Format a 3TB HD using Disk Utility with Yosemite?

Can a 2014 Macbook Pro running Yosemite format a 3TB HD intended for an external case using disk utility? I've had issues in the past with a 2010 Macbook Pro and am hoping its now not an issue.

There should be no problem. There might be a problem if the given HDD has some proprietary software installed by the manufacturer.
Ciao.

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Formatting external storage device using disk utility

how do i format my external hard drive using disk utility? thanx

I just went to DU and looked at Help to be sure the instructions were clear.
Go to DU, then go to Help. I put in "formatting HD" in the ask a question field and quickly got the directions for how to do this. It depends on whether you are wanting to format a startup or non-startup disk and whether or not you want to partition the drive. You aren't specific in your question here - sorry for being rather vague in my reply.
Mrs H

Using disk utility with Time Capsule backup disk

When backing up, i get an error msg that tells me to run disk utility on my backup drive. It says it's having problems coping files. In Disk Utiltiy, I don't see a way to choose the time capsule backup drive but only the hard drive on my laptop. Help pls.

The error message is fundamentally stupid. You cannot use disk utility on a network drive.
You can however fix or test the sparsebundle which is the virtual disk file TM creates on the TC.
See A5 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

How can I burn a disk image using disk utility with an external device?

I am trying to burn a disk image on DVD using disk utility in OS 10.3.9.
When I click the 'burn' button only the internal CD-writer appears allthough an external DVD-burner is connected via USB 2.0.
Does anybody have an idea how to make disk utility recognize the external device?

Try installing PatchBurn.
(26583)

How to use disk utility with mavericks

Since I upgraded to Mavericks via download, how do I run disk utility on the startup drive? In the past I'd restart my computer with the system disc but that's not an option. So what's the procedure now? Thanks in advance.

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

Using Disk Utility to format jump drives to work on a PC?

I have tried several times to format usb jump drives using Disk Utility and then I copy files to it and try to open it on a Windows computer and it prompts me that it needs to be formatted on the Windows computer. How do I format it on a Mac to work on a PC? I have tried this with different usb drives using the MS DOS format option.
Thanks.

Dude,
Of course this isn't a jumpdrive but for externals...
There's a bug in Apple's disk utility software when using USB. I just had this happen to me too. The work around is to use Firewire when formatting. Fortunately, I have a multi port interface so changing to Firewire wasn't an issue.

Using Disk Utility Restore function to clone external hard drives

Hi all,
I have a WD 3Tb My Book external hard drive which I want to use as a replacement for an older WD 1Tb My Book external hard drive. I would like to use Disk Utility's built-in Restore function to clone my old external hard drive onto my new external hard drive. Unfortunately, Disk Utility will not allow me to drag the new drive to the "Destination" box; I can drag the old drive to the "Source" box just fine. Why is this? Am I doing something wrong?
It might be important to note that my old external drive is formated to FAT32, whereas the new drive came pre-formatted to NTFS. Do I need to reformat the new drive to FAT32 before dragging the disk to the "Destination" box? In other words, do the source and destination drives need to be the same format in order to use Disk Utility's Restore function?
Thanks very much in advance.

Are these drives being used on Windows machines? If so then you will need to create a new partition from the Partition Scheme dropdown menu after which you can set the scheme to MBR. If the drives are being used only on the Mac then you have to prep the new drive as follows:
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. 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 (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC 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.
After you copy your files from the old drive to the new one you want to repartition and reformat the old drive in the same way as outlined immediately above.

How do i backup my documents using disk utility?

hello all, i'm trying to backup my "documents" just in case of harddrive failure. i'm trying to use using disk utility with disk image. when i select documents many of the folders are grayed out. is it necessary for me to individually select and burn each folder? is there a better way to backup my documents? if i do use disk utility what is the preferred format? how would i know the size? help!
thanks, bill

There are lots of options that are easy, to include freeware and shareware solutions. As for me, I LOVE simplicity and autmoation. I subscribed to .mac, which is, admittedly, a bit pricey. But, it comes with Backup, a very simple app that I can set up to automatically backup my documents, iCal, Addressbook, and Mail to my iDisk (500MB) on .mac.com , to my hard drive, weekly, and once a month to a DVD. You can backup many more things of course, and there are many suggested things that you can select, or select anything you want. What I like about using iDisk, is that when my logicboard died, all I had to do when I got my machine fixed was run Backup. It restored everything from the internet, without a hitch.
Yes, there are free ways and cheaper ways, but I don't know of anything easier or more automated. This is not a good solution for an entire backup of your hard drive, but all i need is to backup a relatively small number of files. Also, .mac.com's iDisk will also give you the option of synching all your documents,etc, online if you wish to, so that you can retrieve them from any other computer connected to the internet.
All of this ease costs me about $8.00 US per month. To a guy that already spent $3000 on his machine, this is a bargain, and I haven't even mentioned the many other features that .mac.com offers.
Best Wishes,
Pip "i just backup a few things"

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?

