Can't erase "untitled" hard drive

R

rsbforever

Registered
I've hit a wall with this problem and need help...I have been using Mac for a little over a month now so I apologize for my lack of Mac knowledge in advance...

My Macbook (1.83GHz) has the regular Macintosh HD hard drive and another "untitled" hard drive (5gb) that it came with (I bought a returned model). The untitled drive is formatted as a Windows NT Filesystem. Even with my administrator account, I cannot use "disk utility to erase the disk. I even enabled root user and that didn't help either. All the options are grey when you click the erase tab in the disk utility. You cannot edit, move or erase files in the drive and I'm totally stuck. I'm assuming that this drive was being used to run boot camp but I have no intention of doing the same and want to free up the space.... HELP!!!
 
Is it a separate drive or a partition on your Mac Drive?

Can you see it on the command line? try these commands in terminal window:

cd / [hit return_key]
ls Volumes/ [hit return_key]

then tell me what you see and also try this to see what is says:

diskutil list [hit-return_key]
 
I believe that it is a partition since both this "untitled" drive and the Macintosh HD both appear under one main drive in the disk utility left pane.

I typed what you said into terminal and it told me
"-bash: Is: command not found"
 
#: type name size identifier
0: GUID_partition_scheme *55.9 GB disk0
1: EFI 200.0 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 50.0 GB disk0s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Untitled 5.6 GB disk0s3

I missed the last part of your post, here's what it said when i typed in "diskutil list"
 
That is a lower case L not an I in the command 'ls'. Ok before doing any thing else on the command line, in Disk Utilities check to see if the partition is mounted or if you can mount it.
 
My fault. sorry.... When I typed in "ls volumes" it said

"Macintosh HD Untitled"

The partition is mounted and it allows me to dismount it and mount it.
 
It is mounted and you still can't erase it? Ok if so try the below commands.


first try this but replace 'thevolumenoterasing' with proper volume name(no quotes):

diskutil Volumes/'thevolumenoterasing' eraseVolume [press return_key]

or try this, replacing 'drive_name' with the name you want(no quotes):

sudo newfs_hfs -v 'drive_name' /dev/disk0s3 [press return_key]

The 'sudo' in front will cause terminal to ask for your 'root' pasword that you said you created. BE CAREFUL to make sure you type in the right drive as you found when you did diskutil list i.e. (disk0s3) because if you select the wrong drive you will erase it.
 
All it said when I typed in what you put was

newfs_hfs: /dev/disk0s3 is mounted on /Volumes/Untitled


and it's still there...
 
sorry for the double post again but i meant to add that I didn't understand what you meant for me to put in the first command. What should I put in place of 'thevolumenoterasing' ? Sorry, my mac skills suck...
 
The actual name of the volume that is not erasing, such as untitiled.

Volumes/untitiled
 
Okay, when I put in that command, it give me a whole list of things I can do including erasevolume and erasedisk. Not sure what to do... You've been a great help so far by the way.
 
Please print out the command that you entered; and result such as what I did on my system below as root(su and press enter);

diskutil verifyDisk /Volumes/Drive_I [press return_key]

...and below is the result that terminal printed out

Started verify/repair on disk disk0s11 Drive_I
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Drive_I appears to be OK.
Verify/repair finished on disk disk0s11 Drive_I
 
WOW. I figured it out. Download boot camp assistant and open it in the utilities folder. choose the option that says remove partitions and create ONE mac osx drive. it will kill the untitled drive and restart and that's it!!!
 
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