Format mac hd in single user mode.

Several have asked this question. I haven't seen anybody actually answer it. People start asking, "why would you want to do that? You really don't want to, instead you should..." I really want to. I have explored all the options available. I don't really want to get into why. I just want to know how. Please.

As I attempted to suggest, solutions like Recovery Partition or booting from the installation cd are not available. I have been working on this for some months.
For others in a similar situation, I find I can run diskutil by running these commands first
mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.notifyd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.configd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskmanagementd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.securityd.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd.plist
Single User Mode boots onto the OSX Base System partition. Since I want to format the Recovery Partition, the operation seems doable. And once I have diskutil loaded into memory, formatting the OBS partion might be possible too. Will work on that.
In the meantime, How do I boot from Apple servers?

Similar Messages

My mac opened in single user mode

My mac opened with a message stating opening in single user mode what do i do?

Type in reboot
See > Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode

Format Hard Drive in Single User Mode

Hi All-
I'm having some issues with my MacBook with a bad B-Tree. I've read a lot about how to use DiskWarrior to repair it. I'm not really interested in recovering my data, but I would like to install OS X.
Those who've had a catalog issue or B-tree issue knows that fsck doesn't repair it.
I'm having an issue with the Disk Utility on the start up disk. It's having trouble reading the disk and hangs at "Gathering disk information". I would like to boot into single user more and repartition the disk, I just don't know how.
I have not had any success in finding my answer on the web, and am hoping that you can help out.
Thanks!
john

John,
Disk Utility is also available at the command line. Open Terminal and type:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">man diskutil</pre>
then press <RETURN> to view the man pages. I suggest that you give those man pages a good read, then come back here if you have further questions. If you cannot get to the man pages (if you don't have a working installation of OS X), I could give you a specific command to run, but I'll need to know absolutely everything about what results you want (just "repartition" is WAY too vague).
Also, you might want to give Disk Utility another try, and give it plenty of time to handle the broken file system. Sometimes, a broken file system will become available for formatting, but only after an extended period of time (several minutes to an hour).
Scott

How to get to single user mode

I aquired an old power mac G4 with an old account with 10.3.9 and an old administrator account. It seems that procedures to remove the account start in Single user mode. The computer won't start when holding down system - s. The drive clicks a few times but the display goes to sleep from no video signal. So How can I get to single user mode when the usual way don't work?

The hard drive's directory may be dead, or it may have last been booted into Mac OS 9. IF you are lucky, they did install Mac OS X on it, and that can be determined either through an Option key boot, or through an X key boot on a wired (not wireless) USB Apple compatible keyboard. X key booting will only work if the X operating system is on the same partition, whereas Option key boot will reveal the Startup Manager, where you select the drive and hit the right pointing arrow for the drive partition that has Mac OS X. Note this will not work on an original PCI PowerMac G4. You may also need to replace the PRAM battery, a 1/2 AA 3.6V battery from Radio Shack before any boot sequence will work. Once it boots into Mac OS X, Single User Mode should work.

Disable single user mode

Is there a way to disable single user mode? I just booted in single user mode and w/o any password I changed my root password! In my mind this is a HUGE security hole, any one could gain root access to my laptop in a matter of less than a minute! I might as well not have a root password. I have the latest and greatest security updates, but this seems to be the biggest security risk in my mind.

If someone has physical access to your computer, your software is vulnerable in the way that you describe. There are a couple of approaches to preventing this problem. I have not tried any of this so I can only point you to some websites.
One way to prevent anyone booting into single user mode is to enable a password in Open Firmware, as described at Setting up firmware password protection in Mac OS X 10.1 or later. You would have to enter the password every time that you booted. And, you definitely would not want to forget your password; if you did, I don't know what you would have to do to recover.
A second approach is to use a 3rd party patch to prohibit casual use of the single-user feature. Look here for info on such a patch: Mac OS X Single User Mode Root Access. I believe that the software discussed here forces someone to type in a password to boot in single-user mode.
One question that I have about the second approach is whether it is possible for the patch to become out of synch with a future OS update. If that happened, one would also need a way to recover.
I hope this helps. If you are really concerned, I suggest that you do some internet searching on this topic.
Rich
EMAC G4 1.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Mac mini i5 mid 2011 always boot in single user mode...how to get out of this?

my mac mini always boot into single user mode
how can i revert back to normal boot screen?
i tried formatting the hard disk and clean install of mac os x 10.9.2 but nothing change..
pls help
mac mini ...core i5 @2.3 ghz mid 2011 model
thanks in advance

Restart the computer with the Option, Command, P, and R keys held down. Release them upon the second startup chime.
(110762)

How format the hard disk in single-user mode

Hi all, i would like to format the internal hard disk of my macbook pro 13'' through single-user mode. How can I do it, please?

