Disk utility software for external drive

i upgraded my macbook's hard drive so i utilized the original apple HDD into an external drive.
am using ONYX regularly to check on my internal hard drive.
however, i do not know how to check my external hard drive for errors, is there a software capable of doing such a task?

Glad I could help. Thanks for the s.

Similar Messages

  • Bootable backups - disk utility and which external drives

    hi all
    (maybe) a simple question
    i have been using time machine for my back ups but i am now planning to have a second backup program. i'm looking at using a bootable clone in this regard.
    i started looking at super duper and ccc however a few stumbling blokes have just popped up (well at least warning signs that may be of no issue at all - hence this question)
    * can ALL external drives be used for bootable backup purposes?
    I have a couple of western digital ones - my book essential and my passport.
    On the western digital website, it does not have my model numbers listed - does it matter?
    Is it a case of any usb connected external drive can be used for intel macs? - i am getting conflicting views on various postings i have seen re this question
    second part/question is:
    i also understand disk utility can be used for cloning (no updates, just full clones) and as a bootable back up.
    if, just for the purposes for having a back up bootable drive, can i set up a clone without too much regard for recloning it (say every 2 months) and if i need to use it, then boot the mac back up with it and then do a full restore using my up to date time machine backups? am i missing something with that method? is that too simple?
    feedback much appreciated on these 2 areas
    cheers
    peter t

    Crows2012 wrote:
    1) there is no way to make a BOOTABLE clone using disk utility or time machine whatsoever, right? DU will only allow me to make clones and Recovery HD essentially allows me to restore the system (ie software) AFTER booting up?
    Correct with respect to TM; all you get is a copy of the Recovery HD.
    Disk Utility will make a bootable clone, but there are downsides.  First, it can only do a whole copy;  unlike a specialized cloning app, it won't copy just what's new or changed, so takes a long time.  Second, as I understand it, it won't copy to a smaller volume, even if there's plenty of free space on the internal.  For example, if you have a 1 TB internal with only 400 GB on it, DU won't copy it to a 500 GB drive.  I may be wrong, but I've seen that posted here by folks who seem to know.
    does file b here mean aliases of file b in each backup?
    It acts sorta like that, but no.
    There's one copy of the actual file, but two hard links to it, one in each folder.  The file actually "belongs" to both folders at the same time!  The good part of that is, if you delete either backup folder, the other one remains intact.  The downside is, how the heck do you count the size of each folder accurately?
    that was a great read to understand TM workings and attain some level of piece of mind re my question of incremental v differential backups
    It is a bit hard to get your head around!    I've been revising and editing that for several years trying to make it clear.
    And remember, this only applies to TM as far as I know, at least for consumer-level backup apps.
    While it may be possible to boot your computer to an external hard drive, Western Digital does not provide technical support for booting your computer using an external hard drive. If you intend to make a copy of your boot drive, or install your operating system, please use a second internal drive (EIDE or Serial ATA), rather than an external drive.
    Yup.  WD doesn't exactly have a good reputation for support. 
    i guess i'll trial CCC or SD and see what happens with the drives that i have re BOOTABILITY
    I use CCC myself -- it's a great product with great support.
    I downloaded SD a couple of times, but never got around to experimenting with it.  Lots of folks swear by it, and say it also has excellent support.  To a large degree, it just seems to be a matter of which approach and GUI you prefer, but CCC does allow "archiving" of changed and deleted stuff (differently from TM), and can copy Recovery HDs.  I don't think SD does either, but it may have other advantages.
    4) and, i think one final question, and a simple/naive one at that.....if my internal hard drive physically collapses then what are the benefits of that bootable clone v not having one?
    You can start up from the clone and run normally (but likely a bit more slowly), although you probably won't be as up-to-date as you would after restoring to a new or repaired internal, or an external, from TM.  The reason is, running a clone backup, even an incremental one, takes much longer and far more CPU than one of TM's quick incrementals, which it will do hourly if you let it.  Few folks using a clone for an OSX drive do it more than once per day, many only once a week. 
    The downside is, if you run from the clone, you no longer have a backup -- the clone has the only copy of your stuff.  That's one reason many folks who use only a cloning app have two (or more) externals with them.
    Apart from (obviously) being able to start up immediately to do whatever i wanted to do at the time, after i replace the hard drive (if that was to be the case) are there further expenses or much inconvenience suffered due to not having a bootable drive in getting things all sorted internally on the mac? what is the process in that regard, generally speaking
    Just clone the external to the new internal, and you're back in business.
    thanks heaps for your time to answer these and previous questions and to build up my understanding of these topics
    You're quite welcome. 

