Disk utility won't let me erase my hard drive

I'm giving my old PowerBook to a family member and want to erase the HD and reinstall 10.5.4 fresh. I opened Disk Utility and selected Erase and the drive bu the Erase... button is not available (transparent). How do I do this?

That or another Mac OS X installation.
(58310)

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I need to erase my hard drive. But the disks are grey when I go to Disk Utility. How can I erase the hard drive?

I need to erase my hard drive. But the drives are grey when I go to Disk Utility.

Restart the computer with the Command and R keys held down and use the Disk Utility from there. If you're going to sell or give away the computer, press Option as well.
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Disk Utility won't let me erase or change the partitions on my external USB hard drive. What should I do?

I can't use the 'erase' function in my disk utility program or set up different partitions with my external USB drive. As I am able to do this for another external hard drive, I assume the problem is not a software problem but connected to this specific USB drive. However, I wonder what other options do I have? Is there any software that can 'force' a complete deletion of everything of the USB drive?

That or another Mac OS X installation.
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Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

If you're truly running 10.6.8, there is no Recovery partition - that didn't come along until 10.7x.
You'll need to use the set of gray discs that originally shipped with your model. If you don't have them, you can always get your serial number from the bottom of the casing and call Apple to get a set of replacement discs. These will run you about $20 + shipping & taxes. Once you have the discs, boot from Disk One and use Disk Utility to erase your HD and then reinstall whichever version of OS X that shipped with your model. No way around of getting the discs.
Clinton

Won't let me copy to hard drive post power surge

Ok, to make a long story short, I hope, I had an electrical fire (everyone's ok) that involved and destroyed my laptop's power cord and as part of that fun I seem to have had a power surge that has reset some of the defaults on my computer but not all. Some of the folders I created prior to the surge are gone, etc. The only real problem is that the permissions on my internal hard drive seem to have been reset. Below are the things it will and will not allow me to do.
-- I cannot copy files from a flash drive, cd or external hard drive to the internal hard drive. I get that circle with a line through it. Clicking and dragging, copy/paste, nothing works.
-- I can move stuff that is already on the internal hard drive from folder to folder.
-- I can save email attachments to the internal hard drive.
-- I can copy stuff from internal the hard drive to a flash drive, cd or external hard drive.
-- I can read the files on flash drives, cds or external hard drives, such as a movie file, just fine, they run without a glitch. The peripherals did not suffer any resets as a result of the fire/power surge. When it happened the computer shut down automatically and I think that saved the accessories from being damaged because the computer is the only thing that showed any changes after it happened.
And before someone asks, yes, I checked, I have 40 GB of HD space so it's not a space issue.
I right clicked on MAC HD and did the Get Info and looked at the details of the permissions on various files and tried shifting some of those around but even though it says Read and Write it still won't let me copy to the internal drive from other sources. Interestingly when I got to the User file it was marked Read Only but changing it to Read Write didn't help. Something I did once worked but then it stopped working so I have no idea what it was. I put everything back the way it was. Could somebody please help me? My computer is old and dieing a slow painful death but if I can make it last a little longer that will make my life so much easier. Please let me know if you need any system info or anything.
*Thank you!!*
PS. I'm not posting this on the peripheral thread because the problem isn't really the peripherals, it's the system not wanting to play nice with others, so that's why I put this over here.

Hi. It's not a dumb question, cause if it is then my answer is really stupid, what's a repair permission? lol I don't know what that is so I guess the answer is no, though I can guess from the name it's a program to fix permissions if the files get messed up? I knew how to change the permissions in Get Info but past that I was getting into things I don't know so I figured it was time to ask for help or I'd be on here asking how to un-erase a hard drive. jk So how would I do that and is there anything else I should do?
Sorry if my initial post was a bit defensive. I had a moderator give me flak over some minor thing on a post once and I was supremely frustrated with this problem. Sorry if it came out kinda angry. I appreciate any help you can give me.

Disk Utility and DiskWarrior can't fix my hard drive. How?

