Disk Utility can't format new HDD

So I just got a new 4TB drive (WD4003FZEX 4TB 7200 RPM) for my Mac Pro that I'd like to partition... one volume for Time Machine on the boot drive, the other volume for back-up for the two other drives I have in there. I just installed it and initialized the HDD, formatted to Mac OS Extended, but since that finished, I now have two problems:
1.) Disk Utility cannot/will not format the drive (the HDD itself, not the volume). It's not that the Erase option is greyed out or not working, it isn't even there. When I select the disk, it only has two options... First Aid and Partition.
2.) Partition only works partially. I can add a partition, but the Name, Format, and Size fields are all greyed out, so I can't rename the volume or adjust it's size.
What am I missing here?

Never mind. Found this thread, did what it said, and it all works fine now.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5039921

Similar Messages

Disk Utility can't format !

Hello,
Since Leopard, Disk Utility can't format external HD (or USB key or anything else). There is an error and the HD can't mount anymore.
If I use a Mac under Tiger, there is no problem to format ans the HD is usable under 10.5.x.
This problem isn't fix in 10.5.0, 10.5.1 or 10.5.2.
I tested with my iMac and my MacBookPro. Same problem.
Anyone got an idea ?
Thanks

To dechamp :
HD is connected with a FW hub. maybe it is the problem :/
I will retry when it's connected directly.
I have 4 FW external HD and only 1 FW 400 on the iMac ... so the HUB is really important
But to format, I can plug directly, or via USB
Time Machine is ON, but not working on this HD
I'll continue my tests
Thanks !

Disk Utility Can't Format Drive

My Dad just bought a brand new 1TB Fantom external hard drive for his iMac. But Disk Utility cant erase or format the drive as a Mac format volume. I keep getting this error:
Volume Erase failed
Volume Erase failed with the error:
The underlying task reported failure on exit.
SOMEHOW I did get it to change from a MS-DOS format to a Mac OS X (Journaled) but I still keep getting errors when I try to Verify or Erase the drive!
Got this error when I tried to Verify the drive: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
And when I go to format the drive I get this wheel and the spinning blue candy-cane bar, and the operation never completes:
"......partition size not a multiple of 4K"
When I goto the company web site I get this error message:
http://www.fantomdrives.com/
ACCESS FORBIDDEN
Access denied. Please click on the back button to return to the former page.
Anyone know why Disk Utility cannot erase or even verify this drive???
Never had so much trouble formating a drive in my life...
Jeff

The underlying task reported failure on exit.
The above is not a good sign. And yes it's very odd that TM Utility was able to get the job done but not Disk Utility (since they address formatting drives in a very similar way). When you look at the drive in Disk Utility, is it reporting good S.M.A.R.T. status? Before seeing your post about using TM to fix the issue, I was going to suggest trying to erase and/or format the drive using a 2nd computer to see the results. I would run tests with DU on the drive and any other drive utility programs you may have (Techtools Pro perhaps) to see what the results are.

Disk Utility can't format my external HD - File System Formatter fails

Hi. I have a Freecom 1.5TB external hardrive that is connected by firewire to my Intel iMac. The drive has worked fine for a year and then suddenly the "error 36 code" appeared and nothing else could be saved to the drive.
Disk Utility told me that it could not repair the disk and that I should format it. At this stage the problems start!
DU fails to format the drive with the error "File System Formatter Failed."
I have read various conversations on this error on these forums and followed the instructions but nothing has worked. I have already
1) Partioned the disk making sure it is "GUID" - then formatted and it still fails
2) Used MS DOS to do it but that also fails.
I have noticed that the SMART status is "not recognised".
Is there anything else that I can do or am I just doing this wrong? I am thinking that I might be able to do something using the start-up disks but I don't know how to do that and don't want to jepardise my iMac whichis otherwise working fine!
Any help appreciated.
Rob

I went crazy last night with the same issue trying to format my Toshiba external drive. I could format as MSDOS but not Mac journaled. I tried the guid partition scheme etc... no luck. Then I read somewhere that Leopard has an issue with the partitioning schemes. I hooked it up to my macbook on Tiger and whalla, formatted no problem. Then I was able to hook it up to Time Machine and let it reformat it on my Snow Leopard version of OSX on the iMac. I'm on OSX 10.6.8.

