Q: Disk Utility missing the Erase tab
Tonight, I was attempting to reformat my Mac Mini FileVault encrypted hard drive. I have Mountain Lion 10.8 installed on it, and I have a bootable Mountain Lion USB stick.
I booted from the USB device, and first tried to format. Everything was greyed out. I had to "Unlock" the encrypted drive and then it was available.
I then tried to do an Erase, and it failed with an error I didn't catch, and then only "Macintosh HD" shows up (no volume below it in Disk Utility) and the Erase tab is unavailable. The Partition tab is also locked and nothing can be chosen.
I can Verify and Repair with no problems, but I am unable to repartition or erase the drive.
Any thoughts?
Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion
Posted on Aug 22, 2012 6:17 PM
The boot screen shows Macintosh HD and the USB device. The installer only shows the USB device, greyed out.
Disk Utility shows "Macintosh HD", but not the volume under it. (See screenshots.)
I went to a Terminal and did a "diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ /dev/diskX", then it started showing up again in Disk Utility.
This may have me running again. I will post closing comments when Disk Utility is done 0-byte formatting the entire drive.
Posted on Aug 22, 2012 6:57 PM