For some strange reason, my startup external Firewire hard drive decided not to work.
Used my Mac internal startup disk and ran Disk Utility and I got this only error message:
*Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit*
Couldn't even mount it. So, I ran DiskWarrior 4.1 and the external FW HD showed up as an *Unknown Disk* and it stated +Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (-36, 2268).+
Ran TechTool Pro 4.6.1 and the FW HD passed the Read Write test but failed on the Surface Scan with lots of bad blocks.
So, is this a gone case? Any other method or utility to revive the FW HD?

Hard drive failures are not that uncommon because hard drives still have moving parts. Since TechTool's surface scan came back with a lot of bad blocks and DiskWarrior noted that there was a hardware failure, my guess would be that the disc itself may be damaged or scratched.
There are companies that can recover data from damaged discs, but I would not put too much effort into reusing this particular drive.
Keith

Disk Utility won't let me do anything with broken flash drive?

Hi there,
I own an 8GB SanDisk flashdrive that recently, and out of nowhere, changed permissions to write only. I feel like this may have something to do with the fact that when it was in my old Macbook I would close the screen with it still inserted and it would eject itself and the drive has possibly become corrupt because of this happening one too many times? Anyhow, when moving files around and to my new Macbook and what not, I tried to move some from this USB and it wouldn't let me. I eventually worked out that it would let me copy the files and paste them elsewhere, but now I have this flash drive with a bunch of files that can still be read and I don't know what to do with it because it won't let me delete them either. When I try it comes up with "The item can't be moved to the trash because it can't be deleted." I've tried Disk Utility and this is what happens under the First Aid, Erase and Partition options
I've also tried the appropriate commands in terminal to try to get the disk utility to respond and I kept recieving error messages there too. Also, when I click on the volume underneath the disk it shows all the space that all the files that are very much there are taking up but then also says there's zero files.
Anyone know what on earth is going on?! I mean I know the USB has probably just had it but I'm wondering if there's any possible way I can repair or erase it at this point?

I suspect that the USB is dead. This is the result I get when I insert my USB drive formatted the same as yours:
Note that the options are not grayed out.
You might connect it to a PC, if available, and see if there is any difference.
Ciao.

Disk Utility won't let me format external drive to FAT32

Maybe this cannot be done or the answer is simple and I am missing it. I have a 1.5tb Maxtor drive hooked up via fw800. I want to have 120gb of this as Mac OS extended journaled to back up my internal drive via Time Machine. I want the other 1.38tb to be in FAT32 so I can share files between my windows and mac machines. I keep all of my external storage except for the backup partition in FAT32. I have never had an issue until I upgrades to Leopard and now when I click on the larger partition I only have the option for the 4 mac formats-- FAT32 is not available. I can format the entire 1.5tb to FAT32 but once I try and partition it only mac formats are available. I forgot to mention I just did the upgrade to 10.5.1 and the issue is still present.
How do I format the smaller partition as mac os extended journaled and the larger as FAT32? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Patrick
PS. I did a search but did not find anything.
Message was edited by: PatrickB

It may depend on the type of partition table scheme you are using (see bottom of page in disk utility for that says Apple Partition Map/APM, GUID Partition table/GPT or Master Boot Record/MBR partition map).
MS-Windows can read MBR scheme only (64 bit MS-Windows supports GPT, according to MS). If you have Apple Partition Map, your disk won't be usable on Windows. I suspect you have APM partition table and hence the disk utility is not giving the option for FAT32 format, since you can't use it under MS-Windows.
On the Mac side, all 3 schemes are readable (for bootability, you'll need APM on PPC Macs, GPT for Intel Macs). Time Machine doesn't need a bootable disk, but I'd suggest APM/GPT if you are using PPC/Intel macs respectively (but I'd think either will work for Time Machine, if you have a mix of Macs).
But here's the catch - Apple says Time Machine won't work with drives with MBR partition map (even though Macs are MBR-aware), so the issue for you is Time Machine's ability to use MBR drives. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306932
I suspect unless you are on an Intel Macs (OS X) and use only 64 bit MS-Windows (using GPT)/Itanium, using the same disk for TM and FAT32 sharing between Mac and Win worlds is not possible. Not the desirable answer.
If you do want to experiment, make a temporary setup and try it out on both Mac side and Windows side first (on all your machines), before making a "production" system. You can select the DISK (first line on Disk Utility for that disk, not second line) and click on Options at the left bottom (it might have to be erased first) and then select the type of partition scheme. Note formats like HFS+/FAT32 are a level lower in the hierarchy than partition map/table.
Let us know what you find out/decide?