Ok, to do that you need to hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and second screen in under the Utilities Menu is Disk Utility.
You can then select the hard drive makers name (your "bare metal") and peform the wipe/format of the entire drive or a "partition" on that drive.
In the picture below there is only one partition, the Mac HD. In the picture above there are two partitions which both would show up under the hard drive makers name and both or either partition can be wiped in Disk Utility.
Use the Security Option to Zero your hard drive of all lingering data.
When you Quit Disk utiltiy, your back in the installer and can quit or install OS X.
Note: messing with Disk utility will erase all data on the drive, if there is something you need to recover better stop and ask!
If you don't see your internal boot drive in Disk Utility, the drive is dead.

Mac not booting normally after running '/sbin/fsck -fy' in Single user mode

HI, I tried to log in to single user mode and run the '/sbin/fsck -fy' command. This command failed. So I rebooted my Macbook pro by 'reboot' command. On bootup I hear the chime shoud and can see the Mac Symbol but never reach the login prompt. The round circle keeps rotating over the gray screen and nothing happens.
Then I again hard rebooted mac book and entered single user mode. I ran again '/sbin/fsck -fy' many times and after many attempts the command stuck and never returned.
Then I tried using the recovery method to reinstall MAC OS X. It asked me to choose the Harddrive where to install MAC OSX. But the option of "macintosh HD" was disabled and message was " hard drive locked".
Please help me how to boot my MAC normally :'(

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Boot in Recovery again and open Disk Utility. Then, choose "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair the hard drive. If it is repaired, restart and OS X should start correctly. If not, you will probably have to format the hard disk.
You only have to use that command when you have problems with the Mac OS X volume filesystem that they couldn't be repaired with Disk Utility, and as this command got stuck, probably damaged the OS X volume filesystem

Why can't I enter single user mode on my Mac Mini for an admin password reset?

Hi,
I recently created a new user account for my mac and deleted the old one, not realising that this was the only account with admin priveleges. As such, I no longer have access to administrator priveleges, and cannot grant them to my new user account.
I have tried to boot in single user mode and recovery mode but neither command results in any reaction on the part of my computer.
This thread follows on from a previous, unrelated disscussion:
BDAqua: If you hold alt key at bootup do you see a lock in the middle?
Yenots: No...what does this mean?
BDAqua: If it did, it would mean Firmware Password Protection was enabled, which prevents booting in other modes, so that's not the problem, are you using a wired Mac KB, or Windows KB?
Yenots: I'm using an 'Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad' [ http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB110B/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-br itish ]
If you find me here BDAqua, hit me with your knowledge!
Any other contributions are welcome and, now we're under the right heading, will hopefully help other users who have encountered this problem.
Thanks, Cristo

Hi,
Thanks for the link to MacPilot, and the sexy screenshot. I found an archived version for 10.4 on the koingosw website. That solves getting into single user/safe mode. Though I'd be interested to see whether sudo nvram boot-args="-s" will result in single user boot.
As for creating administrator priveleges for my new user account, I've found a method which looks good:
     \single user mode\
     cmd-s
     \mount drive\
     mount -uw
     \open 'directory access'\
     lauchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectory.plist
     \list users\
     ls /Users
     \change password\
     dscl . passwd /Users/<username> <password>
I think that this method intends that if I change the root users password I'll be changing the administrator password (as root is the only user with administrator priveleges), and subsequently be able to change my new user accounts priveleges using 'netinfomanager'. But I'm not 100%. Could you give me your opinion on this?
Furthermore, three keys 'L' 'O' and '(' aren't working on my keyboard, which means I can't try this until I find an intact keyboard to borrow. I was thinking maybe a mod version of the above instructions would work in terminal using sudo, so I could use the keyboard viewer to type the missing characters. If you have any ideas on constructing such a mod I would be interested to hear them.
Otherwise, Thank You for your help BDAqua! And enjoy your summer wherever you are.

