Format - analyze - purge a disk with mounted partitions

I'm trying to format a machine with multiple disks. To do this, I've been instructed to run format, then analyze, then purge on each of the disks. Unfortunately, each disk has at least one mounted partition and when I try to run purge, I get the following message:
"Cannot do analysis on a mounted partition."
I've been able to get around this problem on all but one of the disks by using umount and making appropriate edits to /etc/cfstab. That said, I'm stuck on the first disk where mounts like / and /var exist. It's my understanding that you can't unmount / - if this is the case, how do I purge the disk where / is mounted?
Thanks,
David

You do realize the end result is that you will have no usable OS, right? If you do that's fine but I wanted to put that out there.
Reboot from install media and run the commands from there. They will be in the single user environment.
Cheers,
Edited by: John.Kotches on Apr 22, 2008 9:53 AM
Cleaned up spacing... Nothing to really see here.

Similar Messages

Encrypting an external disk with two partitions

I have a large external disk that I'm going to be using for Carbon Copy Cloner backups. I want the disk to have two partitions, and I want the whole thing to be encrypted with Full Disk Encryption. Should I (a) first partition the disk and then encrypt each partition, or (b) encrypt the physical disk and then partition the result? I think (a) is the best path (it looks like it's at least possible), but advice would be appreciated -- thanks!

Hi,
according to this http://support.mediafour.com/entries/170474-macdrive-compatibility-with-hard-dis ks-with-multiple-partition-types-i-e-dual-format that 'feature' is currently not supported by MAcDrive.
Regards
Stefan

Trouble with mounted partitions (root twice)

Since a few days ago, I'm experiencing troubles with my partitions, like / being mounted twice. I'm using systemd instead of Init, mtab is symlinked to /proc/self/mounts
df output:
rootfs 103212320 13629136 84340304 14% /
udev 10240 0 10240 0% /dev
run 10240 344 9896 4% /run
/dev/disk/by-uuid/11331a92-bb2a-4aa2-a376-de9c2d12d6a3 103212320 13629136 84340304 14% /
tmpfs 2011176 0 2011176 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 2011176 176 2011000 1% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 2011176 0 2011176 0% /media
run 10240 344 9896 4% /var/lock
run 10240 344 9896 4% /var/run
/dev/sda1 369251368 61124056 289370348 18% /media/Akai-Data
As you can see, / is mounted twice.
my /proc/self/mounts looks like this (in fact, is):
http://pastebin.com/bLi22Cps
my partition layout inherit from the time where I had both Windows and Arch Linux installed (so I was low on free primary partitions) is: sda1 350 GB ext4, sda3 8 GB swap, sda4 98 GB ext4. So I have no /home and / in different partitions as sda1 is where I have all my data.
my /etc/fstab:
devpts /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/Akai-Data ext4 defaults,realtime,data=writeback 0 2
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda4 / ext4 defaults,user_xattr,realtime,data=writeback 0 1
Also, my /tmp folder has not being cleaned in 5 days. ¿Does it not supposed to be cleaned at every boot/shutdown (I have booted few times in five days)?
So, my troubles here are:
/ is mounted twice, and /tmp is not being cleaned. Any clue on this?
Also, to me, my/proc/self/mounts seems weird, aside from the fact that I think there is why / is mounted twice. Could someone check that?
Thank you in advance.
Last edited by ethail (2011-05-10 16:34:09)

The only place I have found that is on my /boot/burg/burg.cfg file:
linux /boot/vmlinuz26-pf root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/11331a92-bb2a-4aa2-a376-de9c2d12d6a3 ro fastboot quiet logo.nologo resume=/dev/sda3 init=/sbi/e4rat-preload
But as far as I can remember, that has been always there since I started using burg instead of grub (half of a mont ago, maybe more). And never got troubles with that.
Also, rc.local has everything comented out
EDIT: have I to assume that the burg entry is leading to troubles?
Last edited by ethail (2011-05-10 21:37:04)

Experience Formatting Gen5 Ipod Hard Disk with Fat 32?

Does anyone have any experience formatting a Gen 5 60gb for Windows hard disk with Fat32? I was thinking of doing this and then restoring from itunes 7.5 to start all over. If so, how did you do it? Thanks in advance. Running Win XP w/SP2

i reformatted my daughter's 5th gen. 30Gig thru 'my computer' but itunes still wont recognize it so i can't use the RESTORE on it. anyway, plug the usb in your ipod and wait for 'my computer' to recognize it then right click on it and and choose format.