Disk utility doesn't let me erase flash drive

Hello Everyone!
Today I have encountered a very annoying problem. So I put my flash drive into my computer and it worked fine. But in the permissions it said I can read only. I knew what to do - I went to Disk utility. I expected to be able to just erase the drive but no. It wasn't letting me. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Thanks

Some flash drives have a failure mode in which they are irreversibly write-locked by the internal controller when it detects a write error. If the drive doesn't have a write-lock switch (most do not) and you can't erase it in Disk Utility, that's almost certainly what has happened. To be sure, test it with another computer, if possible.

Disk Utility won't let me select "Repair" button - help!

I'm trying to upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.4. When I run Installation, it fails and gives me a message that I need to repair my hard drive. So I restarted from the DVD, selected Disk Utility, clicked on my hard drive and was able to click on Verify. When it got done, it said the disk needed repairs. But the Repair button is grayed out. Any suggestions on either the trouble with the install or why I can't select Repair?
Thanks.

Usually, being able to select the internal HD and click on Verify but not Repair indicates one is actually booted up from the internal HD rather than the optical drive. Which drive is shown at the top of the Disk Utility list on the left?
What 10.4 version (e.g., 10.4.8) is shown on your retail black label Tiger 10.4 Install disc?
You can also try repairing the drive using the file system check fsck utility in single user mode, as described in Using Disk Utility and fsck.
When making disk repairs, repeat the repair until the utility reports no problems found or until it reports being unable to make further repairs. It's possible for one disk directory problem to mask another.

Disk Utility won't let me repair disk

Hello Mac helpers,
When I run Disk Utility on my hard disk it reports: "First Aid Failed.
The Underlying Task Reported Failure on Exit."
Also:"1 HFS Volume Checked
Volume Needs Repair."
However the "Repair Disk" button does not illuminate so I cannot repair the disk as instructed.
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

You will need to contact Apple if you no longer have the recovery disks that came with your MacBook. They will probably charge you for a replacement. Thanks for the .

Disk Utility won't let me repair my 300HD

I ran a "verify disk" on my 300GB internal hard drive and this is what it gave me:
Verifying volume “300 Drive”
Checking 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.
*Volume Header needs minor repair*
*The volume The volume ve needs to be repaired.*
*Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit*
*1 HFS volume checked*
* Volume needs repair*
I want to click on "repair disk" but it won't give me the option.
when i click on my 60GB Macintosh Hard drive it does give me the option, but that one needs no repairs.
and I also noticed that on the "Mount Point" it just has this /. and it seems i can click on it...
on the 60Gig one on "Mount Point" it has /Volumes/Macintosh HD...
is that part of my problem with the 300HD??
can someone please help?
also, my mac has insomnia :/
i haven't been able to put it to sleep for a month or two now...
-Cris-

