Can't format internal hard disk

I have installed a Seagate 3 TB drive in an internal slot on my Mac Pro (early 2008), and it looks very strange in Disk Utility.
The other three disks show "Disk Description :" with the model of the disk (Western Digital, etc), and the name of the partition (which is the same as the name of the disk in the Finder).
However this disk shows "Name : <the name that I originally formatted it as>" and "Type : Logical Volume Group" and the options "Erase" "RAID" and "Restore" are missing from Disk Utility.
I have 3 Seagate drives, and 2 of them are showing up this way (the other two are external drives), but one "looks normal."
Any idea what is going on? Should I try to format this disk (maybe with some terminal program?) or just live with the strange settings on it?

1. "Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area". This doesn't appear because the disk is not formatted as GUID. See the image in my original post.
2. "SMART info will not be reported on external drives" SMART info is reported on external drives, at least on my computer. It depends on the kind of card, connection, and case that you are using. With an eSata connection and a modern card and case you can get SMART data from an external disk.
3. "Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button..." I didn't post this image, but there is no such option for a Logical Volume Group.
Kappy, I know you mean well, but you posted a canned response that did not address my question. I note that you actually participated in a similar discussion about this same problem.
I probably should have just deleted the post because it has been answered elsewhere. But I thought that it would have been rude to delete your response.
It turns out (for those who care) that many people attribute this to a bug Apple introduced into Disk Utility way back in system 10.8.5 but it still isn't corrected in 10.9.1. I still haven't figured out whether this is a glitch that I can live with or something I should try to fix. Links from the article above show possible ways to reformat the disk, which you can't do from Disk Utility in 10.9.1.

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[SOLVED] usb install of arch can't find internal hard disks

I installed arch to a 4gb usb flash drive and it works great. Keeping it bare bones for now without a GUI to force myself to learn more about linux and how it works. However, I would like to mount and access the internal hard drives of the "host" computer that i'm booting the usb on, and I can't seem to find them.
ls /dev/disk/by-anything only shows the usb device that arch is installed to and udev and something else I can't remember right now. Same results when I enter df -h.
I know that this is possible somehow, because I also have a live usb of Ubuntu 10.10 on another usb stick that can access the internal disks. However, my ubuntu stick also has a gui, Hal, etc and is a persistent live-disk-to-usb rather than an actual usb stick installation. Does that affect things?
I apologize if this is already covered somewhere. I am a super n00b with arch and I did my best to search both google and the forums.
Thank you in advance, and I look forward to being a part of the arch community!
Last edited by williamkray (2010-11-07 22:53:18)

skunktrader wrote:Perhaps the bios disables the internal disk drive when you boot from USB. Look through the kernel log to see whether the drives are detected during boot.
i've looked through the kernel log, and realize that i've never looked at one before and don't really know what i'm looking for. if i haven't lost your interest yet, here's a pastebin of a recent boot... the PNY is the usb stick that arch is installed to. http://pastebin.com/D7nzkaaq
phaedrus wrote:If you do a "cat /proc/partitions" you can see what partitions the kernel is aware of at any time... if your drive is connected and not throwing a tantrum, it should appear in that list. If it's not showing up in the list, check the cables/connections, if it still doesn't show up... panic
i will do this next. i'm pretty sure that the cables are connected properly, seeing that i can boot the computers in question without the usb stick and have full access to available drives.
thank you everyone for all your responses so far!
EDIT: alright, i looked at /proc/partitions and this is what it says:
major minor #blocks name
8 0 3915776 sda
8 1 3915744 sda1
3 0 39070080 hda
3 1 4883728 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 473886 hda5
3 6 33350877 hda6
so it looks like my internal drive is recognized somehow. my new question would be, what exactly is the difference between /proc/partitions and /dev/disk/ ?? and how do i find out more identifying/location information about hda to mount it into an accessible location in my file system?
Last edited by williamkray (2010-11-07 22:13:29)

Can't repair or partition internal hard disk with disk utility

Hi,
For the past couple months I've been trying to repair and (re)format my second internal hard disk. It stopped showing up on the desktop after I attempted to install leopard on it. Until then I'd had no problems with the disk for the two years I've had it Leopard installed fine on the other smaller internal disk. But the second disk only shows up in disk utilities - it doesn't have any volumes. I can't verity the disk because the button is greyed out as is the repair disk button.
S.M.A.R.T. Status shows "not supported".
Partition Map Scheme shows "unformatted".
Whenever I startup my computer I get a dialog box stating "The disk I have inserted is unreadable by this computer". I't referring to my 250gig internal disk. I read some posts here that suggested using OS 10.4 disk utility to format but that doesn't work either.
At this point I'm totally lost as are all the files I had on that disk - I initially erased it back when I attempted to install leopard on it. Does anybody have any ideas how to fix this?
Thanks for any and all help

Hi V.K.
Thanks for the advice. Luckily I don't have any data on it since I wiped it clean back when I attempted to install leopard on it a couple months ago. I'm really amazed that it only lasted two years compared to my 80gig which has been in use [daily] for at least five years. I hardly ever used the 250gig drive. I ordered another (500gig) drive from Western Digital which I expect to be here in a couple days. In the mean time I guess I'll get out my hammer.
Thanks for your help.

