Does disk utility damage the Hybrid MBR

I have a dual boot system for Mac X 10.8 and Windows 8 and there are 5 partitions on my internal HD (EFI, Mac OS X, HD Recovery, Mac HFS Data, NTFS Windows 8). I created a custom Hybrid MBR that allows dual boot to partitions 2 and 5 and protects the remaining partitions. The MBR shows 4 partitions (max allowed) so it does not precisely agree with the GPT. This all worked fine in conjuction with rEFIt for booting.
Recently after using Disk Utility to check and repair my internal HD the custom MBR was apparently compromised because I was unable to boot into Windows. My question is then, "Can Disk Utility damage the MBR that I carefullly customised?" I could rebuild the MBR using gdisk in terminal but I don't want to have to repeat this unnecessarily. If not Disk Utility, do other programs mess with this area of the disk? I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a periodic clone of my start-up partition.

diskutil list
Last login: Sun Dec 21 16:07:46 on console
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         749.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *748.9 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 4A646B29-3794-4A34-AC98-C0FB505D402B
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 500HDD WD               500.1 GB   disk2s1
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$

Similar Messages

My external LaCie drive gets an error message "the disc you inserted was not readable by this computer." The only options offered are "ignore" or "eject" Disk Utility sees the disc but does not give a repair option. What can I do?

When I plug in my external LaCie drive I get an error message "the disc you inserted was not readable by this computer."
The only options offered are "ignore" or "eject"
Disk Utility sees the disc but does not give a repair option.
What can I do?

The good thing about mac-centric resellers such as OWC, is they have people on staff that can answer questions without you buying things first. They also have how-to information, and instructions are included in many of their products. I saw a link to watch a DIY video in one of their pages; an example of a RAID (with its own power supply) is shown on their drives page. Also a few in there, with no power supplies, for less money.
If I were looking to backup and perhaps also have a partition for a system clone, I'd consider something like one of these: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Some ideas on the RAID backup methods appear in google search, some of the pages are ideas and concepts; and the better ones also warn about using RAID for the only backup plan.
Oh, OWC has live chat. Haven't tried it, nor have I bought anything from them. I have what appears to be two products from them, but have not used either. One is in a box as-new, but has only USB2.0 ports & my Macs needed FW400/800. It has been said their RAM is a good way to upgrade, too. But I can't confirm!
A 'RAID-ready' unit for backup may be more versatile for just that, but I have not checked into these details. I use single HDDs in powered enclosures, and usually manually make backup clones to FW drives, of bootable OS X systems. Some of the OWC raid-ready use eSATA ports so that may not be viable for a computer without them.
The unused in-box external drive I have is like the base model in the link above. However mine is USB2.0 (maybe) and won't boot my older Macs due to hardware variance; and my preference would be for FireWire options, these models do offer that. But the one I have does not. Dual 500GB HDDs, and they could be used in tandem as a RAID. That would be a choice set up in software. I'm not sure and not interested enough to read up just now.
My backup method is not automatic, or a moving backup plan, if I don't get a move-on and make full system clones. I do make copies of photos and documents the manual way, to USB external drives; and occasionally backup to DVD or CD media. And USB flash, that helps to move files between computers without need to use file sharing via wi-fi. {Like Why fly? Walking is better exercise unless one is a bird. Squawk!}
https://www.google.com/#q=raid+backup+mac
Depending on the ports in your Mac, you may be able to use other cables to attach between a backup or externally enclosed hard disk drive with multiple partition and bootable clone in one of them. Not sure about the Thunderbolt, and where that is the main port, adapters are required to access other devices, as allowed.
Anyway, I am going on and on, yet not really saying anything.
My ideas would not be all that interesting to follow as a backup
plan when matching available newer hardware to task, but you
can get some into better ideas if you are not in a rush. Get a
good setup and then look into more an betterer stuff.
Good luck & happy computing!

