Mac HD option greyed out in Disk Utility

Hey,
This all started after Mountain Lion, which slowed down my MacBook a lot. I tried to do a clean install and reformat my HD, and doing so it removed the partition already on it. When I went to restore the HD, every option is greyed out except for Verify and Repair Disk (which I have clicked on numerous times to no avail). I cannot even add a partition to the Hard Drive. This Hard Drive worked fine until I clicked erase (in which it gave me an error), and I just want to create another partition (which is also greyed out).
I don't care if everything gets erased, frankly I just want my Mac back to normal. I do have a Mountain Lion USB, but that does squat. Thank you Mountain Lion by the way for this long day in which my Mac still isn't fixed.
Any help is appreciated, I am new to Mac, just moved from PC which looks pretty good right about now.

Old
look my 0 partition. It is the internal. The 2 is my drive.
Can't had a partition. the 0 guid options partition are all greyed out.
Notice that stars beside the 750?
Everything work great. I just can't add a partition.
Can't resize?
Am I booting from EFI?
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac OSX                 749.8 GB   disk0s2

Similar Messages

Grey bar at startup - Mac HD is greyed out in Disk Utility - Can't be repaired? Need to salvage my data!

Mac Book Pro -
My MacBook Pro (2008 Model) has been unable to start up - upon the start up screen when the grey Apple logo appears, I get a loading bar below it.
After about 15-20 minutes when the bar is almost complete the machine shuts off. There seems to be no way around it.
So I booted up my laptop in recovery mode, and opened Disk Utility to check my if there was something wrong with my drives -
my Macintosh HD (under the TOSHIBA drive) is greyed out. When I hit verify/repair it returns error messages and it remains greyed out.
I tried multiple times and a few times it stopped being greyed out on the sidebar, but even then it wouldn't let me verify or repair.
Not backing up my data recently is my obvious fault here, but I just wanted to know if there is ANY way to salvage my data.
Things I've tried:
1) Recovery Mode
     -Veryify/Disk Repair doesn't work
     -Time Machine can't seem to access my HD either (greyed out)
2) TargetDisk mode
     -I connected my MacBook Pro via firewire to my Mac Pro in TargetDisk mode and no Hardrive shows up on my finder.
Any advice appreciated, going to try and take it to a tech shop on Monday.
Thank you!

I would take out the HDD and install it in an enclosure and then connect that to the Mac Pro and see if there is any success.
If not, then look for data recovery software on the Internet. Most will have a 'trial' version that will indicate if the software will be successful or not, so you do not have to commit funds without knowing if it will work or not.
The last option is a professional recovery service. There will be no guarantees of success and the costs will be very high.
Ciao.

Time Machine drive icon greyed out in Disk utility

Hi I'm using a 1TB WD Electronics external drive which is partitioned (265GIG used so far)
Macbook Pro btw
i use one half as a regular external drive and one half to take care of TM back ups
i recently plugged in the drive and the Time Machine back up has failed and there's no TM icon on the desktop and the TM partition is greyed out in Disk utility
i've turned TM off at the moment
any ideas to get TM running again?
thanks
Sam

Disconnect the drive and reconnect it. Any change? If not, test it with another Mac.

Time machine greyed out in disk utility

I want to erase a time machine backup to use the HD on a different system, yet it's greyed out in disk utility.
The HD still works fine and I can restore files from it and time machine itself still works backing up to it.
I cannot however erase it using disk utility.
Here's a screenshot.
What am I doing wrong?

You've got other problems in addition to the Erase being grayed out.
The menu icons at the top are not right either. The Info, Burn and Eject menu items should be active also.
I'd suggest quitting Disk Utility, reboot your system and trying again.
Post back if that doesn't fix it.
regards

Mac HD greyed out in Disk Utility

Hey,
This all started after Mountain Lion, which slowed down my MacBook a lot. I tried to do a clean install and reformat my HD, and doing so it removed the partition already on it. When I went to restore the HD, every option is greyed out except for Verify and Repair Disk (which I have clicked on numerous times to no avail). I cannot even add a partition to the Hard Drive. This Hard Drive worked fine until I clicked erase (in which it gave me an error), and I just want to create another partition (which is also greyed out).
I don't care if everything gets erased, frankly I just want my Mac back to normal. I do have a Mountain Lion USB, but that does squat. Thank you Mountain Lion by the way for this long day in which my Mac still isn't fixed.
Any help is appreciated, I am new to Mac, just moved from PC which looks pretty good right about now.

While we all have MacBooks in this forum most of us don’t run Mountain Lion. There's a Mountain Lion Support Community where everybody has Mountain Lion. You should also post this question there to increase your chances of getting an answer. https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion

Permissions buttons greyed out in disk utility

In the disk utility, the "verify permissions" and "repair permissions" buttons are greyed out no matter which disk is selected in the left-hand pane. Does anyone know why this is so and/or what alternative ways there are of repairing permissions?
The problem persists whether I start the computer from the recovery system (command-r) or not.
Thanks.

