I cannot earase my hard drive it says drive cannot unmounted?

i cannot earase my hard drive it says drive cannot unmounted? how can i erase it ? please help

Restart the Mac and start in Lion Recovery Mode by pressing Command-R before the startup chime.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the Macintosh HD volume
Click erase, wait till it finishes destroying all your stuff.
Weep cause your Mac won't boot no more.

Similar Messages

Hard Drive became unmounted - cannot remount

My HD was unmounted intentionally using Drive Genius during a verification process, but I lost power during the process and my Power Book shut down while the HD was unmounted and now will not mount. Any suggestions?
Dacian

Hello! Try booting from the install cd and see if disk utility will see and repair it. Other than that DiskWarrior will probably be your best shot. Tom

External hard drive is unmounted

I cant find info on how to mount it back in. I dont know how it happened. I have plugged and unplugged power and FW cable but it doesnt show....
thanks for ur help

Thanks.
Not showing on Disk Utility
Finder Prefs had that option to show on Desktop checked.
Reformat, as in erase? Its full of backup info....

TechTool Deluxe (applecare CD) unmounted my hard drive

I'll just detail what happened, any and all suggestions would be helpful.
1. Ran Permission repair utility: everything checked out
2. Ran Disk repair utility: Catalog error found
3. Rebooted mac with techtool deluxe cd.
4. Enabled all tests (including volume structure test)
5. All tests check out fine save for volume structure: which is what I expected
6. prompted me to "repair" drive, clicked "ok"
7. After repair successfully completed rebooted mac
8. Kernel Panic upon reboot
9. After multiple reboots, restarted from Tiger install disk.
10. According to Tiger install disk, main hard drive is "unmounted" and un-journaled
11. Re-started again from TechTool Deluxe Cd
12. Ran Tests again (this time only Volume Structure) Passed
TechTool completely recognizes my hard drive, and everything on it (correct amount of space used etc. While OSX says I have nothing on it, and refuses to boot normally without the aid of a CD. What are my options at this point?

Hi Jason, and a Warm Welcome to the Power Mac G5 Forum!
There is some(!) discussion of this problem here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=120264&start=0&tstart=0
And some stable door here
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301269
You could try (if you haven't already) using the Disk Utility on the 10.4 retail disk to Mount and Repair the boot drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1018.html
You may be able to use Firewire TDM to access the drive, if you have another Mac
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
and try Disk Utility from there - and maybe rescue your data, if you need to.
I haven't read it all the way through... but the early posts seem to have ended in an Erase and Install of OS X; Disk Warrior did not appear to help - but is a useful Utility to have, so may be worth a try
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
and highly-recommended by many in this Forum.
You can download and burn a current TechTool CD here
https://support.apple.com/techtooldeluxe/main?id=dl
- if you have AppleCare, of course.
Good Luck.

Will formating hard drive fix mounting issue

Tried to update OS X on my MacBook Pro and after reset the installation failed. I can now no longer run start up on my hard drive, nothing appears. I've tried to verify my hard drive which worked, but it cannot repair. The hard drive was unmounted in disk utility but now won't mount again. I have no time machine saves either. Mostly non essential school work is on the hard drive but will formatting it solve the issue? Or do I need to bring it in to the Apple Genius Bar later this week?
Thanks!

To be more specific, I was trying to update OS X Maverick

Emac won't recognize external hard drive

Had a problem with my emac freezing. After running apple hardware test and repairing disk permissions without any changes I decided to backup eveything and reinstall OSX. Although this solved the problem, I cannot get the emac to recognize the 160GB lacie external hard drive where all the backup files are stored. Any suggestions?

External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

Panther crashed now external hard drive not recognized

I was away and a person that lives where I work on my computer set up his computer right next to my G4 iMac. When I looked at the screen it was trying to boot into start up mode but wasnt making it. I firgure it must have been caused by all the pluging and unpluggung.
I tried the resart disk but still has problems, so I reinstalled 10.3.9 al over again. Now its working but it doesnt reognize my external Lacie hard drive.
Ive tried restarting a cople of times, I cant firgure out what could be the trick.
Has anyone any ideas?
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.6)
Mac OS X (10.3.6)

I would try the Combo; it's worth a try!
I don't know if the following will help with your issue , since it shows up in Safe Boot, but here it is.....
External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

External hard drive suddenly not readable

Help!
I have an external 160GB hard drive (LaCie; Firewire connection) that has suddenly stopped mounting on my desktop. I have used this drive with no problem for ages and with OSX 10.4.
Now I get the message:
'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.'
With three options: Initialize; Ignore; Eject.
I have lots of valuable data on this drive that I need to access. What can I do? I have looked at Disk Utility and the disk shows but still will not mount.
Please help!

