Disk Utility + A Question For CD ROM Drives

Hello, I Own A MacBook, It Was Shipped With Tiger On It And I Upgraded It To Leopard. Now A Little While Ago I Did A Format And Install To Start Fresh Again, The Internal HDD Is 80Gb, I Needed More So i Got A 80Gb EXTERNAL HDD. i wanted to partition it to organize it, but when i open disk utility, it just starts to open, Then It Stops.....And Quits Itself, And I Really Need It! In The Meantime Is There Any Other APPS that are like disk utility? for Mac OS X?
And i Got A Question, I Have A Driver CD And It Is A CD The Size Of A Gamecube Game, And I Want To Know If I Can Insert It Into My MacBooks CD Rom Drive, Without Regreting What I Did.
Thanks in advance!
P.S IM NOW PC FREE! WOOOO HOOO!

Its A Homemade One, I Bought The Enclosure And Inserted An Old Drive, Its a 80Gb Western Digital.
No It Does Not Work W/ The Drive Disconnected
Im willing To Re-Install Everything so ill just back stuff up on the external And Re-Install

Similar Messages

Boot Camp and Disk Utility giving Error for my Hard Drive Volume

When trying to partition my Hard Drive with Boot Camp, I get an error message after a while saying that it can't be partitioned because there is an error in the volume and that I should check it in Disk Utility. After running Verify Disk, it had told me that the file count was wrong and that I should repair my Disk. I have leopard installed, but only had access to a Tiger Install Disc, so after booting to that and apparently repairing successfully, I booted back onto my Hard Drive and ran Disk Utility's Verify Disk again. Now it said that my Volume Header needs minor repair. I still get the same message in Boot Camp. Running Verify and Repair Disk from the Tiger Install Disc tells me that everything is alright and the Hard Drive doesn' need repairing. I read on an Apple article that verifying a disk that's booted can produce inaccurate results, and that it shouldn't be worried about, but I can't install Windows because of this! What should I do?

Hi,
you have to boot from the Leopard OSX DVD in order to repair the Leopard OSX volume on your harddisk.
Using Disk Utility from an OSX version that is prior to the one you want to repair can indeed cause more errors than before.
So, search for the Leopard DVD.
Regards
Stefan

Disk Utility won't initialize second Maxtor drive

My first hardware upgrade has not gone too well. I just got a Maxtor 6L250S0 drive to fill empty second bay of my dual 1.8 PowerMac G5. (Drive specs: 250 GB SATA Ultra 16, DiamondMax, 16 MB cache, 7200 RPM) Installation was a breeze, but I can't get my Mac to erase, format, partition or otherwise initialize the drive for use. When I rebooted, I got the message about needing to initialize the new hardware. I clicked "Initialize", and Disk Utility came up. Disk Utility lists "Maxtor SABRE" as a drive on the left and lists the following details at the bottom:
Disk Description : Maxtor SABRE
Total Capacity : 0 Bytes
Connection Bus : Serial ATA
Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : Internal
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Connection ID : Device 0, "B (lower)"
The Capacity and SMART status lines are a bit troubling. Is that normal when a drive is first installed?
I go to the ERASE tab and can only select "Mac OS Standard" or "UNIX File System" for the volume format. I select the Mac OS Standard and press the Erase button, but I get a message "Disk erase failed with the following error: The chosen size is not valid for the chosen file system."
I go to the PARTITION tab and can't do anything there either. When it lets me edit the form and press the Partition button, it gives an error saying "Device not configured." Usually as soon as I do anything on this form (e.g., select the Format dropdown), all the choices are grayed out with the notice "the disk is too small to contain partitions".
Based upon research here and elsewhere, I know this is a compatible drive. Am I missing a step? Could the drive be bad?
PowerMac G5 dual 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 2.5 GB RAM

