My internal hard drives don't appear in disk utility. Can't install os X

Hi,
I have a macpro. In this computer are 4 1TB hard drives. They were set up as a raid set. I booted my comp with a snow leopard install disk and opened raid utility to delete the raid set so I can install os X on one hard drive and use the other hard drives to store files. After deleting the raid set, I opened disk utility to find no disks in which I can reformat or even install snow leopard. What steps do I take now to ensure all disks are useable and that I can install my operating system on one of them?

Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Now if you wish you can repeat Steps 2 and 3 on the other three drives. Or you can do it after installing OS X.
Once you have one drive reformatted you can quit DU and install OS X.

Similar Messages

Internal hard drives won't appear in Disk Util

I have a bizarre problem with my hard drives now. I'm on a 2.4GHz Core2Duo Macbook Pro 15" with 10.5.4. I've switched the hard drive a couple of times before with no issues whatsoever. Now, with the exception of the brand new one that won't hold an install, my internal hard drives don't show up in the install disk's Disk Utility.
I got a new hard drive to try the other day, installed it, booted to my OSX install disk to use Disk Utility. I switched the new disk to GUID and formatted it as journaled like usual. It took 4 hours to do the install, then after the restart it tanked. It booted back to the install disk where I checked it out. It could not repair the file system, and the drive was not "mounted". I mounted it, repartitioned and formatted it, and installed again. This time it stopped halfway through the installation and said the drive might be corrupt.
I unplugged the cable and battery, held the power button for over 5 secs, then just let it sit for about 10minutes with no power source while I thought about this. I put the original drive back in, booted into OSX, and put the new hard drive in an external USB enclosure. I formatted it while in OSX, then rebooted into the install disk and installed OSX on it while it was in the USB case. It took the installation more quickly (about an hour and a half...still not 20min like my old 7200rpm Hitachi 200g), then I booted into its OSX while in the USB drive. It booted ok, so I downloaded the updates and clicked to install them. It then went into a revolving restart. Eventually I decided it was not doing this because it was happy so I shut it off.
I swapped the hard drive out with another new one, and this one would not complete an installation while inside the computer either. It acted similarly while in the USB case. HOWEVER it would always show up as unmounted after a restart and would not recognize the drive inside the computer as a bootable disk.
I put my original drive in there to give up, and it gave me the ? folder. I booted to the install disk and it did not show up in the disk utility. I put my old hard drive in the USB case, booted to the install disk, and it showed that it was there, but unmounted and it could not repair the file system.
I repartitioned my hard drive (i have time machine working..not a huge setback) in the USB case and put it back in the computer. It still would not show up in disk utility. I put it back in the USB case, installed OSX onto it (in about 20min), restarted a couple times, saw that it was working, put it into my computer, and got the ? folder again.
I went out and bought a stardard 160GB SATA 5400rpm Seagate drive to try in there, and this fresh drive is not recognized inside the computer either when I boot into disk utility.
The brand new hard drive WILL show up in Disk Utility when I boot to it from the install disk, but it will not survive a complete installation.
So now I'm running OSX from my original hard drive in a USB case until I can figure out why the old disk recognized inside my laptop is the new hard drive upgrade, but it cannot complete an installation on it.
I'm originally a Windows slave, so I can only think in terms of AHCI or SATA-card drivers, or screwed up bios. But this is all pre-os-boot, and the apple firmware seems to be pretty automatic in picking the right settings to see stuff.

I kind of feel like drawing a flowchart to show all that I've tried. Its difficult to keep everything intelligible while listing the entire last week's efforts at 2:45am. :-/
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41951
I also explained it here, perhaps a bit differently. Maybe some reply there might spark someone's memory of a possible problem. I understand the nature of computers (been 100% geek for 20 years), but I'm hoping there's someone out there with the specific Apple expertise to help me out. Eventually the processes I've taken and my specific situation will become clearer as the questions widdle away at this.
My original 7200rpm SATA drive that works fine won't show up when connected to the SATA cable. I've repartitioned it with HFS, and repartitioned it as free space in the USB enclosure. It simply won't show up in Disk Util. Same with the brand new test SATA drive.
The new SSD SATAII does show up, but after a 4hr install the partition is unmounted and won't show up as a boot option. I can boot to the install disk and repartition it, reinstall, or remount it. But it will never be mounted to be booted from while connected to the computer. I've had 2 of the SSD's to try, one survived one restart, then went into a never-ending restart cycle after I installed the updates. The 2nd has never successfully been mounted after the install to boot from. Now nothing can be mounted to boot from within the computer. I have to boot off of any of these drives from the USB enclosure.
If I install OSX on them while in the USB enclosure, that works, but they will not mount when connected to the SATA cable inside the lappy. The platter style SATA drives won't even be recognized...
Thanks for the instant reply, this is driving me nuts 'cuz it makes almost no sense. Thanks so much to everyone that contributes. I appreciate everything.

