MacBook Pro :: Booted From USB Drive / Cannot Unmount Primary Drive To Erase
Aug 28, 2014
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.Â
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 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.Â
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), External Hard Drive
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 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.Â
Using disk utility one of the partitions deleted without incident when following the same protocol the second partition produced error messages.
Volume erase failedÂ
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'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.Â
I'm booted on a MacBook Pro from an external drive, and I want to erase the drive inside the MacBook using Disk Utility from the external. For some reason or another, it won't let me do this. When I click on the Erase tab (whether clicked on the disk itself or the volume "Macintosh HD") and try to erase it, it returns with the error:
Disk Erase failed Disk Erase failed with the error: Could not unmount disk.
When I try to install an image onto the drive, I get a similar error, except it says "Operation not permitted." When I tried it while booted with an OS X DVD, it worked fine. As far as I know, I should be able to do this while booted from the external HD.
I recently got a 750 GB WD 'My Passport' external backup drive (the USB3 version) and every time I plug it in, my MacBook Pro starts the spotlight process and then within 5 seconds kicks the drive off!
Then, it gives me the lecture dialogue of dismounting the drive correctly (via Finder for example), not to just pull the drive out of the USB port!
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.
I installed a second HD in my Macbook Pro via Optibay.1st drive is SSD and second "normal" HD for data.When I boot I get a strange loop with the apple logo appearing and disappearing. It looks like my Mac does not know which of the two drives to choose for booting. Only when I press the options button before booting do I get the Bootcamp selector for Mac or Win which are both on the SSD.
As I use the second drive only for data, I want to make the SSD drive the "primary boot drive" without me having to press the option button on startup every time.
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 just installed a new 2nd, (750 gb) hard drive into my g5 because my first 250gb is nearly full. I'm trying to launch logic but the file is way to big. It wont let me install this program from my new, second hard drive because the message i get is that it supposed to launch from the primary or running hard drive. Can anyone tell me how i can make my second hard drive my new primary hard drive? I got the .dmg for my leapord osx. but not the originals anymore. can anybody help me with this. i'm pretty sure it's simple, i just don't know how to do this.
In trying to repair my hard drive, which disc utility said was corrupt, it stopped repairing it because it could not unmount the disc?I booted my macbook pro from my backup hard drive.
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?
A friend of mine is having some trouble with his younger brother erasing his history. He said it was the third time this week. He also says he doesn't really care to find out why, he just uses his history to return to sites often. Is there any way to prevent the primary user from erasing history or a way to recover deleted history? On Windows I remember a registry hack that greys out the erase history button. (He's using Safari).
Is there anyway to erase my hard drive on my old broken mbp? (fried logic board) I want to sell the whole unit, but feel that the only thing i could do is take out the hard drive and sell everything else. Id prefer to not have to dismantle my mbp as it is somewhat time consuming. Is there a way to erase it within the mac?
Gonna turn in my MBP later this week, because of a broken hard drive. What do I do before turning it in? Should I clone the drive (for backup) and then format and zero it out, to remove personal information?
Macbook OS X 10.5.8 and a WD 10EAVS 1TB External Hard Drive. That's all. I was given this by a fellow student on campus who was graduating. So I want to use this to store my iTunes Library (my Macbook's hard drive ran out of space). Here's what I do:
- Macbook is turned on and running
- I plug the external hard drive into a working outlet --> Hard drive turns on
- I plug the external hard drive into the mac using a USB connection --> Disk Insertion Error message: the disk you insterted was not readable by this computer
- It is not readable so I open it in Disk Utility (the hard drive is listed/recognized)
- I attempt to erase and/or partition the hard drive in order to format it in Mac OS Extended OR Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but I get one of these two messages: "Disk Erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed." OR "Disk Erase failed with the error: The underlying task reported failure on exit."
I attempted to look up what these mean or how to fix the problem but nothing is really working. I was able to format the hardware line to MS-DOS (FAT) and the sub-line as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but I don't even know if that's right or not.Basically, I need my computer to recognize this hard drive whenever I plug it in and to run smoothly as "extra space" to store my music on.I haven't had A LOT of experience with external hard drives but enough to get things done. But this problem is a killer.
Getting OCZ SSD to install on MacPro 08 in second optical bay. Must have User files on separate drive due to SSD will barely hold system. I figured I'd have to clone my primary boot drive to spare partition, boot from clone, setup it up with User in other location from SysPrefs > Users > control click current user > advanced options, restart then dump items form User in order to have the drive sized for the SSD. Once the intermmediate tranfer drive was set up, clone it to the SSD and use as boot.
I tested clone before actuall data transfers. Problem is after switching User file location from the booted clone, restarting, but re-booting looks like clean install. No preferences showed up, missing all but stock apps in dock, desktop image back to clean install, printer needing registration.Tried advanced options again to locate User on same original boot drive, restart, same thing. I did not remove User files yet from the cloned drive which I was booting. Just switched location.
Info: Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), MacPro '08, 2.8 Octo, 12GB, 5TB
I just received my new MacBook Pro. It came with 250 gb of hd space. I had to do an erase and install on it because of an issue that came up while using the migrant assistant. So, after doing the erase/install it says that I only have 216 gb of space left? And thats without the applications CD that I have to put in which will be about 4 gb. I believe when I first turned the computer on before doing the erase/install it had about 235?
I have the Seagate Momentus XT and I have a quick question. If I reformat the Hard Drive portion does that erase the SSD side as well? If not how do I erase the SSD side of it.
I recently tried to install a back-up copy of Leopard onto a USB hard drive, as a precautionary measure if my drive ever did die. I had partitioned my drive into 3. One for the Leopard Boot (Mac OS Extended Journaled), one for Apps (Mac OS Extended Journaled) and one for files (FAT 32).
The installation pooped out on me, probably due to the amount of free space available.
Earlier this week, I decided to reformat the drive into 1 partition. Unfortunately I ran into a spot of bother....
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
And when running First Aid - I get this:
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
I just want to know, is it OK to erase the whole internal drive (not 'Macintosh HD' partition) and install a clean Lion? Will all the partitions be lost after erasing the drive? And when a new Lion is installed, will it automatically create two partitions: "Macintosh HD" and "Recovery HD"?
