When I try to erase my hard drive by using the disk utility, the format is in gray and won't let me erase. What do I do?

Ive got an iMac with bootcamp on it. Recently my computer has slowed down and I want to restore it to factory settings. The format says mac osx extended (journaled), but its in grey. Also, the security options and erase buttons are gray. The only button I am able to press is "Erase Free Space." I have a feeling that i might have to delete my bootcamp partition first. What do I do?

To erase the OSX on your harddisk you have to boot your Mac from the OSx Install DVD that came with your Mac.
You can't erase the OSx from which your Mac is booted.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910
Stefan

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Sorry- edited:
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Cannot get brand new hard drive to work. Disk utility states operation not supported when I try to erase or partition?

Without any success, I cannot get my hard drive to work in disk utilities. I am able to see the disk in the upper left hand column, but when trying to initiliaze the software always reads operation not supported. Any ideas?

You probably have too new a hard disk. Contact the hard disk manufacturer and ask what jumper setting is needed to drop to 1.5 Gbps SATA speed.
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HT4818 When I try to partition my hard drive for Windows 7, I get an error saying The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. I have a 2006 Macbook Pro I believe and I really need assistance as soon as possible.

I have Windows 7 Premium Home and I have downloaded the Drivers and when I click Boot Camp Assistance to partition my hard drive, it says, "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." I can't do any backup really because I don't have an external hard drive to work with. I tried repairing disk permissions but that did not do anything. I really need a lot of help with this with some easy, step-by-step tutorials or something. I believe I have a 2006 version of Macbook Pro(4,1).

Once you have obtained an external drive and connected it you will 'clone' your internal drive to it.
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When I attempt to erase my hard drive, I am unable to select the "security options" tab?

I wish to erase my hard drive and for the contents of the hard drive to be unrecoverable. In order to do this, I have done some research and I believe there is a tab called "security options" when I go into "Disk Utility" and click "Macintosh HD." This tab is indeed there for me, however, I am unable to click it. What I mean by this is basically when an option is there but you simply cannot click it because... well, yeah, that's exactly my problem! I don't know why I'm unable to click it.
Thanks in advance!
Message was edited by: RyanValmont

Do a backup. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions. Then select the Erase tab. Format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Select Secure at the level you want. Erase and then reinstall the OS.
OS X Recovery
OS X Recovery (2)

Lightroom 5.3 crashes when I try to import from hard drive

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It is a known issue that Adobe isn't discussing.
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If you get an error saying TM wants to erase the disk, then the problem is most likely formatting-related. The drive is not properly formatted (OS X Extended, journaled) for TM. The previous suggestion of using a new partition for TM is probably the best. But be sure you format it correctly.

Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
ATA version: 6
ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
Here is some current output from smartmontools:
---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
# 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
#11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
#20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
---end output---
Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
Questions
how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
- cfr

The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

New internal hard drive not seen in disk utility

Hi
I replaced my hard drive with a western digital black edition but when I use it as an internal it is not seen by the disk utility.
I have installed and booked from the new drive using USB so it doesn't seem faulty.
When I use the old drive as an internal it works so I don't know what's going wrong.
I have had a look at similar problems but nothing I have tried has helped.

It may be the internal connecting cable that is the problem. If you can install the new HDD in an enclosure, connect it to the MBP, then see if you recognize it using the OSX installation disk. If so, the internal connector should be replaced.
Ciao.

External hard drives not showing in disk utility

When I connect a new Eagle/Consus W-Series external hard drive enclosure to my 15" PB, the hard drive doesn't show-up in the left hand pane of the Disk Utility window. The only thing that shows is the drive in the PB. The hard drive in the enclosure is a WD SATA and is connected via USB cable. The same thing happens, or doesn't happen, when I'm connected via ethernet to my G5 2.3GHz Dual Core: when I open Disk Utility on the PB, the drive on the G5 doesn't show. What I'm trying to attempt is to mirror/clone Tiger from my PB onto the new, to me, G5 using SuperDuper.

Hi, Bob. I obviously didn't understand the situation properly, and now that I realize that, I'm afraid I still don't.
When the G5 is connected, via ethernet to my PB, the hard drive does not show-up in the PB's disk utility pane.
The G5 doesn't have a hard drive in it now, is that correct? So why connect it via Ethernet to the Powerbook?
If you're trying to clone the Powerbook's hard drive onto the G5's drive inside the external enclosure, all that needs to be connected is the external enclosure to the Powerbook, via USB cable. The G5 itself isn't involved in that process at all. When the G5's drive is in the enclosure and connected to the Powerbook, does it appear in Disk Utility on the Powerbook? If not, see my previous suggestions, with the exception of my comment about it not working with either computer.
If the SATA hard drive doesn't appear on the Powerbook's desktop or in Disk Utility when it is in the G5 and the computers are properly networked via Ethernet, recheck your sharing settings: the G5's drive must be shared to be visible to the Powerbook. In that mode, you may not be able to clone the Powerbook's drive to the other one, because the drive in the G5 is being used to run the G5. But if the G5's drive is partitioned, you should be able to clone the Powerbook's drive, via Ethernet, to a partition other than the one which contains the OS that's running the G5.
While the hard drive is in the external enclosure, I can hear it spinning, and am assuming that all the connections are working properly.
If the drive spins, you can be sure it's getting power, and that's good. But you can't safely conclude from that that any or all of the data connections are working properly; in fact the evidence suggests the contrary.
In short, there may be not one but two problems at work here: incorrect sharing settings when the two computers are networked, and a bad cable, connection, or enclosure when the drive is connected to the Powerbook via USB.
EDIT: Let me also add that if the only Tiger installer discs you have are the ones that came with the Powerbook, then having copies of that Tiger installation on both of your computers would be a violation of the software license that accompanied those discs, which entitles you to have Tiger installed on only one computer at a time. If that's the case, you should really buy a retail Tiger installer disc to use on the G5.
Message was edited by: eww

HELP! 2nd Hard drive keeps disappearing. Disk Utility can't see it either!