  • Disk utility wont format external drive

    Hi all
    I have a friends 1 TB toshiba external drive, purchased at office works. I am trying to format it for NTFS so he can use it to watch the movies he is copying on any machine, xbox etc..
    using disk utility I am erasing the 1tb drive with the NTFS format option, then I am creating the partition with NTFS but after formatting, it is only allowing me to read. I have tried formating the hard drive with Mac OSX journaled and then creating the partition at 1tb with NTFS, but getting the same issue.
    I am a little confused as I just did the same thing with my 2TB drive I purchased from Office works as well.
    any ideas?
    bret

    Hi Bret.  I am not sure I fully understand the details of your problem - the mention of another drive (the 2TB one) confused me a little.  I'll try to help though because it doesn't look like anyone has had a chance to reply to your question yet.
    As far as I can see, OS X doesn't write to NTFS formatted drives by default.  It appears you can enable it by altering the mount options, e.g. http://learnaholic.me/2013/11/11/enable-ntfs-write-on-mac-os-x-mavericks/
    Alternatively, perhaps just formatting it as FAT32 would achieve your aim - although now that I check, it doesn't really look suitable as it has a 4GB file size limit and some of the movies could be over that.
    Hope that helps.
    Ivan

  • How did Disk Utility make my external drive undetectable?

    Greetings all,
    It all started when I dropped a running external hard drive (WD My Book Essential) onto the floor.
    I immediately plugged the disconnected USB back into the drive and waited..
    The first pop-up said the drive could not be read so I re-plugged it.
    It worked and I could read files but it took a long time just to show those files in finder.
    There was obviously a problem with the drive so I opened up Disk Utility and clicked Verify Disk.
    When it was finished verifying I noticed it changed my disk name from "My Book" to "disk1s1." 
    I also got a message saying "This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk."
    I proceed to click Repair Disk only to end with a message saying "Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s1”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
    At this point I followed the instructions on screen and proceeded to copy files from the external drive to my internal drive.
    After pasting some files, the usual popup indicating transfer information was stuck at zero. 
    After a long time of waiting it still remained at zero so I had to force close finder and restart.
    Once I restarted the Macbook Pro, my external hard drive no longer showed up on my desktop nor Disk Utility.
    It still spins but stops after a minute.
    Below is the log from Disk Utility.
    Any help regarding this issue will be appreciated.
    2012-11-14 16:47:00 +0800: Disk Utility started.
    2012-11-14 16:49:29 +0800: Verifying volume “My Book”
    2012-11-14 16:49:29 +0800: Starting verification tool:
    2012-11-14 16:53:40 +0800: Checking file system2012-11-14 16:53:40 +0800: Checking Volume /dev/disk1s1...                                               
    2012-11-14 16:53:58 +0800: This is not an NTFS volume.                                                   
    2012-11-14 16:54:39 +0800: Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.2012-11-14 16:54:39 +0800:
    2012-11-14 16:54:39 +0800: Disk Utility stopped verifying “disk1s1”: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
    2012-11-14 16:55:09 +0800:
    2012-11-14 16:55:22 +0800: Verify and Repair volume “disk1s1”
    2012-11-14 16:55:22 +0800: Starting repair tool:
    2012-11-14 16:55:22 +0800: Checking file system2012-11-14 16:55:22 +0800: Checking volume.
    2012-11-14 16:55:22 +0800: Checking main boot region.
    2012-11-14 16:55:35 +0800: Volume repair complete.2012-11-14 16:55:35 +0800: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.2012-11-14 16:56:14 +0800: Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.2012-11-14 16:56:14 +0800:
    2012-11-14 16:56:14 +0800: Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk1s1”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
    2012-11-14 16:56:44 +0800:
    2012-11-14 16:58:08 +0800: Disk Utility started.
    2012-11-14 16:58:14 +0800: Eject of “WD My Book 1140 Media” succeeded
    2012-11-14 17:04:21 +0800: Eject of “WD My Book 1140 Media” failed