Using a FAT32-formatted drive as backup disk with Time Machine

For strange and perverse reasons of my own, I'd like to use a FAT32-formatted external hard drive with Time Machine. Is this possible?

No, Time Machine needs a HFS+ formatted drive for its backup folder:
Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended Journaled.
_A solution_ if you still want to use the same drive for TM backup and for some Windows files:
Partition the drive before you start using it.
1) Format it (using Disk Utility) as Mac OS Extended
2) Make two partitions.
3) Now you can format Partition2 as FAT32, so you have then two different volumes with each its own format.

Multiple disks with identical partition names

(cross-posted from the Mac Ach:)
Just a day before the announcement of the FW800less BunnyBooks, I bought me an FW800 external, to boot my PB off while working at home.
I intend to clone my internal to it, keeping the same organisation in which for instance I have partitions OSX1 (root) and OSX2 (case sensitive), with a softlink work -> /Volumes/OSX2/Users/bertin/work in my home directory. Rather than calling my external partitions OSX1e and OSX2e (for instance), and having to modify all my links, I'd prefer to call the external partitions OSX1 and OSX2 too. (This means I could keep the 2 disks synchronised easily.) OS X handles this correctly by changing the mountpoint name in /Volumes on the fly.
My question is about the mount order during booting. When I boot from the external, its partitions will be /dev/disk0s*, but does that mean that /Volumes/OSX1 and /Volumes/OSX2 will be guaranteed to point to the external disk's partitions (and to the internal disk's when booting off that one)?
Thanks,
René

(cross-posted from the Mac Ach:)
Just a day before the announcement of the FW800less BunnyBooks, I bought me an FW800 external, to boot my PB off while working at home.
I intend to clone my internal to it, keeping the same organisation in which for instance I have partitions OSX1 (root) and OSX2 (case sensitive), with a softlink work -> /Volumes/OSX2/Users/bertin/work in my home directory. Rather than calling my external partitions OSX1e and OSX2e (for instance), and having to modify all my links, I'd prefer to call the external partitions OSX1 and OSX2 too. (This means I could keep the 2 disks synchronised easily.) OS X handles this correctly by changing the mountpoint name in /Volumes on the fly.
My question is about the mount order during booting. When I boot from the external, its partitions will be /dev/disk0s*, but does that mean that /Volumes/OSX1 and /Volumes/OSX2 will be guaranteed to point to the external disk's partitions (and to the internal disk's when booting off that one)?
Thanks,
René

Mirro Raid can you use a single 4TB disk with 2 partitions for mirrored raid ?

Hello,
I have a new 4TB hardrive.
After lots of reading, i was thinking that i could partician the drive to 2 (2TB) Then create mirror raid.
Essentially thinking that i would have photos on one of the (2TB particions) and they would mirror on the other ?? as a double copy storage.
I can partician okay and the try to drag the two particians onto the "mirror raid set" and ithe following message displays :
"Can't add Seagate expansion disk" to the raid set because another volume from this disk is already part of the RAID set"
I'm now thinking i need to purchase another 4tb hardrive for this to work ?
Or if you "mirror raid set" is it actually particioning the drive and creating a copy ?
Forgive me... i'm not really very up skilled with disk utility, and basically just don't understand.
Looking forward to some help and advise
warm regards Tracy Gr

It doesn't make any sense to mirror on the same drive. The idea behind mirroring is that should one disk in the raid set fail your data is safe on the other disk. Mirroring to partitions, if it's even possible, would only bring you disaster when the drive fails because you would lose the complete raid set and all of your data. If you insist on mirroring buy another drive.

RAID 1 for a Disk with 2 partitions?

So I have 2 x 2TB external hard drives. My goal is to have drive "A" contain 2 partitions, partition 1 being OS X Extended Journaled and partition 2 being Windows NT File System. I would then use the Mac partition for time machine backups for 2 of my macs, and use the windows partition to basically store files, data, and the like.
Next, I would use drive "B" as a redundant disk in a RAID 1 setup so that if drive "A" ever failed, all of my time machine backups and miscellaneous data would be left 100% intact.
So, I suppose my question is...is this type of set up possible? Am I able to create a RAID 1 setup covering 2 partitions (non-alike) partitions? If so, what is the best way to do this?
Thank you

USB2 doesn't have the bandwidth and RAID only puts an added burden, and USB does use cpu for processing. USB3 would be better.
There are some cases that might make more sense and built for what you want, but a mirror raid should be after you already have a primary backup, not as your backup method. THAT is where the redundancy comes in, and always have one backup set that is not online at any given time.
OWC carries a number of interesting external backup devices.
http://www.macsales.com/firewire
Maybe a network attached drive or server would even do better. Low end NAS drive or full blown $500 server, with support for NTFS and Mac, TimeMachine and Windows Home Server, as well as full media library support and streaming for itunes and such.

