I have a macbook (running MacOS Catalina) connected to a HP 3005pr 3.0 Port Replicator. This port replicator has a internal USB disk, I want to format this disk but am not able because it is Read-Only (see the diskutil below): /dev/disk2 (external, physical):    #:  TYPE NAME                SIZE.       IDENTIFIER 0:  FDisk_partition_scheme   *126.4 MB   disk2 1:  Windows_FAT_16 HP Dock    126.3 MB   disk2s1  When I type in 'diskutil info /dev/disk2s1' I get this info: Device Identifier:         disk2s1    Device Node:               /dev/disk2s1    Whole:                     No    Part of Whole:             disk2     Volume Name:               HP Dock    Mounted:                   No     Partition Type:            Windows_FAT_16    File System Personality:   MS-DOS FAT16    Type (Bundle):             msdos    Name (User Visible):       MS-DOS (FAT16)     OS Can Be Installed:       No    Media Type:                Generic    Protocol:                  USB    SMART Status:              Not Supported    Volume UUID:               6BD6C793-C86B-34D2-9BBC-1ACBD79E8FA0    Partition Offset:          32256 Bytes (63 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)     Disk Size:                 126.3 MB (126321152 Bytes) (exactly 246721 512-Byte-Units)    Device Block Size:         512 Bytes     Volume Total Space:        0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)    Volume Free Space:         0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)     Read-Only Media:           Yes    Read-Only Volume:          Not applicable (not mounted)     Device Location:           External    Removable Media:           Removable    Media Removal:             Software-Activated     Solid State:               Info not available  When i try to format this disk whit the command 'diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 HP-USB /dev/disk2' Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Creating the partition map Error: -69877: Couldn't open device  Any ideas howto switch off the Read-Only setting and format this disk?
91867
Disk Utility (macOS Catalina 10.15.2) fails to erase my USB drive (64GB key, currently formatted in exFAT).  /dev/disk2 (external, physical):    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *64.1 GB    disk2    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1    2:       Microsoft Basic Data Lexar                   63.9 GB    disk2s2   I've tried a bunch of commands that I've found here and there in the terminal, but none of them worked, like:  ➜  ~ diskutil eraseVolume exFAT MyName /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Error: -69888: Couldn't unmount disk   ➜  ~ diskutil eraseVolume exFAT MyName /dev/disk2s2     Started erase on disk2s2 Lexar Unmounting disk Erasing Error: -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device   ➜  ~ diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MYSD MBRFormat /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Creating the partition map Error: -69877: Couldn't open device   ➜  ~ diskutil eraseDisk free EMPTY /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Creating the partition map Error: -69877: Couldn't open device   My USB drive appears as read only when i do CMD+I, I tried repairing the permissions but that failed too.  ➜  ~ diskutil resetUserPermissions /dev/disk2 `id -u` Ready to reset user permissions on disk2 Error encountered attempting to reset permissions for user 501 home directory on disk2: Permissions are not enabled on the disk (-69861)   Thx in advance for the help :)
19017
So, basically I always format my removable mass storage devices as NTFS by default, but someone told me I was better off using exFAT. Now I've been looking around google, but can't find any good reasons why I should.  Is there anything that exFAT does (better) which NTFS doesn't which is useful when using it for (>4GB) removable mass storage?
89881
I have two internal drives in my 27" iMac (10.8.5). An SSD system disk and a 1TB SATA drive.  The HDD has been acting up recently, very slow performance, bad behavior etc. Tech Tool Pro and Disk Utility don't seem to be able to fix the drive, so I decided to wipe the data by a reformat and writing zeros to the entire drive.  Everytime I try and format, it tells me that the drive cannot be unmounted. I have rebooted a few times, and spent days running everything from TechTool Pro on it and it won't go.  $ diskutil list disk2 /dev/disk2    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk2    1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk2s1    2:                  Apple_HFS Everest                 4.0 TB     disk2s2  $ diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk2s2 Started file system repair on disk2s2 Everest Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required Error: -69673: Unable to unmount volume for repair  $ diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Everest /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Error: -69888: Couldn't unmount disk   Any thoughts on how to get it to unmount and reformatted? Is there a way in Terminal to do this instead?
