Disk Utility (Zero Out)

I'm looking to Zero out my HD and I've gone into Disk Utility where I have something that looks like this:
*HD IMAGE* 232.9 GB ST#######AS Q Media
*HD IMAGE* B1U3B0Y (this one is tabbed in a bit.. kinda like a sub menu..)
Do I want to Zero out the top one or the one below it?
Thanks for your help!

The top one is the drive, the other is the volume on the drive (if the drive is partitioned, there cane be more than one volume). Since you have only one volume, it doesn't make much difference whether you select the dive or volume.

Similar Messages

Disk Utility Zero Out Data option

I read that it can be good to write zeros to all sectors of a new external disk right away. The Zero Out Data option in the Disk Utility Erase operation states that it "writes zeros over all data on the disk". Does it actually write zeros over every sector on the disk or just sectors with data? The 7 Pass Erase option states that it "writes data over the entire disk seven times". I'm guessing this means all sectors get zeroed out whether they contain data or not. The different wording suggests that these operations do different things. Any one have clarification? Thank you.

For those who may have to reformat a new hard disk drive, one may as
well take a little more time and have another cup or three of coffee...
and let the computer utility write zeros in one pass; maybe even twice.
Some new computers, especially some sold in a few geek guy stores,
had their bogus utilities installed; an additional $40. charged on each.
If you liked it or not. Same computer elsewhere, -40 but no geek app.
And their choice caused some people issues with their new non-PC.
The best avenue was to boot from OS X install disc & choose secure
erase, and totally over-write the new computer's corrupted software.
And choose the install option after disk utility ran, and start over right.
With the correct partition map, reformat and a new full install.
New and planned replacement upgrade hard disk drives can be put
into an external HDD enclosure ahead of schedule, if not a tower;
and ready them for later use; even test them thoroughly if desired.
Especially if the computer the HDD is intended for, is hard to open.
The main consideration, other than product testing, or in feeling all
warm and techie inside, is the amount of time this sort of thing takes.
The impatient won't hold up under the strain of loftier commitments.
Oh well... coffee is cheaper if you get yours from Kona directly.
Good luck & happy computing!

I just got a WD My Passport 1TB External Harddrive and i have already backed everything up to it but im still a little nervous about erasing things off the physical drive since it says my disk utility is out of space an implying i need to erase items.

I just got a WD My Passport 1TB External Harddrive and i have already backed everything up to it but im still a little nervous about erasing things off the physical drive on my macbook pro since it says my disk utility is out of space an implying i need to erase items.
I cant find the options to erase selected items it only shows that i can erase everything.
I mean technically i suppose i could erase everything an have a fresh start since its backed up to my external. But what exactly are the specific items being erased?
I have bought the newest OS X 10.8.2 an worried that it will get erased also an end up having to repurchase it.
Can anyone help me?
<Personal Information Edited by Host>

Black_Chevy07 wrote:
I just got a WD My Passport 1TB External Harddrive and i have already backed everything up to it but im still a little nervous about erasing things off the physical drive on my macbook pro since it says my disk utility is out of space an implying i need to erase items.
I cant find the options to erase selected items it only shows that i can erase everything.
I mean technically i suppose i could erase everything an have a fresh start since its backed up to my external. But what exactly are the specific items being erased?
I have bought the newest OS X 10.8.2 an worried that it will get erased also an end up having to repurchase it.
Can anyone help me?
If you are trying to delete some files get out of Disk Utility, it is not for that!
How did you backup and what are you trying to achieve?
Please post the exact error messages(s) you have received.

Does the "Zero Out Data" feature in Disk Utility map out bad sectors/blocks?

I would like a definite answer on this one. I have heard that is does and that it doesn't.