Clarifications of the Hybrid MBR

Hello All,
I am in the process of trying to wrap my head around some details regarding a multi-boot setup with OS X Lion and Windows 7 on an early 2011 15" MacBook Pro.
Specifically, I am trying to get a clear understanding of a Hybrid MBR in relation to this. I have scoured this forum along with the Mac Rumors forums and to some extent the InsanleyMac forums. I have found a lot of info, but in some cases, the info is confusing because various sources seem to contradict each other.
I am looking for some details about the hybrid MBR and how it is actually created.
Below is what I have come to understand so far . . .
My questions are on BOLD . . . and indented . . .
Most of the sources explain that the hybrid MBR is a modified GPT Protective MBR.
"The protective MBR is an MBR that defines a single partition entry (of type 0xEE) that covers the entire area of the disk used by GPT structures and partitions. It is designed to prevent GPT-unaware programs from accidentally modifying a GPT disk." (Apple TN2166)
The MBR has space or slots for four partition entries (primary partitions) and in the case of the protective MBR only one is used to define the entire area of disk that is partitioned via GPT???
A hybrid MBR is a modified GPT protective MBR.
It uses up to three of the MBR's four primary partitions to point to the same space that's marked out by three GPT partitions. (The remaining MBR primary partition contains the EFI System Partition)
In the case of Lion, the Recovery HD accounts for one more of these partitions, leaving two that can point to GPT partitions????
I ran across a statement somewhere as follows: (can't remember the source at the moment . . .)
"As you may know, your drive has two partition tables. A GUID partition table and an MBR partition table. It's a hybrid scheme."
"When you use Disk Utility to add a FAT partition, say, it alters both partition tables."
The reference to TWO partition tables refers to a partition table contained within the protective MBR as well as the GPT partition tables???
Even without a "hybrid MBR" there are still two partition tables are there not??
If I understand the above correctly:
hybrid MBR refers to the fact that the four partition entries in the protective MBR now point to the same space as the first four GPT partitions. (There is no longer an entry in the protective MBR of type 0xEE that covers the entire area of the GPT partitioned disk . . .)
If anyone can point point to any other source for info like this I would appreciate it. My curiosity is now peaked. I have read the stuff on www.rodsbooks.com, which as a lot of good info but still does not answer the questions I pose above . . .

RCCharles:
Thanks very much for your prompt reply.
In waiting for responses to my question concerning backing up Windows 7 on Hybrid MBR GPT, I just happen to do a test run this morning on a couple of test drives using clonezilla Live.
I had two identical drives with two partitions. One with windows and a blank partition for osx. I was only really concerned with the Windows 7 test partition at the moment. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for all of my osx partitions which works flawlessly.
I cloned the bootloader mbr from one drive to the other, and Clonezilla indicated it was a successful clone. I then cloned the Windows 7 system partition, to the other like partition of my test drive ,and again, Clonezilla indicated it was a successful clone.
When I tried to boot from the cloned drive it wouldn't boot. Being very familiar now with repairing Windows 7 boot loaders, I used the repair disk thinking all I have to do is repair the boot loader. I went to the command prompt in the repair disk, and executed "Bootsect /nt60 All /Force" which always repairs the boot loader when I restore the windows system image with Windows backup and restore utility. A very quick and easy fix.
I then use the Gdisk tool to repair the partitions back to a GPT drive which is a very quick and simple procedure that gets my GPT disk fully functioning again in osx. Thank you very much Rod Smith!, author of the gdisk tool and expert authority on Hybrid MBRs!
So far, this is the only backup and restore method I have been able to use that will consistently and successfully backup and restore my Windows 7 Hybrid MBR on a Yosemite Quadboot GPT UEFI Hackintosh.
I am very open to any other softwares out there that you think will work on my system.
I am also curious as to what platform you had success with using Clonezilla.
If you use Bootcamp, that is not an option for my Windows 7 osx platform.
Thanks very much for your suggestion. If you have any others I would greatly appreciate hearing them.
Regards,
Michael Breskin
(miche bre)

Macintosh HD won't boot, but disk utility says "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK." How do I repair the hard drive?

I have a MacBook that needs its internal hard drive's Macintosh HD partition repaired, as the boot screen freezes on startup. I am running a separate, working mac OS from an external hard drive in order to run disk utility and repair the MacBook's internal OS. The issue is, it has dismounted the internal Macintosh HD partition, and won't remount. And in addition to that, the Verify Disk option returns with, "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK." I've run Verify Disk and Repair Disk a few times, all with that same result. And the internal OS still won't boot.
I have attempted to make a disk image of the internal Macintosh HD partition and save it to my external hard drive so I can wipe the internal hard drive clean and restore the image, but I receive errors when trying to create the disk image, and when trying to erase the hard drive (I know, I should try to erase the hard drive when I haven't made an image. When I tried to erase the hard drive, the image wasn't done and I thought it was. I got an error for erase, and I got an error for making the disk image) I have tried making a disk image multiple times and haven't been able to create one.
There is also a boot camp partition on the internal hard drive which is of no importance as to whether it stays or is erased.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1

