Disk Utility create encrypted disk image hangs

I'm trying really, really hard to backup my data but apple is not making it easy for me.
I need my files encrypted for an offline backup. Time machine only allows home folder to be encrypted, and due to my home folder being on my SSD drive I cannot fit my files all in there, not by a long shot.
Using Disk Utility, I choose "new disk image from folder", and select "read only", 256-bit encryption. Some of the folders worked. However some will just hang for hours on "Creating Image, copying...". I can see at the destination the dmg file has stopped incrementing larger. It has reached the full size of the folder approximately. Does apple fail at some file types? I already ran disk repair several times to no avail. I don't know what else to try, it just doesn't want to work. All I want is an encrypted backup, that any OSX install can retrieve without any special software involved. Sometimes I'll get a very unhelpful error message "Operation not supported". Whatever that is supposed to mean. Google was no help so hoping for some insights here.

Create an encrypted sparse disk image instead of from folder, mount it, and then drag & drop your files into ii.

Similar Messages

Disk Utility - Create encrypted disk images super sloooow

Trying to create encrypted disk images via Disk Utility on my iMac (i7 8GB) is super-slow in 10.8. It worked quite fast in 10.7, but now it's super-slow and doesn't even seem to ever finish.
I've tried re-installing 10.8 with no difference.
Anyone else having trouble with this? Even a small dmg (~200MB) doesn't seem to work.
Unencrypted images seem to work OK (if not a little slow).
I realize that the encryption process will be slower but something is definately wrong with 10.8 disk utility in this regard. I have 1TB+ free space. I have tried with another user account as well.
My task was: (new disk image, read-write, 128bit encryption)
2012-09-03 08:59:59 -0400: Initializing…
2012-09-03 09:00:00 -0400: Creating…
2012-09-03 09:03:28 -0400: Copying… <<< seems to be stuck here...

Good morning,
Have you tried using Disk Utility from within the recovery mode? (Hold down CMD and R when booting)
I used to have this problem but creating them this way really improved the time.
Give it a go...
Rob

Can't create encrypted disk image

With Leopard, I have repeatedly followed the instructions for using Disk Utility to make an encrypted disk. All appears to go well...all fields appropriately filled, including 128 encryption. But when I hit create, either nothing happens, or I get a second Disk Utility starting window. In any case, I am not asked to create a password, and am unable to find any trace of the disk I thought I'd just created. Would welcome your thoughts.

While creating, make sure that it's saved to the desktop so you will know where it is supposed to be, at least.. Was wondering if posssibly you lost them. Look for the named disks in your home folder and in HD on chance they are there somewhere.
I know you went to Help but just making sure you are creating disks this way (below). Everything worked fine for me--
If things still don't work, turn off DU and move to the desktop "com.apple.DiskUtility.plist" in your home folder/library/preferences. A new file will be created when disk utility is turned on again. Deleting plist files don't usually don't solve problems but sometimes they can become corrupted.
Good luck
RM
1 choose File > New > Blank Disk Image.
2 Type a name for the image, and choose where you want to save it.
3 In the Volume Name field, type a name for the volume that appears when you open the disk image.
4 Choose the size of the disk image from the Size pop-up menu.
5 Be sure you choose a size that’s large enough to hold any changes and new documents you might add.
6 Choose an encryption option from the Encryption pop-up menu.
7 Use the default settings for the rest of the options:
8 Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the Volume Format pop-up menu.
9 Choose “Single partition - Apple Partition Map” from the Partitions pop-up menu.
10 Choose “read/write disk image” from the Format pop-up menu.
11 Click Save.
Enter a password, and click OK.
Disk Utility creates the disk image and mounts its volume on your desktop.
Copy the documents you want to protect to the volume.
If you want to erase the original documents so they can’t be recovered, drag them to the Trash and choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash.