Yes it does.
The way it works is this, your drive normally tries to write to sectors and if it can't write to one or more, then it writes someplace else and maps the bad sectors off in the driver software.
That's how it's supposed to work.
What I believe what happens is drives are made, but not checked for bad sectors at the factory as this is a considerable time consuming process.
So when a computer comes down the line, it's hard drive is just injected factory style the data it needs right on the drive, over bad sectors and everything.
Now it could be that, and or it could be the result of time and the drive sitting and being shipped. Normally the heads are locked.
Whatever, if you move a drive while the heads are over the platters, they can strike the platters and cause data loss from bad sectors. So it's important not to move or jar the computer while the hard drive is spinning, why Mac's have Sudden Motion Sensors built in.
So, if data is laid over bad sectors, or one has possibly damaged their drive slightly and the data on it, could result in glitchy or unexplained behavior.
Large files like video that take much space on the drive are more likely to encounter bad sectors and thus become incomplete when read later.
What the Disk Utility > Erase with Zero option does, is it tries to write 0's to EVERY BIT on the drive. A sector is made up of bits, 1's and 0's so this method ensures every bit is checked if it can be written too or not.
If a sector fails, then it's mapped off, never to be written too again.
When one places their data on the drive after a Zero, it's on 100% reliable bits and sectors. Thus there is less chance of file corruption when it's read later.
A video production guy told me this little trick as they have huge files so thus needed very reliable data retention and recovery.
I've been using this technique with all new drives for decades now and it's worked for me, unless I forget to do it.
Like anything, others may not require perfection. Regular users with small files all the time likely will lose a file here and there and go about living with it.
Big files are a different story obviously. So optional, not mandatory.
If your confident you can reinstall your operating system, then that's one thing, but if your not, then don't bother.

Disk repair button in disk utility greyed out and I cant repair my disk

Safari stopped working totally and I downloaded it again but it wont allow me to install it onto the hard drive saying it cant use the software. Disk utility has detected that the disk needs repair but the repair button is blanked out.
Also I have password issues because it wont recognise my master password even though I know what it is. Even though I dont need it now I am sure I will in the future.
Crappy apple 'support' want our money but they only give support for 90 days. If they were so confident about their products working properly they would give us more than 90 day support and if their products really were good then we woudn't need to call would we? MAC *****

I don't know about AppleCare, but they will do an electronic bank draft type vehicle for major purchases as well.
Tiger DVD (now 10.4.6):
Disk Utility - Restore to backup
Reset Password
And "fsck" is your friend to repair the boot drive when you don't have a back up system/clone. Also get a copy of Applejack and use it as well.
Always always backup before applying OS installs and updates.
Might want to start with Apple's Mac 101 Help:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
It can help walk you (and us) through what steps...
boot into Open Firmware and Reset NVRAM
boot to your Apple Hardware Test disk using OPTION key and run tests
run Memtest 4 from Single User Mode
MacIntouch: Bad RAM
clone your boot drive system and apps and backup data
Tiger is now out on DVD with 10.4.6 - updated and easier to upgrade
boot into Single User Mode
run
- Best done after ANY freeze or hard restart
install Applejack gets run in Single User Mode
Using Applejack
MacFixit: Repairing Permissions
General Troubleshooting permissions
Repairing Drives
Backup!
G4 MDD 1.25 1.75GB UL3D 15K/10K RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6) SoftRAID 3.5

Can´t delete a partition. Disk utility greyed out.

I have a problem. I can't delete or build a partition on my Macintosh HD. The options for deleting or build a partition are greyed out. I try to boot from a external drive and open disk utility, but still the same problem. I also tried iPartion but it don't work.
I have a iMac (late 2013) with 3 TB fusion drive on OSX 10.9.4

Macs with Fusion drive use CoreStorage to manage disk objects.
You should use Terminale and command
diskutil coreStorage

Unable to secure erase: "Security Options" in Disk Utility greyed out.

Ancient eMac running Leopard. I have moved data to new Mac and am ready to erase old computer and sell/give away.
Went to "Erase" tab in Disk Utilities and both the "Volume Format" option and "Security Options" fields/buttons are greyed out and uneditable. According to instructions, to erase the data I need to select "Security Options" to proceed to erase all the data on my hard drive.
How do I "ungrey" that button? Is there a lock somewhere to unlock? Something to disable first?

You cannot erase the hard drive of the eMac when it is in use. You have to insert the Mac OS X install disk, boot up from there and then erase the disk from the Disk Utility software included.

