How to force a Hard Drive to unmount for formatting in Mac OS X Disk Utility
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
- Have you ever tried to format a disk in Mac OS X and Disk Utility won't Unmount the Hard Drive for formatting? It can happen for external (USB and Firewire) as well as internal disks.
In this video you will learn how to force a disk to unmount when Disk Utility won't do it.
You will need a Mac running OS X and this is supported in all versions right up to Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra. Here, we are demonstrating wit Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
The commands you will need are:
diskutil list
diskutil unmountDisk force /Volumes/VOLUMENAME
diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/diskN
If you have any questions or suggestions for new tutorial videos you would like us to post, please put them in the comments below. 
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Wow, you just saved me a whole day of computer struggles. Thank you so much and keep up the good work.
Man I've been looking for videos that talk about this all day!! Thank you for help it worked %100!! 💪🏽👌🏽✅
Tall Guy Car Reviews hey I know you I'm your fellow subscriber lol
Didn't know you came here for help.
a trick : watch series on flixzone. Been using them for watching all kinds of movies lately.
@Gideon Dariel Definitely, I have been watching on flixzone for years myself =)
YAY! Thank you. The first method didn't unmount the disk, but the second worked! MANY thanks. This was making me crazy!
Thanks for solving my problem! It's great to watch a RUclips tutorial where the presenter is able to deliver content with our trying to be a comedian! Thank you again!
God bless you kind man... this was the solution I was looking for after 12 hours of continuous frustration and agony.
I had to watch soooo many videos to get this figured out! Thank you for finally having the solution!
I did have to go through both steps (AND a reboot) in order for it to work, but it worked a charm. Thanks a lot for the concise instructions.
Aha! I just erased my empty disk and now the formatting works, whew! Many thanks for your excellent instructions; they gave me hope.
Wow, thank you so much. You're a hero! I've had two partitions. One for Data, one for Time Machine. The Time Machine somehow corrupted and I couldn't even format and redo it. Now it works thanks to you!!
This was fantastic. First, it got me over my trepidation in using Terminal. And second, it solved the un-mounting issue of my USB drive. Worked perfectly and I was then able to erase it. Now I want to explore other things Terminal can let me do! Thanks so much for this!
Great video. Nothing worked for us trying to format a new seagate Hargrove for MAC - and finally you're ray last tip to type in unmount disc 2 actually worked! Thanks so much for this video. Huge help, big cheers from Oz
there was no way i thought this would work knowing myself, but it DID. THANK YOU!
thank you! I've never used an external hard drive before and this helped so much! i was lost! the /dev/disk2 worked for me. i can finally clear up my mac :)
How you unlock hard disk trying installing OS X and it’s showing disk is locked
Clear tutorial. Thanks man. wish all RUclips tutorials were like this
For me it still shows “Unmount failed for..”...
This really helped me after a failed installation to High Sierra. Thank you so much!
This was very helpful! Concise and to the point, great work.
The first method was getting me the "failed for force" error but the second method worked just fine! Thanks a million! You saved me from having to go to Best Buy to return my USB! :)
This was very helpful and it worked for me. I had to type in the disk info using the second method and it was successful. Thanks for sharing.
Dude just watched this in July of 2020 you explained this Masterfully! I fixed my External Hard Drive and did a 4 Partition on it with ease. You Rock! ☆☆☆☆☆
Thank you! SO helpful. Might want to remember to update for more recent OSXs. Thanks again!
Simple and straight to the point. Perfect. Thanks.
THANK YOU!!! I just bought a transcend external drive and was having problems with the hdd unmounting issue and your video help out a lot Thank you !!!!
Dude, you're awesome! You made it so easy to follow along... That fixed my issue.... Thanks again for sharing.
7 years later and you saved my SSD - Thank you!
It worked using the second method (diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/diskN). Thanks a lot!
Great help video - I'd been struggling to sort this out! Really appreciate the step by step explanation!
I'm glad it was helpful for you!
Thank you very much! very well presented and at a good pace for us non comp peeps to understand :D
Finally a video and instruction that worked! Awesome
Thank you!!!! So concise, clear and very helpful!!!
simple and straight forward. Not like 30mins video of others.
Great video thank you!! took me 30 mins to find this video and go through the process but it worked!
This worked in High Sierra in ExFat to restore my USB drive back to its full space from a 50% i had. Now i have my full disk space. Thanks
thanks, diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/diskN
that worked for me
Tried the first method, it came back with the error msg "unmount failed for force".