Problem creating encrypted disk image

I have just moved from an Aluminium PB G4 with 10.3.9, on which I successfully created encrypted disk images and sparse images.
I now want to do the same on a brand new WD My Book attached to the new Macbook Pro. I open Disk Utility and click New Image. But when I do so, there are fewer options than there are on the old machine. I only have
Save As
Where
Image Format
Encryption
No option for specifying size, no sparse option.
Also, if I try and create a dmg on the My Book, I get 'Unable to create "myfilename.dmg". (Invalid argument)'
Any suggestions? Thanks

V.K.'s suggestion worked. Thank you. But now I've found that I get the full set of options in Disk Utility too. Baffled.
In the week I've been using my new Macbook Pro, I seem to be getting eerily similar experiences, i.e. apps don't work right, then I quit and next time they behave themselves. Yes, I know it sounds weird.
Is this an appropriate place for me to ask further questions. Namely, what's the best place to find out about 1. read/write v. sparse disk v. sparse bundle? 2. partitions - should I used them, whatever they are? and 3. why are the bigger disk images called CDs and DVDs? If I want a passworded place to put files on my external drive, bigger than 500MB, is there any reason not to use one of the CD/DVD size options?
Thanks

Disk Utility: Create image fails with input/output error

Starting to create an image and saving it into an external hard drive (MacOS extended Journaled).
It starts after less than 60 secs it comes out with an error : Failed to create the image (input/output error)

If you don't mind I'd like to discourage you from backing up a drive onto a disc image file no matter where you plan to save it. Disc image files can be very problematical when it comes to trying to restore the backup. Furthermore, you cannot boot from a disc image. If the disc image file becomes corrupted then you have no backup.
I would like to propose that you think about a better way to backup your drive. You can clone the drive to your backup drive. It's easy to do using Disk Utility's Restore feature. A clone backup is not only bootable but you have direct access to all the files on the backup.
In order to make a bootable clone open Disk Utility. Select Disk Utility Help from the Help menu. Search for +duplicating a disk+. Click on "Duplicating a disk" at the top of the list of articles. Follow the directions.

Disk Utility - Create Image Fails

Hello all -
I'm trying to make an image of one of my hard drives as a back up. I've followed the instructions in Disk Utility help, but when I click "Save" to try to create the image I get a failure message "Unable to create <Disk Name>. (Resource Busy)".
I've tried saving to the destination with a new folder, that did not solve the problem. No other applications are running and both the source and destination disks are mounted and appearing on my desktop. The source is a USB connected drive, destination is a firewire drive, and I can read and write to both the source and destination disks.
Anyone have any idea what this failure message means and how to correct the problem? Thanks - Randy

If you don't mind I'd like to discourage you from backing up a drive onto a disc image file no matter where you plan to save it. Disc image files can be very problematical when it comes to trying to restore the backup. Furthermore, you cannot boot from a disc image. If the disc image file becomes corrupted then you have no backup.
I would like to propose that you think about a better way to backup your drive. You can clone the drive to your backup drive. It's easy to do using Disk Utility's Restore feature. A clone backup is not only bootable but you have direct access to all the files on the backup.
In order to make a bootable clone open Disk Utility. Select Disk Utility Help from the Help menu. Search for +duplicating a disk+. Click on "Duplicating a disk" at the top of the list of articles. Follow the directions.

Disk utility's encrypted drives and user permissions

I've decided against using filevault based on some of the feedback and research I have conducted. I am still interested, however, in encryption of some documents. I have used the Disk Utility to create a 128 bit encrypted .dmg image. I mount it using my user account, but only as r-x. I see that root has write permission, and so I assume it is safe to write to these drives. What is the best way to make it so that my user account has rwx permissions? I could manually do a chmod each time I mount the drive, but that seems silly. Also I noticed that apple doesnt seem to mount drives using the same files as linux, so I'm a little confused. Could someone please provide some insight to this. Also, *put on tin foil hat* how secure is this? When I access the drive is it writing unencrypted data to the swap file? thanks,