Flashing Folder with Question Mark, Disk Utility Grayed Out

I was working on my macbook pro when it appeared to freeze, so I manually shut it down by pressing the power button. When I pressed it again to restart the computer, the restart "chime" sounded, and a flashing folder with a question mark appeared shortly after. The folder flashes for a few minutes, and the macbook turns off again. After consulting the internet, I restarted while holding command+r, and the computer told me to reconnect to the internet, select a language, and so on. When I reached the menu giving me choices for how to recover my information, I discovered that there were apparently no time machine backups recognized and when I tried to use the "first aid" option in Disk Utility, all of the action buttons are grayed out when I select the drives (I'm running OS X Mavericks) at the left, including the "Verify" option at the top. Is there anything I can do? I really would rather not restore a new version of OS X to preserve my information.

Thanks for the response. When I clicked on the option to reinstall, the window asking me to select the disk where I would like to install Mac OS X presents no options. There's just a blank white box with no other messages or prompts.

Disk utility errored out when attempting to repair Macintosh HD

My iMac suddenly got really slow this morning, occasionally freezing for a few minutes. I ran disk utility to repair permissions, MacJanitor and then restarted to no avail. Then I started up using the original install CD (10.4.4), ran the hardware test and passed, and attempted to repair the disk with Disk Utility. I got through the first steps, but then when checking the Catalog File, I got the following error:
Invalid Node Structure
Volume Check Failed
Error: Underlying task reported failure on exit.
Before I exited, I repaired disk permissions again, and this time it found a bunch of bad permissions...when I restarted, system was still slow, so I know I still have a problem
Any suggestions on what to do next?
Thanks,
Eric

Try that disk repair a few more times, you never know!
But more then likely it won't be able to repair an Invalid Node Structure. That's a pretty serious error.
If Disk Utility can't fix it, you'll need a more robust utility for the repair. I would recommend DiskWarrior. It is the best at directory repairs. It rebuilds then actually replaces your old directory. I feel every Mac owner should have a copy. Make sure you get the disk so you can boot up on it to run repairs. You can also install it on another drive and run it from there to repair this one. DW works faster that way.
I use DW once a month to try and catch errors in my system from getting too far out of hand.
If you have a good backup, hopefully a clone of your system before you had issues, an Erase and Install will also rid you of this issue. But, beware! You will lose everything on the drive with this procedure. Let us know if you need help with that!
Cheers! DALE

Harddrive Upgrade Question: is my disk utility stalled out?

I recently decided to upgrade my HD on my MacBook. I have an iMac that I decided to write a disk image of the MacBook HD to, in order to get my content on to the new drive. So I used my Leopard install disc to start disc utility and copy the HD image. Its been making read/write noises for about 4 hours now, but the mouse arrow has disappeared, the progress line appears frozen, and I'm wondering if it crashed. Anyone experienced this before?

Well in my disk utility says that you can change the format in burning WINDOWS CDs. Or I'm understanding that wrong?
That doesn't mean that you pre-format the CD; i.e. do something with it before you burn your data, as would be the case with a floppy or a new hard drive. Perhaps you're referring to the disk image you're creating?
So I just copy that CD just like I do with my Mac CDs?
That's what I do when I need to copy a Windows CD; I just make a disk image of it using Disk Utility, and then burn the image, just as I would a Mac CD. No need to create a blank disk image and then alter it's format. Just make the image directly from the CD you want to copy.

Disk Utility: Differences between "Zero Out Data" and "7-Pass Erase"?