Re: How can I add a second internal hard disk to a Satellite Pro P200?

I have a Satellite Pro P200 with a single internal hard disk. There is a second bay under the computer for another internal hard disk but I have not been able to find any information about it. There is enough space for a 2.5" SATA drive but I cannot see a connector.
I contacted Dutch Toshiba Customer support who said that it was the official policy not to provide any information about a second hard internal disk. They also said that they would not supply any parts to make it possible.
Can anyone provide some more information?

Hello
I have the same notebook with the same situation. The fact is that covers and the construction for all P200 notebooks is the same but notebooks are delivered with different hardware platforms. Some models are delivered with two HDDs.
Other models (like yours and mine) are delivered with one HDD but without possibility for upgrade with second HDD.

How can i download and install lightroom after having formatted the hard disk?

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I have the number of the order.

Lightroom - all versions
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Can I possible to use dual boot(windows 7 in internal hard disk and windows 8 in external hard disk)?

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This is a developers forum for the presentation manager windows forms classes and api's
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Success
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Can't format internal disk

Hi
I have a Mac Mini from late 2012
I have installed a SSD and kept the old disk for data-storage (1 TB).
Both disk was originally formatted to "Mac OS - extended (Journaled)"
I installed the OS X successfully on the SSD - and everything is working fine on that.
BUT I can't access my data disk. I can see the disk - but I'm not allowed to edit or add anything to the disk.
I have tried a lot of stuff:
Taking the disk out of the computer and reformatting it completly with my Macbook Pro... with out any problems can access the disk and edit on it.
BUT as soon as I add it into the Mac Mini and boot up - the OSX sees the disk but won't let me edit/write to the disk.
Gives error -50
I also tried writing to it from terminal as sudo - no luck.
I tried to reformat it in recovery mode ( and tried booting from USB stick)... BUT the system keeps saying that it can't format the data disk because it can't be unmounted...!
MY EXTRA DISK CAN'T BE UNMOUNTED.... ***!? (also tried unmounting from terminal... same errors)
It has no problems deleting the SSD disk....
-I'm using the well-known; OWC Data Doubler to connect my data disk to the secondary position in the Mac Mini
Please help... because I have no idea how to fix this. (Both disk can be wiped as needed - I just want a system with SSD and normal extra disk)...

Thanks for replying.
My SSD is: Corsair SSD Force Series 3, 240GB 2.5"
I didn't know that you could change any firmware on the SSD it self... and Corsairs homepage do note write anything about it.
I tried to switch the two disk around.
Now it only sees the 1TB disk (apple original) and I'm not able to see the SSD (not even in the terminal)
So right now SSD is in the lower...
hmmm... if I had a problem with the cable or controller - would it throw this kind of error?
Next step; I'll try to install the OSX on the 1TB disk - just to see if the SSD will be reconized later.
But still looking for help.

Mac OSX wont reognise my internal hard disk drive

I have a problem where for some reason when I start up my Macbook Pro (intel core duo) it does not detect the internal hard disk drive at all. I have run a hardware test and it shows no problems whatsoever. I have tried resetting the PRAM etc and to no avail. Yesterday the system hung and I tried to force quit and it wouldn't do anything so eventually I held down the power key and when it tried to reboot this is the problem I was faced with (it would boot up with the "no entry" sign). I accepted complete defeat and went to completely re-install OSX however it doesn't even show the internal hard drive when I wait for it to give me install destinations. I had tried seeing the hard drive through disk utility however it only shows the install DVD and that's it in the sidebar. I resigned myself further to thinking either the logic board or the HDD had packed in all and I took it round to my brother in law to see if there is anything he could do without opening the machine (he is Oxford educated and writes programmes etc so is very knowledgable), now this is the part that has miffed us both, he started it up using a Linux disc and once running, Linux see's the hard drive with no problems. He has been able to access the HDD with absolutely no problems under Linux both reading and writing to it. I even took my Mac Mini round and he booted them both up in Linux and completely copied Mac OSX from the mini to the macbook pro but still when I try booting up its as if the HDD isn't even there. Why can Linux see the drive and not Mac OSX? Please don't be affraid to get very technical in your answers as they may mean nothing to me but will probably all make sense to my brother in Law. Any sugestions at all would be greatly accepted.