    In a word, it appears that the "dropped" external drive is physically damaged internally, and so can't run "Repair Disk" properly.  Time for a new external hard drive.
    Hope this helps

  • Disk Utility "waiting for the drive"

    I'll be calling Applecare on this, but would like to know if anyone else has experienced this problem:
    I have a 2 month old MBP with the following model Super Drive:
    HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N (according to System Profiler, it can write to all formats including -R, +R, DL). From another thread, I assume this is an LG?
    I decided to test the drive - made a short 40 second movie and created a disk image. Upon opening Disk Utility and inserting a DVD (Verbatim +R), I got the following: "waiting for the drive" for 5 minutes. Ejected the disk and tried again - same result.
    On the third try, it actually recognized the DVD, but only gave me the option to burn at 4x or 8x. I usually burn at the slowest speed available (2x), so I cancelled, ejected the disk and tried again. Fourth and fifth tries: no action, just "waiting for the drive".
    I then tried to use Toast with the Super Drive; before inserting the disk, I set Toast to burn at 2x, but once I inserted the disk, Toast recognized it, but changed the available burn options to 4x or 8x.
    Next I connected my external burner and got the options to burn at 2.4x, 4x, or 8x both in Disk Utility and Toast.
    I then used the same disk on my iMac; tried both the Super Drive and my external burner (using both Disk Utility and Toast with both) and got the following burn options:
    iMac Super Drive/Disk Utility: 2.4x, 4x, 8x
    iMac/external burner/Toast: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x
    There seem to be a couple of issues:
    The "waiting for the drive" problem (what could possibly cause this?)
    The "non-availability" of a slow burn speed of the Super Drive
    And a third problem: this DVD drive is the slowest I've ever experienced; it took 50 seconds for the icon to appear on the desktop after inserting the DVD vs. 7 seconds on the iMac (this is the DVD I burned using Toast/exterbal burner,testing it on a TV and the iMac). It played fine on all three.
    Has anyone encountered a similar "waiting for the drive" issue and/or the fact that this drive takes a very long time to recognize/read a DVD?
    Appreciate any input!

    I spoke with a product specialist at Apple and it was agreed that we'd wait to see if the problem persisted; at that time, we'd talk about getting the drive replaced.

  • Using Disk Utility to format external drive as Apple extended?

    Hello - I just bought a 750G Lacie USB hard drive, am attempting to reformat it from FAT32 to Mac Extended. However, when I attempt to 'erase' the drive and replace it with Mac Extended, I get the following error message:
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Preparing to erase : “ReadyNAS”+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Partition Scheme: Master Boot Record+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: 1 volume will be created+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Name : “ReadyNAS”+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Size : 698.6 GB+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Creating partition map.+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:26 +0100: Formatting disk1s1 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name ReadyNAS.+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:27 +0100: Disk Erase failed with the error:+
    +File system formatter failed.+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:28 +0100: Erase complete.+
    +2009-04-28 22:12:28 0100:
    +2009-04-28 22:12:28 +0100: Disk Utility failed during an unspecified action with the error:+
    I can reformat it as FAT32, no problem.
    Any clues? Thanks!

    Use the "partition" tab in Disk Utility, set it to "1 Partition" click the "Options" button, and choose "GUID".

  • Disk Utility and Bad External Drive

    I have a drive that has just suddenly started to not be recognised by the system. It's a pain but no big deal as I didn't have much on it. However, I don't want to just give up on 200GBs of space and tried to erase/partition it. Nothing happens though, the progress bar fills up by about 2mm and then hangs, left it overnight, everything. The thing is the drive is still seen by DU, so does anyone have any other suggestions or recommendations for recovery software? Any help would be mucho appreciated....

    TechTool Pro 4.6.2 is what I use now after 8 yrs of Disk Warrior.
    Data Rescue II is one option if you don't have files backed up.
    SuperDuper is great for cloning and backup, once you are able to.
    A couple of backups (don't put all your eggs in one basket), too.
    http://www.macsales.com/firewire/
    With a new drive, it sometimes makes sense to zero the drive first. Formatting just tests the first and last 100 sectors for bad blocks. TechTool can test media for bad blocks but not map them out, zero all 'might' or there is Intech Speedtools.
    http://www.speedtools.com
    Sorry TimeMachine isn't current.
    The first time you have a hard crash is when you want to do Safe Boot or FSCK, or boot from an alternate drive immediately and trash the most recent temp and cache files (web browers etc).
    Leopard Cache Cleaner can 'clean' caches even while booted from another drive. Having that emergency boot drive/partition is therefore essential for running DW and other programs.