I'm wondering if anyone knows if there's a significant difference between the "Zero Out Data" erase option in Disk Utility (specifically Disk Utility 10.5.5), and the "7-Pass Erase" and "35-Pass Erase" options in same software.
Here's why I'm asking: I have a co-worker with an iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz with 160GB internal hard drive. As a result of the power supply overheating a week ago due to dust, some hard drive problems resulted. I'm trying to assess whether these are 'soft' formatting problems that can be recovered from, or 'hard' problems requiring replacement of the hard drive and/or power supply.
Following the failure, I removed the dust and restored the iMac to servicable form. The power supply seems to be OK now. The next thing was to attempt to recover as much data as possible from the 160GB, as the last full backup was a week old. Carbon Copy Cloner, shell copy via 'sudo cp -p -R -v', Finder copy, and DiskWarrior recovery all met with problems. TechTool Pro identified a huge swatch of unreadable sectors during repeated surface scans. Unfortunately, these unreadable sectors were located midway in the OSX boot partition (an 80GB partition), and not in the other 80GB partition devoted to lower priority video data.
When I was satisfied I had backed up the data to the best of my abilities, I next set out to reformat the drive and see if the bad sectors could be eliminated or remapped out of existence. I did a "Zero Out Data" erasure in Disk Utility (with no errors during the erase), but TechTool Pro showed the bad sectors persisted in equal strength at the same location. I next executed a sixteen hour "7-Pass Erase" (again no errors, and confirming that it takes about an hour per 10GB). The next day when I ran TechTool pro, all of the sector errors had disappeared. I'm a bit perplexed as to why the "7-Pass Erase" seems to have recovered the use of the drive. Is it possible that there are simply thousands of bad sectors now remapped that I'm not seeing? [If so, how do I check for this?] TechTool Pro has not reported any S.M.A.R.T. issues to date on the drive. What am I to make of that?
There are some related threads I've checked into, but I'm not sure how to properly assess my situation based on this information:
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=232007>
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=138559>
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=118455>
Since the iMac has three weeks left on it's one year warranty, and I've already moved the user to another machine temporarily, I'm thinking that the smart thing to so is to send it in to Apple to have them look at the power supply and hard drive. That way, when it returns, even if there is still a lingering hardware problem, at least it will be covered under warranty for another 90 days.
Any thoughts?
iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.25GB RAM, 160GB hard disk, SuperDrive

HI, Bret.
The only differences between "Zero Out Data", "7-Pass Erase", and "35-Pass Erase" are the number of times a binary zero is written to every bit on the disk. "Zero Out Data" writes a binary zero once, whereas the 7- and 35-Pass options write a zero seven and 35 times, respectively.
Technically, one pass with Zero Out Data should be sufficient to map bad sectors out of service, a process also known as sparing. If a bad sector is encountered, it is both marked as "in use" in the directory's allocation table and added to the directory's "bad blocks file."
My understanding is that the Surface Scan of Tech Tool Pro should identify bad sectors every time it is run unless the bad sectors have been locked out by the drive controller of the ATA drive itself. This is because Surface Scan checks the entire surface of the disk.
What may have happened is that running "Zero Out Data" spared the bad blocks from a directory standpoint, but did not result in the drive's controller locking out those sectors for reasons detailed in the "Surface Scan" section of the Tech Tool Pro manual. However, the 7-Pass Erase may have resulted in the drive's controller locking out the bad sectors and why Surface Scan did not pick them up after such.
Given the problems you described, I concur with your plan to have Apple check the affected computer. You might also want to consider purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan for that Mac: I recommend and buy these for all my Macs.
For some additional information on bad sectors, see the "Bad Sectors" section of my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ.
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.

Disabled System Profile and Disk Utility

I have just acquired an Ibook G4, unfortunately without any operating disks. If I try to go into the System Profile or Disk Utility I am told that this may be disabled or not installed. Will an installation of a new operating system, probably Leopard as that's the easiest one to get hold of, resolve this issue?

