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?

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Can't open disk utility at startup, can't format new hard drive

My hard drive on my 2011 macbook pro recently went out, so I purchased a new one. I plugged it in internally and brought up disk utility in internet recovery, but it didn't recognize the drive. So I tried using an external hard drive reader, but now recovery mode can't be accessed at all, whether I press option or command r after startup, it still gives me the same gray folder with a question mark icon. Is my recovery mode damaged, and is that possible to fix?

You can use an external USB disk/flash drive which has Recovery (or a full OS - requires a 16GB disk space on a USB flash or a JHFS+ partition with the OSX) on it. Boot from that recovery USB drive. if Internet Recovery worked once, the MBP is already capable of repeating it. It requires an Ethernet or WiFi connection. If neither is available, or is spotty, Internet Recovery will not work. Can you try Internet recovery via Ethernet cable, if all your previous attempts have been via WiFi?
If the drive is not recognized when plugged into the internal SATA bus, either a cable is not plugged in properly (the replacement drive never showed up successfully as per the OP even once, or the drive is DoA). It should be tested externally. Pulling the drive out and putting it back is fairly easy in the 2011/2012 MBPs. The cable could have been damaged during the replacement. The non-drive end of SATA/IR Sensor cable on the main logic board could be loose or damaged.
If you have a external cable SATA-to-USB or SATA-to-FW (very unlikely), format the new drive using a different PC/MAC to make sure it is not DoA. What brand/model is this new drive? Is it an SSD? It may require a FW upgrade.
If there is a second MAC available, a Target Disk Mode boot (press T while powering up the mac with the new drive) may allow the second working mac to format the new drive via Disk Utility.

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#/

Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

If you're truly running 10.6.8, there is no Recovery partition - that didn't come along until 10.7x.
You'll need to use the set of gray discs that originally shipped with your model. If you don't have them, you can always get your serial number from the bottom of the casing and call Apple to get a set of replacement discs. These will run you about $20 + shipping & taxes. Once you have the discs, boot from Disk One and use Disk Utility to erase your HD and then reinstall whichever version of OS X that shipped with your model. No way around of getting the discs.
Clinton

Disk utility and reformatting for an external portable hard drive

I bought a brand-new iomega ego portable hard drive (USB compatible). When attempting to format it, I went to 'disk utility' to erase the drive. The drive appears, with the following information listed: Mount Point : /Volumes/Iomega HDD Capacity : 465.8 GB (500,105,217,024 Bytes)
Format : Winows NT Filesystem Available : 465.7 GB (500,022,378,496 Bytes)
Permissions Enabled : Yes Used : 79.0 MB (82,838,016 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0 Number of Files : 32
Obviously, it needs to be reformatted. But when I click the erase tab, it will not allow me to pick the volume format or name (it just has it listed but unselectable).
Any suggestions on using disk utility or reformatting the drive so I can use it will be useful!

The drive has been pre-formatted for NTFS. You need to do the following:
Extended Hard 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. 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 APM then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait the process has completed.
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 can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Disk Utility and DiskWarrior can't fix my hard drive. How?

For some strange reason, my startup external Firewire hard drive decided not to work.
Used my Mac internal startup disk and ran Disk Utility and I got this only error message:
*Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit*
Couldn't even mount it. So, I ran DiskWarrior 4.1 and the external FW HD showed up as an *Unknown Disk* and it stated +Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (-36, 2268).+
Ran TechTool Pro 4.6.1 and the FW HD passed the Read Write test but failed on the Surface Scan with lots of bad blocks.
So, is this a gone case? Any other method or utility to revive the FW HD?

Hard drive failures are not that uncommon because hard drives still have moving parts. Since TechTool's surface scan came back with a lot of bad blocks and DiskWarrior noted that there was a hardware failure, my guess would be that the disc itself may be damaged or scratched.
There are companies that can recover data from damaged discs, but I would not put too much effort into reusing this particular drive.
Keith

How to use Time Machine before and after installing a new hard drive

So basically I'm buying a new hard drive for my Macbook pro and I have a lot of files on my computer that I would like to save. I have never used Time Machine before so I need help on how to set it up before AND after installing the harddrive so my files get transferred onto the new hard drive. Thanks in advance

wjosten wrote:
Me, I would never use Time Machine to do this. What I'd suggest you do is get an exterior enclosure for your new drive. Then use either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your existing drive to your new drive. Once done, verify your clone is bootable & all of your data present. Then swap drives & use your old drive for Time Machine backups(after erasing it). Then get another drive & exterior enclosure to regularly clone your new drive to.
Unless he was swapping for a lower capacity HDD or to a lower capacity SSD, then the old drive would make a lousy Time Machine disk. However, whenever I swap out a disk I do exactly what you do. CCC to get the ol drive onto a new one. Test by starting up to the new (but still external drive). Then replace the internal drive.
I usually just sell the old drive on eBay. My Time Machine backup is always 2X the size of the internal drive, which I believe is a bit above recommendations, but works for me. The price of large external drives is almost the same as smaller internal ones.

