Erasing Volumes using Disk Utility

I used Disk Utility to make copies of numerous cds and dvds. Doing this created a long list of volumes on my harddrive that I can not delete using erase or erase empty space (these fields are grayed out). I tried booting from the OSX disc however when I did that the volumes weren't even visibile. I also tried converting the disk images to a writeable format. All this did was make a copy of the existing volume. Does anyone know how to delete Volumes in another way, either using disk utiltiy or other software?
Thanks,
Dean
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7) disk utility, delete or erase volumes

If you are getting nothing for file system what has gone wrong is something in your computer/operating system, not on the iPod.
Try running Scandisk first, then formatting or, at this is not recommended generally, if that doesn't work partition the iPod and then format it.
But you might also want to consider a reload of XP. I reiterate, if it gave you nothing to select under file system this is most likely a problem with your operating system or USB chain.

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Cannot repair disk errors for OSX boot volume using Disk Utility while booted from different disk

I have tried three times to repair my boot volume (OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard) permissions using Disk Utility while booted up on a different volume (running Snow Leopard 10.6.4). After hours of Disk Utility reporting that it HAD fixed the problems, an immediate click of "Verify permissions" immediately results in the apparently same continuous stream of permission errors.

Then better luck next time around. Here are some ideas for then:
How to Install Lion Successfully - You must have Snow Leopard 10.6.7 or 10.6.8 Installed
A. 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. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities. 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. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.3.) if DW cannot fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall Snow Leopard.
B. Make a Bootable Backup Using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the backup volume. Source means the internal startup volume.
C. Important: Please read before installing:
If you have a FireWire hard drive connected, disconnect it before installing the update unless you will boot from this drive and install the update on it. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update. While the installation is in progress do not use the computer.
D. To upgrade to Lion:
Purchase the Lion Installer from the Mac App Store. The download will start quickly. Lion is nearly 4 GBs so a fast internet connection is essential. Download time could run upwards of 4 hours depending upon network conditions and server demands at the time.
Boot From The Lion Installer which is located in your Applications folder.
Follow instructions for installation.

Are you able to do a non destructively enlarge a volume using Disk Utility?

I have searched a number of articles in the forums, many archived, and I haven't found a clear answer to whether you can enlarge a volume non destructively using Disk Utility.
I am running a G4 PPC OSX 10.4.11 and am working with a Maxtor 300GB FireWire HDD. The volume I am trying to enlarge is the second volume on the Maxtor with free space following it.
I have followed the *Disk Utility Help file* on how to *enlarge a volume*, but cannot complete the procedure because *Step 5 refers to an Apply button*, *but there is none apparent*. There is a Partition button available but then that warns of destroying all the volumes on the disk.
Disk Utility Version 10.5.6.
Thanks for the help.

Your drive just be partitioned using GUID which is only available for Intel machines. An APM partitioned drive cannot be resized on the fly using Disk Utility on a PPC Mac. There are some third-party partitioning utilities like iPartition that may be able to do so on a PPC machine.

Viewing disk partitions made using Disk Utility in Windows

So, I took a USB external hard drive and partitioned it into two volumes using Disk Utility. I made sure to format them in MS-DOS format so they are FAT16 and can be recognized by Windows. I then took the hard drive and plugged it into my Windows computer. The first partition showed up just fine in my F: drive, but I'm not sure where the second partition is. When I plug it into my Mac, both volumes appear on my Desktop, but only the first one shows up in the Computer folder of my Windows computer.
Any help would be appreciated.

What does it look like in Windows Disk Management?
Click Start (if you're on XP then click run) and type "diskmgmt.msc" without the quotes (on XP click OK, anything after XP click on the program), then in the bottom window (where it says Disk 0 Basic disk etc) find your external drive, what do the partitions look like?
It might be that windows isn't mounting that partition for some reason.

