Disk Utility erase fails after computer wakes up

I'm having an annoying problem with Disk Utility on OS X Lion 10.7.5 failing to erase a harddrive thats plugged into a HDD Docking Station via USB after computer wakes up from screen-off. I have an OCZ Agility 4 SATAIII 512.11 Gb SSD. I'm trying to do a complete erase with 7-Pass Erase so I can use this SSD for my Sony VAIO Laptop so I can ready it for fresh install for Ubuntu.
Now the problem with Disk Utility is that when I've selected 7-Pass Erase, I go away and leave the computer to do it's thing while it erases it, however when I come back and wake the computer screen to come back on, Disk Utility then tells me the erase failed. –– In my System Preferences for Power Saving settings I have the computer set to NEVER sleep, but only put the screen off after a while when not in use (ie; after 30 minutes). My other Sys Prefs settings are also set to ask for login after waking, I've not yet tested without this setting turned off to see if it's cause of problem, but I'll probably give it a shot anyway and see what happens. But I don't see how that would cause the problem since anything working in the background should still remain active while the screen is off just like Time Machine does for example when it does backups since it's USB powered.
Anyway… I think is either some kind of bug/error in Disk Utility or OS X itself. I've tried other Hard Drives and SSD's and they've all worked just about the same, and I don't think it's the HDD Docking Station either because it mounts everything perfectly and runs fine for continus use, I just hope there's a workable solution to fix this annoying problem when waking the screen from sleep. I have tested that it is screen-off that's causing it to fail by pressing the following keys Ctrl + ⇧ + ⏏ to put the screen to sleep, then waking again then entering my password to get back in. I have 1 other thing I've yet to try out, I've currently got it plugged in via USB port on my keyboard, I'll have to try it out on my iMac's main USB's ports to see if that may be part of the problem too.

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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HT1338 I erased my Time Capsule HD using the Disk Utility on my Vista computer

I erased my Time Capsule HD using the Disk Utility on my Vista computer and I now can not see my TC in my computer. I tried to remap it by right clicking my computer and selecting remap drive, but after selecting Z drive I cannot find TC in browser. Not sure if I did something wrong but it was working fine before I erased it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

To erase the OSX on your harddisk you have to boot your Mac from the OSx Install DVD that came with your Mac.
You can't erase the OSx from which your Mac is booted.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910
Stefan

Input/Output Error in Disk Utility w/ Failing HD

Hey Apple Community,
I know others probably have asked this question, but I didn't want to spend an hour looking for the correct solution (if one even exists)...thanks for understanding.
Last night my Mid-2009 Macbook Pro failed to boot after a shutdown. I've had a couple things replaced in the past, but upon restarting in Recovery HD mode, it became obvious that the hard drive was failing (I'm assuming, the S.M.A.R.T. designation in Disk Utility said "failing" in red font). I tried to create an image to an external 1 TB Hard Drive after verifying and a repair attempt, in an attempt to back up my original Hard Drive, but I received the following error message: "Input/Output Error...," and quit the image creation attempt.
I don't have a lot on my computer, about 95% of the original HD was unused. What is important though are prior Graduate School documents, and a few work-related projects. Is there any way to get the information off the HD before it shuts down completely? I am technologically proficient enough to do things on my own, but the local Mac specialists (nearest Apple store is 2 hours away) wanted $150-300 for the work. I can replace the HD myself, so the issue is just getting at least part of the information off the original hard drive onto my external one.
Thank you in advance for any advice/solution/etc you may have! -Matt

Rudiger314 wrote:
Partition Map Scheme: Unformatted
Repair/Verify options are unavailable—buttons grayed out. Erase and Partition options appear to work fine until I press Apply/Erase
1. When Disk Utility starts, select the drive in the sidebar (the line with the size and make/ID).
2. Select the Partition tab, then set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.)
3. Click Options, then choose either GUID (for Intel Macs), or +Apple Partition Map+ (for PPC Macs)
4. For each partition, click on it (it will then be outlined in blue), then supply a name (this is the name that will appear on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar) and size (either by typing in the box or dragging the dividers), and be sure the format type is +Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)+ Don't use any of the other options unless you're sure you need to.
5. When you've got everything the way you want it, click Apply and wait until the process has completed.

