Erasing and re-titling a floppy disk using Disk Utility in OS Tiger

I am trying to erase and re-title a floppy disk using "Disk Utility." I keep getting an error message that "Disk Utility" cannot open the disk.
I'm using an external FD drive that plugs into the USB port and is recognized without the use of driver software. When the floppy disk icon appears on the desktop, and I select it, the use of "return" and typing in a new name has no effect. The floppy disk icon reappears named "Untitled."
Any suggestions?

Is the disk locked? Haven't used a floppy in quite awhile, but do remember that they had a slider that would lock it.

Similar Messages

I have an imac i5 and have about 50 floppy disks I would love to read. I found a Sony 2x fdd floppy that connects via usb. When I connect it, nothing happens. Amy I just out of luck?

I have an imac i5 and have about 50 floppy disks I would love to read. I found a Sony 2x fdd floppy that connects via usb. When I connect it, nothing happens. The drive does not show on my monitor. Any suggestions or my I just out of luck?

Do you have Finder Preferences set to show other disks? Nothing wil show on the Desltop until you make that change:

Ibook G4 - won't start up, spins, and shuts down... disk utility repair...

ibook G4 - won't start up, spins, and shuts down... disk utility repair quits. says "invalid sibling link" "volume check failed" "1 volume could not be repaired because of an error" "the underlying task reported failure on exit"
any ideas about how to start and/or recover data ??
thanks

Hi chesterday, and a warm welcome to the forums!
You must repair the HD, your best bet is DiskWarrior from Alsoft...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
You'll need the CD though.
Unfortunately, Disk Utility can't fix all that much, and the only other Apple Options are erasing the HD, or installing OSX to a second drive, then using Migration Assistant to move stuff over to the new HD.

My computer is shutting down before fully booting up. I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files. Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

My computer is shutting down before fully booting up. I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files. Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

So, you can't Install OSX to the external?
Or you can't boot from it when you do?
You're not the only one wondering... I'm reminded of the Goose that laid the Golden Egg story.

How do I erase and install iMac to factory settings using Install disk?

Once in a while I like to do an erase and install to boost performance and get rid of extra unused files/applications on my computer that are inevitably slowing things down. I have already tried disk repair and that isn't helping.
The problem is now that Lion/Mountain Lion no longer support PowerPC applications, I can't figure out how to use the Install Disk that came with my computer. My computer came with 10.4 (Tiger). I have been unable to erase and restore my computer to it's original factory settings.
I have read a bunch of threads that say to hold down the "C" key, but nothing happens when I do this. The computer just starts up like normal.
The reason I want to do this is because my computer is going slower and slower all the time. I have the "Free Memory" app and I can see my memory decreasing slowly day by day. It goes from about 3GB to less than 1GB in a few days. If I restart, I'm back up to 3GB again.

You had to use Snow Leopard to install Lion or Mountain Lion, so you can downgrade to Snow Leopard:
Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Erased Hard Drive and operating system accidentally via disk utility? Here's what to do

I thought I had messed up majorly today when I attempted to erase and re-install an operating system on my friends macbook pro. I used another computer and targeted his computer so his hard drive would show up on my desktop. I then used disk utility and completely erased his hard drive. "Ooops" i thought after trying to then install Lion from my computer's applications folder. Wouldn't work. All his computer would show was a folder with a ? mark!!!
I searched for a solution as to what to do in this situation and got a lot of conflicting complex suggestions. The one that made the most sense was to create a bootable external disk to reinstall the system. This didn't work for me, I was probably doing it wrong.
HERE'S WHAT DID WORK FOR ME:
(what you need)
1) decent wireless internet connection (know the network and password)
2) blank computer hard drive (no OS, no nothing)
3) power cable
thats it
Step 1.
Restart your computer and hold down "Command" and the "R" keys at the same time. do this for about 30 seconds or so and release
Step 2.
Your computer should, after a few seconds or so, show a spinning globe. Your computer will then start searching for an internet connection. Choose a network from the drop down menu and type in the password to the network.
Step 3.
Your computer will then connect with Apple.com's software site (I think this is called OSX Recovery or something [thus the holding down of the "R" for recovery key]) and find your computer's original operating system (not sure how far back this works, but it worked perfectly with Lion)
Step 4.
Download the OS
Step 5.
Upon download completion your computer may shut down. Just turn it back on and when its back up and running it will immediately start to install the OS it just downloaded.
Step 6.
Wait for this to complete and bam, you're back to having an operating system on your computer.
I hope this works for anyone with my problem.
Good luck!

