How to format HD using command line?

[EHUnlucky7x9@ao]

Disk Utility won't format the HD... it was an external HD that fell off a 4 ft table. It shows up on Disk Utility... i can't do anything with it though. It doesn't mount, can't partition, or erase. It shows up as an unformatted HD called disk1.

Anyone with any suggestion?

 

[Eidorian]

man diskutil

 

[ab2650]

it was an external HD that fell off a 4 ft table.

The operative word being "was."
Me thinks your problem is in hardware, not the software to format the drive.

 

[EHUnlucky7x9@ao]

There is some data in the HD that needs to be extracted though. I found a thread on Mac OSX Hints that there's a Unix command called dd that I can use to force the disk to read and ignore the error so it doesn't stop spinning. The HD still spins and it shows up on Disk Utility as "disk1" but I can't do anything with it.

I'm going to read up on dd and see if i can pull out the data and save it as a .dmg file. .... only problem is.... none of what i've read tells me exactly how to do it. They just give the line.... so should i enter it into terminal? Anyone know the steps to do this?

If not... my only solution is to leave it be. to make sure I don't mess up my Mac and/or externals connected to my MB.

 

[Mumford]

dd won't ignore errors. It will block (wait indefinitely) or fail just like any other application. That said, it's still something to try.

If you have a PC around, you might also want to check out SpinRite. It's very good at getting a bad disk to work long enough to get the data off... I've used it several times for that purpose. It won't work on Intel Macs because of BIOS differences, thus the need for a PC.

 

[angelwatt]

There is some data in the HD that needs to be extracted though. ...

Then why did you ask about formatting. If you do that your data is toast. You might want to find a local professional to take it to for trying to recover some data.

 

[EHUnlucky7x9@ao]

Then why did you ask about formatting. If you do that your data is toast. You might want to find a local professional to take it to for trying to recover some data.

Well, basically... it'd be nice to get the data out. If not, then it's ok. I just want the HD to work again.

 

[Mumford]

Well, basically... it'd be nice to get the data out. If not, then it's ok. I just want the HD to work again.

You should no longer use this harddrive. Get your data off (if possible) and never use it again. It's obviously been damaged somehow. If that damage is physical (a scratch on the platters, for example), problems will increase significantly with use. Anything new you manage to put on it will be lost.