Unknown error -50 after computer wakes from sleep.

I've been having a problem for a couple of weeks now. After waking the computer from an extended sleep. I start having strange errors. For example.
*The desktop will not let me move items to the trash. It still makes the trash sound but the folder stays on the desktop. When I try to create a new folder on the desktop, I get "Unknown error occurred (-50)".
*iTunes is unable to save my library, and I get another "unknown error -50". My Mail program will not get mail off the server. I know there is mail because it's on my iPhone. I get no error message with mail. Address book has an error message that my address book file is corrupt, and cannot save. Safari will not shut down even with Force quit.
I have tried to repair my preferences and the disk utility finishes instantly after i start the repair, saying that it's done.
I try to shut down my computer and it hangs because of Safari. I do a hard boot and the computer gets to the apple screen and hangs. I do another hard boot, and the computer restarts, and everything works again.
Is something happening when the computer sleeps that is messing everything up?
I thought I might have a hardware problem so I ran the Hardware check, and it says everything is fine. Anyone else having this problem? I have already tried a clean install, and 2 archive and installs, the first with my preferences and the second without. But I still have the problem... what do I do?
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM41.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.1f5
Brian

Well, I've just gotten off the phone with Apple. After being transferred to a senior technical adviser, his assumption is that it is probably the logic board. We did run the apple hardware test, which it passed. But ironically, I had no mouse function the whole time because it was frozen up in the corner (thank goodness for the enter key).
After lots of silence on the line, he determined that since the computer wasn't even 30 days out of warranty, that he would classify it as Dead on Arrival (since it has had problems straight out of the box, has had repairs and is still having issues), and arranged for sales to contact me (on Monday of course) to replace it. I'm sure it will be another refurb, and I pray that this one treats me well. I'm really tired of loading & reloading all of my data. I have an external drive due to arrive Tuesday that I can create a back-up on of this machine, and transfer it all via Time Machine when the new one is in my hands. So let's hope this is last you hear from me! Thanks!

My Disk Utility Is Gone After a Restore On My Mac.

My Disk Utility Is Gone After a Restore On My Mac.
How can i get it back?

First make sure it's really gone by looking in the Utilities folder. That folder opens when you press the key combination shift-command-U in the Finder. If it is gone, reinstall the OS.

Disk utility/erase and lost HD free space

HELP!
In an attempt to clear up space from deleted files I ran the disk utility>erase>erase free space>35-Pass erase deleted files programme. Then did verify disk permissions and repair disk permissions.
Iv now dropped from 7.8GB of free space to 1.8 of free space on the HD. So that things aren't working right. Plus, I can't download music that I bought on iTunes because there isn't enough space on the HD.
How do I get all that space back? What did I do wrong?
All I was doing was trying to free up space from deleted files that Iv been getting rid of. I know that when you delete from one portion of the HD it doesn't always delete it totally off the system only the portion where you're looking at it.
HELP

Do you by any chance have FileVault enabled?

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space-what does it really do?

Hey Forum,
I am using mac os 10.6.4 on my macbook and i have a doubting question for quite sometimes, what does disk utility erase free space feature really do? Does it gives you more free space? or what? I know it prevents the recovery of deleted files but i want to know what more it does and do not do? Like, now my hdd free space kept increasing and decreasing, by a few 100 mbs or 50mbs etc, so do i erase free space so to solve this problem? Ok, i do not only want to know does it solve the previous problem, but also the questions stated in the whole long paragraph i have wrote. If you know anything related to disk utility's erase free space, feel free to tell me!
Pls help me, I need you guys' help!
Thank you.
Regards
Ala.