You will need to do the following:
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

I formatted my mac and after installation went to disk utility to erase

hello
i wanted to get rid of everything so i backed up all the files i needed in an external hard drive
and then i shut down the mac and restarted inserting the 2 cd's after i was done i went to disk utility
and erased free space 35 times ,during this time i cannot update browsers, programs,and cannot download anything or create folders.
is that temporary and should i wait till it's done?
also what i read that it only erases items that were erased from the trash what about all the other files i had not put in the trash will that be somewhere in the system?
thanks
Message was edited by: cajred

If you use Disk Utility and choose the Erase Free Space option for any disk volume, it only overwrites the space Mac OS X lists as being unused. You choose this option to prevent someone from being able to recover a deleted file from your hard drive. When you empty the Trash normally, the actual data is not removed from the drive, only the pointer that tells the operating system where that data is located is removed, so it's possible to still access that data until the OS overwrites it. It's not just emptying the Trash, but unless something goes wrong, it should not erase the files on the drive you wish to keep.
And yes, it will indeed take a long time.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Erase and Reinstall - Could not unmount disk?

Hi there....
I'm running an iBook G4 with Tiger 10.4.11
After a freeze and manual power off, I powered up and got stuck at the grey Apple. Tried to start in safe mode - no luck. Started up off the install disk and ran Disk Utility - tells me Disk Could Not Unmount.
Spoke with Apple rep. - ran fsck in Single User Mode - got "Invalid Node STructure"
I've accepted that my files are lost - I have a good backup so that's that.
STarted up and got to Disk Utility again - want to do an Erase and Reinstall. Go to erase HD and am told "Could Not Unmount Disk"
....do I have any options??

Well, take into account I'm at a distance here & just guessing it's the HD, but yes, if it is that & you get it replaced, you should be able to install OSX just fine... and likely be much faster with a new HD in it.
Here's some hard drives...
http://tinyurl.com/aa4ae4
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Powerbook-iBook-Macbook-Hard-Drive-Upgrades-Pro-Po werbook--iBook-Hard-Drives-p-1-c-517.html
Ultimately - should I be purchasing a new HD and putting it into this G4 - or look in to buying a new one altogether? ...I'd really rather not right now.
Depends what you do with it & such, but if it meets your needs it may pay to have it fixed, but checkout the prices at the Apple Store on refurb MacBooks & MacBook Pros to better gauge for yourself.

After erase and installing when i try to use classic it says not installrd

I have tried to open classic in system preferences/system. It said that i do not have a version of mac os 9 installed.I have tried the imac software install and restore disk, followed the instructions. When I get to the install it says to put in the disk I am already using in. So I eject it and put it back in, and nothing happens. Just in case I have tried the hardware test disk as well, however the only file on inserting this disk is, read me first. so i am at a loss any help would be great.

