My external hard drive has been corrupted and the error message is telling me to reformat it. However, through all the research I have done to find out how, everything I've found has told me to use Disk Utility to just erase everything on the disk to do this. When I try to do this, it tells me that I can't erase anything because the disk cannot be unnmounted. What should I do?
View 4 Repliesi have this strange issue that occured just out of nowhere without me (knowingly) having contributed anything to it.yesterday i launched my iMac and my external firewire drive wasn't showing up in neither the finder nor on the desktop. i instantly thought about a hard drive crash, but soon tried other things to evaluate (or not) my guess.
for instance, i unplugged the drive waited a few minutes before i plugged it in again. since this iomega drive is also equipped with a regular usb port i also switched cables and tried connecting it via the iMac usb sockets as well as via an usb hub without any luck. the drive still won't show up. so i launched the Disk Utility, to see if the drive needs some checking/repairing, but to my surprise it wasn't showing in Disk Utility either.
thus far i only considered this to be an issue with only this particular external drive, but when i eventually switched on a 2nd external drive (this time an usb drive i use for Time Machine) that drive also refused to show up in either the Finder or the Disk Utility app.
curious as i was, i then fired up a 3rd and 4th external drive and now had all 4 drives running at the same time. none of which were showing up, just as if they weren't even connected with the iMac.
this strikes me as more than odd. i've heard about hard drive failures and crashes. they just occur over time. maybe and under some very strange coincidences it is possible that two external hard drives quit their jobs at the very same time, but seriously .... 4 of them?? i hardly think so.
well, maybe it's the iMac's usb/firewire controller that's causing the trouble, i thought. but then again, my other connected devices (iPhone, iPad, Printer, Scanner, eyeTV) are functioning and get detected just fine as far as i can tell.
i have no idea what's going on. i dismiss the idea of 4 external drives having crashed all at the same time just as much as i don't think that the iMac's usb/firewire controller has got any issues. re-formatting any of the 4 drives is out of the question and even if i'd consider such desperate measures, the Disk Utility wouldn't let me re-format anything anyhow, because the drives aren't listed there. i wish i could just use my Time Machine to resolve the issue but, as i mentioned earlier, i can't access the Time Machine because it also won't show up.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I have a Seagate 1 TB Backup Plus Drive which was working perfectly fine until I plugged it into a USB hub. It detected it while in the hub and I was able to get files off of it, but when I ejected it from the hub and put it back into the USB slot on the computer it was not detected by finder. It shows up in the disk utility and I clicked verify and repair and it says:
Verify and Repair volume “Seagate Backup Plus Drive”
Checking file system
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
Is there any way to get this to work properly again? Or if not is there a way for me to recover my files on the external hard drive?
I have a Macbook PRO late 2011 running OS X Mavericks.
I have an external 500GB Freecom USB HDD with two Data partitions on it (FAT32 and NTFS). With a Windows tool, I made the two partitions smaller in order to free up some space (ca. 200GB) for an additional Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. This partition I wanted to create with the Mac OSX 10.6.4 Disk Utility. When I pluged in my USB HDD in my new iMac it mounted the two partitions, NTFS and EXT32 and the Disk Utility tool also showed the free (unpartitioned, almost 200GB) space on the HDD. Then, I chose to create a new Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition and let the tool do it. ...which I probably shouldn't have done. Disk utility stopped and showed an error message saying that it cannot read the partitions anymore and that it needs to be closed. No partitions can be mounted anymore since then on this HDD. Here is the logfile entry of Disk Utility (unfortunately, it's in German):............
View 2 Replies View RelatedI 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?
View 4 Replies View RelatedI've been running a Toshiba 1TB external drive on my Mac Pro tower and it's been working fine. But yesterday it wouldn't mount. I could see the drive in Disc Utility, but the partition wouldn't mount. I brought it into work where I'm running an iMac and it mounted just fine. Why would it stop working on one computer (where it was previously fine) yet work okay on another? And how do I get it working on the tower?
Info:
Mac Pro, iOS 7.1.2
I have an external 750GB hard drive that I previously formatted as FAT 32 because I wanted to be able to plug it into Windows computers as well. I was not very thoughtful at the beginning and I just created one big 750GB partition. I currently have 450GB used and about 300GB free.