Erase free space simply writes zeros over the space occupied by deleted files to prevent data recovery. That's all it does. It does not give you extra disk space.
Your disk space goes up and down a bit because the system creates temporary files and logs which take up space, such as the Safari cache. You can clear these file using a utility like Onyx (which is free)

Killed Disk Utility Erase Free Space. Now 0 available

(I erroneously posted this earlier to the Safari forum; posting here again)
I ran Disk Utility "Erase free space" on my iMac G5 250GB boot drive (I had about 130GB free). It ran for about 50 minutes, and got to "creating temp file" and then seemed to hang (thermometer didn't move for 20 minutes). So I force killed it. It seems to have left that "temp file" that takes up all available space since Disk Utility now reports 0 bytes available (and MS Entourage says insufficient free space and exits). I ran Finder "Secure empty trash" to delete 57 files with no error. But Disk Utility still says 0 bytes available.
First Aid "Verify Disk" reports no problems. "Verify Permissions" reports no problems.
Is there a way to regain my available space?
Thanks,
Ken

Restart did it. Thanks very much.
Ken

Tip on How to Monitor Disk Utility Erase Free Space

When you use the Disk Utility Erase Free Space option, it can sometimes appear to hang and the progress bar isn't always a help.
By accident, I discovered that if you run the Activity Monitor and select Disk Usage, you can in fact monitor progress. The Space Free will gradually tick down, sometimes as slowly as 100K/sec, then when it hits zero, it will quicklt tick back up. If you observe this, just let Disk Utility complete to avoid any issues; Activity Monitor makes it easier to be patiet about this.
Hope this helps.

Great tip, thanks for the post!

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.

Disk Utility "restore" fails with "no such file or directory"

Some time back, perhaps a LONG time ago, I successfully used Disk Utility's "restore" function to "clone" my Mac OS X partition onto an external disk, before I upgraded the OS on my internal drive.
This weekend I tried to do it again, and failed on every attempt.
My first attempt was on my MacBook. At very end (the progress "bar" was all blue) it died saying that there was an error (2), "no such file or directory". I think the external drive probably isn't GUID, which would make it non-bootable, but I'd still think "restore" itself should work.
Okay, let's try my Power Mac G5, which is where it worked several releases ago. Same thing.
Okay, one more try... Booted into safe mode (in case background activity accounts for the missing file/directory), did the restore again, failed again.
I realize that SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner or other tools may be "better", but since this worked once it seems like it still should.
Any ideas?
Doug

Did you:
A. Repair the hard drive and permissions prior to cloning?
B. Erase the destination drive before cloning?
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
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.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
8. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Verify the settings for Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only. If they are not correct then reset them.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space - Creating Temporary File Freezes

BDAqua: I tried responding to your reply to my original posting but I get an error message that I was not authorized to reply. I logged out. I can't find the original posting in my Activity so I approached from the link in my e-mail saying you had replied. Now it says the area is restricted. What's up with that?
Rod
Here's the original post:
I used "Erase Free Space" with Disk Utility after trashing several files I no longer wanted on the hard drive or recovered. I used "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It took over 12 hours before an error message appeared "Your start up disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files." I thought that was what I was doing. Disk Utility continued but got stuck on "Creating Temporary File." I force quit Disk Utility after several more hours. I had to manually shut down the computer because the restart command wouldn't work. It rebooted and appears to be OK. Evidently, this temporary file consumes significant amounts of disk space. This is an older iMac with 10.4.11 (18 GHz PowerPC G5) - I know, pretty old but I still have OS 9 on it and several files I need to extract before I trash it.
1. Should I do nothing? The iMac seems to be working fine.
2. How do I know if this Temporary File exists and consuming space? Spotlight doesn't find it. Where is it?
3. Is my start up disk in fact almost full? How would I know that?

Here's what I tried to say in my response that I wasn't authorize to make:
I can't seem to reply to your response BD . . . says I'm not authorize . . . so I'll try to reply to my original post.
Thanks BD for your reply. Here's the info on the drive: 1.3 TB capacity with 1,017 GB available. Eventually I will recycle the computer at Best Buy who guarantees the hard drive will be erased. I just want to get all my files off first. I'll just do another Erase Free Space and see, as you suggest, if there are any files to be zeroed out. Maybe there aren't any. I've extracted most of what I want but am debating how to move the entire iPhoto library to an external drive so I can access it from my Mavericks machine. Can I just drag and drop the iPhoto Library, or do I need to export it somehow?

