Using Disk Utility to create a partition on an external drive

Hi Everyone
I have a 250gb external HD drive which is currently split into two partitions of Fat32. I'd like to use this drive for storing images of OS X, but when I tried to create an image using the OS X startup DVD, I was told that FAT32 didn't allow large enough file sizes (or something along those lines) in order for me to backup my OS X.
Disk Utility appears to offer the ability to split partitions on the external drive, i.e. I can select the largest of the two partitions and choose to split it into two 96gb partitions. However, will this be a destructive partition process, and can I reasonably expect my external hard disk to be reformatted with a 96gb Mac OS X formatted partition whilst still keeping two FAT32 partitions and all the data that resides on them?
Any help is much appreciated!

You will not be splitting existing partitions. Instead, you will be creating a new partitions from scratch.
Run Disk Utility. Select the hard drive to be partitioned. Make sure you select the hard drive in the sidebar, not the volume indented below the drive. Go to the Partition tab. If you want one or more of the partitions to be MS-DOS, you must first click on the Options... button. Select the Master Boot Record option and OK. Select Volume Scheme of 3 Partitions. Now set up your three new partitions as you want them, in terms of size and format. For the Mac partition, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format.

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Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

I accidently used Disk Utility to fix a partition. I cant boot in with any USB drive. Help.

I accidentally used Disk Utility to fix a partition. It erased it. I desperately need to restore it.
I have an imac without a cdrom. How do I create a bootable usb with testdisk as for some bizarre reason it seems impossible to create a bootable usb drive for osx. I tried GParted and the ultimate boot disk that both have test disk.
I am stumped. Why can't I boot into my imac with a usb? I have a mac air that I just cant seem to create a usb drive with testdrive thats bootable. I even tried rEFit but no luck.
Anyone have an idea? How do I fix my system ?

I have an imac OSX 10.8.
I tried creating a usb drive of testdisk on my mac air so that I could use it to boot into the iMAC and restore the partition table.
I created it using:
hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o target.img ~/Desktop/ubcd530.iso
dd if=./target.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1m
It did not work. It would not boot. I also tried Gnome Partition tool and that did not boot either. I need my old system as it has important data
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After i bought mac os x lion from web then download , after that to install but when they ask me to choose disk to install i can not choose, it say this disk does not use the GUID partiton table scheme. use disk utility to change the partition scheme. but

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Using disk utility to create a disk image then burn to an external drive

I have an iMac which does not have the ability to burn my iDVD projects to a DVD. Can I save my iDVD proj. to a disc image? Then write that image to an external DVD writer via Disk Utility?

This is from _Disk Utilty Help_. Erasing a disk is the same as formatting it. These directions are for Tiger; check this topic in Leopard to see if there is any difference in the directions.
+_Erasing a disk or volume_+
+You use Disk Utility to erase disks and volumes.+
+Erasing a disk deletes all the volumes and files on the disk. Erasing a volume deletes all the files on that volume, but does not affect other volumes. Erasing a recordable disc, such as a CD-RW or DVD-RW disc, creates a blank disc with no formatting.+
+IMPORTANT: If you have any files you want to save, be sure to copy them to another disk before you erase the disk they are on.+
+Usually when you erase a disk or volume, Disk Utility erases only the information used to access the files on the disk, not the actual files. Because of this, the erased files can be recovered. If you want to erase a disk so that the files cannot be recovered, you can select security options to write zeros over the disk space.+
+If you want to erase an external disk, connect the disk to your computer.+
+In Disk Utility, select the disk or volume in the list on the left.+
+Click Erase.+
+Choose a format from the Volume Format pop-up menu. Usually you will choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).+
+Type a name for the disk or volume.+
+If you're erasing a disk and plan to use the disk with Mac OS 9, select the checkbox to install the Mac OS 9 drivers.+
+You do not need to install the Mac OS 9 drivers to use the disk with the Classic environment.+
+If you want to erase the entire contents of the disk by writing zeros, click Security Options, then select the option you want and click OK.+
+Click Erase.+
+To erase your computer's startup disk, you must start up from another disk. You can use your Install Mac OS X disc.+
What does "journaled" mean?
Check this out for the answer. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8835.html

Using Disk Utility to create a bootable clone

After searching around, I find that the Disk Utility Restore function is the safest way to make a bootable clone. I've tried Carbon Copy Cloner, but had some minor problems.
However, DU Restore always renames the clone disk with the same name as the source disk. This leads to problems, such as confusing Time Machine as to where it should back up.
Is it okay to rename the bootable clone volume, or does it mess things up when you rename a volume after it has been created? Is there any way to preset a name when using DU Restore?

