Tag: diskutil
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If a /dev/diskX can’t be force unmounted…
As a sequel to Fix for disk erase failed couldn’t unmount disk, if you really cannot even force unmount a disk, chances are it’s being used by some process. I found this tip helpful to locate the process (and then kill it). You may want to give it a try if you can’t force unmount…
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How to create a bootable Ubuntu USB stick on/for Macs
For some reason (at least as of this writing), the official Ubuntu documentation on creating a bootable USB of Ubuntu for Macs is now recommending using UNetbootin. I haven’t found that to actually work. I dug up a cached copy of the old instructions (which do work), but I wanted to document the old procedure…
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Renaming a Mac hard drive from the command line
You know, if your hard drives are set to show as icons on the desktop, you can rename them by selecting them, hitting Enter, and then typing in a new name? If you want to script naming, you can also name from the command line. For example, if you want to rename the drive you’re…
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Restoring a Mac partition to its full size
Usually, when you add a new partition to a Mac using Disk Utility, you can then just (minus sign) delete the new partition and Disk Utility will automatically expand your first partition to take up the free space. Occasionally, Macs will act weird and not fill up the free space and, more importantly, not let…
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Mounting an external drive when users are logged out in Mac OS X
Problem? In older versions of Mac OS X, you could create a special .plist file that auto-mounts disks even when a user isn’t logged in. You can see that (no longer working) procedure here. I don’t know exactly when support for that ended, but some people have suggested around Mountain Lion. (If you try it…
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Fix for disk erase failed couldn’t unmount disk
If you’re trying on a Mac using Disk Utility to erase a hard drive and it won’t unmount, giving you an error similar to Disk erase failed. Couldn’t unmount disk, then you may have to force an unmount through the terminal. Launch up Terminal.app (through /Applications/Utilities or through a Spotlight search). Then paste in the…