Internal hard drive does not mount in disk utility

My internal hard drive no longer mounts in Disk Utility. It is grayed out. I have extraordinarily frequent spinning beach ball/freezes, in Safari or Apple Mail. The most recent symptom: upon rebooting or just starting up, I see flashing black on the display. This has been occuring for more than six months. Of course, I have made total and frequent backup's. I bought new RAM, but have not yet installed it, and I susect this might help. I have done repeted troubleshooting many times each: Apple's Disk Doctor, Repaired Permissions, Reinstalled the Mac OS, safe boot, Alsoft's Disk Warrior, Apple's longer Harware Test, etc. I have worked as a new user, too. All tests done report that all is well. What od you thnk the problem is? Must I drive 1.5 hrs. each way to the Genius Bar at my nearest Apple Store? Might I try to erase the hard drive as a fix? I hate to do this, only as a last resort, as it is so time-consuming. Should I just update my Mac OS? Please advise, out there, if anyone can offer any advice, I would be greatly appreciative.

The list of issues you posted probably would not get shorter if you attempt to 'upgrade them' away, as usually that kind of effort is not effective yet may expose more of the same problems while not necessarily revealing the original weakness. Another OS X installed over a set of problems seldom helps.
How full is the hard disk drive? If it is too full, or has been very busy in use several years, it may be time to replace the HDD and perhaps put a larger capacity one in the computer. And if the main computer hardware checks out OK (tested under a variety of duration and stress tests) then also consider a RAM upgrade if the device is not already at the maximum capacity.
When was the last time the hard disk drive was devoid of content, maybe wiped -- erased and reformatted by a third party disk utility or have a utility overwrite the entire HDD with zeros? This used to be a common tech service in the course of a major effort to restore a Mac. Or Defragment?
If you can do the latter, this could help resolve bad sectors and remove old data or corruption on the hard drive. Or get a new HDD and before committing a new OS X install & apps to it (or a re-clone of a complete backup) test the drive and be sure it is ready for use. Not all new drives are perfectly ready; some need to get exercise first.
I'd bet on a new hard disk drive of larger capacity (also note spin RPM rate and data speeds) and a full RAM upgrade.
If you have a backup clone on an external hard disk drive (in a boot-capable enclosure) you could really go to town and before you erase the main/only hard drive, make a backup clone and test its ability to boot the Mac. Or put the old drive and content in a suitable boot capable enclosure of the kind with its own power supply, and deal with it later.
Then consider a later version OS X -- whatever most recent version that model can support... {edited}
Good luck & happy computing!

Internal hard drive fails to mount in Disk Utility.

My internal hard drive fails to mount in Disk Utility for the past year, so I cannot verify it. However, it does mount in Disk Warrior. (1) I am concerned that it will not mount within the Apple software, and what that bodes for my computer. (2) I also have MANY spinning beach balls daily and have to use the power button to reboot. I just bought extra Crucial RAM and have yet to install it. Somehow, I don't think it wil help my issue # 1 though. Please advise, anyone out there! Thank you.

No, there are never any errors like that. Also, I have upgraded the Mac OS from 10.5 to 10.6.8. That did nothing. I backed up my Users = Christina folders to a good, 15 year old Firewire 800 La Cie 1 TB external hard drive. I also tested using the Apple Hardware test, which showed no problems, and Alsoft's Disk Warrior and defragged, and fixed a very minor issure re directory count, probably resulting from many improper shutdowns lately due to frozen spinning beach balls. None of these procedures alleviated the issues, and I still have the same issues: mainly that super-frequent spinning beach ball. Do you think I ought to install that new RAM sitting here finally? Perhaps it is a lack of RAM??I only have 2 lousy GB's of RAM after all! Thank you so very much for a reply.
Message was edited by: Flamingcreatures

Replacement Hard Drive does not appear in Disk Utility.