CCC does not cause data corruption and has been put through a lot of testing. Be sure to check for updates. You should have CCC 3.1.
If you have problems, I would suspect corrupt files and don't rely on Disk Utility First Aid to find or repair problems. When you need something stronger, buy Alsoft Disk Warrior.
DU Restore does work, better now in Leopard. People use to forget to turn off "Ignore Ownership" which is now handled properly.
And always repair permissions afterwards before using, no matter what you use.

Using Disk Utility to Migrate TM to a New Hard Drive

I'm posting this for search/google posterity:
Along with SuperDuper and CCC, plain old Disk Copy works perfectly for migrating a TM backup from one HD to a new, empty one. What I did:
1. Turn off TM
2. Go to Restore tab of Disk Utility
3. Set existing TM HD as the source, and the new HD as the destination
4. Click Restore button. Depending on the source HD size, this could take a while. My 400 GB source drive took about an 1.5 hours, with verification.
5. When done, you will have two HDs with the same name. Change the source drive's name.
6. Turn TM back on.
If all went well, TM should begin using your new HDs backup folder without a hitch.

This is great info. I use a 160gb portable drive with my MacBook Pro as my TM device. I have a fear that if anything happens to my laptop, the portable drive would be lost too since I carry them together. Ideally, I would like to periodically backup the portable drive to the Maxtor I have at home too and this seems like the easiest way to do it.
My question is, if I use the method described here with Disk Utility, does my Maxtor HD need to be a dedicated TM drive too? Will I have to create a partition so that I can continue to use my Maxtor to archive my data?

Using Disk Utility to make a bootable clone on external firewire hard drive

I was just experimenting with making a bootable clone of my Mac HD (OS X 10.5.2) on an external firewire drive. The external drive booted up and all programs worked. However, there were 3 extra folders on the clone: Dev, Net, Home. The folders were empty so I deleted Dev and Net, just to see what would happen. When I restarted the computer, it simply shut down upon reboot. So, I held the option key and rebooted back into my Mac HD.
My (5) questions are:
What are those folders?
Why were they put there?
Can I get rid of them, or hide them?
Once the bootable clone works as a boot drive, can I delete the data from my internal Mac HD or,
Does the bootable clone somehow rely on the internal drive for additional startup information?
Thank you so much for any information.
Dave

These are system folders that the OS needs to operate. DO NOT delete them.
They are normally invisible which is why you don't see them.
You should simply leave them alone. If they bother you visually and you want to hide them, open terminal and run the following command
*sudo chflags hidden /Volumes/"Nameoftheexternaldrive"/dev /Volumes/"Nameoftheexternaldrive"/home /Volumes/"Nameoftheexternaldrive"/net*
Put the name of your external in the above.
You'll be prompted for your admin password which you won't see. That's normal.
To answer your last question, a bootable clone does not rely on the internal drive in any way. You can boot from the clone and do whatever you like to the internal. However, it's not recommended to run your computer from an external for everyday use. Bootable clones should be mainly used for backups. If you hose your system on an internal, boot from the clone and clone it back to the HD.

Using Disk Utility From Recovery Partition

Is there an advantage to repairing permissions after booting into Recovery disk? (Hold Option key as restart) I realize that Repair disk will be available if needed & it is not available when using Disk Utility from Mac HD partition.

Thanks!
I thought that was the case but I had read multiple accounts of people with slow Macs after upgrading to Mavericks, running repair disk permissions from recovery disk to fix the problem. I wondered why not just run repair permissions w/o restarting into recovery disk. Then they can also run verify disk, if they wish & only if there is a problem with the disk would they need to boot to recovery disk in order to run repair disk.

Array created using Disk Utility keeps disappearing.

