Unable to format disk drive

My niece recently purchased a 80gb Ipod classic from a garage sale. I Tunes does not recognized the ipod. We have put it in disk mode and restored it to the factory setting. When it tries to open it tells us that we need to format the disk drive but when we try we get that there was an error and unable format disk drive.Can anyone help?

Quit DU, launch System Preferences->Time Machine->and disable or turn it off. Then, try again.

Similar Messages

Mac os unable to format external drive

I am unable to reformat Seagate Free Agent Pro external drive used for Time Machine backup. Disk Utility gives error msg; "Couldn't unmount disk." I attempt to initialize an identical external drive and receive the same message. Any ideas?

Drive Erase for Lion/Mountain Lion
1. 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. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select the volume you wish to erase from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

Disk Utility not functioning properly, unable to format disks

Installed Mountain Lion last week and am now trying to format a flash drive, but Disk Utility no longer has the ability to do anything at all. I can open it and look at my disks, but that's all I can do. All functions have essentially been locked out. Help!

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take the action that isn't working. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Unable to format external drive as Mac OS Extended

I just bought a WD 3TB My Book Essential external hard drive so I can free-up space on my Mac Mini. When I used Disk Utility to erase the data and reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended, I got the following error:
+Disk Insertion+
+The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer+
There were three options; Initialize, Ignore or Eject. Choosing either Initialize or Ignore resulted in the following error:
+Disk Utility Internal Error+
+Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility+
So I Googled it and found the following thread http://discussions.info.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11461203
This suggested using First Aid; Repair Disk. When I ran this, I got the following error:
+First Aid failed+
+Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk4s1” because the following error was encountered:+
+Filesystem verify or repair failed+
I'm stuck; does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this?!

Not sure what the problem was on the MacMini (10.5.8), but I just managed to format the disk on my MacBook Pro (10.6.4).
Problem solved!

Formatted disk drive: How to rebuild Aperture library?

Last night I thought I was formatting a USB drive, and instead formatted my Drobo containing my entire Aperture library. Even now, 24 hours later, I break into a cold sweat thinking about it. 1.5Tb of images, my life's work, wiped.
I am going to Drive Savers on Monday, and believe based on my initial experiments that they will be able to recover at least some of the files. But I think that the drive structure is lost...
If this is the case, is there any way to reconstruct my Aperture data from the component files absent the directory structure and file names?
Please?

"Your life's work" in only one place without a backup? 'nuf said, now you know better. *Even redundant storage is no replacement for a proper backup!*
IF Drive Savers can salvage your data, they may also be able to save the structure (Aperture database). Hopefully, your initial experiments didn't write to the drive in question much. Once you noticed the foul-up, you should have ceased all writing to that disk immediately to preserve any chance of forensic salvage. If you can get enough of the Aperture database restored, you will likely need to rebuild the database (command-option and launch) on Aperture startup of your library.
Supposing that Drive Savers can't restore the Aperture database, you'll only likely be able to reconstruct your data by manually reverse-engineering the salvaged photos and available data elements (structure and extended attributes).
Do you happen to have a Time Machine backup anywhere?
I HIGHLY recommend investment into some online storage or other legitimate backup scheme when you have so much value in your data. NEVER in only one place, no matter how redundant. With a Mac Pro, you can fit up to FOUR hard drives internally, at least one should have had an Aperture vault or copy of the library.
HTH.

How to format Windows drive with Mac OS format

Hello
I have a Windows 160gb internal drive that is formated in Fat32. I am unable to format this drive with Mac OS X 10.3.9 in order to install Tiger 10.4. When I attempt to format using the Mac OS extended (journaled), I receive an error (sorry I didn't write it down) partition error. If I use the Mac OS extended option I recieve an error that the drive can not be unmounted.
How can I format this 160gb drive with Mac OS format so that I may install Mac OS X 10.4
Thank you

Do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

I have 2 auxillary disk drives for my MacBokk Pro. Time Machine uses one for backup and I use the other for storage, but I am unable to create a new folder or drag and drop files or folders to the aux drive.

I am unable to create a new folder on either of my auxillary disk drives. I can access the files and folders that were there when I transferred one of the drives from a PC. Time machine uses one for backup and I want to use the other to store photos which are large files. An help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the reply. If I reformat the drive will I be able to access the files on it from the MAC. I do not share the drive with a PC. The files were originally created on a PC which I no longer use. I do want to continue to access the files put there by the PC. I would like to not have to copy them over to the MAC hard drive just to use them. The second aux drive is new and works fine because it was formatted by the MAC. I can drag and drop files there and work with just as if they were on the internal drive.

Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged

I was experiencing a problem with my Windows XP installation on Bootcamp. The Windows side kept restarting, and I could not find the reason, so I formatted with the Windows XP disc and tried to re-install it, but it didn't work. I forget the exact error as to why. So I went back to the Mac side and re-formatted the partition sing Bootcamp, and now when I try to re-install the Windows XP on the Bootcamp partition, I get the error:
Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged
What can I do? I don't understand, because this disk has worked before and I am on the mac side right now, so the actual disk does not appear to be damaged. What can I do?

Do a full format as it will check for errors and mark bad clusters if it finds any (full format = quick + chkdsk /x ), but only create one OS partition e.g like 30GB or something , this will be plenty enough for the os ,instead of the whole drive . Will save you time .
Wait with partitioning the rest of the drive as an extra partition until the OS is installed using diskmanagement .
Also make sure sata-dma is enabled in bios .

Win XP Unable to format hard disk and install

Recently my system has got error about system hive error
"C:\windows\system32\config\sysem file missing"
So when I tried to reinstall the system the winxp setup says
unable to format my hard drive after I choose C Drive to Quick Format(NTFS) and install option,this note appears
"setup was unable to format drive c:the hard disk may be damaged
make sure the disk is on and properly connected to the computer .If the disk is a SCSI disk,make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated.See your computer or SCSI adapter documentation for more info"
Thinking that the hard disk(Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA) might have corrupted I used Seagate seatools to check for error and the test failed. So I replaced the hard disk with brand new WD 160GB SATA hard disk and started installing the winxp. Again I'm facing the same problem. Even I checked with the new connection port.
I'm using AMD Sempron Processor. MSI K9MM-V Motherboard. dynet 512MB RAM.
As the problem is existing even with the new hard disk I think there is no problem with the hard disk or cable. the problem must be something else.
Please help me find the problem and rectify it.
(My hard disk is SATA and No-RAID, No-SCSI, BIOS detects my hard disk and I'm able to create partitions but unable to format and install WinXP)
I've used the same hard disk on another system with MSI Mother Board but it's working fine. Windows XP installs without any problem. I've replaced the hard disk in which the Win XP already exists(Win XP installed on another system with same configuration MSI K9MM-V Mobo, AMD Sempron Processor, 512MB RAM) But it hangs the system and when I restart the system it says,
"Windows Could Not start because the following file is missing or currupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\System
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-ROM. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair."
I've tried this some 10-15 times every now and then this problem is popping up.
So I think this is not the problem with Hard Disk. It must be the problem with Mother Board. So please help me resolve this issue.

Good luck!
But please remember what you wrote: "BIOS detects my hard disk and I'm able to create partitions but unable to format and install WinXP",
and what Bas wrote about listing your system components.
Have a minimised system when you install Windows.
A cloned copy of Windows can do this, for example one that a back-up program made.

I have downloaded OS X Yosemite using recovery from boot but while installing error occuring showing unable to extract essential.pkg so can't install. problem is i have already formatted my drive and dont have any os right now. please help

i have downloaded OS X Yosemite using recovery from boot but while installing error occuring showing unable to extract essential.pkg so can't install. problem is i have already formatted my drive and dont have any os right now. only the downloaded new os x yosemite in the os x base system. please help

Please try again after taking each of the following steps that you haven't already taken.
Step 1
Reset your computer’s PRAM.
Step 2
If your model has user-replaceable memory, and you've upgraded the memory modules, reinstall the original memory and see whether there's any improvement. Be careful not to touch the gold contacts. Clean them with a mild solvent such as rubbing alcohol. Aftermarket memory must exactly match the technical specifications of the machine.
Step 3
Back up all data to at least two different storage devices, if you haven't already done so. One backup is not enough to be safe. The backups can be made with Time Machine or with Disk Utility. Preferably both.
Erase and install OS X. This operation will destroy all data on the startup volume, so you had be better be sure of the backups.
Step 4
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider to have the machine tested.