I would like to create a new partition in the free space without losing the data I have in the disk, and format the new partition as Mac OS Extended to use it for Time Machine backups. Presumably Disk Utility can do it, but when I go to the "Partition" tab it says "This partition cannot be modified" and the "+" sign below it is grayed.
The hard drive is a 1TB Western Digital my book I bought it in January I think. I tried to format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) when I got it but for some reason every time I try to erase the part thats named disk3s2 or partition the main one it stops a little before half way through. I don't think its the hard drives fault so I called apple about it one day and they helped a little but it didn't work. Thanks in advance if you can help me. Also a few times I waited about seven hours for it while I was at school and when I came home it didn't move.
View 8 Replies View RelatedI've recently converted to the Mac-side:
I'm having difficulty with my external hard-drive, here's the info on that one:
Disk Utility won't allow me to mount the drive, I've tried using a number of softwares to read it (working under the assumption that it's an NTFS drive), including Tuxera and Paragon. I have too much stored on the hard drive to empty it back onto my old computer, and so I'm not able order to re-format it.
Info:
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
I have a 1/3 full external drive that is currently formatted for MAC OS External.
I want to partition the drive in half and use the 2nd partition for Windows FAT32.
However, when I try to do this with Disk Utility it does not give me the FAT32 option.
Will running the 'repair disk' disk utility on an external drive screw up any of the files on my external hard drive? I only want to run it because I can't transfer a file from my HD to the external...it's a 6 gig video file in quicktime format, and I'm getting 'error 1309', which I understand is related to file size on FAT32 format. I know it's a huge file, but I've moved others to the external that are over 20 gigs with no problems (iMovie projects, etc). Anything I can do to get this file moved to the external?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI had downloaded some files to add to an external hard drive, the hard drive was assigned to a pc before adding these files so it wouldn't let me add files from my MacBook..
Had a look around online and made some changes (well thats what I thought) and I was able to transfer files form my MacBook onto the external hard drive.
What I then figured out was that there was nothing left on the hard drive except for the two file sI just transferred..
It turns out I deleted everyting without noticing.
The stpes I followed was to go to disk utility then select the hard drive and click erase (not knowing this would erase evrything).
So now I have two files on my hard drive and no idea how to recover the 'delted' files.
I tried using Disk Drill, which found the files but then it said I need to buy the full version to recover them.
I am wondering if there is any free methods to recover these files at all
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011)
I'm looking at the specs page for the MacBook Pro and it reads this...
Your MacBook Pro comes standard with a 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive. Choose a hard drive with a faster speed for greater performance. Or you can choose a solid-state drive that offers enhanced durability.
Basically suggesting that the HDD option has a performance advantage over the SSD, but is this the case? I always thought SSDs could read & write quicker because they use solid-state flash memory as opposed to hard disks.
I want to go with the 256GB SSD but I want to know how it ranks in speed.
Setup: MB Pro. early 2009 2.93 Ghz, 8GB RAM, 2 hard drives via optibay
Request: Utility to better sleep the hard drives/fans when not being used
Problem: With the two hard drive setup, battery life is reduced. I knew this going in. So, I would like to purchase a utility that allows for better management of the MB Pro hardware so that, say when I am only reading something on screen with no needed hard drive activity, the hard drive goes to sleep faster than the current energy management application requires. This would help increase battery life some (not back to pre two drive setup, but better than now). I want to good utility and cost is no object because the cheap, even free utilities I have used in the past on other things like cleaning your mac tend to make the computer act funny (just trust me on this one).
I ran installer then went to disk utility and pushed disk repair. it ran and indicated in green that no repairs were necessary. i then went to startup disk and only the Diks and network startup showed up but no hard drive. i also open computer to make sure was not wet muddy due to leak in cooling system but all was dry
View 1 Replies View RelatedI am trying to repair my mac. But in disk utility, the hard disk is not visible to proceed. Its showing disk0 -> volume with only 1.79GB. and all the options are disabled. The capacity of my mac book pro was 500GB.
Info:
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Anyone knows why my external HD (USB disk connected to Airport extreme) does not show up in disk utility? (It sits on my desktop just fine and is fully functional) I' want to erase a partition but now i don't know how.
View 4 Replies View Relatedi have asus m2n68-am motherboard and amd athlon 5000+ processor, 80 gb sata. when i am trying to install mac os x in disk utility it does not show my hard disk, can you plese tell me what can i do.
