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?

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Hi, i have tryed to install os x leopard, (its a old imac) , disk utility is greyed out , my install dvd cant find any hdd to install on , my only way to format and configure is through terminal but dont know what commands to execute

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i tryed diffrent commands such as diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Disk1
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Your HD may be crashed, so you probably should use the oringinal install discs to run Apple Hardware Test in extended mode. If error codes appear this confirms a hardware failure. In addition you cannnot repair the HD using Disk Utility from the startup disk, you have to use the origninal Install discs that shipped with the computer or the most up-to-date version of OS X on a disc that you have.

Partitioning with disk utility

hi there.. i wonder, can i partition my primary hard drive with disk utility live? (i mean not from the leopard dvd on boot) i want to create a new partition that would be less than the amount of free space i have, while running leopard (my mac os shouldn't be damaged i think), is that possible? and safe? thanx

cukerko,
If you have an Intel Mac, the answer is yes. Intel Macs must have internal drives that use the GUID Partition Map, and these can be dynamically partitioned and re-sized under Leopard's Disk Utility.
It is relatively safe, but it is an action that modifies the drive at a low level. In other words, one would be foolish to attempt a re-partitioning or re-size without a good and current backup on hand. Provided you have such a backup, there's no reason not to create your partition.
Scott

Deleting a partition with Disk Utility

I have 5 partitions on my external drive. One is corrupted to the extent that I can not erase it with D/U.
I had tried to repair the partition with Disk Warrior, but it appears that would take many, many hours.
Can I delete the partition without deleting the other four?
Thanks for any help.

No, Disk Utility will erase them all, use DW.

Partition with Disk Utility?

I just got a 500gb external drive that I want to partition. Disk Utility is supposed to be able to do this. The help file says "Click Partition" in the Disk Utility window. I see nothing in the window with "Partition" on it. A screen shot I've seen (from LaCie's hard drive manual) shows five buttons across the top of the window: First Aid, Erase, Partition, Raid, Restore, but my Disk Utility only has 4 buttons. The "Partition" button is not there.
Any ideas what's up? This is crazy. What am I missing?
I've clicked on the external drive icon along the left column but nothing pertaining to partitioning shows up.

That is because you have your boot volume selected in the left hand column, select the Hard drive itself, the one with the Manufactory ID number. It should be at the very top.
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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?
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hy everybody,
i successfully bought a mac (that was easy , installed windows 7 with bootcamp (quite easy) and now i 'd like to add linux also (considering ubuntu).
before i try to do it with bootcamp i'd like to know what the impact could be...
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all inputs are welcome
cheers

Why not start by filling out hardware in your profile .sig as it makes a difference.

Can't modify external hard drive partition with Disk Utility

Hi,
I have an external 750GB hard drive that I previously formatted as FAT 32 because I wanted to be able to plug it into Windows computers as well. I was not very thoughtful at the beginning and I just created one big 750GB partition. I currently have 450GB used and about 300GB free.
I would like to create a new partition in the free space without losing the data I have in the disk, and format the new partition as Mac OS Extended to use it for Time Machine backups. Presumably Disk Utility can do it, but when I go to the "Partition" tab it says "This partition cannot be modified" and the "+" sign below it is grayed. Can anybody help me repartitioning my drive without losing my data?
Thanks!!!

That would likely be because the drive is partitioned MBR and not GUID. You cannot repartition an MBR partitioned drive on the fly. What you need is a drive that is partitioned using GUID (GPT) with on partition formatted for the Mac and the other formatted FAT32. But to do that you must start the drive from scratch:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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 then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the entire partition in the rectangle by clicking on it (the lines will turn darker blue) and click on the [+] Add button. The volume will be divided in two. Select each volume and resize as your require.
5. Select one of the volumes you just created. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button.
6. Repeat Step 5 using MSDOS as the format type.
This will work with any PC that understands the GPT partition scheme which is Vista and Windows 7. Otherwise, you should just leave the drive as it is and forgo using Time Machine or purchase another drive for Time Machine.