Either Tiger or Leopard. So long as they are full retail installers
and not someone else's old system disc for a specific computer
you do not happen to also have. Being careful to get one that
can install on any compatible and supported computer is best.
If you had the correct disc as was missing, a utility such as one
known as Pacifist could be used to get only the parts you need
from the correct install disc, and those could be put in separately.
In the absence of that, a full and totally new installation is one
way to be sure the drive can be tested (booted Disk Utility, zero
data on drive, reformat, install all new from scratch) & be good.
The nice thing about Tiger, if you can find someone who has
upgraded to Leopard and has a 'retail Tiger installer set' to
give you or sell at a low price, that is a good system and it
has all the other parts to upgrade from the retail installer,
on the internet. And any issues in Tiger are solved.
Since you do not have the original software packet which
the computer came with when new, some of the apps in
the computer now won't be in there if you do a major and
proper all-new installation of the new system on a wiped
or totally erased (over-written with zeros from the booted
full installer disc's Disk Utility options, then reformatted to
HFS+ or Apple Partition Map, then full system installed)
the old stuff from prior generations of use will be gone.
So will the old AppleWorks application and a few other
nice but no longer available items. The new iWorks is
a suitable replacement for AppleWorks in some ways;
and the free NeoOffice is adequate if you need an app
somewhat like MS Office X.
Without the OS X Installer disc set for the system in
the computer you have, you can't repair it nor can a
reset of the password or change of other features
be done properly. If the account you are using on it
is not an admin user account, some settings may
have been reduced for some lesser user level. And
if someone damaged the system somehow by taking
parts of the OS X out of the folders, it would need
at least an 'archive & install' with that old installer.
So, you can make use of the computer if you have a
full retail installer disc and the computer is supported.
There are requirements to be met for various systems
to work in a variety of computers, so you may need to
read in Support to see what the minimum requirement
is, for the OSX version you may get a deal on.
There may be other options, but they should start with
the proper install disc that is missing in the first place!
Good luck & happy computing!

I have run disk utility- the drive is corrupted- I get the error message restart your computer holing down the Cmd

I have now tried every variant of key compbinations but I still get the grey lock icon with a box which won't accept my password.
When re-running disc utility all I get is the same error message

I ran the Disk Utility and got a message that it can't repair the disk. This happened after I did a restart Command and R. After trying the repair cycle I got a message "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" I found myself stuck because I couldn't shut down the Disk Utility. Out of frustration and patience I turned the I-Mac off by pressing the start key, thinking it would restart my computer. I feel like a fool now! I started the computer up and all I got was a grey screen with a flashing file with a question mark inside the file icon which is blinking off and on. I tried attaching my Seagate hard drive with no luck. What can I do? Thank You!

HT2422 How to get disk utility OSX-10.5.8 to erase 3Tb drive?

Bought two 3Tb Seagate drives to make a RAID backup. Disk Utility errors out on making the raid, and errored out after trying to partition. From what I read in the support article, 10.5 should be able to handle exabyte devices. Any advice?

First you will have to purchase the Snow Leopard disk;
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Then you will have to use Software Update to upgrade it to 10.6.8.
Then you will have to determine which upgrade your MBP qualifies for:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4949
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5444
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5842
If you cannot find an OS in the App store, you will have to contact Apple Customer service and they will give you a redemption code and instructions.
Ciao.

Disk utility caps new disk images at 13 in pwd

This sounds crazy, which is why I'm posting it here. I'd love it if someone could try this because I've tried it on two different Mac Mini's (macmini3,1 - aka, 5 usb port version) and the same results. Snow Leopard 10.6.4, fully up to date.
I am making disk images of all the software the faculty here at the university will need to install. Using the GUI version of Disk Utility to create them. So far, three times this has happened. Each time at 13 items. Note that this is 13 ITEMS, not necessarily .dmg's. I tried consolidating dmg's into subfolders during the third go-around, but once the folder I'm dumping all the dmg's into reach 13 items (dmgs, subfolders, whatever), Disk Utility errors out during creating the next dmg.
If someone wants to try this, I'd love to hear the results.

The type of disc being made into a disc image doesn't matter. I'm doing this to back up university software for internal use only, but I've tried it with other content as well.
Storage is not the issue. This is a fresh install of Snow Leopard, with 160gb or so free. the first 13 disc images took about 9gb of space, the second set maybe about 20gb, and the third set about 15gb. Both df -h ./ and Finder's GET INFO show plenty of hard drive space.
This happened after the initial 13 discs and every 13 discs thereafter; no data is moved off the harddrive, it just needs to be moved out of the folder I'm dumping the images into. This is a valid workaround, but it feels like something is wrong.

Disk Utility (Zero Out)

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for