Formatting 2GB SD card with FAT32 using Disk Utility

Hello
I'm trying to format a 2GB SD card in a card reader/writer to FAT32 using Disk Utility. Unfortunately the only option available under the Erase button is "MS-DOS File System (FAT16)". I need to do this to upgrade the firmware in my Sony TV which requires a FAT32 formatted USB device.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tim
P.S. Unfortunately I'm stuck in OSX Tiger on an old B&W G3 while my G5 undergoes repairs.

Tim Goodwin wrote:
Ok, well anyone know of a free OSX 3rd party utility that will enable me to format the SD card to FAT32?
Unfortunately I don't have a larger SD card.
I tried my 1GB SD card on a XP PC and I'm not given the option of FAT32. So it may be a limitation of the SD specification, which means you may just need to bite the bullet and buy a larger SD card.
Perhaps you can ask Sony if there's some setting on your device to use something other than a FAT32 SD card. (I mean, this is Sony after all, you'd think they'd prefer Memorystick. )

Both my MacBook Pro Retina Display and new iMac will only format an SD as FAT16 using Disk Utility. How do I format in FAT32

I have a new iMac and MacBook Pro with Retina Display running 10.8.2
When I use Disk Utility on a San Disk 2GB SD card I can only format as FAT16. How can I format the card as FAT32?

Just posted a problem I'm having connecting my Jaybird Freedom and iPhone5 (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4716045). The Jaybirds connected fine with an iPhone4s and another (forgotten) device so I don't think the problem lies with the Jaybird. I'd be interested if you hear differently.

I accidently used Disk Utility to fix a partition. I cant boot in with any USB drive. Help.

I accidentally used Disk Utility to fix a partition. It erased it. I desperately need to restore it.
I have an imac without a cdrom. How do I create a bootable usb with testdisk as for some bizarre reason it seems impossible to create a bootable usb drive for osx. I tried GParted and the ultimate boot disk that both have test disk.
I am stumped. Why can't I boot into my imac with a usb? I have a mac air that I just cant seem to create a usb drive with testdrive thats bootable. I even tried rEFit but no luck.
Anyone have an idea? How do I fix my system ?

I have an imac OSX 10.8.
I tried creating a usb drive of testdisk on my mac air so that I could use it to boot into the iMAC and restore the partition table.
I created it using:
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o target.img ~/Desktop/ubcd530.iso
dd if=./target.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1m
It did not work. It would not boot. I also tried Gnome Partition tool and that did not boot either. I need my old system as it has important data
Any tips? Thanks!

Cannot format iPod using Disk Utility

My iPod (5th Generation) has been displaying a -48 error for weeks, and i tried to follow the advice to format my iPod using Disk Utility. However, after leaving my iBook 1.2Ghz G4 on over night with Disk Utility erasing it, the little bar was still stuck on partitioning, never moving. What can i do?

try reset in iTunes. Then follow the steps in Jason Creasey's excellent procedure in the long thread ref Code -48. Good luck.

HT1553 Does using Disk Utility also backup MSOffice 2008 (Mac) software already installed on my Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard? If not, how would I do that?

Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade from Snow Leapord (10.6.8) to the new Mountain Lion. Have a lot of applications and softwares that I would like to back up when installing the new OS, such as MS Office, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Any ideas on what is the best way to do that.
I'm not too tech savvy, so a simple solution would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Shyam