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 boot into Windows after splitting Mac partition with Disk Utility

Hi everyone,
I installed Windows 8 with BOOTCAMP, creating a large 871 GB partition with a smaller 127 GB partition for Windows. After installing Windows, I then went back to Disk Utility to shrink the Mac partition and add two new partitions, one for storage and another blank, hoping to use it to install Linux into one day.
I did that, and now Windows doesn't boot. A Windows blue screen tells me I need to use the Windows DVD to repair it.
I tried to use Disk Utility to delete the two new partitions I made and grow the Mac partition back to the max size of 871 GB. But it doesn't let me do this. The Disk Utility log doesn't report an error and thinks it worked but the partition stays the same size. However if I make the partition a little smaller, like 870 GB then it works. I'm wondering if the Recovery partition is hiding there and preventing me from fully expanding the Mac partition.
What can I do?
Here's what I get if I type in sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0:
Code:
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168 gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0 gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1 gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167 start        size index contents 0           1         MBR 1           1         Pri GPT header 2          32         Pri GPT table 34           6 40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B 409640 1701278816      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC 1701688456     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC 1702957992     1846360 1704804352   248002560      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 1952806912      718223 1953525135          32         Sec GPT table 1953525167           1         Sec GPT header
Here's what I get if I type sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk0:
Code:
Disk: /dev/rdisk0     geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors] Signature: 0xAA55 Starting       Ending #: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID> 2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1701278816] HFS+ 3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1701688456 -    1269536] Darwin Boot *4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1704804352 - 248002560] HPFS/QNX/AUX
Here's what I get with gdisk:
Code:
Disk /dev/rdisk0: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 6075110F-7CEF-4604-85EE-6231B850E2AE Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134 Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries Total free space is 2564589 sectors (1.2 GiB) Number Start (sector)    End (sector) Size       Code Name 1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00 EFI System Partition 2          409640      1701688455   811.2 GiB   AF00 1 TB APPLE HDD HTS54101 3      1701688456      1702957991   619.9 MiB   AB00 Recovery HD 4      1704804352      1952806911   118.3 GiB   0700 BOOTCAMP

Okay, the code I typed didn't display properly in the forum. Let me try again.
Here's what I get when I type
sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0:
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167
       start        size index contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 1701278816      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1701688456     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1702957992     1846360
1704804352   248002560      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1952806912      718223
1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
1953525167           1         Sec GPT header
And when I type fdisk /dev/rdisk0 I get:
Disk: /dev/rdisk0          geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1701278816] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1701688456 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1704804352 - 248002560] HPFS/QNX/AUX
Kappy,
I can boot into OS X just fine so if possible, I'd like to avoid reformatting everything. If you know of a way I can add more than 2 partitions with OS X and Boot Camp, please let me know. As far as I know, rEFInd can recognize more than two partitions, but I don't think it can edit partitions on a GPT / hybrid MBR system. Or am I wrong?

My partition menu in Disk Utility is greyed out in recovery partition

So upgraded to yosemite and after a while decided that i would do a clean install of it because it didn't update the recover partition and i could no longer boot into Ubuntu partition. So i made my bootable drive and booted into it. I was met with:
When i clicked on the hard drive in the sidebar that it was only 300gbs, which is the size of my os x partition.
I then went to the partition menu and i could not change anything there. I can't resize anything or repartition anything.
I've tried to do multiple things in terminal from recovery and bootable disk but to no avail. It still won't work. The thing is that when i type diskutil list into terminal i get
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         300.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         1.0 MB     disk0s4
   5: 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4               195.0 GB   disk0s5
   6:                 Linux Swap                         4.2 GB     disk0s6
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *299.6 GB   disk1
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS MacBook Pro Back Up     398.2 GB   disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk2s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Back up of files        100.9 GB   disk2s4
/dev/disk0 is the internal hard drive that i want to reformat, /dev/disk1 i don't know what that is. It could be an internal thing in the drive? And /dev/disk2 is my external hard drive that is running mavericks that i writing this on.
I've tried resetting PRAM and SMC but that didn't help.
Didn't know if reinstalling the OS would help?
What i want to get is to reformat /dev/disk0 so that i have a 500gb hard drive that i can then do a clean install of yosemite on and then possibly make an ubuntu partition later. PLEASE HELP!!!