Disk Utility unable to format or partition external HD

Last weekend I bought Leopard and prepared everything in my iMac (PowerPC G5, 2.0 GHz) to install it. One of the things I tried was to repartition an external USB hard drive (Iomega 120 GB P/N: DHD120-C) for use with Time Machine. This drive was already formatted with HFS+ but I noticed that was using MBR, and I understand that for use with Time Machine you have to connect a disk using Apple Partition Scheme. Well, I used Disk Utility (still on Mac OS X 10.4.10), selected Partition, Options, Apple Partition Scheme instead of Master Boot Record and tried to apply changes to the drive. Disk Utility froze, I left it for more than one hour until I had to force quit it.
When my iMac rebooted an screen appeared saying that I had a drive not recognized and gave me the option to initialize it. A second failed attempt, Disk Utility froze again.
Finally, I decided to move to Leopard and try to fix the problem later. Everything went fine and while I was waiting I used a Windows machine to partition my external USB disk drive (used DISKPART to create a primary partition) and formatted it with NTFS because Windows told me that the drive was too large to use FAT32. In Leopard, I connected the drive, it mounted OK and used disk utility again to try to repartition it using Apple Partition Scheme and Mac OS Plus (which I understand is the same than HFS+). Disk Utility froze again, more than a couple of hours later I had to force quit it and now I'm using MacDrive in a Windows computer to format the drive, after creating again a primary partition using DISKPART, it seems to work without issues, formatted it using HFS+ in less than a minute. For me, the drive is working fine.
I'll test it with my Leopard iMac later, I'm sure it will mount OK but I'm also pretty sure that it will be recognized as Master Boot Record, which most certainly will give me problems if I try to use it with Time Machine (or not?). Can anybody please explain me what's happening between my iMac and the external hard drive?
Thanks in advance.

As expected, the disk formatted with MacDrive was recognized OK by my iMac. As soon as I connected it Time Machine offered to use it, I accepted and my first backup completed some time last night (I left it working and went to sleep).
Any ideas about what could be happening with the hard drive?

HT3275 I continue to get the following error message: Unable to complete back up.an error occurred while creating backup folder. It's a brand new drive. When I attempt to repair it using disk utility I get:unable to repair disk cannot unmounted

I have been trying to use time machine on a new lacie 2tb usb 2 drive for back up. I continue to get: "unable to complete backup.An error occured while creating backup folder". When I use disk utility to repair I get another error message: unable to repair disk unmountable.
Help me Obie One Canobie you are my last hope

I have confused myself with the facts! Started out keeping track of every step and every variable but have sort of lost it as we progress here. First I quit all applications then swapped connections between mouse port and backup disk port to influence possible bad connections question. Changed power outlet receptacle for the backup disk. Disabled the put-the-HD-to-sleep option. Then powered down the computerator.
Next started up computerator. Turned Time Machine ON and experienced multiple successful backups! Then I started up a few applications, Mail and Text Edit (but not Safari so far). Had a few more successes. After each backup, I used Disk Utility to verify the backup disk is still OK. This because the error about unable to unmount the backup disk seems to go hand in hand with Disk Utility finding the backup disk to be bad.
Put computer to sleep for the night. Upon starting up in the morning, and before doing anything else, I did a backup disk verification... BAD! Did a restart and verified the backup disk... OK.
Did a few Sleep-bad, Restart -OK repetitions.
It seems consistent: Sleeping the computer apparently messes up the backup disk but doing a Restart "repairs" it.
=============================
Now then, I don't understand everything I know here. Methinks that maybe keeping the HD from sleeping during lulls in activity has allowed successful backups through the day but manually putting everything to sleep for the night causes a return to the problem of spinning-back-up-too-slowly (which was explained earlier). Is there any truth in this?
I may abandon this Seagate thing for something more compatible. What's out there that we know works reliably for us?

Windows computer says 'Format disk in drive E' when I plug in iPod. Will this erase everything?

When I plug my iPod nano into my Windows laptop, it says 'Format disk in drive E'. Will this lose everything if I do this?

Hello,
I'd ask in the Windows forum on Microsoft Community.
Karl
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Unable to format external hard disk as mac os extended (journaled)

Have just bought a 750gb Western digital HDD. To be able to use it to store video to use in i movie it needs to be formatted in mac os extended (journal). However when I try to do this in disk utility I get a volume erase error reporting an error on exit. the resulting disk is then unreadable until it is formatted back to MS-Dos (fat) again. Any tips or have I just wasted my money on a disk that is not compatible. On the box it says it is compatible with OSX 10.2.8+?

Try the directions in this article. They are for formatting a drive for Time Machine but will work just fine for your purposes.

Format External Drive with Disk Utility, Make it Windows Compatible

I have formatted my external drive using disk utility, and it works great on my Mac. But no Windows PC can read it, and I need to use it on Windows PCs. I tried formatting as MS-DOS FAT but that didn't work either. What can I do?
Thanks so much in advance.

I've run into the problem fairly regularly were I format a drive as FAT32 on the Mac, but Windows won't read it. I just reformat it from the Windows machine as FAT32. My Mac always reads and writes to it just fine, so it has never been a problem, just a minor mystery.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Unable to format disk drive

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