Hi, iMacGyver.
A. You wrote: " I have used the Disk Utility to create a 128 bit encrypted .dmg image. I mount it using my user account, but only as r-x. I see that root has write permission, and so I assume it is safe to write to these drives."Were you logged in as root when you created the dmg? Or did you create a read-only image from a folder containing the documents?
To create a disk image to which you can add/remove documents and on which you will have Read/Write permissions:
1. Log in to your account.
2. Launch Disk Utility.
3. Select File > New > Blank Disk Image...
4. In the New Blank Image window, type a name for the new disk image in the Save As field, then select a location for saving the disk image, the desired Size, Encryption (select AES-128 in the pop-up menu), and leave Format as "read/write disk image."
5. Click Create.
6. Provide a password for the disk image when prompted. If you want extra security, de-select the option to save the password in your keychain, but be sure to never forget the password if elect to not save it in your Keychain.
You can then double-click the disk image you just created, type the password when prompted, the disk image will mount, and you can add files to it. Ejecting the disk image will unmount it and all the content you added will be encrypted.
One can use Disk Utility > File > New > Disk Image from Folder... to create either a Read Only or Read/Write encrypted disk image of an existing folder of documents, but if you elect to make it Read/Write there isn't much spare capacity for adding documents as the size of the disk image is based on the size of the folder.
Also, if your comfortable with Terminal, you can look into the hdiutil command for creating and managing disk images.
For example, if in step 4 above you selected the format as "sparse disk image", you'd later need to use the hdiutil command to compact the sparse image to recover disk space from files deleted from the spares disk image. Spare disk images are always Read/Write and only occupy as much hard drive space as the data they contain, e.g. a 100 MB sparse disk image containing 30 MB of files only uses 30 MB of hard disk space: they grow as files are added. A conventional R/W disk image of 100 MB in size takes up 100 MB of hard drive space even if it is empty.
However, when you delete files from a sparse disk image, the amount of hard disk space it occupies does not decrease until you compact it using the compact verb of hdiutil. Disk Utility does not expose all of hdiutil's functions.
B. You wrote: "Also I noticed that apple doesnt seem to mount drives using the same files as linux, so I'm a little confused. Could someone please provide some insight to this. "I don't understand what you mean. You'll need to be more specific.
C. You wrote: " Also, *put on tin foil hat* how secure is this? When I access the drive is it writing unencrypted data to the swap file? thanks"To use encrypted swap files, select "Use secure virtual memory" in System Preferences > Security. Depending on the applications you use, there may be a slight performance reduction with encrypted swap.
D. Your questions imply you're new to Mac. While you may be familiar with Linux, there are differences, especially in doing things through the GUI. If that's the case, my "Learning About Mac OS X" FAQ has a number of resources that you will find helpful including books, online training, and more.
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.

Can Disk Utility make a "New Image" from a desktop copy of a DVD?

I have not been able to get Disk Utility to make "new images" of a couple of DVDs. For one of the DVDs, it may have something to do with a hyphen in the title. I haven't a clue why I'm failing with the second of the two DVDs. (Previously, I've had no trouble with about a dozen DVDs so far.)
Several members of this discussion group recommended me to copy&paste or drag&drop the files from a DVD to a new folder (say on the desktop), and then to drag the resulting new folder into the box in Disk Utility, and then to make a disk image using Disk Utility.
(Note: While I believe the original DVDs are not encrypted, I ran an experiment to make double sure, by using MacTheRipper first to produce folders containing clean files.)
However, when I drag the new folder into the box in Disk Utility, and let go of the mouse button, then the folder does not stay in Disk Utility window, but instead springs back to the desktop.
How can I get Disk Utility to make new images from the new desktop folders?
Note:
As a partially successsful work around:
For one of the two original DVDs - which has only about 3.7GB on it - I can sometimes (only sometimes) succeed in doing without Disk Utility simply by dragging the audio and video files from the new desktop folder onto a blank DVD, and then burning that DVD. However, in an average of about two out of every three attempts so far, my Mac rejects the new disk as unusable during the burn process.
For the other original DVD - which has about 4.36GB on it - the contents of the new desktop folder won't fit onto a blank DVD. It then gets messy - shrinking the files - so I'd like to avoid all of that by getting DIsk Utility to work properly.

For the answer, see the following excerpt from my own posting dated 2 May 2006, i.e.:
"I finally found out for myself (from Disk Utility Help) that to make a new image from a file/folder, rather than dragging the folder to the Disk Utility pane, in the top menu bar in Disk Utility you select Images/New/Image from Folder."

Disk Utility Broken (fails to image or verify properly)

Hey, my disk Utility seems to be broken.
When I try to clone a drive it goes along fine, then ultimately creates something that doesn't pass it's own verification afterwards, and fails when I try to open the image.
I repair both the cloned (main/internal) drive, and the destination drive. I use Disk Warrior on it so it's nice and clean, but still it fails.
So I created an image with SuperDuper by making a copy on a free reformated drive then bouncing it back onto the original drive as a clone/image. That works, and disk utility sees it as good, but aparently a little too good, cause it says it over and over and craps out.
Here's the error I get:
Disk Utility internal error
Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility.
(Quit)
Then in the background the DU program says:
Volume passed verification
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification
1 HFS volume checked
and repeats this on into infinity.
Then when I check (Quit) it says it's still in progress and quitting could leave the disk non operations depending on the task.
Since this is a read only task (verify) I'm not worried about that, but it doesn't mean that the DU isn't screwed.
I've tried using DU off the istall disk and that doesn't seem to work either. So did they just ship me a bad system install disk? Should I be looking for another copy of DU?