If you have an external hard disk drive, formatted for use
with Mac OS (HFS+) you could attach even a USB 2.0
unit to a computer and have a Classic OS9.2.2 system
installed on there; and direct OS X system 9 preference
to look there to find it. If you can get a copy of OS 9.2
on such a drive, it will work adequately and that should
also have an Applications 9 folder with it.
Since you can drag/drop an OS 9.2.2 system (unlike X)
an external drive installation can be done from any Mac
with an OS 9 system folder. However, that may not be
a correctly licensed copy (unless a backup of original)
and from someone else's computer, it may have extra
OS9 apps and unneeded stuff cluttering it up.
You should be able to put the second original installer
disc into the computer and have the OS9 Classic system
install into your computer from there. The system is
small and for the most part takes little room on a hard
disk drive; be that an external or an internal one. I have
an OS9.2.2 system and Applications-9 folder on a small
external USB 2.0 HDD and my iBook G4 can see & use it.
(My iBook came with the OS 9.2.2 installer on second disc
but it was not installed on my computer; so I never put it in.)
With a system on an external hard disk drive, you have to
be sure it is properly unmounted and the icon representing
it which appears on the desktop when it is mounted, is not
there; you can 'eject' such a disk, or drag it to trash; after
quitting whatever you were running from said disk drive. At
some point, if it will not unmount, (as I found) you may have
to mess around and be sure to try to quit whatever app or
system - this may involve relaunching it again - to make sure.
{You have to unmount the external drive before turning it off
or unplugging it, to not damage the directory or contents on it.}
If you install direct to the computer's own internal hard disk
drive, and it is not partitioned, you should not worry about this.
On first-run of System Preference's 9 Classic start, your
system may have a dialog box saying something to the
effect that your Classic system needs an update, and do
you want it to do that? (not exact words) Click yes. And
then also, when you run Disk Utility to repair your OS X
system's 'repair disk permissions' notice under one of
the main Disk Utility menu bars, you can Repair OS9
Permissions. Do that, too. This can be done separate.
Good luck & happy computing!
edited.
PS: There may be another source for drivers so you
won't have to install Classic OS9 to just use a basic
scanner. There are third-party drivers out there and
some of them are free. Sometimes, one from a similar
model number, at times, a few model numbers removed
may work fine in a slightly older model scanner or printer.
Some of the scanner drivers may cost a small fee and
are downloaded from a site online.
(Since Tiger is the last OS X system to support Classic,
if you still need most of Classic beyond peripheral drivers
weigh this before upgrade considerations to Leopard.)

Erased and copied Snow Leopard OS disk to Disk Utility partition

Hi,
I am no way a technical person and think i have ruined my ok working MBP. After alot of research, to save money I decided to do a clean reinstall of Snow Leopard (previously running Mavericks OS) and erase my old data and settings on the MBP, as it was running super slow and I wanted to go back to the old OSX. I have a 2009 MBP previously running Mavericks installed from Dec 2013. When I went into the disk utility screen after deleting everything and resetting information, I couldn't restore the Mavericks OS as I downloaded it from iTunes for free - said to get from a saved folder or something. So I clicked around and accidently copied/duplicated the old Snow Leopard installation disk that was inserted and restored it as the Hard Drive/Disk utility (see pic attached).
Not sure how to save this computer? Is there a way to reset it back to factory settings before I incorrectly clicked the wrong button and ruined it?
Any info would be helpful.
Cheers

Hi AndyBall_uk,
Here are photos of all the images that I think will help. The DVD copy is the one that I pop in computer. I haven't tried the other disk which was also a DVD, this one is called the applications disk.
With the restore screen on the HardDrive image, this is where I accidentally clicked a few buttons and copied the OSX install disk over the previous Mac hard drive.
Thank you for your assistance, it is much appreciated.

How to restore and erase a "mac osx extended" with disk utility?

hello, I exedently sepret my disks the first one name is: Macintosh HD
and the secound one name is backup (I chose the name).
I want to merge them together how should I do it?
(macbook air 11" osx mavericks)
I teyed first restore the scound one and it didn't worked here is a screen shut of it:

Let me make sure i undestand:
1. you partitioned your internal hard drive into two partitions
2. you now want to combine them together
Correct?
If so, i believe you need to get an external hard drivea dn copy everythiong there - including a COOTABLE clone of your startup drive.
Then boot from external, and use disk utility to partiton your drive as (1) partition, and format it (HFS+ Journaled). Then clone back your main info and anything that was on "backup".
Grant

