Intel Mac :: Erase Hard Drive Mac OS X (LION) "Couldn't Unmount Disk"
Apr 15, 2012
I've just transferred my data to a new computer and now need to erase the hard drive on my old one.. I've tried Disk Utility, increased the security, and tried 'erase' but I keep getting an error message "couldn't unmount disk". I've gone into Partitions and tried deleting the HD there as well but I get the same message. I just want to get the computer securely wiped and would like to keep Lion as the operating system.
I replaced a 1 TB external drive partiotioned in 2 with a 3 TB extrnal drive run/store my corbon copy cloner back up and time machine.
The 3 TB drive was successfully partitioned through the disk utility and both back ups are installed and the initial back up is complete.
My question is about the 1 TB drive. I want to completely erase all data from the drive in order to use it for a different use.
Using disk utility one of the partitions deleted without incident when following the same protocol the second partition produced error messages.
Volume erase failed
Volume Erase failed with the error:
Couldn’t unmount disk.
If I try to eject the disk
It says it will not eject becaus e a program may be using it...
The only program that utilized this partition is Carbon Copy Cloner which is not being utilized on the new 3TB drive.
I do not see where there is a option to have more than on disk chosen for this purpose so am unsure why the disk utility is seeing the old partion as still in use.
I'm trying to erase my SSD internal drive that is corrupted software (Yosemite).I'm booting from an external with 20GB Yosemite OS & 480GB that contains files I've dragged off the internal SSD.I'm getting the error:Volume Erase failed with the error:Couldn’t unmount disk.How can I get around this?
I want to carbon copy my bootable external drive to my main internal bootable hard drive so I tried to use Disk Utility to erase it but it will indicate that it failed and can't unmount. When I tried to manually unmount by dragging it to the trash it indicated that it is in use. I can't understand why it's in use since I booted from the external drive which I wanted to the copy to the internal drive.
I have a MacBook Pro running OSx 10.9.4 and have been successfully using Time Machine with a WD My Passport External Hard Drive for a while. Now (after 10 days with a successful back-up), the computer will not back-up. I have gone into disk utility and tried to erase, partition, and/or repair the disk, but repeatedly get error messages - it can't erase the disk, re-partition the disk or unmount the disk.
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), External Hard Drive
I want to erase the hard disk. Holding the Option key when restarting the macbook, and enter the Recovery HD, selecting the Disk Utility. Click the hard disk name, and select Erase tab. Click the Erase button, a message displayed: Disk Erase failed. Disk Erase failed with the error:Couldn't unmount disk.
I am trying to reinstall Lion on my macbook pro, but every time the hdd shows up as 'locked' and when I attempt to format it, it gives me a "volume erase failed with the error - cannot unmount disk" message. It appears as if some files withing the disk are still running but I have no way of quitting them-knowingly. I can specify more if this seems to vague.
So so annoyed right now. Today my 12" G4 powerbook started to become slow, lots of spinning wheel, delayed menus etc. I checked file permissions, rebooted and it just kept on getting slower. Eventually it wouldn't get past the white apple screen.
I booted off the Tiger DVD and ran disk utility to fix and repair permissions again. It wouldn't let me repair the disk as I kept getting this error:
'Repair volume failed with error could not unmount disk'
I had to reboot again, and eventually my hard disk no longer appears in Disk Utility. I tried to boot into safe mode and get this:
'"I0ATAController device blocking bus I0ATAController device blocking bus I0ATAController device blocking bus I0ATAController device blocking bus I0ATAController device blocking bus"
So now I pretty much can't do anything with it. Failed Hard Drive?
I've been having problems booting into my OSX partition. At the time it started I wasn't using my Macbook Pro (Late 2009) very often so whenever I needed I just booted up into my BOOTCAMP partition. Anyways, I decided to finally stop being lazy and do a clean install. There's nothing on either partition of the same hard drive that I want. I put together a bootable USB drive and boot from it. From here I go to the Disk Utility and try to erase the entire drive. It gives me this error: URL....
Now, that's not a screenshot from my mac but its the exact same error. Anyways, I've tried to find something on point but I just can't. Some posts have stated that the hard drive is broken, but if that's the case why can I start up the BOOTCAMP partition of the exact same drive flawlessly? I can even manipulate files on the OSX partition from Windows 7.
Cant erase hard drive because cant "unmounted disk"...My hard drive crashed about a month ago, and i used a program called data rescue to clone hard drive. when i put it in mac it will not load. now all i want to do is erase the drive and install Yosemite as new mac. but cant install or erase the hard drive.
I have an external hard drive that was used on a PC. I want to use it on a Mac. I went into disk utility and did an erase. (Extended Journaled and in security options changed it to zero out data). I can now use it on the Mac how ever it is telling me that there is 54.1 MB of used space. I want to have access to this. How do I do it?
I have a hard drive with about 250 gb of film and music on fbut it's formatted as HFS+ which windows cant read! I need to partition the drive to make windows be able to read at least a portion of it. But If I run disk utility and create a partition will it erase the info I already have on there? I don't have this data else where so I hope it wont!
1. To grab all the files I need/don't want to lose (photos, music, documents, etc.)2. Then completely erase the 500GB HD so I can then install it into the new Macbook Pro and install Leopard.(I'll then externally connect the 160GB HD that came w/ my Macbook Pro and add the files I've already copied into that 160GB HD into the 500GB Leopard installed HD in the new Macbook Pro)So, currently my 500GB HD is connected to my Macbook pro and I want to completely erase everything so I'll then have a completely clean hard drive, to then install into the Macbook Pro, add the installation discs and install Leopard into the 500GB HD.