View 1 Replies View RelatedI've been having trouble with my Western Digital 160GB HD, its one of the MyPassport ones or what not. It used to work like a charm and had for a while but a couple of days ago it just stopped being able to be read or even recognized on Macs. I tried this laptop and another macbook pro and both would not show the HD on the desktop or even Disk Utility. When I open the Disk Utility when the ExHD is plugged in, I just get that loading circle and it will just do that indefinitely. Same thing with System Profiler as well.
I don't believe I damaged it in anyway, I hear no clicking and it seems to "boot" smoothly when it's plugged in, so would this mean its a corruption issue? I have been plugging this in to different Macs recently, (3 total) and one of which runs Leopard while the other two run Tiger. Would that cause the issue? (the reason I ask is that this all started after I had plugged it into the different OS.) I haven't tried to plug it into a PC yet, i'm going to do that today but I had tried doing the CMD + Option+ P + R reset till the second beep and I also did a hard reset by unplugging everything and waiting a bit then holding the start button down until it beeps.
I have had a problem for about a month whereby my MBP won't shut down, it just hangs after it has cleared the desktop and only the wallpaper is displayed. Now disk utility won't see the disk at all, and Software Update also does not find any updates. It checks for new software for ever. My mac starts up fine, and I can use it as normal.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI ordered a second hard drive for my powermac g5.Its a 400 gig seagate drive.I power off my machine,unhooked everything and plugged in the drive.
I boot up and the drive isnt showing in disk utility.Is it something i did?
I've got an 8GB Sony Micro Vault Pen Drive that's stopped working. When I opened up Disk Utility it appears but doesn't give me the option to erase.
Can I try doing it with anything else before I bin it and buy a new one.
I am going away traveling and need to back up all my stuff off of my mac for the first time.. (pics, music etc the usual). I brought a WD Elements 500GB External Hard Drive and when I plug it into my mac book (OSx) it appears in finder, and the desktop but I can't drag and drop nothing into it. Apparently I have to format it! So have researched about formatting it, but I don't have "Disk Utility" in my utilities? My Mac was given to me from a friend second hand so i don't have the disks etc to get it. Any other way of formatting my Hard drive or a link to download disk utilities or any alternatives!
View 5 Replies View Relatedthe past couple of days my new macbook Pro (only had it a couple of months) has been really slow to boot, with a grey progress bar that I have never seen before. I googled it, and you all know what i found.
So I ran the disk utility, and selected analyze or whatever the button is, and it said I should load it from the INstall DVD, as the disk needs repairing.
Guess what. The disk cannot be repaired.
An error message about expecting 31 files but only finding 30?
It recommends erasing the disk and reinstalling from scratch.
Now, as far as I can see, apart form the slow boot times, everything else still works. Does this mean that it is just a ticking time-bomb that will break any time, or is just a couple of corrupt files that don't matter?
This is really annoying, I love my Mac, but having to reinstall so soon after purchase?
Apologies if there any other posts on here already, it is late, I am stressed, and would like a nice person to help me out.
I'm trying to format my external harddrive with disk utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but it keeps coming up with this error.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI am desperately trying to burn a ISO file to a USB and external HD but Disk Utility does not want to. Instead I get the error message "Could not validate source - error 254". So there must be a problem with the source which is the ISO file.
I already tried setting the Partition Map Scheme to both Master Boot Record and GUID Partition Table. I also formatted the drive to FAT and HFS+. I cannot find the cause of this error. It clearly looks like Disk Utility does not like burning ISOs to USBs or HDs.
However, I really really need to this since I cannot burn ISOs with my SuperDrive which is also a common problem [URL]with my MacBook Pro.
I installed SL two days ago and my LaCie firewire external has been working fine. i put it to sleep last night, and when I woke it up today, I got the warning telling me that I had disconnected it improperly (Which I hadn't, because the computer was asleep and the drive never was turned off). This has happened before and I usually am able to shut it off then turn it on again. But this time it won't mount. It shoes up in Disk Utility and System Profiler, but not in the Finder.I have tried switching firewire ports and restarting but to no avail.
View 3 Replies View Relatedi just erased my external hard drive through disk utility my accident. I had VERY important files and the 1tb was full.
View 3 Replies View RelatedLast night I noticed that the time machine icon on the menu bar had a stop sign or something and when i clicked back up now it says it can not back up. I verified the volume and recommends a repair but it says it can not repair.
View 2 Replies View Related