External hard drive spontaneously unmounted? Try these tips:
NEW FIRMWARE: Try updating your external hard drive's firmware, which is available from your drive manufacturers Web site--or just use VersionTracker's (www.versiontracker.com) search function to find it. Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and carefully follow the manufacturers instructions.
OUT OF iSIGHT: If you're using an iSight camera while you're using a FireWire drive, the camera may be interfering with the drive's ability to stay mounted. Try temporarily disconnecting your iSight and moving it to a separate FireWire port. If you have multiple FireWire devices, try using a FireWire hub.
POWER PROBLEM: A faulty power adapter could be causing your drive to unmount. Your drive may not be getting enough juice to stay on, causing the drive to turn off and thereby unmounting it from your Mac. Alternately, the power adapter may not be providing a steady amount of power, causing your drive to turn on and off. Try replacing the adapter. If you can't get a replacement adapter from the hard drive manufacturer, try your local electronics store. Just make sure the adapter you choose has the same connector and input/output voltage. you can find the input/output voltage on the adapter itself.
Cheers!
DALE

Cant unmount hard drive

I have a Maxtor 500 GB quickview HD in an ext hd casing with esata,firewire 400, and USB connections. Was copying my Mac Book Pro hard drive to the external hard drive with carbon copy cloner and it froze on transferring the library. On restart the ext hd still loads on the desktop, but inconsistently. I tried to erase the ext hd in disc utility, and repartition as guid format (the hard drive was extended journaled and i think apple partition map. It is telling me it cant unmount the hard drive to erase. What am I doing wrong? How can I unmount to reformat? Any suggestions most welcome.

I bought 3 external Hard Drive set ups with the maxtor internal hard drives. Two of the 3 work perfectly on all 4 of the mac computers I have access to. The defective one acts the same on all 4 computers, so it is not the computers, and seems to be something with the defective external hard drive. I have even started the computer from my install discs, gone into disc utility and tried to first aid, erase, and partition with the message always "Can't Unmount the hard drive". I would assume that it is not the cables since the ext hard drive shows up on the desktop of all 3 computers, and changing cables doesnt make a difference when using 3 different firewire cables. Any other ideas on what I might try to get the hard drive to unmount? Is the only other option to see if I can return the hard drive? I really appreciate the comments so far, it is quite helpful to know that it is not just me pushing the wrong button somewhere that unmounts so disc utility can do it's job.
Thanks again
Bob Landman

Having trouble with USB2.0 external hard drive "unmounting" itself

ibook g4 (early 2005)
I have bought an external 120 gig hd and am trying to use it to store files on. when i transfer files to and from it, the hard drive magically unmounts itself and gives an error device removal. I don't know if the HD needs too much power or what. I have tried to update my system... and no help. what can i do... besides taking the freaking hd out of the external case and installing it in my laptop.
I have never had a problem with usb devices before on this laptop. what gives?

I'm not sure of what is the cause for this is, but because it stays alive while it's in use makes me think there is some sort of hardware sleep mode or something. I don't know enough about USB to be sure though. Maybe a temporary fix would be some sort of script we could launch at startup that reads a very small amount of data from the afflicted drive every 10 seconds or so. I have a little programming knowledge. Maybe I can figure the script out. It's definitely not a true fix, but it might get us by for the meantime.

I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?

I have an external hard drive, from Iomega. that I can open and see my files. However, I cannot copy or save any file to it. On my PC I have it says that is possible to read and write in it, but in my Mac, it says I can only read. can somebody help me?
Also, Im a photographer, so I like to name a lot of files at the same time (used to do in on PC and it was very usefull.) cannot find out how to do it on my Mac. Really appretiate if some one can give me a solution! Thanx

Your drive is formatted with the NTFS file system. OS X can read but not write to the NTFS file system. There are third party drivers available that claim to add the ability to OS X to write to an NTFS partition. I have not tried them and don't know if they work.
The only file system that OS X and Windows can both write to natively is the FAT32 file system.

Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"

Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I moved my iTunes library to my external hard drive some time ago and I followed the directions listed here on the apple support page. It did copy my library and now is on my hard drive... I can open iTunes and use it to sync all of my devices but I would like to play my music... I can see all of my music files but can not play them if I click on an album or song it says the following: "(file name) could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" I click locate but do not know where to go from there? I need a way to access all files and not to hunt down one at a time on my hard drive... I am pretty sure I deleted the original library to make space on my internal drive which was the reason for moving it. I have tried and tried to fix it and do not have a lot of time to do so with a one and two year old at my house who do not like it whenI sit down at my computer. What to do??? Any help is much appreciated!!!

See Make a split library portable. Move all of the bits of the library together in the the correct shape and it should work. Or undo exactly what you did and then start over.
If you're a former Windows user don't try merging two folders together that have the same name by dropping one into the same folders as the other, as that goes badly on a Mac.
tt2

I had to have my computer reimaged and a new Hard Drive installed - now I cannot sync my apple products - It says that my device is attached to an itunes library already - what to do?

I have recently had to reimage my computer and installed a new hard drive - I had apple deauthorize all of my computers however now that I have installed Itunes everytime I hook up any of my "I" products it says that it cannot sync them because they are already attached to another Itunes LIbrary - The library was the one that was on my computer which had the Hard Drive crash so it does not exist anymore- Any thought on what I need to do? I am about to come unglued with all of this hubub! - Thanks for the help

It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for just this occasion.
Use your backup copy to put everything back.

Laptop no longer recognizing songs in external hard drive. Only ones in internal hd. Says file cannot be found and exclamation pt. to left of song.

My laptop no longer recognizes my songs in the external hard drive. It still plays the ones stored on my internal hd fine. It's just started doing this.
The song's names still appear in the music library, but when I try to play the song, anexclamation pt. comes up to the left of the title, and it says the file cannot be located.
OS is Windows 7 Home Premium
Thanks.

PhilinGood wrote:
Thank you Tal, sounds like a nice resolution of the username difference problem, i will try this as soon as i get home, but are you sure this will not duplicate all the exhisting songs in my library? Most of my songs were renamed/rated and have a "number of times played" number, which does matter in most of my smart-playlists...
Thank you in advance.
When I tried my suggestion, I had around 3 three separate folders on my computer which had music in them. The music in these folders was dragged and dropped into iTunes when I was adding it onto my iPhone.
I had foolishly moved some of the music from the other folders and into the music/iTunes folder iTunes then showed the exclamation mark beside these tracks and showed the not found or words to that affect window/popup. I then placed the folders (that contain the music) back to their location which there were at when I originally dragged and dropped them into iTunes, after this the exclamation mark and the not found window naturally did not appear anymore.
I then done the following:
iTunes 9:
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
A message will pop up.
Place a check next to "Consolidate files" and click OK.
After I had done this, all the folders that contained the music that were in the 3 separate folders, were then placed in one folder, which in my case was,
C:\Users\MY USERNAME\Music\iTunes\My iPhone\iTunes Media\Music
Sometimes (depending on the device) it can be (your username)/music/iTunes/iTunes music

HT4818 When I try to partition my hard drive for Windows 7, I get an error saying The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. I have a 2006 Macbook Pro I believe and I really need assistance as soon as possible.

I have Windows 7 Premium Home and I have downloaded the Drivers and when I click Boot Camp Assistance to partition my hard drive, it says, "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. 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 can't do any backup really because I don't have an external hard drive to work with. I tried repairing disk permissions but that did not do anything. I really need a lot of help with this with some easy, step-by-step tutorials or something. I believe I have a 2006 version of Macbook Pro(4,1).

Once you have obtained an external drive and connected it you will 'clone' your internal drive to it.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner (it is not free but there is a fully functional trial version which is). Use it to clone your internal drive to your external drive. When that is done you will reboot from the clone and use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive (choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) as the format (this is normally preset, but check). Make sure to give the external drive a 'distinctive' name, don't want to get drives mixed up in this process.
Once that is done you will use Carbon Copy Cloner (from the clone) to restore the external to the internal.

I cannot earase my hard drive it says drive cannot unmounted?

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