If your not very tech savvy, I would have someone assist you in the upgrade process as your about to inflict major change on your life and computer.
There are some things to consider before you upgrade.
1: The age of your machine:
My advice has been if your Mac is less than two years old and has a dedicated graphics (not all only Intel HD 3000 or 4000 CPU graphics like the 13" has)) then you stand a very good chance of 10.8 (or 10.7) running fine on your machine.
In either case you need to check the specifications of your machine to see if it meets Apple's requirements, and unfortunately those requirements are a bit low, resulting in a slower machine when you upgrade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Mountain_Lion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Lion
(note: 10.7 is no longer being sold via the AppStore, you should upgrade to 10.8, however some machines can't, you can call Apple Sales to upgrade to 10.7)
If your machine originally came with 10.5, I would say forget it. Mac's don't last forever and laptops usually have a life of about 4 years with normal use. Desktops last longer of course and can withstand more OS X upgrades if Apple allows it.
2: The age of your software.
10.7 and 10.8 will not run PPC based software of old like 10.6 does, also upgrading to 10.8/10.7 may require expensive software upgrades that can hit you unexpected. Consult this site and your other needed software and hardware drivers/software (for printers/scanners,custom keyboards/mice etc) BEFORE you upgrade the operating system.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
3: Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper "clone" (payware)
Your OS X boot partition to a new/reliable, blank powered external drive and use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions on both afterwards. You can hold the option key down and boot from this clone drive to use the computer like before if your OS X upgrade fails and the machine gets bricked. You can also use Disk Utility to erase the entire internal drive and reverse clone if you find out the OS X upgrade is not to your liking.
Make sure all other drives are disconnected, like TimeMachine when cloning or upgrading OS X, thus when you reboot TimeMachine doesn't self update itself, which can lock you out from going back in time to restore from.
Note: If you have Bootcamp, you can clone that with WinClone (payware) to another drive and recreate Bootcamp later and restore it.
4: Some firmware updates can possibly "BRICK" your hardware
Firmware updates progress in a forward manner and can't be downgraded, so what sometimes occurs is a software error by programmers or a hardware glitch on your machine won't 100% cooperate with the firmware update and thus your machine will fail to function. Sometimes even a interruption in the OS X upgrade or firmware update process will cause the problem. When this occurs, a trip to a Apple Repair is in order and if your machine is out of AppleCare (3 years) or the 1 years standard warranty your looking at a very expensive logicboard replacement. At this time you usually consider the cost not worth it and rather spend the money on the newer machine, especially if it's 2-3 years old. This can come as quite a shock as you expected to pay $20 for a OS X upgrade and now have to buy a whole new machine.
You can't not upgrade the operating system for security and bug fixes, however you make sure you have AppleCare that will protect you for three years if such a hardware bricking occurs. If you don't have AppleCare you might want to reconsider taking the chance upgrading the operating system and thus the firmware.
AppleCare can be purchased within one year of the original machine purchase, it gives one 3 years of care from the date of machine purchase, not from the date of AppleCare purchase.
5: Market share of OS x versions (apx)
10.4 4.5% security updates > no
10.5 15% security updates > no
10.6 52% security updates > yes
10.7 30% security updates > yes
10.8 2 million upgraded so far, just released
6: Your decision to upgrade or not
It depends upon your computer technical ability, the age of your machine, your software investment and your budget.
Can you afford to pay for professional assistance if your upgrade doesn't go as expected? Are you in AppleCare?
Can you afford to pay for upgrades to third party software?
Can you afford the downtime while your machine is being repaired?
Can you live without the "new features" newer OS versions provide?
Does your hardware even support the newer features?
You might decide the upgrade is not worth it for your older machine and decide to ease yourself into a new machine gradually. I took this approach with my 2006 MacBook Pro, buying a Early 2011 model. I then upgrade to 10.7 on the older 2006 machine and glad I did, because it got bricked. Turned out 10.7 was a pretty awful upgrade and I was out of AppleCare, however 10.8 seems to be "normal" far as OS X upgrades go, some problems but not mass bricking of machines.

I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I runni

I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I running the computer. Is the hard drive damaged as laptop doesn't seem to recognize the start up disk ? If so, I presume I will have to put in a new one.
There haven't been any problems with the computer, apart from a sticky curser,I have run a permissions programme from disk utility, there were a lot of different ones, but it seem to be able to fix them.
Any comments or ideas ?
Thank you in anticipation.

First backup your users files off the machine to a external storage drive (not TimeMachine!)
Most commonly used backup methods
Next to startup from the disk, have it inserted, hold c or option/alt (wired or built in keyboard) and then boot the computer and or select the disk when it appears and click the arrow.
Disk Utility is under the Utilities menu on the second screen.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
If you used the wrong 10.6 disk, it will spit it out or have issues, use the one that came with that machine or if it's defective, call Apple for a new one.

Format a 3TB HD using Disk Utility with Yosemite?

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