Mirror boot disk with soft partitions

We've been investigating Solaris Volume Manager with Solaris 9 and have some questions. We currently use DiskSuite 4.2.1 to mirror our boot disks on Solaris 8. The fact that SVM is integrated into the kernel on Solaris 9 got us thinking. Here are some questions I would greatly appreciate answers to:
1. Is it possible to have your boot disk partitions (/root, /var, swap) be soft partitions and then mirror the soft partitions (so disk 1 you'd have 3 soft p's and on disk 2 you'd have 3 soft p's and create the mirror from them)?
2. What would the problems be with this? The major one we could foresee is not being able to see your /root, /var and swap partitions in the case of having to boot from the CD, but if SVM is in the Solaris 9 kernel, wouldn't that solve that issue. Is this a problem? Are there other issues/problems we're not thinking of?
3. Finally, is having your boot partitions be mirrored soft partitons a supported configuration from Sun?
Thanks,
Bob Jones
[email protected]

Hi,
micmac95 wrote:
The reason the HDD is split into two partitions is so if there is an error with the OS, they can reinstall it without affecting the user files.
Makes sense in a way. But does this 'they can reinstall...' imply that you don't have the OSX Install DVD for your Mac ?
Cause you need that DVD for installing the BootCamp Drivers of it !
I do have admin, and I can re-partition my HDD, but I cannot touch the OS partition.
If I set it up like this: http://micmac95.fileave.com/HDD%20setup.png , by shrinking the USER partition, will I be able to install windows on the BOOTCAMP partition?
Personally I never tried this 'Shrinking one partition to make another partition' approach with BootCamp.
But, if you don't have one now is the time to make a complete backup of all the things on your Mac !
Before 'fumbling' with partitions I always make sure to have a backup.
Stefan

Hanging/delay with mounted partitions when browsing /media

I randomly mount my laptop via bash command and also regularly have my Mythbox mounted via NFS, but sometimes if I have for example rebooted the Mythbox server without unmounting it first from my box (forgot to or what have you), if I then cd to /media, do a ls, it hangs a good while before displaying anything (same with a df). Is there a way around this? Like to have it check if the mount point is mounted or if the host is down with a faster timeout or something?
Jeez I hope that's clear, tough to describe but.. hopefully it's okay lol Thanks a lot anyone

Neo139 wrote:
Thanks. Now I have the data folder with the free space. But I dont have the permissions to write.
I did as root
chmod 770 /mnt/data
but didint work. Now I can only write /mnt/data as root.
What should I do?
About the partitions size:
I wanted a very tiny /home and all in data because after some time using the OS my /home gets very messy, full of small files with the names of each program. configs, sessions, some tmps and other files that appear.
So keep all my data,docs,music,etc at /mnt/data tidy and clean.
Try chmod -R 770 /mnt/data to change the permissions of all contents of the folder.
About the partitions: That is actually a really good idea
Last edited by itsbrad212 (2010-06-04 05:37:35)