Dear mcdkev,
You guys may have made a big error cloning the Mini HD into the MBP. They both have very different drivers and hardware settings and their OS X versions are customized to fit the hardware. That is why each mac comes with it's own version of OS X and their backup disks. That's a reason why it did not work.
Ok, so now that you do not have any of the original info on the MBP try the following:
Use linux to scan the disk surface & repair any problems.
Reformat the drive as DOS or FAT 32. (I wouldn't go into any linux specific format unless you can "Apple" format it, which I don't think linux has that option.)
Now, the MBP should be able to see it's drive...
boot from the OS X DVD , from the Utilities menu choose Disk Utilities, partition the drive as GUI file system (in case the linux format made the drive a "system boot record", you do not want that... )
Then format the drive as "OS X Extended Journaled"
Now go back to install and install your original basic set of OS X (the factory default).
*If nothing works, please do take your MBP to the Apple store or to a certified tech before you do more damage to the drive and it becomes unusable ...*

Dual G5 hangs while booting from internal hard-disk

Hi,
When I switched my Dual G5 (2x2.5GHz around 15 months old, 1.5GB ram, 160GB hard disk, OS 10.4.6) on yesterday, it wouldn't boot from the internal hard disk. The spinning "wheel" (under the Apple logo) didn't show up and after a couple (5? 10?) of minutes the fans started making more noise than they ever did. I tried again with the same result.
It did boot from CD though and the disk was accessible. Disk Utility didn't report a problem and the hardware test neither. Subsequent rebooting from the internal hard disk failed again.
Then I reinstalled 10.4 (with archive & install), but with the same result. Then I got a Firewire drive from the computer support department, formatted it, installed 10.4 and copied (nearly) the entire internal hard disk's content to it. I was able to work normally from that disk.
Then I booted again from the 10.4 installation disk, formatted the internal drive, reinstalled 10.4 and then it did boot from the internal drive. I migrated all my files and now everything is working again (although a few things might have gone missing). And I lost nearly a day of work.
I conclude from this that it wasn't the disk, but that somehow an essential part of the boot software got damaged.
My question: how did this happen? What could have caused it? Is there someone with a similar experience (i.e., failure to boot from disk while the disk is still ok)? Is there any way to prevent it from happening again?

we have g5s the same as you. the few times we've ever had an issue with them refusing to boot up have been solved by running diskwarrior. it's an utter 'must have'.
it's a harsh fact that drives (and the operating system that sits on them) do fail from time to time. careful housekeeping (repairing permissions regularly, running disk utility repair and/or diskwarrior) will help to prevent any major problems.
if you have an issue that can't be fixed by doing these things (and we just had one with a file sharing problem) the best course of action is a full reinstall.
we keep a fw800 drive with the latest installers of every application we use handy in each room for this purpose. it's time consuming to stay on top of but worth it when it all goes pear-shaped.

Hi, I just put a new internal hard disk to my MacBook after formattimg it and I don't know how to install the OS X? Any help please

Hi, I just put a new internal hard disk to my MacBook after formattimg it and I don't know how to install the OS X? Any help please

Be sure you have prepared the new drive correctly:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.

MacBook does not see internal hard disk

Sorry if this is already answered somewhere, but I have searched so many forums that my head is swimming!
My boyfriend connected a new USB drive to his MacBook, formatted the new disk, copied some backup data onto it. At some point, the MacBook hung, so he held down the power key until the MB turned off.
Each time we restart it now, we get the flashing-folder-with-question-mark, and Tiger won't boot.
I have tried almost all of the tips I can find, and was even willing to reinstall OS X, however... the MacBook does not appear to see it's internal hard disk. As such, I cannot perform first aid on the disk via booting to setup DVD, and I cannot reinstall OS X.
If I boot from the OS X install disk, and use Disk Utility, the MB only sees the CD-RW/DVD-RW drive and the install disc. No internal HD ever shows up.
Help! I am at a loss as to how to fix...

Let me guess: you're also experiencing a low clicking noise from the right side of your mac immediately after you turn it on, right? Same thing happened to me and others, in fact there are several threads on this subject already:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=960977&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5325539&#5325539
My drive was done for, and no data could be saved. I ended up buying a new drive, and now I'm just hoping the same thing doesn't happen again. I'm beginning to get a sense that this problem is occurring on a more frequent level now that the 1st generation macbooks have reached their 1-year birthday, give or take. Let's hope Appel fesses up if it is indeed a design flaw.
Anyway, you most likely need a new drive. I just got a Hitachi Travelstar 250 gb for around 200$US, so they're quite cheap, and VERY easy to install, just 3 screws, slide it in, boot up, run disk utility, erase/format and you're good to go.