76462
I have a 2 TB HFS+-formatted external hard drive that got dropped a couple of days ago while transferring files onto a Macbook Pro.  Now the drive's partitions won't mount.  Disk Utility can see the drive, but doesn't recognize that it has any partitions.  I've tried using  to recover files off of it, but it couldn't find anything.  In addition, our local computer repair shop said they couldn't find anything on there either.  I know that I could ship the drive off to someone like , but I was hoping for a cheaper option (since they start at about $500 for the attempt).  Is there something else I could try on my own?  Would  be able to help with something like this?
40165
When I plug in a removable 1TB USB disk in my laptop, the operations led keeps blinking for a while and then you can hear the servo mechanism resetting with a short "tack".  I'd like to recover the data.    I believe there might be some way to get the data through low level IOs.    What I believe is that the mounting process assumes the disk is OK and I should prevent this before using ddrescue or something similar.  Does anybody have a solution to this problem?
103766
So, I have a friend who has a flash drive that was playing music on a dvd player. Everything was great then all of a sudden it just stopped. First, I tried to do some data recovery on it but the software i use couldn't find the USB. The usb was sending us the usual error not formatted messages.  I then did a quick format of it and now it only shows 4 megabytes of space. I tried using Disk manager, then DISKPART, but nothing i have tried works.  Disk Managment looks like this:    As you can see it doesn't even show the unallocated space. It doesn't look like it is anything but a 4 mega byte flash drive.  Is it still possible to, at the very least, resurrect the USB?
60742
I'm running a Windows, Mac, Linux tripleboot off of a single SSD, and am now, unsurprisingly, in need of additional storage space in the form of an external hard drive. I want to format my hard drive so that files that can be read and written from all three operating systems.  According to this  from 2009, NTFS can be used on Windows, Mac, and Linux, after installing some drivers.  However, it looks like the , and , so NTFS is no longer a viable solution for Mac OSX.  So the question is, what is the best file system to use today for an external hard drive connected to Windows, Mac, and Linux?  I'm thinking exFAT, since Windows and Mac support it natively, and (Ubuntu) Linux supports it after running sudo apt-get install fuse-exfat.  Are there any limitations I need to consider?
19270
Got a problem with my laptop manufacturer's partition. It's FAT32-formatted and fails under same curcumstances as for topic starter at . It seems like vfat got a problem working with x-gvfs-show parameter. Also, I seek for more "painless" solution then "format-and-refill", because this one is created by the manufacturer and (as far as I know) got specific structure adapted for BIOS.
79045
I'm looking for a solution to write-protect the contents of a USB key. The idea is to prevent its contents from being inadvertently removed by the user or changed by malicious programs -- not to restrict the re-cycling of the key for something else.  Here is a summary of my findings so far:   Some keys have a switch which makes them read-only. Unfortunately this is not always the case.  With a FAT32 filesystem the only solution seems to be setting the files "read-only". But this protection is too weak. There is a slightly stronger write-protection available for NTFS, which can be achieved by removing write privileges from "All Users" it will make the files read-only to every account, except "Administrator". Formatting the disk as UDF makes it read-only under Windows&nbsp;XP SP3, but read-write in Windows&nbsp;Vista, Windows&nbsp;7, Linux and Mac&nbsp;OS&nbsp;X. Formatting as ISO9660/CDFS makes it read-only under Linux and Mac&nbsp;OS&nbsp;X, but unfortunately the contents are not readable anymore from Windows. With microcontroller-specific software is possible (if supported by the chip) to re-partition the key so it displays for example a write-protected and a read-write partition. The problem is that it is very confusing for the users: the write-protected partition can appear as a CD-ROM drive (which it is not), after insertion some drivers are apparently installed on the computer (in fact they are not really drivers), and it can lead to prompting for reboot. Besides, this solution cannot be applied universally because it requires knowing which chip is used in the drive, and the existence of publicly available tools to re-program the device.  John Reasor mentions utilities able to fill all free space on the device, making it impossible to create new files (see below).   Does there exist a general solution to store non-modifiable contents on a USB key?   It protects the contents from modifications typically done from the shell (e.g. delete, rename, move) or from the files and folders being modified by a standard applications (e.g. save-as) It should work with most of the devices The user can still re-format the device into a regular key to re-cycle it for another usage (for example, with )
96060
I have a Clonezilla installation on a USB stick and I'd like to make some modifications to the operating system. Specifically, I'd like to insert a runnable script into /usr/sbin to make it easy to run my own backup command to make backups less painful.   The main filesystem lives under /live/filesystem.squashfs on the USB FAT-32 partition.   How can I mount this read/write on my Linux machine in order to be able to add/remove/change files? I'm running an Ubuntu 12.04 derivative.