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space - Creating Temporary File Freeze

I used "Erase Free Space" with Disk Utility after trashing several files I no longer wanted on the hard drive or recovered. I used "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It took over 12 hours before an error message appeared "Your start up disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files." I thought that was what I was doing. Disk Utility continued but got stuck on "Creating Temporary File." I force quit Disk Utility after several more hours. I had to manually shut down the computer because the restart command wouldn't work. It rebooted and appears to be OK. Evidently, this temporary file consumes significant amounts of disk space. This is an older iMac with 10.4.11 (18 GHz PowerPC G5) - I know, pretty old but I still have OS 9 on it and several files I need to extract before I trash it.
1. Should I do nothing? The iMac seems to be working fine.
2. How do I know if this Temporary File exists and consuming space? Spotlight doesn't find it. Where is it?
3. Is my start up disk in fact almost full? How would I know that?
Thanks!

Then I would not do any secure erasing. It's exceptionally time consuming and unnecessary. Before you take it in for recycling boot it from your OS X installer DVD. Do this:
Drive Partition and Format
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. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply 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 Security 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.
A one-pass Zero Data option is all that is required to prevent access to your erased files.

Disk utility erase problem

I am trying to get my ibook G4 ready for sale. I want to do a secure erase of my hard drive. I followed Apple's instructions on the topic, did a boot from the CD, chose disk utility, then erase, then options, I chose 8 times random, then clicked to go ahead. It ran all day (I expected that) and into the night. When I woke up and checked on it, I saw that it was stuck on "partitioning", the blue progress bar was only about half way, and I had the spinning beach ball. An hour later, no change. So I forced a power down. Can anyone tell me what went wrong? It's a 30g Fujitsu original equipment drive and I use OS 10.3.3.

There's really no need to zero data more than one pass. Do the following:
Prepare Your Mac for Sale
Boot from the OS X Installer Disc One that came with the computer. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities (Installer menu if using Panther or Jaguar) menu. After DU loads select the startup volume from the left side list then click on the Erase tab. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click on the Options button. Select the one pass Zero Data option and click on the OK button. Then click on the Erase button.
Note: You can skip the Zero Data option if you are not concerned about removing sensitive personal data from the hard drive. If you choose to skip this part of the process then it is possible for others to recover data from the hard drive. The Zero Data procedure will prevent others from getting access to your personal information.
This process will take 30 minutes to several hours depending upon the size of the hard drive. After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now complete the OS X installation. At the completion of the installation do not restart the computer. Instead just shut it off. The next user will be presented with the Setup Assistant when they turn on the computer just as it would if new out of the box.

Help! Can I recover Disk Utility erased files?

Hi guys,
Yesterday I was trying to install Leopard because I had software problem that made my ibook get stuck on the loading screen.
Anyway, I was on my last step before it started to install when I got a message saying that I didn't have enough disk space to install the CD. I had just 2.7 GB available and the system required 11 GB. After trying to figure out what to do, I saw the Installer Menu Bar, clicked Open *Disk Utility*, clicked on Erase window, then clicked on one of the drives I saw on the left window. I didn't choose the 27.9 GB TOSHIBA disk, but the one under.
Then from the Volume Format drop-down menu, I selected Mac OS Extended, and selected security option: "Don't Erase Data". Finally, on the right pane of the Disk Utility window, I clicked the Erase tab., and suddenly I had 27 GB available
I thought that this “Erase” option just deleted previous deleted files, but not my whole hard disk.
Then I went back to the install window, and clicked “Install"...knowing that I maybe lost all my data.
I have tried to find my pictures and documents, but they are no where to find.
Have I lost all my data? Is it possible to get it recovered?
Please help me!
Thanks in advance!

sorry, but you are too far into this in order to be able to recover much. Data Rescue II or File Salvage are 2 decent utilities but you then installed software on top of your drive. This is assuring that a huge chunk of that drive is gone forever.
what disk utility meant was that it wouldn't securly delete the data - that is write stuff on top of it. you did just a basic delete / format which deletes the info containing pointers to the files, not the actual files themselves.
but installing OS X after that is going to permanatley delete 11GBs or so of data.
you will need an external drive to even begin this process & there's no garuntee it will work. you can try data rescue for free to see if it finds anything, as file salvage does too.
at this point, it's a shot in the dark.
ALWAYS keep backups & NEVER erase a drive with such important info.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
Message was edited by: kmac1036

Disk Utility erase fails after computer wakes up

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