Hi again and thanks for bearing with me!
I haven't done any cleanup, however there are only a couple of files in /Library/Receipts/, all very old, so I'm guessing the receipts are kept elsewhere after OS X 10.5, since the KB article you referred me to explicitly refers to pre- 10.5 systems.
The disk utility log in console and the info in the disk utility itself both give exactly the same info, which is basically what you’ve given:
          Owners Enabled :           Yes
          Can Turn Owners Off :           Yes
          Can Repair Permissions :           Yes
          Can Be Verified :           Yes
          Can Be Repaired :           Yes
          Can Be Formatted :           Yes
          Bootable :           Yes
          Supports Journaling :           Yes
          Journaled :           Yes
          Disk Number :           0
          Partition Number :           2
If I understand correctly, this would all mean that I should be able to click “verify permissions” in the disk utility, but for some mysterious reason I cannot.
However, in the KB article (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452) I notice it says “While started from an installation disc in Mac OS X v10.5 and later, a user's home directory permissions can be reset using the "Reset Password" utility.” Does this mean that if I use the reset password utility I can reset permissions and therefore not need to use the repair permissions function of the disk utility? Or is this something completely unrelated to what I’m trying to do?
I really appreciate your help very much - the only reason I wanted to repair permissions was that it was one of the recommended solutions to a problem I’ve had with microsoft office, which thankfully has now been solved after reinstalling os x and office, but it still bugs me that the option to repair permissions seems unavailable!
Anyway, it's not the end of the world if it can't be solved, you've helped me learn a lot in the process!
George

When trying to format my internal hard drive, it's greyed out in Disk utility?

I'm trying ot format my computer and wipe everything off before giving it away, but Disk Utility has everything greyed out and won't let me choose my hard drive. I have the original CD and everything that came with the computer. How do I fix this fast?

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

PSE 6 Mac - Panorama Option Greyed Out

In PSE 6.0 for Mac the option for Photo-merge to Panorama is grayed out. I've read a few other posts in various forums, so I know it is not my computer problem. I've not read a logical or definitive fix for it.
I have an iMac with the latest OSX, as well as Lightroom 2.3.
Any suggestions/fixes?
Thanks,
Steven

Hi Barbara,
Thanks for the personal reply. You might remember that I'm a recent
convert to the Mac (you helped me with the switch). As far as I know,
it must be an admin account. I set up the iMac for myself only, and
run everything else, Lightroom, etc., without switching any accounts
or other settings. Basically, it runs from the same applications
folder as everything else; although, I put a folder on the dock which
holds my various photo app related software.
I never tried to run it before. I went to Yankee Stadium yesterday
and took a series of shots in anticipation of it becoming a panorama.
I used my rarely used P&S the Canon G3. I had some difficulty setting
up the software for the iMac to communicate with the P&S, but once
that was done I got all of the JPEGS into LR. I could also transfer
them into PSE6 for editing. I just can't run the Photomerge Panorama.
I could reinstall PSE6 from the original disk, if you think that makes
sense.
Thanks,
Steven

Volumes Greyed out in disk utility

tried to do averify and repair disk when it finished the volumes/partitions are greyed out

Where are you running Disk Utility from - the boot
system, or an installation disk?
from the actual system yea, I understand about thenot being able to unmount a volume you are on but the disks that were doing it were not the system disk so I was able to do repair and verify disk to mount/unmount, they would go through fine but the volume would stay greyed out not the actual disk itself. One is a int HD the other was a ext FW 400 drive. I have haad a lot fo problems laltely so if you want to read all the thiings that have happened here they are. OH thanks so much for your help
OK before I forget the way all this happened I will write it all down so here it is.
I was trying to hook up a ethernet conn to a muse receptor (music gear)I realized after I wasnt successful setting it up that my main Macintosh HD was missing from the desktop , When I would do a search I would see it and could acess it but it was greyed out. I did repair perm it was ok. I tried moving it to the sidebar ,no luck. I then installed a OS x on an ext HD and repaired and verified the disc that way to unount and remount all was good. WEnt back to real Os ,still not there. Then SOmeone in an email said to run a apple script
"System Events"
set visible of (choose folder with invisibles) to false
end tell when I did I then realized that now my other HD is missing from my desktop and I also accidentally made it go poof from the side bar too. now if I go to finder and try to hit show HD nothing happened.
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!
More info if I do command shift G for , /Volumes/Macintosh HD/ it goes to a shortcut for it and if I do it for the Audi HD I get a short cut to it but this time it is a network shortcut icon
Also My iDisk which I never use is stuck on my desktop and cant get rid of it
I think what happened is maybe I got my user and my main hard drive volume switched up cause if I look into that Macintosh HD and go to users/myname/desktop it looks the same as my current desktop
OBviously these are all guesses
Update
Now when I hit the audio shortcut Icon it says it cant be found and to insert the disk or connect to the sever volume and wait for it to appear on the desktop
Matt

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed. Now disk utility only has the option to install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow. Anyone any ideas as my Mac won't load anything up but disc utility!