    #!/bin/bash
      # Author : Bill Hernandez
    # Location : Plano, Texas
    # Updated : Saturday, June 6, 2009 (1:48 PM)
    # script name : setdisk_ownerenabled
    # make sure to set permissions to execute
    <hr>
    # Description :
    <hr>
    # I've noticed that sometimes when using disk utility I cannot repair permissions, or I might get :
    # ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1
    # This shell script seems to have solved the problem.
    # It worked very well for me,
    # IF YOU USE THIS SCRIPT, IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK...
    # DO NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IT DOES
    # After running it, it is best to restart before using Disk Utility again
    <hr>
    # Details :
    <hr>
    # After partitioning a disk using "Disk Utility", and then begin using it, at some point I would get
    # an arror message when trying to save to one of the partitions, yet when I looked at the permissions
    # everything looked fine. I would then try to use Disk Utility to repair permissions and end up with a
    # cryptic error that pretty much told me nothing.
    # I noticed that while in Disk Utility, if I selected a partition the lower LH corner of the dialog
    # showed : Owners Enabled : No
    # I tried selecting the partitions at the Desktop and doing a (CMD-I) and at the very bottom of each
    # info dialog there was a checkbox :
    # [ ] ignore ownership of this volume
    # which I would check, even after logging in as root, and I couldn't seem to get a consistent way
    # to get rid of the permissions dialog failure, so I found the vsdbutil command which can be used
    # as follows to get partition, or disk info :
    # $ vsdbutil -c /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # ----> Permissions on '/Volumes/driveor_partitionname' are enabled.
    # if it is not enabled you can enable the disk or partition using :
    # $ vsdbutil -a /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # It will set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    # This below script loops through the mounted disks, partitions, etc. and gives you information.
    # You can leave the three flags below all set to TRUE, or selectively use what you want and change
    # the rest to false...
    <hr>
    # CHOOSE {"TRUE", "FALSE"}
    <hr>
    getvolumestatus="TRUE"         # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
    setvolumestatus="TRUE"         # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    list_volumes="TRUE"                   # show volume names
    <hr>
    # DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW HERE
    <hr>
    if [ $getvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$getvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     vsdbutil -c $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $setvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$setvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     sudo echo -n
     # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     sudo vsdbutil -a "$i"
     echo "setting Owners Enabled : Yes for ---> $i"
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $list_volumes == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$list_volumes'
     echo '============================='
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     echo $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>


As it turns out, this didn't completely solve the problem, it solved part of the problem.
Here is a summary to the root cause of the problem.
SUCCESS...
Problem Summary : The system crashed and would hangup during boot, tried many things, until I eventually erased the disk and started over again.
iMacG5 24 GHZ Intel with One internal disk partitioned into 3 logical drives
Cub_1 OS X 10.5.7
Cub_2 OS X 10.5.7 (Carbon Copy Cloner backup of Cub_1)
Cub_3 OS X Server 10.5.7 (standard os x server setup)
At some point after setting up standard preferences, OS X Server crashed.
When I tried to restart, the machine would hang up during boot.
Finally after several attempts, ran Disk Utility from install dvd and repaired Cub_3
When I tried to run "Repair Permissions" on Cub_3 from install dvd, I got an error
Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1.
Rebooted, and started in single user mode (CMD-S) during boot until I saw the unix commands on the screen
RAN : root # fsck -fy
Then I began seeing the same command filling the screen :
posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder") could not find file or directory
Called Enterprise Support and spoke to Frank Alcorn, he said this was most likely a permissions problem and asked me to try repairing permissions from the install dvd. I told him about the error, but nevertheless I tried it again and got the same Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1..
He asked me to try booting into single user mode again, and to try
root # chmod 775 /
root # reboot
During the reboot process the machine got hung up again, and could not get the single user mode to work at all.
Frank said the command needed to be :
root # chmod 1775 /
Frank asked me if I had changed anything in file sharing, and I told him I had. He asked me what I had shared, and I said the entire drive Cub_3. He asked me what I had done for permissions, if I had denied permissions to anyone. I told him that I had set myself up as the only user that could have access to it, and when he said that's where the problem was the lightbulb went off, and it made sense.
Shortly after I set the sharing preferences is when the server crashed. It all makes sense now...
Frank said not to share the entire disk, only portions (share points) of it. I had done this in Panther Server, and Tiger Server and it worked fine, but apparently Leopard Server works a little differently, maybe more secure.
It seems to me that if sharing the entire disk, which is what I needed would cause such a problem there should have been some sort of warning from the operating system, but there wasn't. I had run into this problem several times over the past three weeks since I had started working with Leopard Server, but in each case I ended up re-installing OS X Server and starting over again.
I told him I would try to reboot from the OS X partition (Cub_1) and try it from there.
He asked me to let him know if it worked, and I said I would...
Problem FIX :
I booted back into the partition containing OS X (Cub_1) and did the following via the Terminal.
$ su - root
$ chmod 1775 /
$ reboot
During the reboot process I held down the (OPTION) key, and selected Cub_3 (the os x server partition) and sure enough after a few minutes of holding my breath the login window magically appeared. So I logged in, and did not have to re-install the server. Hallellujah....
This solved the boot hang problem. It is great to finally have an answer. In retrospect it makes sense, but that's why its hindsight...
The reason for sharing the entire disk in my mind was that since I was the only user on the system, it was easier to have one disk mounted on my workstation rather than several folders. It made sense to me, it still does. I don't need a bunch of folders, just one disk is easier...