Disk Utility Can't format my USB drive

I've got a Transcend 8GB usb drive and i want to erase everything on it but i can't. I know that the best way to do this is the Disk Utility (Because Finder can't erase them too. When I drag and drop to the bin, it says "43 files cannot be deleted")
When i attempt to format, this message appears from disk utility:
What does this mean?
and also, another message appears at the same time.
What does this mean?
I just wanted to format my disk. But i can still see the content in the disk. But can't copy them to desktop.
Please help me!

Happens with corrupt drives may be due to partition table failure. may be a similar post can help you POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory

Can't format external HDD using terminal: Error: -69877: Couldn't open device

Disk Utility won't format / erase Seagate Barracuda 2TB (ST2000DM001) - it is an internal drive but I connected it using a docking station via USB. The disk is brand new and unformatted. System indicates that it is S.M.A.R.T incompatible
When trying to erase the disk, I get error message "disk / link could not be found / opened".
I tried using terminal "diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ newdisk /dev/disk3" but I get this message:
Started erase on disk3
Unmounting disk
Error: -69877: Couldn't open device
Any way I could force format the disk?

Thank you @MrHofman. I had a setup with 2 dock stations and 2 HDDs (my TimeCapsule had crashed and I needed to recover its content disassembling the "box"). I disconnected everything. I restarted the computer., I swithched the USB ports in which I had connected the dock stations; I swithched the HDDs from dock stations, and voilà, the system allowed me to format the "recovery" HDD. Sometimes the "simplest" solutions work...
@Linc Davis: prior to the fix described above, when trying to partition, same thing would occur : "can't open link / disk" error message. But now it seems to be working fine. Thank you anyway!

Disk Utility can't repair permissions

For the first time I neglected to repair permissions before security upgrade and now I find I can no longer repair permissions. Everything goes as normal until about 75% done and then it just freezes. I have tried running it from the install CD but it does the same. I used the disk repair and got this error message;
ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit (~9972)
1 Volume could not be repaired.
Computer otherwise OK. AHT reported all OK.
Is this the start of an HD failure or some querky software malfunction? Help needed!
G4 867 MDD Mac OS X (10.3.9) Extra 120Gb HD, 1.75Gb SDRAM LG 4163B Superdrive

If my HD has developed a bad sector then surely a clone will not work?
My best guess is that the cloning would fail when it tried to access the data that's referenced in the bad directory node. I've had similar problems when trying to copy files when there were directory problems. You may not have a bad sector per se, but certainly the directory record is damaged in such a way that Disk Utility can't reconstruct the record.
If I moved all my APPS folder to another HD and then did a Zero and format on this one could I then still use the APPS folder with a new install by repairing permissions?
You have to remember that apps store files in other locations - particularly in the /Library, /System/Library/ and /Users/username/Library directories. While you can copy the Applications directory to another drive, you're liable to miss supporting files the apps are going to look for. Since there's no real way to determine what the damaged directory is referencing, you'd be chancing something's going to get missed and leave you with apps that won't run. The only way I've ever been able to find what directory erorrs were pointing to was to copy files to another drive one chunk at a time until I found the offending directory and then narrow down the search by copying files individually. Given the nature of OS X to store files in directories that are otherwise hidden from the user, this can be a complicated and tedious process.
Since Disk Utility running from the install disk can't repair the damaged directoy record, I'd go to the Disk Warrior repair strategy next.
-Douggo

Disk utility can't repair but can't access the HD to back-up files?