IBook Mac OS 10.3.9 not booting, even crashing in single-user mode

Yeah so about 2 weeks ago my iBook started crashing, then wouldn't properly re-boot. Gradually, it would start crashing after being on for less and less time until now it gets just past the apple symbol and then freezes on a blue screen.
I've been using the online help but now it's even freezing during single-user mode, meaning i can't even perform fcsk!! I can't even boot up on the Mac OS X CD to re-install the OS. Anyone got any idea what's wrong or what I can do? Thanks, Rob

What, exactly, is preventing you from starting up from the Mac OS X install disk?
Have you added any RAM yourself? You might try taking it out to see if that helps. You might also try to run the Apple Hardware Test. Depending on which bundle of install disks you got, it may be on the Mac OS X install disk or it may be a separate CD of it's own. It should be marked "AHT" and a version number on the disk. Put that disk in the drive, restart and hold down on the "option" key. This will give you a Startup Manager that should allow you to select the hardware test and continue (click the right arrow to continue). If you can't even get that far, then you probably have a hardware failure and you'll need to take your iBook in for service. What is your location?
-Doug

How do I reset Tiger Mac OS X 10.4 admin password by using single-user mode

bought a used PowerBook G4 on Ebay. The administrator's password was locked. The Powerbook still can run to the normal screen. However, I am unable to update and install software without a password.
I don't have the original install CD either the second mac for firmware reset. So I wonder if anyone knows how to reset the password by using single user mode or any other methods to do so?
Any input will be greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4)

This morning we lost power and my iMac G5 (10.4) system got messed up. Specifically, when it restarted, all text in all Finder and application menus were blank (e.g. Click the Apple menu and a long empty white box stretching to the bottom of the screen would appear with no text. The whole box turns blue when you click in it. Ditto for all other finder menus and dialog boxes. Event the User menu was empty. The Disk Utility application shows only icons and empty buttons--no text.)
Restarting in Safe Mode was no better.
I then connected the G5 as a target disk to my iMac G4, and ran the OS X install that came with the G5 (10.3.2). It told me that in order to install an earlier OS X version, I must select certain options: I checked "Archive and Install" and "Preserve Users and Network Settings" (I have 4 accounts set up in addition to my onw admin account) and proceeded with the installation.
At the end of installation, the G4 started (G5 is still in target disk mode) with the G5 as the startup disk. It presented the User Login screen (although it normally does auto-login on my account) but the password for each of the 5 accounts was rejected. The original hints still appear, but it seems that all passwords have been changed.
I then tried the G5 on its own (not as a Target disk) but when it starts up the grey Apple turns into a grey "do not enter" (circle/slash) icon and goes no further.
Can you suggest what I should do now?
iMac G5 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac. used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac.
used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

need to figure out how to remove an unknown admin password on a mac.
used the install disc with not luck. tried some commands in single user mode, no luck.

Internal HD on mac mini not well... need to boot in Single User Mode

Internal HD on mac mini not well... need to boot in Single User Mode.
I only have a Bluetooth Keyboard and Bluetooth Mouse so when I try to boot in Single User Mode (to do the /sbin/fsck hard drive fix thing) it doesn't see the Bluetooth Keyboard. What's the solution?
I also used SuperDuper to use as a boot drive but it won't unmount my internal HD. arghh..
Help

I have a corrupt drive and was unable to repair all the errors after booting from OS X installer disk and choosing Disk Utility...
I followed the "boot into single user mode" instructions hoping to complete my repair with fsck, however once I got to the localhost:/ root# prompt, my keyboard seemed to be unrecognized!
I tried 3 different USB keyboards - original Apple USB keyboard, Kensington Mac USB keyboard and an old SGI USB windows keyboard. All were able to enter the apple-S key to get into single user mode but NONE of them were able to type any commands whatsoever.....
I'm thinking my only option is to boot the mini as a target drive off my laptop and try to backup my 30GB of music and photos before wiping the drive...
2nd option might be to try Disk Warrior for $79??
Anyone else have ideas for me?

Boot mac mini server into single-user mode?

I've got a mac mini server (one of the ones with no optical drive) and I'm trying to boot it into single-user mode. I hit the power button and hold down the command (apple, splat) key and the 'S' key simultaneously ---- until it boots up to a login prompt rather than a black screen with white text and a unix command prompt...
Is there some magic different on this particular machine to get to single-user?