Tried the second method, worked like a charm!
Thanks, great vid!
Thank you! Was super easy to follow for a non-tech guy like myself!
You saved my external drive! Thank you very much!
This works perfectly, I managed to reformat a faulty usb drive in less than 10 minutes. Before, the usb used to drive me mad because I couldn't find any way to do the reformat. Terminal is definitely the best way to do it.
Excellent, It finally unmounted this bloody drive. Thanks for the video =)
Thank you very much worked out great for me, was struggling a lot with this weird problem
Brilliantly clear. Thank you. Solved my problem 😊👍🏻❗️
THANK YOU!!! I was just about to throw my computer and hard drive out the window until i found this 😆. Thanks so much. This worked perfectly
Im at that point man every thing i do just leads to another problem im trying to format my computer and I'm stuck here
THANK YOU! Worked 100% on my external Seagate backup drive after my Dad's PC laptop destroyed its partition map. I had to erase it, but at least I can use it again. Saved me £100. Amazing.!
Thanks for this - using the name of the volume didn’t work for me but the other option /dev/disk2 did work, so thank you
Thanks a ton for your timely help, which even Apple site was unable to provide
YOU ROCK!....I'm new to Mac, and I've tried about 7 different ways over the last few weeks to get this damn thing unmounted...all of which were VERY confusing to me...THANK YOU...It's actually quite simple...lol...The first way did not work for me (forcing the partition to unmount)...I had to force the main part....(yes that's a technical term...lol)...Thanks again...I was ready to scrap it!...
Peace~
Brilliant!!!! Finally managed to get my broken External drive formatted using your guide! Mine wouldn´t respond, because items in trash (that also couldn´t get force removed) - Many thanks!
Thank you so much this helped doing the 2nd half dev/disk2
Worked like a charm! Many thanks!
Thanks! This was easy and very helpful!!
Thank you!!! This was super helpful.
Thanks!! you are the best! I tried everything!!!
I rarely comment but this is amazing. Thanks man.
Super useful, solved my problem perfectly!!!!
Man this video was a life saver, thanks!!
Thank U very mch! this worked very well :D After force mount everything was fine ^^
Really usefully ( the last part when use /dev/disk ..... ) that was my case! Thanks !
Thank you so much! It worked when you gave the second option.
Glad it helped!
Thanks for your tutorial. Recommend
great video, simple to follow thank you
Great video. Fix my problem with unmounting so I could get my external hardrive to show up as a device on Recordbox!
Thank you so much! This helped a ton!
Thank you! I did it, and I have very little experience! I had to try a few things, but it worked out.
This was so helpful! Thank you.
Amazing! Did the trick. Thanks👍🏼
Thanks for the video it made a long day in to a quick fix
What a legend the 2nd option worked for me 😍
Huge help! Thanks a bunch!
This was a great help!
Thank you so much my friend, you are a life saver.
Great!
it worked for me !! THANK YOU!!
this is awesome! Thank you!!!
Very helpful. Thank you for sharing.
worked perfectly on my samsung SSD cheers!
Thanks man! You really saved my day!
Awesome, thank you sooooo much! Great video.
Many, many thanks for this!
Worked perfectly thank you!
Awesome.
Very Helpful
Thank you so much, I had exactly that problem 👍🏻
YOU SAVED MY LIFE !!!! THANK YOU
Very helpful. Thank you.
Just tried and it worked!
Thank you so much!! Your video saved me
Thank you so much that was helpful.
thanks a lot! excellent explanation and it was really helpful.
Great thanks. This helped a lot.
Thank you. Very useful.
Thanks very much for this! Absolutely worked. Had to do on for a clean OS instal on a 'new' second hand computer that was in a bit of mess and the disk utility program didnt work.
Thank you that really helped me out
You are the saviour! thanks a lot man
You the man Bro thanks alot I was about to break this darn thing lol
IT WORKED!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!
Neither of these methods worked for me but this did:
Have Disk Utility open.
Click eject in finder.
Dialogue window pops up with "Disk in use, would you like to force eject?" Click Force Eject.
In Disk Utility, the drive should still be there but grayed out.
From there you can erase with no problems.
Worked for me, good luck ppl
Thanks for adding a good solution!
THANK YOU !!!! this works !!!! Thank you !!
Great! Was working.
Titanic help! Thanks SO much!
Thank you so much my friend .its work
Thanks! you saved my day!
Thank you. It worked for me