My first hardware upgrade has not gone too well. I
just got a Maxtor 6L250S0 drive to fill empty second
bay of my dual 1.8 PowerMac G5. (Drive specs: 250
GB SATA Ultra 16, DiamondMax, 16 MB cache, 7200 RPM)
Installation was a breeze, but I can't get my Mac
to erase, format, partition or otherwise initialize
the drive for use. When I rebooted, I got the
message about needing to initialize the new
hardware. I clicked "Initialize", and Disk Utility
came up. Disk Utility lists "Maxtor SABRE"
Hi,
I have never seen a Maxtor come up as "Maxtor SABRE" in disk utility. Your post says the Maxtor 250GB hard drive is mounted internally. If so, I would guess that the drive is damaged. I would take it back for a working drive.
Or you could call Maxtor at (800) 262-9867. I have had two Maxtor drives fail in the last 5 months and the techs at Maxtor sent me replacements and then I returned the damage drives in their shipping boxes.
The Maxtor tech guys are very helpful and give Mac users the benefit of the doubt when it comes to warranty returns. At least that was my experience.
The drive should display Maxtor 6L250S0 in the disk utility window and Smart Drive status should be active.
I hope this helps,
Michael

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

Disk utility can't find iMac hard drive

I had to power off my iMac by Pressing the power key and holding it several times over the last few weeks. The last time it wouldn't reboot - I'd just get an apple icon. When I tried a safe boot I'd get the icon and it would change to a no entry sign.
Next I started up from the snow leopard installation disk with the intent of repairing the iMac disk. The installation disk worked but when I opened disk utility it only found the installation disk. It didn't find the iMac disk.
Do I need to make a trip to the Apple store or is there something else to try?

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Oh Gosh, I am having this same problem too. I normally do not shut down ever, I reboot often because I have to due to bad wireless reception. Last month, I did a full shut down and unplug due to a terrible storm coming in. When I went to boot up, it took very long and I had booted from my external bootable drive. My saving grace is that since crashing my emac in 2006, I am a rabid "backerupper" (made up my own word). I have been using lacie’s Silverkeeper to make bootable back ups just in case. So When I tried disk utility, it did not see my drive. I used my third party software "Disk Warrior" by Alsoft, it saw my drive, and then I unplugged my external and then booted again from the Snow Leopard DVD and was able to repair. All was well until this weekend. We had a storm come trough quickly and we lost power, now I have the same problem you do but this time Disk Warrior does not see the disk either. I am going to dig around for a while before I hit the Genius bar. I fear the drive is fried. And for me I am not certain this will be worth the dollar amount to replace since this is a 2006 and not upgradeable, but I will check with an outside vendor for price for the drive so I know what I want to do if in fact the Genius bar cannot see the drive either. I do hope you have a back up version, and would suggest having third party software to take a chance to see if you can find your disk. My imac is an Intel duo core 2 GHZ and from what I can tell model number A1174. To get help from the smart people here it would be useful for you to post the rest of your specs. If you don't know the exact model, you can check everymac.com and plug in your serial number. Under the computer stand you will find the serial number and the emc number and you can find out from everymac.com what exact model you have. If I find anything I will come back to this thread and report in. Good luck to you.

Disk Utility not finding new internal hard drive

Hi All
My internal hard drive died recently and I replaced with a western digital drive from newegg..
All the cables are hooked up correctly, including the orange cable attached to the hard drive. Problem is that when I go to install OS X, Disk Utility doesn't even list the drive. Is there something I need to do beforehand? Anyone have any ideas as to why Disk Utility isn't even seeing the drive? Jumpers maybe?
Thanks in advance.
-Aaron

I doubt that any jumpers are needed, since this is the only (master) drive in the system. WD's site has pretty good info on this. Verify for yourself however.
Also, from their site:
How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X (all versions).
Answer
In Mac OS X, you can use the built in Disk Utility to partition and initialize the drive so it will appear on the desktop.
1. Open the main drive (the drive that contains the operating system).
2. Open the Applications folder.
3. Open the Utilities folder.
4. Select Disk Utility.
5. The drives are displayed on the left side of the window. Click on the drive that you wish to partition (the top drive listing for the hard drive that you want to work with).
6. Once the drive is selected click on Partition.
7. Click on the Options button to select the partitioning scheme.
8. Click on Apple Partitioning Scheme or Apple Partitioning Map and then click on the OK button.
9. You will see several options for setting up the drive. Once you have selected the number of partitions, the format type you want, and a volume label, click the Partition button.
10. Following the completion of this process, the drive will appear on the desktop.
Joe

HT4848 how to erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive

how do I erase the disk utility from my usb portbalbe flash drive. I need the flash drive for other stuff and it isn't allowing me to do so.