Problems erasing window bootcamp partion using Disk Utility

Hi guys, ive removed my windows partion before in the past without any hiccups, but this time i seem to have run into some problems.
If i go into boot camp assistant, it wont let me proceed beyond the start menu. When i click continue it says
"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
So i went into Disk utility to erase the Windows partion, only now i get this message
"Volume Erase failed
Volume Erase failed with the error:
MediaKit reports checksum operation failure."
I dont have any other programs such as diskwarrior, and in the past Disk utilitiy served me well. Im just wondering whats going on here, and if anyone is able to help fix this problem? Thanks in advance

Hi thanks for your help man, but i still cant get it to restore the partion. If i go into the partion tab i see my two partions under the Volume scheme... but i cant do anything as it is all greyed out. Would you or anyone else have any recommendations... or should i invest in Diskwarrior? at the moment disk utility is just not working out for me. Thanks

Wiping free space on Lion using Disk Utility Erase Free Space

I'm using Lion (OS X 10.7.3) on a late 2011 MacBook Pro.
FileVault is active.
I tried to erase free space on my HD using Disk Utility. It started by creating a temporary file and presented me with an indeterminate indicator-bar (one that looks like a barber pole). Activity Monitor showed an average CPU utilization of 2% by Disk Utility but disk activity was normal and usage stayed constant.
I left this process on for about twelve hours but Activity Monitor showed nothing new and the DU indicator-bar stayed indeterminate with Creating Temporary File.
I tried to skip this DU process and was presented with another indeterminate bar: Skipping. Again, AM showed nothing new so I force-quit DU and used sudo find / -type f -size +500M to see if any temporary files were created. I did not find any new files.
I rebooted and tried it from the terminal: sudo diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD. The result was the same: No progress.
BTW, if you run the above command, make sure you include the freespace portion. If you don't, diskutil will happily start securely erasing the entire disk.
Not being able to wipe free space using DU may have something to do with FileVault being active. Can someone confirm this?
What I love about working on a Mac is I have a Unix-based computer that I can tinker with. So I was able to wipe free space manually: dd if=/dev/urandom of=~/DELETEME followed by srm -s ~/DELETEME.
Hope this helps someone.

Bidit Mazumder wrote:
BTW, if you run the above command, make sure you include the freespace portion. If you don't, diskutil will happily start securely erasing the entire disk.
Why we don't mention such terminal commands around here.

Using Disk Utility to erase Hard Drive

Hi All
I just bought a new external hard drive and am using Disk Utility to erase and format it. I did not know for sure if erasing the hard drive was the right thing to do. Anyway I set up the Volume as follows from the mac help instructions:
1.format OS extended journaled
2.Install OS9 disk driver.
3.("Zero all data" and "8 Way Random Write Format"). So it has been running for about 3 hours now and is only 1/8 of the way writing 0's to disk.
My question is should I continue on and just let it finish up? At the rate it is going It might be done by sometime tomorrow.
Or can I stop the erasing process without hurting the hard drive.
Then start disk utility erasing the hard drive without this Zero all data.
Thanks much

Just to confirm your impression, S. Frigolett: yes, everything should be fine now.
Zeroing a drive is advisable if you have reason to believe there may be bad data storage blocks on it; zeroing identifies those blocks and prevents them from being used (because using them would result in lost or corrupt data). A simple erase doesn't do that, but on a new drive straight from the factory there is no reason to think it's necessary.
The 8 way random write option is for people who have extremely sensitive data to erase from a drive that may pass into other hands, and who want to be sure that no one short of the NSA will have any chance of recovering any of that data. A new, empty drive has nothing on it that even the NSA could recover, so there's no reason to erase it that thoroughly.

I need help with boot camp. "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
"Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
Please, any suggestions?

This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
"Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
Please, any suggestions?

Start up and shut down is slow after erasing free space using disk utility?

I went to Disk Utility, clicked Erase, and then "Erase Free Space." When I saw that it was going to take 1 hour and 30 minutes, I tried closing disk utility. It wouldn't let me exit, so instead I pressed "Skip." But when you hover over the "Skip" button it says, "Erase all data and reformat the disk."
I'm wondering if the fact that I pressed the skip button has anything to do with my computer shutting down/starting up A LOT slower now. If so, what can I do to fix it?
Thanks!

Just wanted to give an update. I called Apple and apparently, you shouldn't empty the free space using disk utility while you're logged in. I had to insert the Installations CD and press the "C" button while my computer restarted, and used Disk Utility from there. My start up and shut down speed still isn't exactly the way it was before, but this definitely made a difference.
Thank you to those who replied to my question!

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.

I recently downloaded is x mountain lion and while it finished it erased all my data, some of which I need. When using disk utility I found my old data but it says corrupted. I can't repair and while restoring the error code 32 Broken Pipe appears. Help?