I'm relatively new to MACs and have a 2TB Seagate with a good portion of our family pics on it. I opened the Disk Utility and attempted to repair the HD but get the message:
"Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Here's where I'm stumped...I can't actually access the disk to back it up. At one point I was able to open the disk and see the files so I went and bought another HD to back it all up....but now I can't access it. I've found a few threads discussing using recovery software but the data isn't that important. I was using the HD as my Time Machine BU so I'm more nervous about re-formatting it and trusting it with my data again. Should I bother even reformatting it or just toss the thing?

You might try a force mount...
Launch/Utilities/Terminal and enter this command at the prompt
diskutil list
Press return. If it sees the disk, note the number of the disk (far left column) you want to mount.
Then, enter this command
mount /dev/(number of disk)
Put in the number no parenthesis.
Press return.
If you're able to mount copy off the data you need. Even if you can mount it, wouldn't I trust the disk again.
Try Drive Genius in demo mode to run a surface scan and see if there are any bad blocks.

MB pro shuts off after bootup chime, hd damaged/volumeheader related - disk utility can't repair - how do i recover/backup my files??

Hi guys,
My macbook pro late(dec) 2011, doesn't boot up anymore, it just turns off after the chime (whilst a gray bar is loading a bit and then the MB shuts off)...
This all happened after I upgraded to mavericks, safari and chrome were spontaneously shutting off, my macbook kept restarting (all after recommended app store updates), it had kernel panics etc. Last night after an update it just wouldn't boot up anymore! Pff.. what should i do?
Disk utility can't repair the damaged HD, it had something to do with volume headers..
I basically want to access my macbook's files and documents so that i can transfer them onto an external hd or back them up.. i just want my files afterwards i can reformat or whatever as long as i get the files and contents of my hd back..
Ive read of diskwarrior? Can i burn that on a dvd and insert it into my mac, then start my mac and then it allows me to drag and drop all the contents of my hd onto an external hd?
I need a genius to help me!! A step by step guide would really mean the world to me!!
Thanks in advance mysterious genius!!!

Step 4(a) open Disk Utility from Utilities on the menu bar, then proceed to highlight the external drive in the left sidebar as you say and choosing Partition from the row of buttons that appear top center in the main window of DU.
5(a) click Restore on the bar of buttons top center of the main DU window, then what you say. But use the name you have given the external drive in step 4, Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) is the way it has been formatted, use a name such as Backup or something obvious to you.
Step 7, On the menu bar, click File, then New Finder Window. In the left sidebar you will see Devices and the internal and external drives will be listed. Click the name of the external drive and then in the main part of the window you should see the contents of the external drive. You can click on the folder for Users, then your user name, and see what folders appear...make sure the folders such as Documents, Pictures and whatever else you use appear and have the content you expect to be there.
You want to be sure all the content has been copied over since the step of erasing the internal drive is going to permanently remove it from that drive.
And then after step 8, add step 9, from Utilities on the menu bar, choose Install Mac OS X, and if it asks where to install, choose the internal, Macintosh HD, as where to install.

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely." What do I do now? This is an iMac and I'm running 10.6.8.

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it. See below for how to clone a drive.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
You may be able to backup your data if you have an erased external drive you can use. Before you do the above but after you have opened Disk Utility you can try to clone your drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Now this will only work if the drive is accessible and can be cloned by Disk Utility. Otherwise, you would need to access your drive from another Mac that you can connect via Firewire - Target Disk Mode.

TS1901 Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
*** ??? I need to take out the data from a WD320 that shows this error and then format the WD and put the data into again
THANKS !!!

I'm sorry, is there a question here? You seem to know precisely what you need to do…

Error disk utility can't repair this disk...disk and restore your backed-up files

I have been working on a project using an external hard disk. I used my Macbook Pro (2010) to create this project and files (about 31 GB). Now I am trying to open the disk on my iMac (2014) and it doesn't show up. I can see the HDD when I use disk utility but get this message when I try to repair/restore the disc:
"error disk utility can't repair this disk...disk and restore your backed-up files"
The funny thing is that the disk works absolutely fine with my Macbook Pro. What am I missing?
Imac :OSX 10.9.4 , 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 Gb Ram.