Here is information on the recovery partition, includin how to remove it from a drive: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20083166-263/managing-the-os-x-10.7-lion-re store-drive/

Can I use Disk Utility to erase Apple TV hard drive?

Can I use Disk Utility to erase Apple TV hard drive?

I don't know, but I doubt it can be done using Disk Utility. I suggest you consult the user manual for it or see if there is a Reset option in the onscreen menues. If you don't have a manual, then you will find one at http://support.apple.com/manuals.

Disk utility and reformatting for an external portable hard drive

I bought a brand-new iomega ego portable hard drive (USB compatible). When attempting to format it, I went to 'disk utility' to erase the drive. The drive appears, with the following information listed: Mount Point : /Volumes/Iomega HDD Capacity : 465.8 GB (500,105,217,024 Bytes)
Format : Winows NT Filesystem Available : 465.7 GB (500,022,378,496 Bytes)
Permissions Enabled : Yes Used : 79.0 MB (82,838,016 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0 Number of Files : 32
Obviously, it needs to be reformatted. But when I click the erase tab, it will not allow me to pick the volume format or name (it just has it listed but unselectable).
Any suggestions on using disk utility or reformatting the drive so I can use it will be useful!

The drive has been pre-formatted for NTFS. You need to do the following:
Extended Hard 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. 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 APM then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait 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.

Disk Utility: Backup to partition on external drive?

Hi people. Would be glad of an answer and any comments on this.
I have 3 Macs at home, a new G5 dual core and 2 G4 imacs, networked wirelessly. At this point I only backup my G5 to a second internal HD, by using Disk Utility's 'Restore' function.
My preferred plan is to get an external Firewire 400 drive, make 3 partitions on it, and do the Disk Utility 'Restore' for the 3 respective Macs. That way it's not only a backup, but a bootable solution if one of the machines dies.
My second choice is to add one of those generic network hard drives to the router and try to back up to that(essentially as an FTP/Samba disk), but it would be slow and not bootable at all.
Question: Will disk utility allow a partition, either on a firewire drive or network drive, to be the destination for a 'restore'? Or will it only recognise whole volumes?

Hi, Daniel.
You wrote: "Question: Will disk utility allow a partition, either on a firewire drive or network drive, to be the destination for a 'restore'? Or will it only recognise whole volumes? "Disk Utility will recognize a volume (partition) on a FireWire drive as the destination for a Restore.
Using the Restore function for backup is quite time-consuming as it has to backup everything every time you perform a backup. You will get much faster results by using a proper Backup and Recovery solution that supports incremental backups, i.e. backing up just the changes from the source to the destination (backup) so that the two are synchronized. For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
People have had mixed results using NAS (Network-attached Storage) for backups. I frankly think that it's still a bit early to try that route. Using an external FireWire drive has always given be good results.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Disk Utility error when verifying DIY fusion drive

Hi,
It has been a while since I had to post a problem, but I need others advice on this if you can help. When 10.8.3 came out I installed an M4 512gb ssd in my main drive bay of 2008 unibody aluminium macbook and put a 1tb spinner in the optibay. Created a fusion drive, migrated data and all has been great. Decided to run disk utility today to check for any errors as I had a sleep issue with the 10.8.4 update which I ended up solving by changing the sleep settings in terminal - the issue had caused a few forced shutdowns. I have Disk Utitliy Version 13 (450). The Fusion drive is shown as the logical volume group followed by the volume disk. When I run a verify disk on the volume itself it is all ok:
Verifying volume “Cybernet”
Checking storage systemChecking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 6 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Cybernet appears to be OK.
When I run it on the LVG it comes up as:
Verifying partition map for “M4-CT512M4SSD2 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 40 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Incorrect size for volume “Cybernet”
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Incorrect size for logical volume.
Verifying partition map for “WDC WD10JPVT-00A1YT0 Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Checking storage system
Checking volume.
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C spans 2 devices
disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 2170 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 43 newer non-checkpoint transactions
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 309877EC-EA53-443C-A75C-63C159B04EF3
Load and verify 5388E543-6974-4251-BDBD-FA850C121897
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 0DAE76E1-A325-4925-902F-1015B270B84C appears to be OK.
Incorrect size for volume “Cybernet”
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Incorrect size for logical volume.
I got the same when I did a safe boot and when rebooted from the recovery partition.y question is, do I repair or could it damage my setup? eg is Disk Utility being accurate and it can repair the error, or is it a phantom issue that should be ignored bearing in mind it's a DIY fusion drive and it could end up getting mashed?
Thanks!