I've got a 4-bay Drobo unit that I use for my iTunes and iPhoto libraries. I recently ordered a handful of new 2TB drives to max out the capacity on it.
In order to keep all of my data intact, I installed a couple of drives in a spare 4-bay disk enclosure and used Super Duper to duplicate the Drobo files onto half of the new hard drives. I then pulled two drives out of the Drobo (a 1TB and a 1.5TB) and used Disk Utility to create a concatenated disk set in the spare 4-bay enclosure.
Next step was to use Super Duper to duplicate the libraries from the two new drives (still in the spare 4-bay enclosure) to the new concatenated disk set (also in the 4-bay enclosure).
When that was finished, I pulled the two new 2TB drives out of the 4-bay enclosure and put them into Drobo with the other new drives, fired it up, formatted, and told Super Duper to duplicate the libraries from the concatenated disk set (in the spare 4-bay enclosure) to the newly supersized Drobo.
Maddeningly, the concatenated disk set keeps "unmounting" and disappearing from the Finder - usually right in the middle of a copy operation. I get a handfull of folders and their files, and then "Poof!" it disappears. Restarting the Mac has no effect; I have to unplug and repower the hard drives.
I've got about 1,300GB left to copy over; I can't sit there for thirty straight hours and babysit this setup. Anybody have any idea why this keeps happening?

You don't have a problem and repairing disk permissions does not need to be performed daily or on a regular basis - only after installing software (especially after installing 3rd party software that uses an installer) and as a system troubleshooting procedure only.
Check Maintaining Mac OS X for recommended maintenance for OS X (which isn't much) focusing on the Maintenance Myths section.

Understanding encryption using Disk Utility

Using Disk Utility, I created an encrypted disk image, into which I have copied files I would like to secure. This works well, but I am trying to understand how things work, so that I can control exposure. Fundamentally, the question is when are files exposed, and when not. Clearly, when a password has been entered, the file is visible and available. But is it being decoded (ie is the underlying file is always encrypted)? If I make a copy of a file (after password entered), is this copy encrypted? If I make a back-up using Time Machine, are the back-up files (of encrypted files) encrypted?

Tony T1 wrote:
What I think he means is, if the Volume is backed up to Time Machine, it won't be encrypted, but a mounted Volume from a Disk Image is not backed up to Time Machine, so I'm not sure what he means. The actual Disk Image (that is backed up to TM) is always encrypted.
Yes, sorry, what I wrote was misleading:
When an encrypted volume (an actual disk partition or a disk image) is backed-up, the data is decrypted. It's only re-encrypted if the destination is encrypted. So if you use FileVault2, your backups of normal items will not be encrypted if they go to an unencrypted disk. But, they will be encrypted if they go to an encrypted disk or disk image.
The contents of a disk image are backed-up only when it's not mounted. If it's mounted, the disk image will appear in the backup, but the contents will not have changed.

Can I Use Disk Utility from an External Hard Drive?

I would like to use Disk Utility to verify and/or repair my hard drive. I am too lazy to run this from my install disk. Can I merely copy the application to my external hard drive and launch it from there? Would this work successfully? Could it damage anything? Thanks!

Hi! You can't repair a disk that you are booted from so you could run the repair disk function IF you are booted from another volume such as a bootable internal or external drive or the install disc. You'll have to clone your boot drive and repair from the clone after booting to it. Tom

Resized partition using Disk Utility and now Windows 7 will not boot

Hi,
Hopefully someone can help me!!
I had previously used Boot Camp to install Windows 7. However, I later realised I had not given myself anywhere near enough disk space as I started using Windows for things I hadn't originally planned on using it for.
Anyway, long story short, to solve the problem I uninstalled some applications on my Mac OSX and used Disk Utility to decrease the size of my Mac partition. My plan was then to reboot to Windows and use a Windows application to increase the size of the Windows partition. However - I coudln't even get that far.
Upon decreasing the size of my Mac partition (succesfully) I restarted my Mac in order to boot to Windows. However, I was greeted with a message along the lines of "unable to boot to Windows please insert boot disk and press any key" (I can't remember the exact message).
I was wondering if anyone knows of any way to restore my Windows partition, retaining all of my previously saved files on my Windows disk. It's probably a long shot, but the thought of losing everything I have been working on for the last few months is a sickening one.
What does give me a bit of hope is that, if I click Boot Camp it seems to recognise that Windows 7 is installed as the option that appears is to uninstall it.
Furthermore, if I view partitions in Disk Utility, a "DISK0S4" is listed. However, it's only at 20gb - if this WAS my BootCamp partition previously, it was originally at something around 60gb (I think - either way, definitely bigger than 20gb!).
On top of this, my current Macintosh HD parition is at 260gb and with the DISK0S4 partition at 20.21gb, there seems to be some space missing... I'm hoping this is the files I've been working on over the last few months!
Anyway, I've done some searching on the net and it *seems* that GPT fdisk *might* be my savour. I've downloaded it but have no idea how to use it and don't plan on playing about with it as I could no doubt do some real damage. If it is likely to solve my problem however, I'm certainly more than capable of being walked through what I need to do.
Please help!