Hi, I wonder if anyone helped you out. I'm new here so here goes. I just bought a mac mini, but not the server. I had finished my new install and then I rebooted and got a black screen, since i have a wireless Apple keyboard, I cannot log into the computer by using commands, like Command-S. And Yes, you are using the right command, that hasn't changed.
Your problem may be the same as mine, are you using a wireless keyboard, because if you are, it seems that the Bluetooth doesn't have time to install its software while we are trying to log into the system. Thus, as we reboot, we are holding down they keys but that won't help us because the Bluetooth software doesn't have time to do its thing, in the background.
That is a huge problem because I don't have any other keyboard, but if you have access to a keyboard, get one and plug it into the back of your Mac mini and then you should be all set.
Does this make sense? Let me know if this helps. I have no idea what to do because now I have a brand new computer with a serious screen with the you must reboot your system in many languages, and when one gets this it is not a good sign.

Kernel panic on MacPro in Single-User mode after memtest.

I've had about 7 kernel panics in about 7 days on a new MacPro. 2 gigs of RAM (Apple Installed). Fresh install of OSX (no user import). While going through the troubleshooting process I ran memtest in single user mode. Ran it all night no errors.
So in the morning I typed ctrl-c and then exit (i think)... it seemed to start the process of booting and I got another kernal panic. I've actually done this three times now.
I checked panic.log and all the error messages but 1 were the same. Including the ones I got in single-user mode (copied below).
Should I be able to gracefully exit out of single-user mode without a kernel panic?
Does this point to a RAM error even though memtest and AHD for that matter ran all night without finding anything?
I'm all set to try again (taking careful notes this time) to see if I can reproduce but I was hoping for some feedback first.
Thanks,
Craig
Sat Jan 27 22:17:27 2007
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x41C47CC4): Uncorrectable Fbd memory error detected. ferr = 20000000 , nerr == 00000000, fErrFat = 20000000 nErrFat == 00000000
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x108cd8 : 0x128d08 (0x3c9a74 0x108cfc 0x131de5 0x0)
0x108d18 : 0x41c47cc4 (0x41c49f1c 0x20000000 0x0 0x20000000)
0x108da8 : 0x41c47f58 (0x406a180 0x406a180 0x2 0x820044)
0x108e38 : 0x66a712 (0x406a180 0x0 0x3ba3680 0x0)
0x108e68 : 0x66a59b (0x3b92780 0x0 0x0 0x1c)
0x108e88 : 0x67d9be (0x1c 0x108ef8 0x8 0x67f4be)
0x108eb8 : 0x67db68 (0x3b91b1c 0x17 0x3b928ca 0x3b81120)
0x108f18 : 0x68a743 (0x3b34348 0x0 0xafdd0c77 0x4cd5)
0x108f38 : 0x70a4fb (0x3b34348 0x0 0x3abac80 0x0)
0x108f68 : 0x67053f (0x3b88600 0x0 0x3b87580 0x49)
0x108f88 : 0x669c1f (0x3b6b800 0x0 0x3b87580 0x49)
0x108fa8 : 0x3ba298 (0x3b87100 0x0 0x3b92f00 0x49)
0x108fe8 : 0x19aa80 (0x25423e30 0x25423e30 0x19bad6 0xb26000)
0x25423f18 : 0x1a445b (0x10 0x1 0x4af85c 0x6)
0x25423f38 : 0x19d871 (0x0 0x0 0x25423f68 0x206)
0x25423f58 : 0x135f14 (0x0 0x0 0x0 0x19d23a) Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver(1.1.2f1)@0x41c44000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.2.0)@0x664000
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC(1.2.0)@0x709000
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform(1.0.8)@0x668000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.2)@0x57d000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.2.0)@0x664000
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.8.4: Sun Oct 29 15:26:54 PST 2006; root:xnu-792.16.4.obj~1/RELEASE_I386
MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes, your memory or memory slot, or memory seating is bad or off. "Uncorrectable Fbd memory error detected. ferr = 20000000 , nerr == 00000000, fErrFat = 20000000 nErrFat == 00000000"
Clearly a memory related issue. It may also be that memtest doesn't know how to diagnose the new kind of memory and is reporting that back to the logs. Take it in to a service center to have all the boards replaced to make sure the issue isn't reproduceable with new memory. If it is, then I'd consider the slots on the logicboard a problem.

Format mac hd in single user mode.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for