Hi,
The computer's running fine since I sorted the sleep issue. No issues as far as I can tell, which is why I was surprised to see the error. What does the error actually mean - is it saying that the volume is a different size than the computer thinks it should be and therefore it'll just change a few values? In which case I suppose a repair is harmless? I just don't want to repair and then reboot to find the volume corrupted.

Disk Utility Showing "No Slices" on Hard drive test ?

What does Disk Utility mean when it states "No Slices" available when verifying or repairing a HDD ?
There appears to be zero information about this, including on Google.
Does it signify that the HDD is dead or beyond recovery ?
Does anyone know about this vague statement that Disk Utility throws up ?

Apologies for not getting back sooner (health issues). I ended up using the original internal drive as an external drive via a usb connection and drive box. Thank you for response. I am still having issues with Toshiba drive and will pose another question.

Using Disk Utility to Clone/Duplicate entire hard drive.

I have read many post that touch on this question but none have cleared up my questions, and many have just lead to more questions on my part.
I want to use the included Disk Utility program to copy my entire hard drive to another.
Because I only plan on backing up the entire drive once or twice a year, I do not feel I need Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. Also I would like to understand how to accomplish this with the application I already have.
Having read all the help pages and posts I can find, I understand the general concept of using the "Restore" function in DU, but have these questions still:
1. My current HD is a 250GB partitioned with one volume "Macintosh HD" I am going to install another 250GB hard drive into bay 2. Do I need to partition this drive first?
2. Do I need to format this drive?
3. Do I need to erase this drive?
4. Do I need to use the security feature to "Zero" this drive?
5. It seems to me that if I am doing a bit for bit clone the partitioning and format from the source drive would just come over in the copy...no?
6. As the source for the "Restore" do I want to select the parent 250GB disk drive, or should I select the "Macintosh HD" volume?
7. As the destination for the "Restore" (if I had to partition and format) do I want the new 250GB drive or the "Backup" volume?
8. If I have to partition and format the new drive first, I understand that I want the GUID partition table and the MAC OS Extended (journaled), can someone explain what the heck that means?

I apologize for missing that part of the intro.
For a new drive here's the modified procedure I suggest:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more 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.

Disk Utility Backup Question

Hello, I have the latest Mac OS X updates on my Macbook Pro. My question is concerning Disk Utility. I am trying to backup my "home" folder or my entire hard drive as I am worried about losing files if my hard drive fails. I try to create a disk image of my "home" folder and about 10 to 15 percent of the way through, an error comes up saying that "(name of my home folder) cannot be copied" or something to that extent. I am fairly new to Macs, and I'm just wondering what this error is and how can I get around it and be able to back up all my information using Disk Utility, so that I can put it on my external hard drive. Thanks in advance,
Todd

