Can I stop a disk erase in Disk Utility?

I started to erase a 500GB external drive almost an hour ago. I just wanted a simple erase, no security options. I didn't check how those options were set and it must have been set to overwrite (I did use the security options some months ago; probably the last time I formatted a drive). At the rate this is progressing, I'm not sure it's going to be done until some time tomorrow!

In Disk Utility, look for Security Options button under the Erase pane, click it and choose the first radio button from above which says "Don't Erase Data", that's the quick with least security option as it deleted only the entries in the volume's directory leaving the actual data on the storage media but marked to the OS as free so could be over written with activity over time and also most popular Data Recovery software based solutions can easily recover this kind of erased data.

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I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

Otherwise software may be attempted to access the drive. The the computer up in Safe Mode by holding shift when you turn it on. Also be sure to power off and on the hard drive itself.

TS2570 I can not get the disk utility to verify disk permissions.

I can't get the Disk Utility to verify Disk Permissions.

On which Disk? Does the highlighted one have OSX on it?

Can I use the Disk Utility Application to backup bootcamp windows 7?

Can I use the Disk Utility Application to backup Bootcamp that has Windows 7 on it? If I install a new blank drive, I would like to know that using Time Machine I can get the MAC OS back and using the Disk Image Utility I can restore Bootcamp with Windows 7.

NO.
You have to use Windows or a Windows utility.
There are programs that will clone an entire drive (sector) as well.
DU does not though. Paragon does support Boot Camp.

Can I just close disk utility without risking data loss or drive problems?

I am using disk utility's restore to clone a hard drive to an external drive but it is taking forever (telling me 3 days) and the cancel button won't work. Can I just close disk utility without risking data loss or drive problems? Force quit? Anyone have experience with this?
- George

I spoke with a tech advisor through applecare. Theoretically the source drive should not be damaged if you quit the disk utility application while cloning your drive. More obviously, the destination volume will be unreadable and require a re-format, but in general no major damage will occur. I have quit the disk utility and restrarted, the source drive works as expected, while the desitination shows, "unreadable"
Hope this helps anyone else with a similar question.
- George

External Hard Disc won't mount - Partition Map error. Can't repair with Disk Utility

Happy New Year all and thanks in advance for any support/advise.
I have some important data on an external drive that does not seem to want to mount. The drive is a 500 GB Seagate connected via USB. I am currently on an iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running Yosemity 10.10.1
What I've tried:
Multiple computers - connected the drive to various apple computers with the same result.
New enclosure: I have removed the actual HD from the enclosure and connected it using a new one.
Disk Utility: Verifying Disc reports the following error: 'Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found.' Screenshot below:
I have searched this and other forums and run a few commands in Terminal that seem relevant to the issue, but am out of my depth in terms of interpreting the results. Thank again for your attention!!!
Commands run in Terminal:
diskutil list
diskutil cs list
mount
diskutil info disk1
Full Results pasted below:
diskutil list...
Ethan-Smiths-iMac:~ Ethan$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk1s1
diskutil cs list...
Ethan-Smiths-iMac:~ Ethan$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
mount...
Ethan-Smiths-iMac:~ Ethan$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
diskutil info disk1...
Ethan-Smiths-iMac:~ Ethan$ diskutil info disk1
   Device Identifier:        disk1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk1
   Part of Whole:            disk1
   Device / Media Name:      ST950032 5AS Media
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)
   File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               500.1 GB (500107862016 Bytes) (exactly 976773168 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported

Select the disk1s1 volume under the main drive entry, then click on the Mount icon in the Disk Utility toolbar if it goes active and see if a volume then mounts on your Desktop. If it does not, then you need to reformat the drive. And, you cannot access the volume in order to copy your data somewhere else. If you are willing to spend money on the problem, then you can always try using a software recovery utility:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as MAC Data Recovery, Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Can't restore from Disk Utility while booted from OS installation DVD