My older MBP is running very slow, and I have tried all the usual ways of making it run quicker - repair permissions, repair disk from Lion recovery partition, remove extraneous files, checking Activity Monitor, etc. etc. Someone suggested reformatting the HD and then restoring from a backup. I have the HD cloned to an external HD with Super Duper, but if I reformat the internal HD and restore from the clone, won't the problems that caused the issue in the first place just be cloned into SD and then restored to the reformatted internal drive, thus defeating the excercise?
My Mac Pro [with 4 internal disks, 2 External Disks (Sata Raid 0), and several external FireWire disks and a Voyager disk station] has a little problem with letting externals go Since a few weeks I have a problem with unmounting my externals. After unmount, the unmounted disk will mount again immediately.No time to disconnect cables and/or power. Hinders disk management, backup, and simple disconnecting disks. It only happens with disks (FireWire 400/800/ SATA and USB alike). USB sticks work fine.
I have my external HDD partitioned for my Media storage and for Time Machine. Unfortunately, my mac is having problems and I want to back up my computer to reinstall Lion. Problem is...Time Machine is also not backing up anymore (last backup was 2 months ago). So I want to erase the Time Machine volume of my HDD so I can use SuperDuper to backup my hard drive...but of course I don't want to erase the media partion. So...using Disk Utility, I can just erase the Time Machine partion (volume) of the HDD and leave the Media portion intact, correct? I would hate to erase the Time Machine volume and find out the Disk Utility also erased all my music and movies too!
I tried reformatting while running Snow Leopard, but the option was grayed out and the install disc made the computer hang at the white bootup screen. I figured I'd just upgrade to Lion and do a clean install (not an option).
After upgrading to Lion, I booted into recovery to erase the hard drive. I did it and it took less than ten seconds (bad sign).
Now I can't get past recovery and the hard drive is still full.
I have a 2.5" hard drive connected via USB to my MacBook that keeps unmounting itself. This happens under some (what seems to be) undetermined amount of time, the drive will all of a sudden unmount itself and disappear from the Finder, Disk Utility, et al.
Is there some fix, setting or work around for this? Very annoying. If not, is there a way to re-mount the hard drive without turning it off then on or reconnecting the USB cable?
I'm trying to install OS X Lion on my 27" iMac.I've erased the HD using Disc Tool in recovery.HD shows no errors.I've tried Internet Recovery (it loads up, but wont start the installation)I've tried creating a recovery usb on another similar iMac, and use it on this. Same error, only differance is it keeps "loading" when installing, but nothing happens. Same error in log. When I try to start the Reinstall I get an error in the installation log that goes something like this:
Install Mac OS X Lion[354:9c03] Couldn't find app store version, falling back to hardcoded Can not connect to /var/run/systemkeychaincheck.socket: No such file or directory Apple Care suggested: Trying another network (doesn't work).Install with the original Snow Leopard DVD first, then upgrade (can't do that, the DVD is lost and a DVD from another friend is not working) What can I do to get around this error?
Today I decided to change the HDD in my MBP. I read the manual prior to that so I was all set. It took me almost an hour to take the metal back off, it was a pain in the ass as I had one of those small japanese screwdrivers set with no proper grip. However when I disassembled everything, to my shocking discovery I came to those type of screes I rarely see. Those 4 screes on the side of the HDD (mounting screws). I could not take them out since I had no tool for that, Im not a native english speaker so I wanted to ask anyone how are those screws called and also the proper took size or name so I can buy it tomorrow.
Im trying to partition my Macintosh HD and install FCP X on the new partition, because I want to still use my Final Cut Studio when needed. I want to install MAC OS on the new partition so I can use it as a start up disk as well. I followed the instructions as directed.
I restarted my computer and held the command and "R" key. In the disk utility I selected my HD and selected 2 partitions. I named them and entered the size and selected GUID as scheme. but when i hit apply i get " Failed, cant unmount disk" how I can successfully partition my HD.
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Studio FW800 external that has 5 partitions, connected to my 2011 iMac. I had help doing the partitions and don't really remember the reasoning, but one is just for my SuperDuper! backup, one is Miscellaneous, one for movie clips off my camcorder, one for misc scanned photo's and one for my genealogy research. I back up using Time Machine to a Time Capsule and also to this WD hard drive with SuperDuper!
Recently I'm getting a pop up message that "Mac OS X can't repair the disk "Genealogy"'. And it needs to be reformatted. It's become a read only disk. When I look in Disk Utility it shows all the partitions as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" EXCEPT for the one in question. I also noticed that there are a lot of files with "date created" being the same date in 1969! These files may be letters I've written or photo's I added to that partition within the last few years.
I think I have to completely reformat the entire external hard drive to repair this, but I want to make sure. Because it's going to be a major hassle backing it all up to another external (having to get one first) and then figuring out how to make the files that have turned "read only" in that one partition, back to their original state! Does this sound right, that I have to reformat the entire external hard drive? And how do I get the read-only files back to their original state.
I have a MacBook Pro which was originally supplied with OS X10.4.9. I have upgraded using disks purchased from the Apple store to 10.5 and subsequently 10.6. More recently I upgraded to 10.7 using the download from the online App Store. I would like to perform an Erase and Install to get rid of the 'dross' on my hard disk and may do this as part of the 10.8 upgrade although have yet decide whether to wait for this or not.
when doing the erase and install, do I have to start from scratch by loading the original 10.4.9 OS X version or can I start at 10.7. If the latter how would I do this given that I don't have a disk as it was downloaded from the App Store?
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