Where does Disk Utility define NFS mounts?

Hi, I used to use Disk Utility to define a NFS mount point for my Drobo, but then I sold the Drobo and deleted the mount point from Disk Utility. However, my system.log file shows that rpc.statd is trying to find the Drobo once every hour still. I double checked and there is nothing listed in auto_master, so the only place I can think of that Disk Utility defines the mounts within is Directory Services but I can't find where. Does anyone know where Disk Utility defines NFS mounts and how I can clear it out?

Mountain Lion NFS Mounts Missing In...: Apple Support Communities

Does disk utility repair delete any files on external hard drive?

Does disk utility repair disk delete any files on the external hard drive?

diskutil list
Last login: Sun Dec 21 16:07:46 on console
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         749.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *748.9 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 4A646B29-3794-4A34-AC98-C0FB505D402B
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 500HDD WD               500.1 GB   disk2s1
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$

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

Anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

No. Threads don't hurt anything. If your computer is not functioning properly perhaps you need to try some basic maintenance. Let's start by having you do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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.
Next, try booting into Safe Mode then immediately restart normally. Safe mode is going to take a while so be patient. It's slow.
Next, create a new user account. Log out of your account then log into the new account. Try using iPhoto and the publishing button. Do they work now?
If you still have a problem, then do the following. If you don't want to go through the above then just start with the following and forget the others above.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard 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. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

My mac can't find the volume" Data" on Time Capsule. Also Ican't find with the disk utility program the hard disk in the Time Capule; so I can't format the disk again. What can I do?

My Mac can't find the volume " Data" on Time Capsule, Also I can't find with the disk-utility program the hard disk in the Time Capusule.
So I can't format the disk in the Time Capsule
Deconnevt and then connecting the power tp the Time Capsule gives also no solution.
What can I do?
Joe

I listed the commands.. that is how you manually mount the disk.. follow exactly the commands I gave you.
In finder use top menu, go, connect to server.
Type in the following.
AFP://TCname or AFP://TCIpaddress (obviously you replace with the actual name or the actual IP address).
If that fails..
try
SMB://TCname
Here is the screenshot.
tardis4 being the name of my TC.
It should then ask you for your credentials.
And it should remember them in the keychain and be able to then get TM to connect.

Disk Utility missing the Erase tab

Tonight, I was attempting to reformat my Mac Mini FileVault encrypted hard drive. I have Mountain Lion 10.8 installed on it, and I have a bootable Mountain Lion USB stick.
I booted from the USB device, and first tried to format. Everything was greyed out. I had to "Unlock" the encrypted drive and then it was available.
I then tried to do an Erase, and it failed with an error I didn't catch, and then only "Macintosh HD" shows up (no volume below it in Disk Utility) and the Erase tab is unavailable. The Partition tab is also locked and nothing can be chosen.
I can Verify and Repair with no problems, but I am unable to repartition or erase the drive.
Any thoughts?