Nico,
Did you find a way?
This just happened to me too.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5981446
-John

Can I fix a disk with this message?-Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Can I fix a disk with this message?
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Some problems can indeed be fixed this way. But working from Recovery_HD or Disk Warrior DVDs and working in the restricted environment those provide can be difficult. You can literally spend days working on this problem (while your regular work is unavailable) only to discover the old drive is unsalvageable.
There is no way to know up front whether you are facing a major Hardware failure or a minor software glitch, or something in between. Often you are forced to work from the drive you no longer trust. I continue to recommend you do this work from a different, fully functioning Mac OS X booted from a different drive.
If you have had the foresight to (as The hatter often recommends) clone your virgin install onto another drive for use in such situations, you will be able to recover from such problems in record time. If not, my previous recommendations stands:
Buy a new Drive. Or two. Install Mac OS X from scratch on a new drive, and get your Mac running again. Later, you can use the full power of Mac OS X to attempt to rescue your data, if needed. Then Zero the old drive, to see if it can hold data again reliably.
If the old drive eventually provides some needed data, and is salvageable, Merry Christmas.

"Disk Utility can't repair this disk...and restore the backed up files"

Hello, my macbook crashed a few days a go as well and after going to the recovery drive and OX Utilities tried to verify and repair disk it gives me this error "Disk Utility can't repair this disk...and restore the backed up files" is the second time that occurs after replacing the hard drive for a new SSD, i thought my problem was solved and is not. Any Ideas? the only other thing i can think of is the logic board?

Backup your files and arrange for an appointment at an Apple store genius bar for a free evaluation.
Ciao.

Disk Utility can't repair TM backup disk

Hello all
Recently, my external backup disk (a 750 GB WD My Passport) that I use with Time Machine has been acting up. At first, it wouldn't show up on the desktop, but was being recognized in Disk Utility (with the "Time Machine Backup" partition greyed out). After multiple restarts and unplugging/replugging the hard drive, I finally got to be properly recognized, i.e. it showed up on the desktop with the proper Time Machine hard drive icon. So I thought the problem was gone and started a routine backup. However, Time Machine returned an error:
"Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder."
I search the forums, and followed the advice here: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/C10.html
I tried repairing the disk, but DU couldn't repair it:
Verify and Repair volume “Time Machine Backups”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Incorrect number of thread records
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 3991498 instead of 3904049)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 678218 instead of 673790)
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 9588404 instead of 11784378)
Volume header needs minor repair
The volume Time Machine Backups was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
So now I'm still following the advice on the above mentioned page by posting on here. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. I am using a 2010 15in 2.66 i7 MBP, if that makes a difference, although my guess is the problem's with the harddrive itself. I think there may have been one time about a month ago when Time Machine stopped responding (or something like that) which forced me to pull out the harddrive, possibly corrupting the data. But I'm not sure, and I do recall making at least one successful backup after that. Well, actually TM confirms this: "Latest successful backup: 5/27/11 at 11:51 PM". So I have no idea what's going on. Again, any help would be appreciated.

You can't tell what's corrupted or where. Time Machine backups have a very complex structure, all linked together. So, you can often do new backups, or restore individual items, or even entire backups, as long as you don't stumble over the damage.
There's a chance a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app, such as Disk Warrior, can repair them. It's about $100, and probably a good investment for the future, but there's no guarantee it can fix them.
If not, or if you don't want to spend the money, your only option is to erase the disk and let Time Machine start fresh.
It sounds like you may have other data on it; if that's in the same partition, that's not a good idea. This is a good time to copy the data off, erase the disk, and make 2 (or more) partitions on it, so Time Machine has its own, exclusive space. See #3 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for details and instructions.

Disk Utility can't format new HDD

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