If your Mac cannot be recovered in any other way, use Recovery Mode to diagnose disk problems, get help online or install the version of macOS that previously ran on this Mac. Use Recovery Mode to: Scan, verify and repair connected drives with Disk Utility. Restore broken on Intel Mac OS X 10.4.7 Un-farking-believable! This is amazing news - you can't restore from the OS X boot disk if you own an Intel Mac. (my system is Tiger 10.4.11) copy the updated Disk Utility.app to an external (FireWire for me) storage from a native. Then, it proposes to build a bootable install disk and make it look as nice as possible. It’s the easiest way to build an OS X/macOS Installer in a few clicks! Then you can use the Install drive to fully re-install the OS on a freshly formated drive, or install it on your many Macs without re-downloading the full installer. Jul 02, 2020 Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities window and click Continue. If you're not erasing the volume your Mac started up from, you don't need to start up from macOS Recovery: just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. In the sidebar of Disk Utility, select the volume that you want to erase.
Disk Utility User Guide
Disk Utility can fix certain disk problems — for example, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, an external device doesn’t work properly, or your computer won’t start up. Disk Utility can’t detect or repair all problems that a disk may have.
If you run First Aid on a disk, Disk Utility checks the partition maps on the disk and performs some additional checks, and then checks each volume. If you run First Aid on a volume, Disk Utility verifies all the contents of that volume only.
- In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices.Note: If you’re checking your startup disk or startup volume, restart your computer in macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility in the macOS Utilities window, then click Continue. If you check your startup volume (Macintosh HD), make sure you also check your data volume (Macintosh HD - Data).
- In the sidebar, select a disk or volume, then click the First Aid button .If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back up your data and replace the disk — you can’t repair it. Otherwise, continue to the next step.
- Click Run, then click Continue.If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you’ve finished. You can click Show Details to see more information about the repairs. Otherwise, you may need to do one of the following.
- If Disk Utility reports “overlapped extent allocation” errors, two or more files occupy the same space on your disk, and at least one of them is likely to be corrupted. You need to check each file in the list of affected files. Most of the files in the list have aliases in a DamagedFiles folder at the top level of your disk.
- If you can replace a file or recreate it, delete it.
- If it contains information you need, open it and examine its data to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted.
- If Disk Utility can’t repair your disk, or you receive a report that the First Aid process failed, try to repair the disk or partition again. If that doesn’t work, back up as much of your data as possible, reformat the disk, reinstall macOS, then restore your backed-up data.
If your Mac has a Fusion Drive and you see a flashing question mark or alert, see the troubleshooting section of the Apple Support article About Fusion Drive, a storage option for some Mac computers.
If you continue to have problems with your disk or it can’t be repaired, it may be physically damaged and need to be replaced. For information about servicing your Mac, see Find out how to service or repair your Mac.
See alsoErase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on MacAdd, delete or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on MacPartition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac
Here are instructions on how to use Disk Utility to securely erase a hard drive connected internally or externally to your Mac. These instructions were written for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6. The process is very similar on older versions of Mac OS X, but the screens will look a bit different.
[UpdateNov2014: If your Mac has OS X 10.7 or newer installed then Apple didn’t give you an OS X install disc with your Mac. Instead, you can startup your Mac from its Recovery Partition and then use its copy of Disk Utility to securely erase your hard. Click one of the links below to follow the appropriate instructions for the type of hard drive that you have. If you’re not sure which type of hard drive you have, then you most likely have a mechanical, spinning, hard drive.
![Disk Disk](https://static.macupdate.com/screenshots/264116/m/onyx-screenshot.png?v=1598376884)
If your Mac has a mechanical, spinning hard drive and OS X 10.7 or newer then use these instructions.
If your Mac has a solid state drive (SSD), aka Flash Storage, and OS X 10.7 or newer then use these instructions.]
Requirements
You’ll need either the Mac OS X install disk that came with your Mac or another OS X install disk that’ll boot your Mac, such as a retail copy of the Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 install disk.
I recommend securely erasing a hard drive before you recycle it or give it away. The instructions below include the option to re-install Mac OS X onto the hard drive at the end of the process.
Disk Utility For Mac
If you’re securely erasing an external hard drive you do not need to use a Mac OS X install disk. Instead, you can simply open Disk Utility which you’ll find in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. In Disk Utility, select the external hard drive and then follow the last few steps of these instructions to erase it using one of the Security Options described below.
Download Disk Utility For Mac
![Disk Disk](https://bughira.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/after_installation.jpg)
Background
Technically, it’s not possible to erase or remove data from hard drives. Thus “securely erasing” is a misnomer. Instead, what we’ll be doing is over-writing the data on your hard drive with gibberish, a random string of bits of data. When you securely erase your hard drive you’ll have a choice of how much over-writing you want to do. This process can take many hours if you select the 7-pass overwrite procedure. I recommend starting this process and then letting it run overnight.
- Insert the Mac OS X install disc that came with your Mac.
- Note: The disc will begin the process of installing Mac OS X on your Mac. Whether or not you actually choose to install Mac OS X is your choice, but if you do, you’ll do it after you’ve securely erased your Mac’s hard drive.
- Select your preferred language from the list presented.
- When you see the welcome screen for the Mac OS X Installer, go to the menu named Utilities and select Disk Utility.
- In the left pane of the Disk Utility window, click on the hard drive you want to erase.
- In the right pane of the Disk Utility window, click the Erase tab.
- Click the Security Options button.
- I recommend that you select the 7-Pass Erase options, but you could choose the 35-Pass Erase option. Here’s my description of these options.
Don’t Erase Data— This option does not provide any security. This option only over-writes the directories on the hard drive. Your files could still be recovered.
Zero Out Data— Provides a pretty good level of security. All of your files are over-written with a string of zeroes. There are forensics utilities that in theory could retrieve some data.
7-Pass Erase— Provides a lot of security. This is considered sufficient by government standards to erase data from a disk. It writes a random string of ones and zeroes over your data files seven times. It may take several hours or more to complete this process.
35-Pass Erase— Provides the maximum amount of security offered. This option takes an extremely long time, possibly more than one day.
Zero Out Data— Provides a pretty good level of security. All of your files are over-written with a string of zeroes. There are forensics utilities that in theory could retrieve some data.
7-Pass Erase— Provides a lot of security. This is considered sufficient by government standards to erase data from a disk. It writes a random string of ones and zeroes over your data files seven times. It may take several hours or more to complete this process.
35-Pass Erase— Provides the maximum amount of security offered. This option takes an extremely long time, possibly more than one day.
Free Mac Disk Utility
- Click the radio button in front of 7-Pass Erase.
- Click OK.
- Click the Erase button next to the Security Options button.
- Confirm you want to erase and the process will be begin.
- If you want to install Mac OS X then go to the Disk Utility menu and select Quit after the erase is complete.
- You’ll be taken back to the Mac OS X Installer welcome window. Click Continue.
- Agree to the software license.
- In the “Select a Destination” window click on the icon for the hard drive which you just erased and then click Continue.
- Click the Install button to start the installation process. Depending upon the speed of your Mac and the version of Mac OS X which you are installing this process could commonly take anywhere from 20-60 minutes.
Best Disk Utility For Mac
Update Oct 2014: In OS X 10.9, Mavericks, the 35-pass erase is no longer an option. Mac keygen cs4. Also, there are no longer radio buttons to select how many passes to erase. There is a slider that goes from Fastest to Most Secure.