  • How to recover after performing an 'Erase' and then 'Partition' within Disk Utility of an External USB drive?

    Hi - I accidently ran an 'Erase' and then 'Partition' within Disk Utility of an External USB drive (meant to run it against another drive that was plugged in).  Does anyone have any suggestions on if it is possible to recover from this?  It has all my family photos on it and my backup is a few months old :-(
    I tried running Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery but it found what looks like basic mac folder structure (probably from the first erase).  I think what messed me up was that I rain the repartition which formats the drive a 2nd time!  Any help is truly appreciated!
    thank you,
    -Steve

    Hello RalphR_MI,
    Take a look at this page, which lists several articles.  Please let me know if any of these help you restore your backup.
    Also, take a look at this article, as well as this one. 
    I hope this helps.  I'm not sure of a few things, so I'm sorry for sending you so much, but I'm confident it will give you something new to try.
    Please let me know if this helps.  Good luck!
    ↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

  • Disk Utility killed my external hard drive

    I was having a problem with not being able to erase files from my external WD 2T MY passport HDD, and so I decided to use disk utility. Now the drive won't mount. When I run disk utility now, this is what I get. Please help. I have many files on there which I need. I can live with buying a new drive, but I can't recover the files if the drive won't mount.

    Thanks for all the comments. It looks like my drive is heading to the big round up in the sky. But I am able to copy the files off of it to other drives . So I went out and bought a new drive which I am using. My new question, which is related, I use this for my Time Machine files. Is there a way to migrate those files to the new drive, or do I just start over from zero? Thanks

  • How does disk utility decide which optical drive to use for burn?

    This is a somewhat daft question and purely out of interest.
    How does disk utility decide which optical drive bay to open for burning?
    I have two drives in a MacPro and both have the same capabilities (DVD-RW). Why does it sometimes open the lower one, and sometimes the top one?

    Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
    The estimate is based on how long it already took to do how many blocks, and how many blocks are left to do. If you told it to overwrite 35 times, it will be a long, long time before it completes.
    The estimate is made grossly large by the presence of Bad Blocks that need to be Read during the test (not the case with Erase and Write Zeroes).
    Each Block is written with some redundancy bits, so that small errors can be corrected on reading. A Bad Block causes the drive to re-read. and re-read, and re-read, in hopes of getting correctable data the next time. This should NOT be an issue in writing. But if the drive stops responding (which can and does happen with a bad drive) the Erase function will just sit there, thinking it is making progress, and stretching out the time.
    Thanks, Grant.
    If I read your reply correctly, Erase and Zero Out free space shouldn't elongate the process, because there's no read occurring.
    The drive will not be Mounted while Disk Utility works on it, so it will not be on the Desktop. But ask Apple System Profiler \[ About this Mac > More Info > Serial ATA ] if the drive is still THERE . If it cannot be seen, you have your answer -- the drive dropped out of sight while being tested -- Bad Drive.
    Well, now I am confused. It's a FW800 drive. It's on the Desktop. And it appears under FireWire in System Profiler. AND Disk Utility shows a mount point. But the Unmount and Eject buttons are grayed out.
    Will the drive be mounted if it fails to respond to Disk Utility? That doesn't seem to make sense.
    How do I determine its status? It appears to be stuck at "1 day, 5 hours" but it'll take an hour for that to change. I think it's been that long since I first noticed the time.
    Harv

  • Best recovery application for external drives?

    I have a Western Digital 500GB external drive I picked up maybe 4 or 5 years ago that I wasn't really using much, but had been the last couple weeks.  Transfered some things over to it on Sunday.   Noticed last night that it wasn't showing up on the desktop.  Went to Disc Utilities and noticed that while the drive itself was accessable, the specific drive was greyed out.   Tried to mount it manually, and no go.
    Doing a disk utility repair of the drive on my current computer (iMac Core i7, running Lion) tells me there is no problem.  Doing a disk utility repair of the specified drive tells me there is a partition being updated... but nothing ever updates.
    So I unplugged it and hooked up my old iMac (Intel Core 2 Duo, running Panther) and tried to repair it that way.  Now it tells me that the drive has an invalid header volume on that computer, and claims it has repaired the hard drive... but yet, again nothing.
    From every indication, the drive itself has all my stuff... I just can't get to it.  And I know there are a handful of products that can scan the drive and help me retrieve the files.   Does anyone have any suggestions?  Any of the ones from the App Store, perhaps?
    Thanks.