Floppy disk usage in OSX Tiger

In my present situation there is no way around using my USB floppy drive and floppies in general. This is because the job center where I attend ONLY accepts floppies. No USB, NO CD, nothing else but floppies. Sure I could and do post my resumes and letters on my FTP space which can be accessed via a web browser, but I cannot edit these resumes; since web content can only be downloaded. It would be nice if I could connect to a server via remote access and edit the resumes (if I find mistakes or add content) but this is not possible at the job center and through my Unix account.
Okay my question.
On my ibook I have created a disk image of my resume floppies. When I need to sync the image with my disk, I am having to manually drag and drop files/folders. Is there some easier way?
They did make ShrinkWrap for OS9 which may have had such abilities, but I doubt it works on OSX, and the old version that I have is not very Classic Frienly. Its a version from the 7.x days that worked okay on my Performa 6360 running OS 9.x.
Any tips to make this process simpler I will appreciate. Remember I cannot at this time buy any software.
John

Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

My Mac Book Pro needs to re download LION. I formatted my Macintosh HD and tried downloading lion from disk utility. Half way through it gives me gray screen saying i need to restart my computer. I can never finish the download and install. Any other ways

My mac book pro crashed during an update a week ago. Since then I have been forced to fomat my macintosh HD drive and attempt to reinstall lion. Halfway through my download of lion, a grey screen pops up telling me to restart my computer. I do such and then nothing ever happens again, I am just brought back to disk utility every time. Why?!?!?!

You can go to the Apple online store and purcahse a copy of Mountain Lion. This will give you a redemption code, which you can use to download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Unfortuantely, I'm not aware of any other way to legally purchase it. I have never seen Apple release Muontain Lion on DVD.
In terms of Apple Service, they just need the serial number of the machine to check the purcahse date. It is usually correct, to within a few weeks. A quick Google search should give you the correct number to dial.
I hope this helps.

Shrink HFS partition and extend NTFS partition with Disk Utility?

My 10.7 iMac has two partitions: HFS+ & NTFS. The NTFS was set too small and is nearly full and I want to shrink the echoingly under-used HFS and add the resulting excess to the NTFS one. Is this practicable? I can see via Disk Utility that the Mac partition can be shrunk but no way is shown for modifying the NTFS side. Maybe using a Linux tool is advised?

You can't. If you try either Windows or OS X or both will no longer boot. You can try a aftermarket disk partitioning program but most that work on HFS partition don't work for Windows and those that work for Windows don't work on Mac extended partitions.
The only real option is to backup the Windows partition with something like Win Clone then use Boot Camp assistant to remove Windows and the partition then again to recreate the Win partition in a larger size. After that install windows and then use the Win Clone software to restore Windows.

Is it normal for an external HD to blink its light and still be visible in Disk Utility, after it's been Ejected?

After Eject, the drive disappears from Finder, stops spinning and its light starts a slow blinking pattern, but in Disk Utility the volume appears greyed-out and unmounted while the HD is still visible (not greyed-out). If you try to re-eject it from there nothing happens... Disconnecting the HD's USB cable after a normal Eject (from the Finder), does not prompt any type of "incorrect ejection of volume" messages.
Other drives that I tried, only differ in the activity of their light post-ejection - some stay still, others blink.
Just for reference, when I eject a USB Pendrive from Finder, it disappears completely and stops blinking.
Is this normal OS X behavior?

ForeignerMullet wrote:
After Eject, the drive disappears from Finder, stops spinning and its light starts a slow blinking pattern,
This is probably normal. Some drives blink when being written to/read from, while others blink unless read/write is occuring.
but in Disk Utility the volume appears greyed-out and unmounted while the HD is still visible (not greyed-out). If you try to re-eject it from there nothing happens...
If this is just for a few seconds, that's normal. If it's permanent, it's not.
Disconnecting the HD's USB cable after a normal Eject (from the Finder), does not prompt any type of "incorrect ejection of volume" messages.
Normal/good.
Other drives that I tried, only differ in the activity of their light post-ejection - some stay still, others blink.
See above.
Just for reference, when I eject a USB Pendrive from Finder, it disappears completely and stops blinking.
Normal; a flash drive has no source of power and could not possibly keep blinking.

Erasing and re-titling a floppy disk using Disk Utility in OS Tiger

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for