]

The following assumes you don't need to save anything on the problem drive.

Things I would try:

- Try using disk utility to erase it a WINDOWS format (instead of a Mac format).
Example: try exFAT.
Does that work?
If the drive WILL erase to exFAT, do so.
Then... try to "erase it back" to a Mac format (HFS+ or APFS).

- Take it to another Mac and try to erase it there.

- Take it to a WINDOWS computer, and try to erase it there.
If it DOES erase, then TAKE IT BACK to the Mac and try to erase it once more to a Mac format...

If none of this works,
- Try a different connecting cable
- Try a different enclosure
- Try a different DRIVE.

 

[Hombre53]

Whenever I need to repartition a HD or SSD, I always partition to exFAT first, then to HFS+ or APFS. Ensures a clean partition, especially APFS.

 

[aylward-drm]

Well, TIME MACHINE is a piece of crap. I went to windows and forced it to reformat. Why does MAC brick my SSD stupid.

 

[aylward-drm]

ake it to a WINDOWS computer, and try to erase it there.

yeah... time machine is supposed to erase old stuff when it's full... piece of crap software... I started using BackBlaze

 

[aylward-drm]

The following assumes you don't need to save anything on the problem drive.

Things I would try:

- Try using disk utility to erase it a WINDOWS format (instead of a Mac format).
Example: try exFAT.
Does that work?
If the drive WILL erase to exFAT, do so.
Then... try to "erase it back" to a Mac format (HFS+ or APFS).

- Take it to another Mac and try to erase it there.

- Take it to a WINDOWS computer, and try to erase it there.
If it DOES erase, then TAKE IT BACK to the Mac and try to erase it once more to a Mac format...

If none of this works,
- Try a different connecting cable
- Try a different enclosure
- Try a different DRIVE.

Thanks