Hi Christopher,
I also have problems with Windows rebooting after partition resize trying to reduce Mac side and increase Windows side. I do not see the BootCamp partition labelled as such while running disk utility. The Windows partition shows up when I boot up while pressing the ALT key. However, when I try to run Windows, it says " error loading operatig system".
I also followed instruction and went through to run gdisk successfully. Results towards the end.
What can be done? Windows still does not boot and It shows ? Suspicious MBR at sector 0.
Below is information based on typical questions you ask.
diskutil list
/dev/disk0   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE        IDENTIFIER
   0:              GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB     disk0
   1:                                           EFI                         209.7 MB     disk0s1
   2:                         Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            78.5 GB     disk0s2
   3:                       Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB     disk0s3
   4:                   Microsoft Basic Data                         31.7 GB      disk0s4
sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=120034123776; sectorsize=512; blocks=234441648
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 234441647
      start       size            index       contents
          0          1                             MBR
          1          1                             Pri GPT header
          2         32                            Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600           1            GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640 153240016      2            GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
153649656    1269544     3            GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
154919200   17628896
172548096   61892608    4            GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
234440704        911
234441615         32                       Sec GPT table
234441647          1                        Sec GPT header
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 14593/255/63 [234441648 sectors]Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254 63 [         1 - 172548095] <Unknown ID>
*2: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 172548096 -   61892608] HPFS/QNX/AUX
3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.7
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): r
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h
WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.
Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y
Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07):
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y
Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N): n
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o
Disk size is 234441648 sectors (111.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: "DELETED INFO"
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                               1    172548095   primary     0xEE
   2           *     172548096    234440703   primary     0x07
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w
Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk2.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.

Change the partition of an external drive using Disk Utility?

I wish to change partition scheme, sizes, in an external drive. All the partitions are MacOS extended (Journaled) and they map, according to the layout in Disk Utility, as follows: Partion 1, 2, 3,4 where 1 is at the top and 4, the bottom. I want to make partition 2 larger, so I decreased partition 1 by half. Now the layout is 1 a, 1b, 2,3,4., where 1b is now free space. Disk Utility will not allow me to increase the size of partition 2 by dragging the corner. Which of the following options (if any) will allow me to increase the size of partition 2, without erasing the data, using Disk Utility:
Select partition 2 and manually writing a new value in the size box, equal to the present partition’s size plus the free space?
If I delete partition 1 completely, will I then be able to increase the size of partition 2?
If I delete partitions 1, 3, and 4, will I then be allowed to increase the size of partion 2?
Is there another option?
Thanks
(Actually, partition 3 is an eDrive, a data recovery utility created by TechTool Pro 7, so I don’t really know how it’s formatted.)
OS10.9.4, MacBook Pro, SeagateHD 1.5TB USB drive.

You cannot re-size the existing partitions in such a way that you can take the space from a shrunken partition and add it to another partition. Disk Utility cannot do that. If you have an existing partition that lives above another partition, then you can delete the lower partition in order to expand the upper partition into the freed up space. This concept applies to any additional partitions that are below another partition. Disk Utility can do this. You can resize down, but not up, except when creating new partitions. You would need third-party software such as iPartition 3.4.3 to accomplish that feat.

Using Disk Utility to partition drive

After downloading a system update yesterday my mac mini hard drive is no longer bootable. The recovery HD is unbootable, too.
When I boot up using the install CD I can run Disk Utility and see that there are no problems reported with the hard drive, but I cannot repair permissions (No valid packages).
If I restore the operating system from the CD my only option is to erase the hard drive.
But what if ...
I create a new partition using Disk Utility?
There's loads of free space on the drive, but if I attempt to create a new partition will I wipe out existing data?
If I succeed in creating a new partition would I be able to restore the operating system there without erasing the hard drive?
Would it be possible then in some way to restore my user account data?
I'm just trying to avoid the hassle of re-installing my applications and recovering my data files from backup. It seems like the data is still all there on the hard drive except that something went wrong during the system update that renders the disk unusable.
Any help appreciated.

Yep, that is too old...
Mac mini
Mac OS X Install Disk 1
Mac OS X version 10.4.7
AHT version 3A102
Disc version 1.1
2Z691-5887-A
Mac OS X Install Disk 2
Disc version 1.0
ZZ691-5860-A

Using Disk Utility to create a partition on an external drive

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