I'm hoping 1 of you experts can help me out with a very annoying problem.
November 17th I purchased a new hard drive for my Mac, Deskstar P7K500 500GB.
I checked on 2nd Chance PC if it was compatable etc, and this was the reccommendation for the size I wanted.
*For your info my Mac specs are:*
Machine Name: Power Mac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac9,1
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 600 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.2f1
After installation I wanted to use Disk Utility to format it. It didn't see anything at all.
After an hour or so of PRAM reboots and anything else I could find online it appeared. I formatted it and all seemed well.
However last Monday, whenever I double clicked on the drive it seemed to take awhile before it opened. By yesterday afternoon I was getting the spinning wheel whenever I tried opening it.
So I decided to run Disk Utility on it to see if it needed permissions repaired. It didn't show up there at all. So I restarted and it disappeared from the desktop.
System Profiler saw it, but the text was corrupted, the words were gobbledygook in the drive description. So I figured I'd check with Disk Utility again. Still wasn't there. After rebooting it had completely disappeared from System Profiler all together.
So since Sunday I have been trawling forums and Apple help for suggestions. I've tried most things apart from messing with the Terminal stuff because I figured I'd mess that up LOL.
Are there any tricks you know I can try?
Or should I just send it back to Dabs as a faulty product?
Could it be my Mac? I can't send it to Apple as I bought it from a Apple reseller 2nd hand and didn't buy additional Apple Care.
I have data on it which is unfortunate but not life threatening as it was a new drive I backed up elsewhere also.
Thanks
BigSteve

Hi-
"OEM" would be Original Equipment Manufacturer, which means the drive would have firmware specifically aimed at PC/Windows users.
The description of the drive specifiactions only states "PC" in compatibility, so I would assume the drive to be OEM, though not stated specifically.
The drive should work with the Mac, though it could be a firmware version problem, or, simply a problem with the drive. The Hitachi 7K drives are generally well regarded by Mac users.
In the past, any reported problems were either a firmware problem (typically early release models) or simply a bum drive.
BTW, the Hitachi site states that all their drives have the necessary Mac drivers in the firmware (along with the Windows drivers).
A test, would be to swap the drives in your Mac. Put #1 in #2 bay, and #2 in #1 bay. If the problem with "seeing" the drive stays with a particular bay, the Mac may be at fault. If the drive doesn't show regardless of bay, I would suspect the drive.

Hard Drive Invalid node structure - Disk Utility Repair Failed -

Disk Utility returns
Invalid node structure
(4, 27237)
Repair Failed Unable to unmount Drive
I can still boot from the drive. So should I start looking for a new hard drive? or is the problem not that serious.
Thanks

SuperDuper is safe and reliable backup program to clone a drive.
For 500GB I would go with a pair of WD RE2.
Makes an excellent boot RAID.
Seagate in a RAID but not for boot drive.
10.4.6 DVD? that is the latest version. 10.4.0, not so good.
Always have two backups. AND have one partition on another drive just for emergency.
Once you have a good solid system, back it up. Put it somewhere safe.
A lot of problems tend to get created and grow from cache files and folders. Fonts, system, extension cache, web browsers, even temp files left over from printing.
Put all your updaters somewhere safe on another disk.
Burn them to DVD.
Don't use Software Update.
Use standalone updates and keep them handy, then apply when you need to. Many or most can be run in succession without restarting.
Can you install OS X to the other 250GB drive? well, maybe not until you are sure it is safe, backed up etc.
From the DVD, Disk Utility, the Restore tab lets you select the source drive and destination drive and will copy everything over.
Finder: Get Info on target destination, look to be sure "Ignore Ownership" if NOT selected (won't be bootable and permissions will be wrong).
Would be nice to have a 32GB emergency boot partition (large enough for burning DVDs as well as system).
If you had a FW drive you could download and buy Disk Warrior.

Using Mac Disk Utility to format external hard drive

Now that I’ve got the LaCie d2 Quadra and am ready to use it, I’m looking for a little guide to using the Mac Disk Utility to format it.
Can anybody point me in the right direction?
many thanks
BAC
iMac 27'/5750/SD
2.8GHZ QUAD-CORE INTEL CORE I5
8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB
1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE+256GB SSD
ATI RADEON HD 5750 1GB GDDR5
8X DOUBLE-LAYER SUPERDRIVE
Message was edited by: BAC

Roger and captfred are correct, you will still need to reset both the _Partition Map Scheme_ to GUID Partition Table and the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Connect the External HD and open Disk Utility in your Utilities Folder.
2. Highlight the External HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Volume Scheme select _1 Partition_ and click on the Options... button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), name it and click the Apply button.

When I try to partition my hard drive with boot camp assistant, I get "Boot camp assistant quit unexpectedly"

I am seeing numerous people with the same problem, but I couldn't find any answers. This is a new macbook Air with all updates installed. This is a common problem
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000000003c
I am clueless as to how to find a solution.

I was able to get it to work when downloaded the drivers to an external hard drive formated for windows instead of burning it to my external DVD driver. The partition loaded. The down load failed, but the partion worked. I had to restart and hold down the option key to change the boot disc to the external DVD drive that had the windows installation disc loaded

When I try to erase my hard drive by using the disk utility, the format is in gray and won't let me erase. What do I do?

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