Disk Utility hangs while initializing internal hard disk in Core Duo iMac

I have a 20" Core Duo iMac. Recently the internal hard drive crashed ("invalid B-tree node size" or something reported when Disk Utility tries and fails to repair it). I have all my data on an external hard disk used as a Time Machine volume, so recovery is not my issue. Initially I picked the write zeroes once security option and chose to erase the internal hard disk. Realizing this would take too long, I clicked on skip, and Disk Utility appeared to hang. I quit and restarted Disk Utility, and chose the "don't erase" security option, but when I go to erase the drive it appears to hang while at the "partitioning" stage and doesn't seem to get any further. There is motion in the progress bar, but no additional progress after about an hour. Disk Utility shows the disk but no volumes underneath it (whereas immediately after the crash, it showed an unmountable volume labeled "disk0s2").
Why would Disk Utility be taking so long and not making any progress? How can I reformat this disk if Disk Utility is not able to? Incidentally, I am running the Disk Utility that comes with OS X 10.4.8, since that is the OS X version on my portable hard drive that I booted from. I also tried using Drive Genius to initialize the hard disk, but it also appeared to hang with no progress.

It is possible the drive has failed, but to be sure start by turning off the computer. Wait five minutes. Then do this:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Be sure to boot from the OS X installer DVD, not a backup clone.

How format the hard disk in single-user mode

Hi all, i would like to format the internal hard disk of my macbook pro 13'' through single-user mode. How can I do it, please?

Ok, to do that you need to hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and second screen in under the Utilities Menu is Disk Utility.
You can then select the hard drive makers name (your "bare metal") and peform the wipe/format of the entire drive or a "partition" on that drive.
In the picture below there is only one partition, the Mac HD. In the picture above there are two partitions which both would show up under the hard drive makers name and both or either partition can be wiped in Disk Utility.
Use the Security Option to Zero your hard drive of all lingering data.
When you Quit Disk utiltiy, your back in the installer and can quit or install OS X.
Note: messing with Disk utility will erase all data on the drive, if there is something you need to recover better stop and ask!
If you don't see your internal boot drive in Disk Utility, the drive is dead.

Unable to erase internal hard disk

Dear Mac Book Users
To begin with I got a problem of spinning wheel and grey screen, upon extensive research online i could,nt find any solution and everytime i tried to repair it with disk utility's first aid otion i got the following 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.
There were a lot of errors wth permissions (upon clicking verify permissions) but the repair permissions button was greyed out.
Now all that is history and finally the only solution to get rid of the above problem was to back up my data to an external hd (WD-My passport) using the Restore option in disk utility. That worked well and all my data, the whole volume named MACINTOSH HD was copied to external hd and alsi now I am able to boot with this external hd.
Now the problem is that when i go to disk utility and try to erase the original internal hard disk details of which are as follows:
Disk Description :
ST9160314ASG Media
Total Capacity :
160.04 GB (1,60,04,18,85,696 Bytes)
Connection Bus :
SATA
Write Status :
Read/Write
Connection Type :
Internal
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme :
GUID Partition Table
I get the error:
Volume Erase failed with the error:
File system formatter failed.
I want to know that has my hard disk crashed and if yes how to confirm it?
Also if it has crashed, now can i get a new hard disk with a greater capacity (let me know the maximum capacity) than my original 160gb. Are there any things i should keep in mind while buying a new one?

Please check the results:
Last login: Thu Aug 30 11:34:15 on console
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$ bash
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk 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.diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Unknown partition scheme: Utility
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Usage: diskutil eraseDisk format name [[APM]Format|[MBR]Format|[GPT]Format]
MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing whole disk. All volumes on this disk will be
destroyed. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).
Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),
or can be specified as %noformat% to skip initialization (newfs).
You cannot erase the boot disk.
Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk3
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+ newdisk "/volumes/disk0"
Could not find disk for /volumes/disk0
bash-3.2$

Problem installating Snow Leopard on old Macbook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo. After creating partition on internal hard disk (Extended Journaled), installation starts but stops at half of the progress bar. Screen asking Restart appears.

Hello:
I have tried installing Snow Leopard via the installation disc on a Macbook Pro (2007) with an Intel Core 2 Duo, but I the installation has failed more than 5 times.
I have first formatted and partitioned the internal hard disk with Mac Os Extended Journal format.
Once the installation starts, it starts without a problem unti lthe progress bar gest until half completed then a screen asking for a Computer Restart shows up.
It asks to press the power button for some time until it the computer shuts down and then, press again to turn it on.
Once turned on, the installation disc gets readed, the installation screen appears again and asks again to start the whole installation process form the beginning.

Then you have a Hardware Problem.
Your system is Crashing part way through the install and Re-Booting because of the crash.
Could be the drive itself or it could be some other hardware part in your system. Like the RAM.
To check if it is the internal drive connect an External drive to the system by USB and do the install on that external. If the install completes then it more then likely the drive is bad. If it crashes again then it is more then likely some other piece of hardware in your system.

Can't format internal hard disk

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