I ran in to this issue once again, when trying to clean install Mountain Lion on my MacBook. I rebooted to the Recovery partition, and tried to format/erase using Disk Utility and that failed and left the system where only the drive (Macintosh HD) would show up, and Erase was greyed out. I was unable to format using the command line due to seeing the message:
"The disk is in use by Core Storage as a Physical Volume"
I found a solution here:
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59026/how-to-install-mountain-lion-on-a -disk-that-cannot-be-formatted-in-recovery-mode
See the post by Anderson, where he shows how to clobber this Core Storage volume:
Basically, you need to run diskutil CoreStorage list from Terminal. Identify the logical CoreStorage volume from that list and note the UUID string.
Then type diskutil CoreStorage delete UUID where UUID is the string you identified.
You can then partition with Disk Utility and run a Mountain Lion install.
This did the trick for me, and I was then able to 0-byte format the drive and do a clean install over the internet.

What does Disk Utility mean by saying the back up disk cannot be unmounted?

Disk utility has been giving me that error and I get about the same message when Time Machine attempts to do a back up as well. What does it mean?

Hi! When you try to do a repair on a disk it "unmounts" (removes it from the desktop) (which locks the directory) so it can be repaired. Unmounting also is required for an erase. Time Machine shouldn't be trying to unmount it for a backup in fact it could write to it if it unmounts. Tom

Why does Disk Utility keep breaking my partition table?

I have two drives in my Mac Mini - the original drive it came with, and a SSD drive. I dual boot from the SSD drive and it is fine. On my original drive, I still have the original Lion install, but I would like to add a NTFS partition for use by windows. The problem is that every single time I have Disk Utility try to do something to it, like delete a partion, it breaks the partition table. It does delete the partition, but then it goes and sets all the partition types to 07 (Microsoft BAsic) instead of AF (Apple HFS). Then Disk utility will claim the disk is broken and can't mount the partitions anymore. I have to go in with gdisk to set the partition type back to AF and it will start working again. BTW, gdisk claims the partition table type is hybrid MBR, even though windows is not installed on it. Diskutil thinks it is GUID. I did create a partition on it from the windows side once if that means anything.
Now what I want to do is resize the HFS partition, but I am deathly afraid that DU will break something that isn't as easy to fix.

I repaired permissions because I reinstalled Epson drivers, and reinstalling Epson drivers has given me a permissions problems in the past which was cured by running permission repair. As it is an easy prophylactic step to take, I did it again.
It may not be needed, but that is not the issue, which is why, when the permissions are indicated as repaired, are they not.
Other previous posts on this issue suggest that these indications of permissions not being repaired should be ignored, so the report made by Disk Utility is simply a programming error.
Disk Utility needs some work if it is going to respond to usage by a typical average user this way.

Formatted SD card with disk utility, broke the card.

I just bought a 4GB SD card for my camera. At first it couldn't recognize it at all but when I connected the camera (with the card) to my mac and formatted it using Disk Utility app as 1GB plus free space the camera could work with the card. When I decided to format it as 2GB plus free space the Disk Utility hung and I force quit it. After that neither Disk Utility nor camera can see the card. All menus in Disk Util are grayed out. I tried 'sudo diskutil' from terminal (the card is still mounted in /dev folder) but still get a message 'permission denied'. Does it mean that I completely damaged my newly bought 4GB card and waisted $30+? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The camera wouldn't recognize the card at first, I guess just because it was too big for it. After I formatted it as 1GB it was fine, as I already mentioned. I was wondering is there any other than diskutil low-level formatting software I can use on the card.

How does Disk Utility estimate completion time?

I'm sending an external drive back to the vendor for troubleshooting, and want to make it more difficult for a curious tech to examine the data there. So I told Disk Utility to Zero Out Data and Erase Free Space. The drive was just initialized, so it's all free space. Did I mention it's a 2 TB FW800 drive?
Anyway, when I started this yesterday, the time estimate was 14 hours. (No hissing please.) Sleep is only enabled for the display: computer and HDs are set to "Never" sleep.
When I checked this afternoon (about 24 hours later) the estimate was "1 day, 5 hours."
How is this estimate calculated?
Thanks,
harv47

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

Does disk utility damage the Hybrid MBR

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