Hello,
If you are trying to make disk image of the hard drive, and creating the disk image on that same hard drive, then that could be your problem.
You cannot really make an exact copy of something that is constantly changing.
Since the act of creating the image is also modifying the source, you would end-up going in circles.
You need to create your image on something else (a different drive).
That may not work either if the drive is in use while you are trying to make your image.
So, you could try booting from your original Restore Disk that came with your computer. Then, use the disk utility on that restore DVD to make your disk image.
But, if you want to go the easy route, consider using a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
This program can also be used to create a disk image version of your drive. That method would work like what you are trying to do now.
But, it can also be used to create an exact clone of your main hard drive to an external or second hard drive.
This would be a bootable backup that can be used to put your entire system back exactly as it was at the time of the backup.
This means that if something happens, you can boot from your external drive, and resume normal work. Or, you can boot from the external drive and run the program again to restore your computer to match the backup.
This backup is an exact clone of your entire installation, so it is readable by another machine.
It works great, and I've never had a problem with it.
If a full backup is not what you want, you can customize your backup to grab just what you want.
But, I use the "Clone" feature.
This has the advantage of being able to restore quickly, and return back to the exact point you were at when you backed-up.
And, by being able to boot from the backup, you don't have to use another computer or re-install your OS before you can restore. Just boot from the backup and restore.
I actually have my external hard drive partitioned into two sections.
One partition is used just for holding my system backup. It is sized to be large enough to hold my entire OS X installation and everything I keep on my system.
The other partition is the remaining portion of the drive. I use that one to hold large files that I use less frequently.
This works great because I can just over-write my backup partition for each backup without worrying about my data files (since they are on a separate partition).
And, it makes things much easier to manage.
This backup is the most flexible backup method there is.
You can use it to:
* Boot if your original hard drive were to fail completely
* Boot if your original hard drive's OS X installation were corrupted
* Restore your entire system to the exact state of the system at the time of backup. This means no re-installing and then restoring. Just boot and copy the drive back to your main drive. Nice, fast, and you're done.
* If you don't need to restore the entire drive, then just grab the files you need.
* It's readable by any Mac OS computer. No special software required to access it's files.
Another popular program is SuperDuper:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
This program has similar capabilities to the one I use. But, they charge for the full version.
But, if you want to use built-in tools, you can use the Disk Utility built-into Mac OS X. This article describes that and other methods:
http://homepage.mac.com/geerlingguy/macsupport/mac_help/pages/0016-backuposx.html
Also, keep in mind that in order to have a bootable backup, you need a FireWire drive or a computer that supports booting from a USB drive (only the new Intel Macs support booting from USB).
Naturally, if you do make a bootable backup copy, you'll want to make sure and test it before you count on it. So, you should boot the computer from the backup copy, and make sure that it all works as it should. That way you'll know it works when you need it.
To boot from an external drive or partition, turn on your computer, and press and keep holding the "Option" key until the selection menu appears.
A menu will appear, and in a few minutes you'll be able to choose the drive / partition you want to boot from and proceed from there.
I hope this helps.

Disk Utility erase tab for hard disk is missing after accidental OS deletion when installing Win 8.1 (BootCamp)

Hi there everyone,
This is my first post and I hope I can get this issue resolved with your help .
So the issue that I am having is that my Disk Utility is not showing giving me the option to reformat my entire hard drive.
The reason I want to this is because my Boot Camp Assistant won't partition my drive. This error comes up:
So after looking through the internet and forums i couldn't resolve this Boot Camp issue. So I decided to try and just wipe out my whole disk but as you can see I am unable to do that.
Prior to this issue, I had tried to download Windows 8.1 using a bootable USB stick and have accidentally deleted my Macintosh HD partition from the Windows install menu by opening up a terminal (fn+option+F10 was the key used to open up this terminal if I remember correctly). I was pretty upset about that, thankfully I have a backup around. Not knowing what to do I proceeded to installing Windows 8.1 anyway. Half way through the installation there was an error which I did not record. I simply exited the installer and proceeded to the Recovery System start up menu and it installed a version of OS X Lion from the internet. Then I installed Yosemite thinking everything is OK.
I decided to try to install Windows 7 now and the issue mentioned at the beginning ensued. Previously there was a disk0s1 and disk0s2 that can be seen from the Disk Utility but I could delete one of them. The other one I could only erase but could not delete the partition itself. From terminal i determined these two partitions were from the previous Windows installation attempt. The size was relatively small for both.
I ran a disk repair for the Macintosh HD volume and this error pops up:
I am using MacBook Pro (15-inch, early 2011) with:
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphic 3000
750.16 GB TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF (SATA)
Yosemite V10.10.1
Below are the drive info from terminal:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS disk0s1                 314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s2
   3:          Apple_CoreStorage                         748.7 GB   disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *748.4 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s3
                                 C0E588EC-8B91-43D2-8493-392DB9911387
                                 Unencrypted
and
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group CF5FCF1D-64F3-4F5C-8A32-583BDF73FA2A
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         748741939200 B (748.7 GB)
    Free Space:   18960384 B (19.0 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 79D6A32D-71A9-479B-82AF-E287ABF820E9
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s3
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     748741939200 B (748.7 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 5A69641B-025B-438B-A572-AE008B8138B0
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume C0E588EC-8B91-43D2-8493-392DB9911387
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          748370657280 B (748.4 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
I hope someone out there can help me out here. I have tried all I could to no avail. Looking forward to your replies
Cheers

Please boot into Internet Recovery (Command+Opt+R) and ensure you see the spinning globe. If you do, you can use diskutil cs commands to initialize your disk and re-install/restore from a TM backup.

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