Brand new Mac, had to erase drive through disk utility as time machine back up failed on initial setup, USB cable popped out Now can only access disk utility as won't load to log in screen. The only has the option in disc utility is to re-install Mountain Lion which my Mac won't allow or loading another time machine back up but after an hour of it processing, that didn't resolve the issue either! The time machine back up is the latest back up of my Mac Book Pro which was using OS X Maverix. I'm guessing I'm going to have to take my Mac to the store but that would be a hassle so does anyone have any ideas?

Follow this guide using another Mac.
Insert your newly created Mavericks USB into you Mac, press the power button and then hold down 'option,' until it gives you an option to boot from the USB. You will then be able to erase the internal disk with Disk Utility and reinstall Mavericks straight after.
After that you should be able to use Migration Assistant to restore your applications and user data.

I just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

i just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

It sounds like your hard drive either has a software problem that Disk Utility cannot fix or that the HD has failed (mechanically).
Your Mac may have booted either to your recovery partition or to internet recovery in an attempt to repair the drive- I can't tell from your post.
I'll assume that it was the recovery partition.
Try to boot into internet recovery (hold down option command R at restart), and see if you can repair your HD with Disk Utility. You should also repair permissions while you're there.
If that doesn't work, try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
If that doesn't work you have a few options:
If your mac originally came with installation disks, you can try to boot from the installation disk and then see if you can repair the HD.
There is a small chance that Techtool Pro 7 will be able to repair your HD if Disk Utility can't.
If none of that works then your HD has probably failed and will need to be replaced, which is not too difficult to do yourself if you can use a screwdriver.

Getting out of disk utility when you want to restore your Mac???

I wanted to restore my Macbook Pro early 2011, so I shut down my computer then turned it on and held down option. I got to the disk utility app but now I'm having second thoughts about restoring it. I can't get out of disk utility and get back to my homescreen... Any help? It's been irritating me a lot.

If you've erased everything, then you need to reinstall OS X:
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.

TS2570 Question re: "Start from your Mac OS X Install disc; use Disk Utility"

I've worked my way through the step-by-step trouble shooting in the TS2570 article up to "Start from your Mac OS X Install disc; use Disk Utility". So far, every step results in the same outcome - my formerly trusty 2007 Intel duo core iMac (24") will not start up, freezing on a grey screen with a blinking question mark on a folder. I don't completely understand this next step. I have both a Leopard and a Snow Leopard disc. I'm not positive whether these were for the iMac, or my old Macbook Pro. I assume this makes a difference.

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
a. Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
b. Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
c. Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
d. The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
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. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. 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. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
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 the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
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 click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair files and i needed to format hard drive and start again. now nothing works

have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair disk and needed to format and start again.
comp said it could not unmount disk and now when comp trys to boot all i get is a question mark on the screen. help

Erase and Install
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU after formatting completes and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
5. After restart into Snow Leopard download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

No Sound; All options greyed out

Output options for sound are greyed in Preferences and the desktop sound icon. In the Audio MIDI Setup window, the default output says Built-in Output and the System Output also says Built-in Output. No other options available for either.
Just below halfway down there is Audio Input, which has a bunch of info on the left, but on the right where it says Audio Output, there is just a greyed out message that says Output is Not Supported.
I also tried the option/apple/p/r, got the three chimes, but sound is still greyed out.
Any gurus out there who can tell me what simple thing I did to cause this, or is it a hardware/sofware bug?
Macbook Pro Core Duo 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 gig SDRAM 2.33 GHZ Core Duo 2

it doesn't matter if you've used the ports or not.. there is a sensor inside the audio ports that will automatically switch your audio in and/or out into digital mode if it trips and then 'thinks' there's a digital cable connected. basically, if you open your sound control panel and display the output pane and it says 'digital out', and the volume control (and everything else) is greyed out, and it says something about this device not having volume control... then this is exactly the situation where the port sensor has clicked on to digital and is staying there. unfortunately, the sensor seems to be quite fragile and there are plenty of users that are suddenly wondering why they have no sound, and why the sound ouput only says digital and the options are greyed out. it would be at least a comfort to be able to say that this only can happen if you've been plugging things into the port (such as headphones), but I've heard of this happening to people regardless.
anyway, look for the signs I mentioned: the digital output option being the only available choice in the sound control panel, with options greyed out. and also a red light coming out of the port. if this is happening to you, then you need to get the machine fixed cos that sensor is jammed.

Mac HD option greyed out in Disk Utility

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for