My data I need is on my computer but it needs to be repaired but can't and when I try to restore it/back it up it ends abruptly with error code 32 broken pipe.
It was damaged while installing os x mountain lion and I found my data on disk repair (utility)

Sounds like your hard drive is badly corrupted, likely due to problems that were already there when you started trying to install Mountain Lion. The problem is, if you don't have any backups already, you may not be able to recover all your data from this state. Do you have backups of that data already?
If not, I assume when you say that "it needs to be repaired but can't," you mean that Disk Utility tells you there is a problem with the disk, but that it is unable to repair it? If so, you can try repairing the drive using DiskWarrior, which can repair problems that Disk Utility cannot. That may give you access to your data again, but may not.
Also, it's important to understand that if your data is not backed up, everything you do with the computer runs the risk of overwriting or corrupting that data. You may want to go straight to trying to recover your data. See Recovering deleted files.
Regarding the error code, if you're trying to back up the drive using Disk Utility's Restore tab, note that that is often not successful when the drive you're trying to back up is corrupt.
Once the situation is resolved - either because you have backups, are able to recover your data files or are forced to accept that they are gone permanently - you will need to erase the hard drive and reinstall the system and all your apps from scratch.

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or re

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or remove windows partition.

Hi, Ralph,
The problem is that I did erase the partition, using disk utility, but I can't go back to my original disk size pre-partition, as disk utility won't let me do it and gives the message "Couldn’t modify partition map because file system verification failed." When I try to use Boot Camp Assistant it won't let me select the third option to remove windows.

Can't erase (rewriteable) DVD using Disk Utility

I'm trying to erase a Maxell DVD +RW in my Mac Pro's SuperDrive, but when I click on Erase in Disk Utility (I've tried both Quickly and Completely, and both the drive and the disc itself) it just spins for 30 seconds, and then stops (with all the data still there).
I also downloaded PermanentEraser and dropped the disc icon into the app icon, but it also spun for a while but did nothing. I tried selecting all the files on the disc and manually dragging them to the Trash, but when I try to empty it I receive an error code of -61.
What's going on? Does DiskWarrior somehow create startup disks which can't be erased?

Hey, if you do that ... you can throw disk directly to the trash. if you used fast
erase option, you can only use disk utility !!! trying to that with others software make disk unusable.
when I started to use rewritable disks I did this mistake over more of 10 disks, before I understanded it. Toast warn you, when you use fast erase.

Unerase after using Disk Utility's Erase?

I'm sure this has been asked before but here goes...
By accident I just used Disk Utility and chose to "Erase" my external hard drive. Whoops!
I think I hit "cancel" before it zeroed out the drive but when I mount the drive now I see an empty disk. But the whole operation was so quick - not more than a couple seconds from start to finish - it gives me hope that the data's still there.
I've disconnected the drive - so I'm sure not to write anything new to it.
Is there a quick way to recover what was on the drive? I've read about DataRescue, DiskWarrior, and TechTool Pro. Are these the best route? Or is there an easier and cheaper way for me to recover from my embarassing mistake?
Thanks,
david
TI PowerBook Mac OS X (10.4.5)
TI PowerBook

Hi David
I'm afraid I'm only going to confirm that, yes, your data is probably still there. I think just the links to the directory structure have been zeroed, but all should be able to be recovered. You did right in disconnecting the drive immediately.
I don't know of any cheap/quick way of sorting this, but hopefully someone else will.
Commiserations, I've been there too.

Using Disk Utility to erase SDHC card taking too long

So... I had this 32 gb memory card that neither my camera nor my computer would read (iMac running OS 10.9.5 Mavericks and the camera's a Canon Power Shot SX40HS, just in case that matters).
I decided to try erasing the card using disk utility just to see if anything would recognize it after that, since nothing else seemed to work. Now, it's says it's partitioning with an estimated time of 1 day! I suspect I did something wrong. Why is it partitioning? I just wanted it to erase the card! I don't really understand all the jargon in the disk utility, even though I've used it before. I chose the least secure erase setting so it might not be impossible to recover items.
Here's the screenshot of what it's up to- still. Am I formatting the wrong thing? I don't have anything else that's 32 gb that I know of, so I'm pretty sure it's the right item, but it's taking FOREVER! Can I stop it somehow, or would that wreck the card? I put the name as 32 GB Lexar, just to be clear what I was erasing, but maybe I've messed something up. HELP?

I'm not sure what you mean by a modern disk utility. It's what's on my machine. I have the latest version of the operating system that is available, as far as I know. I've tried to download Yosemite, but it wasn't available yet.
I just need to know how I can stop this process, as it is now showing it's up to 2 days and 14 hours! That's ridiculous.

Erasing Volumes using Disk Utility

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