I've replaced the defective HDD in my MBP(A1278) with a 500GB Western Digital one after it failed the Hard Drive test in AST. The old drive is detected internally without issue but the new one does not show up in disk utitlity. I have reformatted to use a GUID table and have made sure it's partition is OSX Journaled. It doesn't show up at all. I proceeded to do an install using a USB drive adapter and the OS installed just fine(same drive), when I put it back in the MBP it still doesn't detect. I would suspect the cable but the old drive shows up and runs diagnostic just fine(fails). I've actually gone ahead and tried three other new drives(2 seagates(500GB, 1TB XT) and 1 500GB HGST) and none of them detect, only the original. Am I missing some sort of firmware update or is there a limited physical issue?
All help would be appreciated, genius bar isn't an option, the closest one is 400km away.

Until you replace the cable you won't know for sure. Do you have a SATA to USB adapter to connec these other drive to and to connect your original drive to? If you do connect the original drive and do a Verify Disk in Disk Utility. If it comes back OK, no repair needed or even if a repair is need that succeeds, your original drive is OK and it is the cable that is causing all the problems.
I suggest you stay away from WD drives. They don't have a good track record with Mac computers.

My external hard drive doesn't appear in disk utility

I've been using a western digital my book (500gb) external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme for TIme Machine Backups. For no apparent reason, it stopped backing up a few days ago. I've plugged the drive directly into my MBP, and it doesn't appear in system profiler or disk utility. Any ideas how to get the MBP to mount the drive?

matthewfromlincoln wrote:
I've been using a western digital my book (500gb) external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme for TIme Machine Backups.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable, and not supported by Apple. See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
But, as ds store says, the disk is likely dead.

Can I reformat and partition a new internal hard drive with the Snow Leopard disk?

I'm planning on installing a new internal hard drive in my 15'' Macbook Pro. Can I format and partition the new drive with the Snow Leopard disk or is it just an upgrade from Leopard? Thanks much.

You should be able to do that.
If you want to change the sizes of existing partitions this may help:
Enlarging a partition

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out.

I have an external hard drive that shows up in disk utility but Verify and Restore are greyed out. I am trying to determine what is wrong with the drive.
I need the data on the drive and it won't show up in Disk Warrior. I have tried different Mac's and different USB cords only to find the same outcome. When selected in Disk Utility the information read as such...
Disk Description : WD Elements 1023 Media                      Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,105,740,288 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB                                                               Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External                                                     S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 575837314135304D36373132        Partition Map Scheme : Unformatted
As the drive shows in Disk Utility there must be some life left in it surely. There is a possibilty that the physical connection between the USB cord and the external drive is damaged but since the drive shows up I believe it's unlikely... before I give it to the pro's is there anything else I can do to diagnose the issue?

Hello,
I have just experienced the same thing!
Although my external drive shows in Disk Utility, it does not show in Finder.
And the Verify/Repair buttons are also greyed out.
Also, although the drive is 2TB. DU shows it as having Total Capacity of only 4.14GB! (Which should be the Free Space).
I was wondering if you solved your problem, & if so, would you share your solution.
I´m afraid to Erase in case I lose all my Data on the drive.
Thanks in advance for your reply!

Internal hard drive for use as scratch disk

Am running OS 10.4.11 on a dual core 2.3 Ghz PowerPC G5. Want to install a 2nd internal hard drive for use as a scratch disk w/ FCP and for my media files, etc. Given that I can only accomodate an SATA I drive w/ 150 Gbps transfer rate what might some decent choices be for a 500 Gb to 1 TB drive suited for video (and a PowerPC G5)? I'll also be adding an external drive for backup if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks for the recommendations. I had been looking at the Hitachi CinemaStar series but you have to reset the drive to SATA 1 for use w/ a G5 PowerMac. Resetting the drive, according to Hitachi, can only be done on a PC which I don't have access to. And I think that holds true for all their drives that are not strictly SATA 1.

New internal hard drives, seems slow with Logic 8, how can i test

Hi,
I just bought a new internal hard drive, but it seems subtley too slow!,
On a Logic 8 song i'm working on the tracks timing seems slightly off, it's kind of driving me crazy because at times it is subtle, and other times obvious.
and 2 other things, one is an iTunes playback stalled twice, and that's never happened before,
also, when working on a Word doc, the screen was not re-drawing properly. i had to repeatedly reisze the doc window to get it re-draw itself. this has never happened before either.
is there a way to test this new hard drive?,
thanks

There are though all the ones I've used, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility, Intech Speedtools, none were 'perfect' or as good as the vendor's own utility which runs on Windows.
But you might do something for us - include the drive make/model version, and, do a look up with Google and see if you get any helpful hits.
How you have your system setup, number of drives and organization of files, can also have an impact.
Off hand, WD Caviar 640GB is cheap and fast, or there are some 1TB drives that look good, too.
Drives do break in over a period of days or first week, and it can help to break in and torture, zero the entire drive, run media scan, use a benchmark utility to graph I/O over the full drive.
Check out Barefeats, they do a bit of drive testing benchnmarks and see what they use and results. Or Tom's Hardware.