    General File Recovery
    If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro.  Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.  Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk.  Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
    The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
    Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

  • How to move Startup Disk clone from one external drive to another?

    I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
    Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive.  I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone.  This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion. 
    The upgrade to Mountain Lion went well, and now, before I put any additional apps or much additional data on the original internal  Macintosh HD drive, I want to use Disk Utility again to clone the drive so I'll have a snapshot of the system right after the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
    Questions: 
    Is there any way to use the same LaCie drive that now holds the Lion startup disk clone to hold the yet-to-be-done Mountain Lion startup disk clone?  
    If not, how can I move the Lion startup disk clone from the oversized LaCie external drive to a drive more the size of the Lion clone (approx 140G)?   The LaCie drive is far too roomy and nice to have sitting gathering dust for only 140G to be used in an emergency restore. 
    Thanks in advance for your advice.

    Good info Csound1, and thanks. 
    So my final question (I think):  How does one move/copy a startup disk clone from one external drive to another, and still have it bootable on the new external drive?   I'm still considering freeing this LaCie drive up for more dynamic storage and getting another drive for the bootable startup disk clones IF I can move this Lion startup disk clone to a new external drive. 
    I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone?  As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive?  Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive? 
    Thanks again; wonderful forum here with very smart people.  

  • "Repair Disk" option in Disk Utility need to repair drive.

    I have a Seagate GoFlex Desk 2TB external hard drive. I use it as a backup drive for Time Machine. When I plug it into my iMac it dosen't open, I opened Disk Utility and clicked "Verify Drive" and then I got this...
    I have backups on this drive. If I click "Repair Drive" will I lose the data on the drive?

    After I Repair the drive this is what I get...
    What should I do now? Is my drive bad?

  • Weird Disk Repair warning for backup drive

    I used to run Time Machine and Silver Keeper (Lacie software that came with my 2TB backup drive). Both backed up to separate partitions. Yesterday I decided to stick with Time Machine only. So I deleted the Silver Keeper's partition and then extended Time Machine's partition for all of the drive. I used Disk Utility to do this.
    This morning, when I turned my computer on, I got this error after starting up:
    "Disk Repair
    The disk "2TB-TM" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible."
    Well, I was able see the drive on the Desktop and access all the backup files--until running Disk Utility. TechTool Deluxe does not see the drive. But Disk Utility does see the drive. But the Verify/Repair Permissions is greyed-out. When I click the Verify and Repair Disk buttons, I get this error (in bold red letters):
    Invalid record count
    Volume check failed.
    Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
    I can reformat this drive as it recommends. But I'd rather not if it's a simple fix. Any suggestions?

    Eric Basir wrote:
    OK, I'll reformat. I'm assuming that will fix the problem and my drive will be back to its normal self. I also assume that I messed it up with that repartitioning. Do I need to worry about my drive being broken or replaced?
    that's hard to say now. reformat and see what happens.

  • Disk utility, software update, garage band,  security, etc. will not open.

    I tried to update my itunes about 2 weeks ago. it started downloading, maybe it did all the way, i dont know. because everything stopped working. i can use safari/firefox, office programs and some others but when i try opening disk utility, software update, security (and other programs) they will not open. they come up in the bar at the bottom of the screen for a second then vanish with no warning or error (and no program actually opens).
    at first i just deleted itunes completely thinking that was it but now I cant even download that again, as I cant use disk utility to open in.
    also, i cant backup my files, i have no way. if i run the reinstall disk will it delete all my files or is there a way to only modify files?
    thanks in advance for any advise!

    Hi, and a warm welcome to the forums!
    Qyuick, do thus 1st...
    "Try Disk Utility
    1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
    2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, *you must select your language first.)*
    *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
    3. Click the First Aid tab.
    4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
    5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
    6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    Then boot off the HD and...
    About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature...
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
    Reboot needed if many Permissions are fixed, and possibly reapply latest Combo Update also.

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