99954
I already tried FORMAT /FS:FAT, , Disk Management and .   Do I really need to buy a smaller capacity drive? Can't a formatting tool ignore the area beyond 2&nbsp;GB?  My Asus netbook's BIOS update requires the USB to be formatted as , and I couldn't get the various Asus BIOS update utilities to work.
41324
The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single   partition.      The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended   (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for   installing Windows.   I had installed Windows 10 via bootcamp in my mac. Current version is 10.14.1  Now I don't want windows and need that space back but getting above error when I go bootcamp to remove it.  This is the output of diskutil list  /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1    2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         181.3 GB   disk0s2    3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                60.3 GB    disk0s3    4:           Windows Recovery                         509.6 MB   disk0s4  /dev/disk1 (synthesized):    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +181.3 GB   disk1                                  Physical Store disk0s2    1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            116.4 GB   disk1s1    2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 44.6 MB    disk1s2    3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.8 MB   disk1s3    4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4   And this is of diskutil cs list  No CoreStorage logical volume groups found   Can anybody please help me to solve this problem?  Output after I tried commands given in the first answer  ❯ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1    2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2  /dev/disk1 (synthesized):    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1                                  Physical Store disk0s2    1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            116.4 GB   disk1s1    2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 44.6 MB    disk1s2    3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.8 MB   disk1s3    4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4
103689
I have a Windows HDD attached to an external docking bay on my Ubuntu System, but the HDD brings up an error message:     Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 14: Windows is hibernated, refused to mount.   Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not permitted   The NTFS partition is hibernated. Please resume and shutdown Windows   properly, or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option, or   mount the volume read-write with the 'remove_hiberfile' mount option.   For example type on the command line:           mount -t ntfs-3g -o remove_hiberfile /dev/sda5 /media/92441EC8441EAF4B      I am at a loss for exactly how to remove the hiberfile, or even mount it as read-only or read-write. I tried directly copy and pasting that exact command into my terminal, but it said:  mount:only root can do that   I do not know what to do at this point. I do need to get the information off of this drive, but I do not have a computer to put it in. Does anyone know what I should do from here?
86850
My iMac (mid-2010 model, Snow Leopard) has a problem with S.M.A.R.T status: Failing and it has become read-only. Because I didn't want to waste money on the repair, I bought an external HD, so the internal HD is now unnecessary. How can I disable mounting the internal Macintosh HD at boot?
35781
So I have a 2010 15" macbook pro (MBP6,1) and I replaced the optical drive with a hard disk. I wanted to install windows 7 on the hard disk with boot camp with a USB and ISO image.  After searching I found that I need to modify my plist.info to allow my boot camp to create a bootable USB (since normally it doesn't have the option to create the USB for my model since it came with a disk drive).   After doing so and seemingly having a fine (but long) install process onto the USB. I told boot camp how much space to partition windows on and hit install.  Then the computer restarted. When it came back up it was stuck on a grey apple logo screen forever (I waited 15 minutes to ensure it wasn't just "thinking"). I force restarted and the next time it turned on it got stuck on the grey logo for a bit but then proceeded to go to a black screen that said " No bootable device - please insert a bootable device and hit any key". I tried hitting keys with he USB in but nothing happened.  I had to eventually remove the USB and reset PRAM to get it to boot into osx again  Is there any way to install windows 7 from a usb on my macbook pro using boot camp?
38497
On my RT-N56U router I'm trying to create a ext3 partition on an attached usb drive to store my media center data. The problem is I am unable to create to a mount point after creating the partition. When I run this command: mkdir /media/AiDisk_a1, it says it can't do it because file system is read only. This is probably because it's the in memory router OS. How can I mount my ext3 partition to /media/AiDisk_a1?  Also, is there a way in Linux to create a mount point without having write access to the main OS volume?
88271
Aiming to have a large internal HDD to store files, and several OSes on separate disks. They all need to read and write to one storage drive.  Ubuntu (13.04+) Mac OSX (10.8+) Windows (7+)   What format should the drive be? Would like to avoid buying third party software, here's what I have discerned so far:   NTFS - Can't be written to by Mac without buying third party software?      ext3 - Windows can't read, . Mac has  HFS+ -  exFAT - , but