And, this was from the Internet Recovery utilities window, right? OK, this next suggestion depends on which MBA model you have. Check the link below. If your model came with Lion pre-installed then it is capable of using Internet Recovery. If it came with a late version of Snow Leopard it can be upgraded via a firmware update. You will find this in the link below.
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
            if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Once the Utility Menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Now try removing the partition again. If you have the same error, then do the following:
From the screen's menubar select Terminal from the Utilities menu. Enter the following at the prompt:
     diskutil list
Press RETURN. You should see a display of your devices. Next enter:
     diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
Press RETURN. Now, if this works your internal drive should be unmounted. Return to Disk Utility and try the process of removing the partition.

Partition Tab in Disk Utility is Greyed Out

Basically I wanted to try out Mac OS X Yosemite, so I created a partition on my hard drive. Now, I am trying to remove this partition, because it is no longer needed, but Disk Utility is simply not allowing me to.
I heard there may be a way to solve this using Terminal. Is that possible?
Any answers and/or helpful comments is appreciated in advance. Thank you.

And, this was from the Internet Recovery utilities window, right? OK, this next suggestion depends on which MBA model you have. Check the link below. If your model came with Lion pre-installed then it is capable of using Internet Recovery. If it came with a late version of Snow Leopard it can be upgraded via a firmware update. You will find this in the link below.
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
            if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Once the Utility Menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Now try removing the partition again. If you have the same error, then do the following:
From the screen's menubar select Terminal from the Utilities menu. Enter the following at the prompt:
     diskutil list
Press RETURN. You should see a display of your devices. Next enter:
     diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk0
Press RETURN. Now, if this works your internal drive should be unmounted. Return to Disk Utility and try the process of removing the partition.

Shrink HFS partition and extend NTFS partition with Disk Utility?

My 10.7 iMac has two partitions: HFS+ & NTFS. The NTFS was set too small and is nearly full and I want to shrink the echoingly under-used HFS and add the resulting excess to the NTFS one. Is this practicable? I can see via Disk Utility that the Mac partition can be shrunk but no way is shown for modifying the NTFS side. Maybe using a Linux tool is advised?

You can't. If you try either Windows or OS X or both will no longer boot. You can try a aftermarket disk partitioning program but most that work on HFS partition don't work for Windows and those that work for Windows don't work on Mac extended partitions.
The only real option is to backup the Windows partition with something like Win Clone then use Boot Camp assistant to remove Windows and the partition then again to recreate the Win partition in a larger size. After that install windows and then use the Win Clone software to restore Windows.

Dynamic resize of FAT32 partition with disk utility?

Hi there.
I have a 1TB external FAT32 drive with 300GB of data on it.
I want to convert it to HFS+, but I know there's no easy way to do that.
What I want to know is can I resize my FAT32 partition to 500MB and keep all the data?
Then I'll move it to the new HFS+ 500MB partition, delete the original partition and resize the HFS+ partition.
Or do I have no hope of that?
Thanks
Greg

Greg,
You're probably out of luck on this one. If the drive was partitioned and formatted by a PC (every drive has a partition map, whether there are multiple partitions or only one), it almost certainly has an "MBR" partition map. This would preclude a dynamic resizing by Disk Utility. It will need to be partitioned using either GUID (Intel) or APM (PPC).
Scott

Can't partition with disk utility. Options greyed out

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