Your issue lost connection with the Disk Management Tool is normally a Panther problem, but some Tiger users have experianced it also. Follow the advice in this link.
If you follow the tips in there it should straighten out Disk Utility.
Cheers!
DALE

Impossible to launch disk utility from installation disk.

Hello.
I try to launch disk utility from install disk and I got a kernel panic screen: load the install disk, restart my computer with the alt key depressed, choose the install disk, press enter. After a few minutes, again a kernel panic screen ...
Someone already had this problem? Help ?
Regards.

Many thanks. I test with the second DVD player and I got the same problem. When the install disk is inserted in the DVD player, it works perfectly but boot always stops with a kernel panic.
The only problem of my Mac is to boot on the install disk. When I launch a Leopard install, I have the same problem : Kernel Panic.
Very strange... Don't know about booting process of Mac. It seems that my Mac is not able to load a kernel image from install disk or something like that.
Here is the last report of the Kernel Panic :
1) Problem details
Mon Apr 13 10:19:12 2009
panic(cpu 5 caller 0x001A7BED): Kernel trap at 0x67886373, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x00000018, CR3: 0x00e03000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x00000000, ECX: 0x00000000, EDX: 0x06fdf004
CR2: 0x00000018, EBP: 0x5564fbc8, ESI: 0x06fd8c00, EDI: 0x06fd8c00
EFL: 0x00010246, EIP: 0x67886373, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x07a30010
Error code: 0x00000000
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5564f9d8 : 0x12b0e1 (0x4555b4 0x5564fa0c 0x133238 0x0)
0x5564fa28 : 0x1a7bed (0x45e568 0x67886373 0xe 0x45dd24)
0x5564fb08 : 0x19e517 (0x5564fb20 0x6ecf100 0x5564fbc8 0x67886373)
0x5564fb18 : 0x67886373 (0xe 0x48 0x10 0x10)
0x5564fbc8 : 0x67875540 (0x0 0x6ecf100 0x6fd8c00 0x1)
0x5564fc08 : 0x5550c139 (0x6fd8c00 0x1 0x0 0x13)
0x5564fc68 : 0x55505940 (0x6fd8c00 0x2507 0x5564fd2c 0x6fd8c00)
0x5564fc98 : 0x40c515 (0x6fd8c00 0x76796b8 0x76796b8 0x0)
0x5564fce8 : 0x437535 (0x6fd8c00 0x76796b8 0x76796b8 0x0)
0x5564fd48 : 0x18c8aa (0x6fd8c00 0x76796b8 0x0 0x0)
0x5564fdb8 : 0x12d165 (0x73f8578 0x73f8390 0x5564fdf8 0x11ee04)
0x5564fdf8 : 0x126247 (0x73f8500 0x6c9c420 0x17893c0 0x0)
0x5564ff08 : 0x196afc (0x5564ff44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x5564ffc8 : 0x19eb34 (0x74418c0 0x0 0x1a10b5 0x6d01128)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbffff378
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.NVDAResman(5.1.6)@0x67872000->0x67a9efff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.5)@0x5571f000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4)@0x55560000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.5)@0x554fd000
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.5)@0x554fd000->0x55518fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4)@0x55560000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer
Mac OS version:
9A581
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.0.0: Tue Oct 9 21:35:55 PDT 2007; root:xnu-1228~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
2) System configation :
Model: MacPro3,1, BootROM MP31.006C.B05, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.8 GHz, 4 GB
Graphics: kHW_NVidiaGeForce8800GTItem, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, spdisplayspciedevice, 512 MB
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz
Bluetooth: Version 2.1.3f8, 2 service, 1 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet 1, Ethernet, en0
PCI Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, display, Slot-1
Serial ATA Device: ST3320820AS_P, 298,09 GB
Serial ATA Device: Hitachi HDS721010KLA330, 931,51 GB
Serial ATA Device: Hitachi HDS721010KLA330, 931,51 GB
Parallel ATA Device: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-7170A
Parallel ATA Device: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-7170A, 7,5 GB
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, (null) mA
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, (null) mA
USB Device: USB HUB, (null) mA
USB Device: EIZO USB HID Monitor, (null) mA
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, (null) mA
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, unknown_value, unknown_speed

Unable to use Disk Utility to repair disk.