External hard drive won't unmount for disk utility.

Im not sure if this is the right topic area but I have a white macbook and my external hard drive won't unmount. I want to erase it via disk utility but it keeps telling me other programs are using it.

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Windows based WD external hard drive not showing up in Disk Utility to reformat to Mac... how can I erase the drive

We have a WD external harddrive previously used with a PC that we want to completely erase and reformat for use with our iMac desktop for use with Time Machine. The drive shows up on the desktop of the Mac, but it does not show up in Disk Utlity, assuming because it's Windows format. Outside of the standard "erase" feature in Disk Utility, is there any way to reformat this drive for Mac OS X? Or how can I get this drive to show up in Disk Utility? Note: The drive functions properly, has power, and we are able to view its current contents through the desktop icon, so it is a working drive. And we are ok with losing all the current data on the drive.

Hmm strange, I had just moved my external Lacie drive from my windows machine to my iMac and it was showing up in disk utility still formatted fat32 or whatever. I would disconnect the drive and restart the machine then replug the drive and try again.
Also not that it will make a difference ( I dont think it will but hey why not ) try accessing disk utility from the install disk?

Why in my new internal hard drive not recognized by boot disk?

My OS HD died and I am replacing it with a Seagate 500 GB, 7200rpm 6gb/s drive. I am booting from snow leopard disk on my dual core, Intel 3 GHz 2007 Mac pro. the set up wind sees my other data disks (internal HD2 with my data, and two external fire wire drives but not the new disk. I want to load the OS onto the new disk...that was my goal. Any ideas?

Most brand new drives out of the box appear as "Unformatted" or Windows formatted. If you want to place Mac OS X on a drive, you need to erase it and create a GUID partition Map and a Mac OS X Extended, journaled Volume. (It is not difficult, those are the defaults).

External Hard Drive doesn't appear in Airport Utility

When the USB is plugged directly in the Mac, I can see and access it. But when I connect the external hard drive to the Extreme, I can't see it. The Airport Extreme says a disk needs repair, but I'm not sure how to repair it.

Insure that the disk is formatted correctly to work with the AirPort Extreme in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If the drive is currently formatted in a Windows format of NTFS or exFAT, the AirPort Extreme cannot read these formats.
In addition, it is often necessary to use a powered USB hub with a drive at the AirPort Extreme....even if your drive has its own power supply....because the port on the AirPort Extreme is under powered.
If your drive is already formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and you have also tried a powered USB hub, I am out of ideas.
You might want to take the AirPort Extreme to an Apple store or Apple servicer....if you have one in your area....to let them check the USB port on the AirPort Extreme for proper operation.

How do I access an external hard drive that shows up in Disk Utility but will not show up in finder or on my desktop?

I have an external hard drive that just stopped showing up one day. Is there a solution to this problem that allows me to secure the data on the drive before reformatting?

I'm having the same problem bpay14, but with a CalDigit VR2 6TB RAID0 external hard drive.
One day it was showing on my desktop, the other it wasn't. And I still didn't update my Mavericks to 10.9.3 (still with the 10.9.2).
It shows up in the disk utility, and I can even Verify the disk and Repair it (but I don't wanna start repairing
something that probably doesn't need to be repaired, so I haven't clicked the Repaid button, only the Verify button) and it says its working just fine.
But it doesn't show in the Finder or the desktop for that matter.
And even if I force disconnect the cable, I get the usual "this disk was not ejected properly" notification
presumingly the disk was mounted on the desktop and I forced eject by unppluging it...
I found a way to force open the disk, through Disk Utility that's by clicking with the right mouse button
on the disk icon, and chosing OPEN "CalDigit AFRICA 6TB"... (see picture 1)
But... after that, it open a Finder window showing all my internal and external drives, but that drive's
name is in washed grey, like if it was unmounted (see picture 2).
When selected, I can see everything and work normally on the harddrive, even opening FCPROX projects or Libraries, copying from it and writing documents into it... just normal... (see picture 3)
BUT IT DOES NOT SHOW IN THE DESKTOP...
that's my problem...
I even did a Command+i for Info on the hard drive. (see picture 4)
Can anyone shed some light on this issue?
I would be eternally grateful!
Thanks in advance!!!
Cheers!

My internal hard drives don't appear in disk utility. Can't install os X

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