This is for a Mac that won't sleep.
Here is Apple doc.#303698 with their tips.
Mine follow;
USB devices and hubs often cause Macs to not sleep or wake quickly from sleep (notably HP printers and scanners, HP all in ones, and Cannon scanners). Disconnect all USB except for keyboard and mouse and try. If it sleeps, add one back at a time testing after each one to find the culprit.If you've set your Mac to receive faxes, it may not be able to sleep. It might also have a damaged preferences file.
If you use your Mac for faxing, open System Preferences. click Print & Fax, click the Faxing tab, and uncheck the Receive Faxes On This Computer box.
If that doesn't work or you've never faxed on your Mac, go to Finder/Hard Drive /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist and com..apple.AutoWake.plist files (if your Mac asks, type your admin. password).
If the latter file isn't present in the folder, go to user name(probably your name)/Library/Preferences, delete the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file, and reboot your Mac.
Hope this helps!
P.S. One member here reported this (Michael Gleason);
"I have had this problem with my IMac G5. It is surprisingly irritating. LaCie's Silverkeeper backup software was the cause. By default it gave itself permission to wake up the computer to check if a backup was needed. Do you have this or a similar program installed which has scheduled activities including wake-up permissions as an option?"
Dave Hamilton provided this link, xlr8yourmac.com, to a member, which addresses failure of deep sleep with some users that updated and added new FireWire and USB cards.
Also, here is Apple doc.#305262 about PCI cards and sleep.
tomhorvat adds this; After few days of messing around I found out that I had desktop background (wallpaper) set to change every 1 minute.
After unchecking "Change picture..." in system preferences (under Desktop/Screen saver), my powerbook went to sleep all by itself.
Tristan Currier noticed this; "I have a Canon printer(shared) and my imac would not sleep. I opened up printer/fax in system prefs and noticed it said the printer was in use when it was off. Opened up the printer queue and noticed about 7 pending documents. Deleted them all and now it sleeps.
Check the printer queue!"
Good Luck!  DALE

Disk utility won't let me resize Time Machine partition

My Time Machine is a 400GB partition of a 1 TB external HD. There is another 600GB partition that is empty. In Disk Utility I was expecting a dot/divider between the two partitions so that I could resize them. It is not there and and when I select the TimeMachine partition is says 'This Partition will not be modified'.
Can I re-size ( increase) the TimeMachine partition? or do I have to delete and recreate?
My Timemachine backs up a 500MB HD in my iMac (40% full) and a 500 MB external HD for iTunes (22% full) (including AppleTV content).
I was thinking of making the TimeMachine partition 1TB? does that make sense?
..Bob

bobwild wrote:
My Time Machine is a 400GB partition of a 1 TB external HD. There is another 600GB partition that is empty. In Disk Utility I was expecting a dot/divider between the two partitions so that I could resize them. It is not there
what do you mean? what's not there? the divider? that can't be. please explain exactly what you are seeing in disk utility. first, you can only increase the TM partition using DU if it's the upper partition when viewed in DU. if it's the lower one then you can not increase it with disk utility. secondly, the other partition should be deleted, not just empty. you can delete it using the minus sign in the partition tab in DU. then grab the lower right end of the TM partition and drag it all the way down to cover the free space left by the former 600GB partition. then click "apply".
and and when I select the TimeMachine partition is says 'This Partition will not be modified'.
Can I re-size ( increase) the TimeMachine partition? or do I have to delete and recreate?

I want to make a .iso to backup my computer - disk utility won't let me

Just like the title says - disk utility refuses to back up my computer as a disk image. I've tried the hard disk, and the Mac HD volume, but it both cases disk utility tells me "resource busy"...***? What should I do to get around this problem? I thought it might be errors on my hard disk or hd volume, but disk utility seems impotent to take any action saying:
"Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking 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.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Are these processes related? Are errors on my HD volume causing disk utility to not backup my computer?
Any and all help is appreciated!
Vincenso

Vincenso, you need to repair that error first, but it can't be done while booted from it.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Tiger 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 Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it finishes.
And where are you trying to put the ISO?
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Have a look at Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6897/synchronize!-pro-x
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Disk Utility won't let me delete the partition disk

can some body help me for that ...?

What specific steps have you tried so far. Is your disk full (with only a few GB left on it)? When you go to Disk Utility, are you selecting your drive device (above the listed volumes) or are you selecting your boot volume or other volumes in an attempt to split them up?

Disk utility won't let me erase my hard drive

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