Hi all
I have been having some problems trying to transfer movies from computer to my iPod. Someone just suggested that I use Disk Utility to verify disk permissions, as well as the disk. I was able to verify disk permissions and repair them. Noticed the some had something to do with iTunes, so that might fix my problem with transferring movies to my iPod. I then tried to verify the disk, but I got the following error "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." Also this program shows that the following "Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair"
The <Repair Disk> button is not darkened, but is grey, such that is not an option. Any other way to repair this disk.
Thanks
Michael

The startup drive can only be repaired from another drive.
You have to boot from the install disk.
To do this: Insert the Install Disk 1 into the drive and then select Restart; when you hear the chime hold down C key until the apple logo appears.
This will take you to the installation software, but you do not want to install.
Select your language, then go up to the top menu bar to Utilities in 10.4 and navigate to the Disk Utility application.
Select the start up drive, then go to the First Aid pane where you can click on Repair Disk.
If it finds errors, repeat the process until it reports no errors.
After these repairs, quit the application, and restart normally.
Once restarted normally run Repair Permissions from the Disk Utility application found on your hard drive in Application/Utilities.

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?

Using Disk Utility's Repair Disk Command with Time Machine

I'm trying to figure out whether or not I can use Disk Utility's Repair Disk command on a Time Machine volume. Time machine is taking a very long time to finalize its backups. I don't know if there are directory issues that need to be addressed or if it's due to the very large size of the directory. I've been using Time Machine on this computer since last January and the Time Machine directory takes up over 7 GB of disk space! It's so large that DiskWarrior will no longer work on that volume. DiskWarrior has a limit of 4 GB. I can't be the only one in this situation. I don't want my Time Machine backup to get hopelessly corrupted and then have to start agin. I'm trying to be proactive about correcting any issues before they become serious.

Jon
So far I haven't a clue as to what is wrong, so until a person stumbles in here with one, maybe you could amuse me with as to how you figured how much space the "catalog" is taking. I surely see nothing funny going on my system, although my Time Machine volume is smaller than yours and I might not be looking in all the right places.

Disk Utility misreading available disk space

Disk Utility and Finder tells me that I only have 8 GB of available space left on my 150GB hard drive. I knew this amount was wrong and I tried OMNI Disc Sweeper that confirmed that I"m only using 52GB of the hard drive. How do I rectify this and have the computer recognize the correct amount of available hard drive space?

You could try and see if the boot installer disc's version of Disk Utility
on the Installer disc of the OS X version you are running, can repair
this disk. It may be a simple matter of how the system reads any
tags on the old data on the drive which was set to be over-written by
the system. A good third party disk utility for your version of OS X
should be able to check and repair most issues if Apple's Disk Utility
may balk at some of the more tedious issues.
Also, if you boot into SafeBoot mode and then run the installed version
of Disk Utility and have it 'repair disk permissions' then when it is done,
quit Disk Utility, and restart the computer normally; that may help and
is non-invasive. And it usually does more good and no harm.
If there actually is a problem on the low-level of the hard disk drive
which may be causing this capacity available volume read error, one
of the cures short of a third party disk utility such as Disk Warrior or
Drive Genius2, using Apple Disk Utility, could be accomplished if
you happened to already be in the habit of making and using full
computer clones of the entire hard drive content on to an external
hard disk drive. Then you could have your full backup, and be able
to totally wipe the hard disk drive, zero-overwrite the old data, and
reformat the hard disk drive (and use repair disk) from the booted
installer disc's Disk Utility; then move back a full clone of your Mac.
Forgoing that option, if what you already have can do the job, then
you can save the other choices and investments for another day.
Good luck & happy computing !

Disk Utility fails to create encrypted disk image

When creating a disk image using 256 bit encryption and a purely numeric password longer than 13 characters the following message appears:
Unable to create "ABC.dmg." (error -60008)
the error happens upon typing the 14th consecutive number into the Password field. I have created images under the same conditions in the past, Not sure if this is caused by Lion.

Looks like one of the drives is bad.
While it passed being zeored with Disk Utility, it failed about 15 minutes into a 'Certify' using SoftRAID.
Now waiting on a replacement drive from Newegg.

Disk Utility create encrypted disk image hangs

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