[Solved] Wait for external usb disk before mounting partition

Hello,
I have a fresh setup where 3 btrfs subvolumes are supposed to be mounted on /var /home and /opt. Those subvolumes are on an external usb drive (root fs is on a sd card).
During boot, systemd tries to mount /var first but encounter "var not empty, mounting anyway" (probably due to several boot attempts) and then "special device uUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 does not exist" where 12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 is the correct id of the drive.
From journactl extract it seems that usb drive is not ready yet when /var is being mounted.
Is there a way to make systemd wait for "the disk is ready" before trying to mount /var ?
Information:
- mounting /var in rescue mode works perfectly (mount -o subvol=var /dev/sda /var)
- device is a raspberry but I think it has no link to the issue (except maybe being slow to send power to usb)
- the usb drive is behind a 4 port usb hub (externally powered)
- the usb drive indeed take some time to be powered up
- /home and /opt are mounted in rescue mode automatically a few seconds later
journatctl wrote:Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: Starting Local File Systems (Pre).
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: Reached target Local File Systems (Pre).
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: Mounting /var...
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: var.mount: Directory /var to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd-udevd[138]: starting version 218
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte mount[139]: mount: special device uUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 does not exist
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access Inateck 0001 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: var.mount mount process exited, code=exited status=32
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jan 01 01:00:07 capodimonte systemd[1]: Failed to mount /var.
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: sda: unknown partition table
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: random: nonblocking pool is initialized
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: BTRFS: device label external_hdd devid 1 transid 24 /dev/sda
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Found device NS1066 external_hdd.
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Mounting /home...
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Mounting /opt...
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: BTRFS info (device sda): enabling auto defrag
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: BTRFS info (device sda): disk space caching is enabled
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte kernel: BTRFS: has skinny extents
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Mounted /home.
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Mounted /opt.
Jan 01 01:00:09 capodimonte systemd[1]: Startup finished in 5.088s (kernel) + 4.607s (userspace) = 9.696s.
My fstab:
# /dev/mmcblk0p3
UUID=4660fa0a-bcf6-4d83-b956-d7bf9df222b9 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/sda LABEL=external_hdd
UUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 /home btrfs rw,relatime,space_cache,noatime,compress=lzo,autodefrag,subvol=home 0 0
# /dev/sda LABEL=external_hdd
uUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 /var btrfs rw,relatime,space_cache,noatime,compress=lzo,autodefrag,x-systemd.device-timeout=30s,subvol=var 0 0
# /dev/sda LABEL=external_hdd
UUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 /opt btrfs rw,relatime,space_cache,noatime,compress=lzo,autodefrag,subvol=opt 0 0
# /dev/mmcblk0p1
UUID=95DB-C13B /boot vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 2
Last edited by kamaradclimber (2015-03-12 19:25:40)

Thanks for your reply.
I don't see any btrfs subvolume information in /dev.
Here is the var.mount config:
systemctl show var.mount wrote:Where=/var
What=/dev/sda
Options=rw,relatime,compress=lzo,space_cache,autodefrag
Type=btrfs
TimeoutUSec=1min 30s
ControlPID=0
DirectoryMode=0755
SloppyOptions=no
Result=exit-code
ExecMount={ path=/bin/mount ; argv[]=/bin/mount -n uUID=12f15a3e-cf5c-4bc2-9475-6b4686a30f90 /var -t btrfs -o rw,relatime,space_cache,noatime,compress=lzo,autodefrag,subvol=var ; ignore_errors=no ; start_time=[Thu 1970-01-01 01:00:07 CET] ; stop_time=[Thu 1970-01-01 01:00:07 CET] ; pid=141 ; code=exited ; status=32 }
Slice=system.slice
ControlGroup=/system.slice/var.mount
Delegate=no
CPUAccounting=no
CPUShares=18446744073709551615
StartupCPUShares=18446744073709551615
CPUQuotaPerSecUSec=infinity
BlockIOAccounting=no
BlockIOWeight=18446744073709551615
StartupBlockIOWeight=18446744073709551615
MemoryAccounting=no
MemoryLimit=18446744073709551615
DevicePolicy=auto
UMask=0022
LimitCPU=18446744073709551615
LimitFSIZE=18446744073709551615
LimitDATA=18446744073709551615
LimitSTACK=18446744073709551615
LimitCORE=18446744073709551615
LimitRSS=18446744073709551615
LimitNOFILE=4096
LimitAS=18446744073709551615
LimitNPROC=7329
LimitMEMLOCK=65536
LimitLOCKS=18446744073709551615
LimitSIGPENDING=7329
LimitMSGQUEUE=819200
LimitNICE=0
LimitRTPRIO=0
LimitRTTIME=18446744073709551615
OOMScoreAdjust=0
Nice=0
IOScheduling=0
CPUSchedulingPolicy=0
CPUSchedulingPriority=0
TimerSlackNSec=50000
CPUSchedulingResetOnFork=no
NonBlocking=no
StandardInput=null
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=inherit
TTYReset=no
TTYVHangup=no
TTYVTDisallocate=no
SyslogPriority=30
SyslogLevelPrefix=yes
SecureBits=0
CapabilityBoundingSet=18446744073709551615
MountFlags=0
PrivateTmp=no
PrivateNetwork=no
PrivateDevices=no
ProtectHome=no
ProtectSystem=no
SameProcessGroup=yes
IgnoreSIGPIPE=yes
NoNewPrivileges=no
SystemCallErrorNumber=0
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
KillMode=control-group
KillSignal=15
SendSIGKILL=yes
SendSIGHUP=no
Id=var.mount
Names=var.mount
Requires=-.mount
Wants=system.slice
RequiredBy=systemd-journal-flush.service man-db.service shadow.timer man-db.timer local-fs.target systemd-random-seed.service logrotate.timer systemd-update-utmp.service
Conflicts=umount.target
Before=systemd-journal-flush.service man-db.service shadow.timer man-db.timer local-fs.target systemd-random-seed.service logrotate.timer systemd-update-utmp.service umount.target
After=local-fs-pre.target -.mount systemd-journald.socket system.slice
RequiresMountsFor=/
Documentation=man:fstab(5) man:systemd-fstab-generator(8)
Description=/var
LoadState=loaded
ActiveState=active
SubState=mounted
FragmentPath=/run/systemd/generator/var.mount
SourcePath=/etc/fstab
UnitFilePreset=disabled
InactiveExitTimestamp=Thu 1970-01-01 01:01:11 CET
InactiveExitTimestampMonotonic=71204114
ActiveEnterTimestamp=Thu 1970-01-01 01:01:11 CET
ActiveEnterTimestampMonotonic=71204114
ActiveExitTimestampMonotonic=0
InactiveEnterTimestamp=Thu 1970-01-01 01:00:07 CET
InactiveEnterTimestampMonotonic=7409499
CanStart=yes
CanStop=yes
CanReload=yes
CanIsolate=no
StopWhenUnneeded=no
RefuseManualStart=no
RefuseManualStop=no
AllowIsolate=no
DefaultDependencies=yes
OnFailureJobMode=replace
IgnoreOnIsolate=yes
IgnoreOnSnapshot=no
NeedDaemonReload=no
JobTimeoutUSec=0
JobTimeoutAction=none
ConditionResult=yes
AssertResult=yes
ConditionTimestamp=Thu 1970-01-01 01:00:07 CET
ConditionTimestampMonotonic=7365732
AssertTimestamp=Thu 1970-01-01 01:00:07 CET
AssertTimestampMonotonic=7365738
Transient=no