I'm absolutely astounded by this.
I have a new MacBook Pro 17". I restored my files to it and in short order, had it too full/fragmented to re-partition it for Boot Camp.
So I decided to image the disk and store that image file on a FireWire drive, wipe the system disk and restore it cleanly from the image file backup, hoping that would result in contiguous blocks used so that I could then re-partition for Boot Camp.
When booted off the OS X for Intel DVD-ROM disc (10.4.6 - the one that came with my MacBook Pro), if I get out of Installer and into Disk Utility, if I select the internal hard drive and click the Restore tab, I can easily select the hard drive backup image with the button. But the "Destination Disk:" box is only accessible via dragging the disk to the box.
There's one little problem - there is no Desktop, so the disk(s) do not appear on the Desktop. There is no way to drag the target disk to be restored to into the Destination Disk: box. You cannot drag a disk out from the little sidebar inside the Disk Utility window over to the Destination box. I tried. You can't drag any disk anywhere from that sidebar. It's clear that the only way to drag a disk anywhere is if it's shown on the Desktop in Finder (which isn't running when the installation DVD-ROM is booted from). There is simply no way that I can find to restore a disk drive from a saved backup disk image when booted from the installation DVD-ROM.
Please tell me I'm ******** and missing something, or if there's a Better Way to do this. (I can't seem to run Retrospect while booted off the DVD-ROM, so I can't restore from my Retrospect full backup of the disk, either. Joy!)
(I'm really curious if there's a Better Way - especially because it appears I can't boot from an external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive, so I need something that will work in this extremely limited installation DVD-ROM booted environment, I think.)
MacBook Pro 17" dual 2.16 GHz ; Mac OS X (10.4.6) Booted from Mac OS X for Intel 10.4.6 installation DVD-ROM

You can use an external bootable drive with a MacBook Pro -- check your manual or the built in help. Your problem is that for some reason, you can't install a bootable system on one. There are several reasons why Installer won't enable you to do so: insufficient space, incompatible partition scheme (should be GUID) or file system (should be HFS+ or similar), or wrong installation option selected.
It is possible this is related to why you can't drag the startup volume to the destination box in Disk Utility. It must be an HFS+ variant file system.
I think you should check carefully with D.U. the partition scheme of all your drives & the file system format of all the volumes involved. Also run repair disk, as someone has already pointed out.
The behavior with the Restore function is not normal -- you should be able to drag a volume to the destination box from the list.

Can't partition with disk utility. Options greyed out

Hi,
Bought a used 4 TB Seagate drive, formatted it , checked the speed 150 MB/s read/write and made a partition. Apparently it worked perfect.
However after this first partition the drive is behaving erratically. I can not modify partitions anymore nor delete them. Repair disk is not finding any problem either from the system or from the recovery partition.
I am starting to believe the disk is damaged. Beside the partition problem the disk is behaving fine. Anyone please?

Thanks. I already did. The disk whose partitions I can not modify is blank. It is the 3rd disk in the Mac pro. I formatted and created 2 partitions. But then I can not create more partitions nor delete them. I tried from the Recovery volume with the same result. Partition options remain greyed out.
Beside that, if you look at the pictures, CCC 4TB and CCC 4TB2 are the same physical drive but seem to be different in disk utility. Is this disk damaged?

Why can't I select Disk Utility when I start in recovery mode?

Disk utility varification of HD detects requirement for repair and directs recovery mode startup. When I startup in recovery mode I cannot select Disk Utility or any of the other options. Likewise, I cannot select File, Edit, or any other options across the top of the screen? Any ideas?

The menu comes up, but I can't select any of the options or the continue button. I can move the arrow by moving my finger on the touch pad, but nothing is touch sensitive.
The menu box has a blue line around the inside of it when it comes up, as though it has been selected. I'm not at means anything.

Can't Archive with Disk Utility

I want to create a .dmg of my hard drive with Disk Utility before installing 10.5. I have tried to select the device, the volume and individual folders on the drive and Disk utility won't create a .dmg of them to the same drive, a DVD or external drives. It reports an error : resource in use.
The same is true if I boot from the 10.5 install disk and try to install with archiving from the 10.5 install DVD. How can I back up my files before installing 10.5?