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.

Disk utility to make bootable Vista on external hard drive

Hi All,
I've browsed a bit in search of an answer to this question but I've not gotten anything definitive yet. I hope you can help...
My goal is to do turn a disk image (iso) into a bootable Vista install, on an external hard drive. I have successfully done this on the EHD using this process:
http://iuseapple.com/blog/apple-how-to/advanced-os-x/2007/10/29/how-to-install-l eopard-from-external-firewire-hard-drive/
My reasoning was that a similar process would work for Vista, but I'm hitting a wall. Some ideas of what may be the problem:
The Vista partition on my EHD is 2.5 gigs, which is just a hair larger than my iso of Vista. Should I make the partition more generous?
The partition is formatted in FAT32. I have had issues with this before, when trying to put over 2GB (or was it 4GB?) onto a FAT32 disk at once. I learned how to split dmgs/isos into pieces and move them over like that. Could that be the issue? If so, is it possible to accomplish my goal with a multi-part image?
I don't know that much about Vista. Will it just not tolerate a boot from an EHD?
The progress I've made so far is limited--I keep hitting a wall in Disk Utility. As in the Leopard approach, I attempt to Restore the image (Vista.iso) to the target drive (Win Vista). The computer thinks about it and then gives me a 254 error and a message along the lines of "could not validate source."
Any help would be appreciated. (Including a definitive "this won't work.")
Thanks in advance,
edge65

Windows will neither install on nor boot from external drives.

I need to erase my hard drive. But the disks are grey when I go to Disk Utility. How can I erase the hard drive?

I need to erase my hard drive. But the drives are grey when I go to Disk Utility.

Restart the computer with the Command and R keys held down and use the Disk Utility from there. If you're going to sell or give away the computer, press Option as well.
(107083)

Disk utility won't let me erase my hard drive

I'm giving my old PowerBook to a family member and want to erase the HD and reinstall 10.5.4 fresh. I opened Disk Utility and selected Erase and the drive bu the Erase... button is not available (transparent). How do I do this?

That or another Mac OS X installation.
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Does disk utility repair delete any files on external hard drive?

Does disk utility repair disk delete any files on the external hard drive?

diskutil list
Last login: Sun Dec 21 16:07:46 on console
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         749.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *748.9 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 4A646B29-3794-4A34-AC98-C0FB505D402B
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 500HDD WD               500.1 GB   disk2s1
Justins-MacBook-Pro:~ justinmontoya$

Having problems using window 8 recovery disc to install on new hard drive

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My hard drive crashed bought a new ssd and installed it and tried to install using my recovery discs and get to 75% and get error message 0xe0ef000e. Have done hard drive test and shows passed. was wondering if it is possible to use recovery discs to install on new drive and any sugestions on what i am doing wrong

Disk utility keeps failing to repair my external hard drive?

My disk was working completely fine about two weeks ago, but today when I plugged it in to back up it didn't show on my finder. When I checked disc utility, it did though but when I clicked "verify", it said I had to "repair" it. So I tried, but it didn't work.
What should I do? It's obviously recognized by the computer, just not usable.

greenteafrappucinos wrote:
, it said I had to "repair" it. So I tried, but it didn't work.
If there was a message in red that said the HDD could not be repaired, then the disk should be replaced.
Ciao.

How/where can I get an operating system disk for 2007mid iMac that I installed new hard drive on

I installed a new hard drive in my iMac 2007mid .Adventurous..
I am told I need the operating system now. I am behind a few upgrades due to needing the new hard drive..
suggestions please?

You can install from any full/retail installer DVD. If you have no discs, then you can purchase replacement discs from Apple:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes
international calling numbers..
You can also purchase a retail Snow Leopard DVD:
You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.

Using Disk Utility to Migrate TM to a New Hard Drive

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