Leopard Disk Utility repair on disk with Tiger partition?

I'm trying to repair a disk containing a bootable tiger partition using disk utility in Leopard and getting a "can't unmount disk error". Suggestions?

After not being able to unmount the Tiger partition it went through and tried to fix my Time Machine partition and gave me this error:
Invalid Index Key
The volume Time Machine could not be repaired after 3 attempts
Error filesystem verify or repair failed
Should I restart and try repairing it again? Do you think I'm getting that error on the TM partition because it couldn't unmount the Tiger partition or is my brand new TM disk hosed?

DO NOT install Airport Extreme update 2008-4 if using usb disk with TM

I have Airport Extreme and a WD 1TB disk with two partitions connected to the Extreme. Other partition just for stuff and the other for Time Machine backup.
Today I installed Firmware update 7.3.2 and disaster struck. I noticed that Airport Extreme was reporting a disk problem. I disconnected the drive from Extreme and use the Disk utility to find out what is the matter. The partition used for backup needed repair, but couldn't be repaired. I had to format it.
The worst thing (besides losing all my TM backups): After I got the disk formatted, I checked TM. It wasn't possible to do Time Machine backups any more for a USB disk connected to Airport Extreme.
Anyone else have the same?
I strongly recomend NOT to install the update if using Airport Extreme + USB disk for Time Machine.
I'm really dissapointed if this is an issue connected to the update 7.3.2.

Hello
I'm having issues too wtih the drive connected to my airport extreme basestation but not the same kind.
Sometimes (5 time a day) the airport extreme doesn't respond anymore and it doesn't appear in the airport utility. Then every body is disconnected from internet (even if the light stil green...).
I have to reboot the basestation manualy.
I also have two partitions (datas and TM). I'ts very anoying th only solution i found right now is to unplug my drive...
Hope Apple will fix this ASAP ...

Disk repair using the format - repair command with a mounted partition

I was going to repair some bad blocks on a disk by using the format command with the repair option. When I entered the block number to be fixed it came back withthe question of:
"Repair is in a mounted partition, continue?"
Will I hurt anything on my system if I answer yes to continue or should the partition be unmounted before I do this?
Thanks

Did you have any answer?

Using the format - repair command on a mounted partition

I was going to repair some bad blocks on a disk by using the format command with the repair option. When I entered the block number to be fixed it came back withthe question of:
"Repair is in a mounted partition, continue?"
Will I hurt anything on my system if I answer yes to continue or should the partition be unmounted before I do this?
Thanks

Did you have any answer?

Format - analyze - purge a disk with mounted partitions

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for