I have never done it but it's possible that you have to create the .dmg using the startup disk?
You are trying to archive a running system - that may be the problem
Reboot with the Tiger disk (not Leopard) and use the DU on that disk.
See if that works.

Hard drive issue, can not boot past disk utility

I got off work this morning and was wanting to do a clean install of osx10.10, unfortunately I did something bad, with my lack of sleep. I think I canceled the operation when I clicked cancel during the reinstall of OS X. Now I can not boot past the disk utility screen. There is also no sub menu under my listed hard drive "Macintosh HD." Is there a way I can fix this?
It's a brand new MBP, 15inch retina. I had it for only a week and I am at work right now. So if there is anything I can do from here that would be great!!
I also tried to reinstall OS X from the disk utility and when it asked to select disk to install OS X my only option was the recovery HD

Ok, I will try that. I still have my old MBP that I am supposed to be trading in. Good thing i haven't mailed it off yet.
I just reset the SMC and Pram and tried to boot in recovery. Once it downloaded everything online and i went to install OS X, it asked me to select and disk where i want to install. Well, there wasnt a disk listed at all...
So, now I will try to create a USB installer when i get home from work and try that out. I will keep you posted
Thanks,
Keith

Can't partition in Disk Utility :(

I need help...
I just installed rEFIt as my boot assistant cuz i havent made the step to leopard yet so im trying to use an alternate program as boot camp is no longer supported. I popped in my windows xp home disk and run the setup all the way to partioning and my partitions are:
Partition 1: 75037 MB
Empty space: 200 MB
and i cant make the space bigger and cant cut the Partition 1 at all and am completely lost i just wanna install my nice copy of windows :/ ah..I went into disk utility and tried to partition my drive and i cant choose anything, as its all grayed out....wats going on?
Thank you

You have to have a completely different second boot hard drive (either internal or in an enclosure (usually firewire)), or use a startup disk to boot from. Then while you're booted from that you work on the drive you want to partition. Install the stuff you want, then select the first hard drive as your startup drive and reboot. It's the "can't pull yourself up by your bootlaces" principle.

I cannot see my new WD My Passport for Mac hardrive in finder, it has USB 3, compatible withUSB 2. I can see it in disk utility

My new WD My Passport for mac,1 Tb harddrive in finder. it's there initially then disapears, I can see it in disk utilities and in the systrm report, so I think it is moounting, but difficult to access and to ejet when not visible in the finder sidebar. This has a USB 3 connection, whic i states is also compatible with USB 2

Check the format of the drive when in disk utility. It should be
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
A powererd external usb hub can help when the computer's usb port is marginal.

Mac stuck on apple logo, can't boot to disk utility...

iMac 2010 running Yosemite.
Stuck on apple logo with loading wheel but does not progress from here. Have booted in single user mode and proceeded to do the /sbin/fsck -fy steps until the volume was reported as okay, this did little to help. I can boot using the option key and can see the hard-drive and recovery partition are there however cannot boot using command+R to access the disk utility as it simply stays on the apple logo.
Was wondering if anyone could advise what to do from here.
Thanks in advance.

Have you tried safe mode?

'Disk not recognised', can't repair in disk utility.

I have a Portable Hardrive im using for work and backup. It's relatively new, with one of those dual usb chords.
After using timemachine yesterday, I plugged it in today to find that not only could i not get to my files, but the repair button is disk utility was also unavailable. I tried Data Rescue, with no luck.
Any ideas? All i need off the disk is one 70mb folder.
Thanks.

Since Disk Utility still detects the drive, you could try using dd (➚) via Terminal and attempt to clone the volume. You should do this step before trying to do other recovery/diagnostic options; anytime you spin up a drive that may have hardware problems, you increase the chances that you're exacerbating the issue. This method obviously requires that you have enough free space on another volume to accommodate the size of the clone.

Can I stop a disk erase in Disk Utility?

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