Trying to erase all date

[Yass-Attack]

Hey guys, I have my "InstallESD.dmg" image in my Iomega external harddrive. Whenever I go to disk utility and select the drive I want to erase, I go to restore and in the source I drag the InstallESD.dmg and put the drive I want to erase as the destination but then I get an error...this is what it all looks like

I can't unmount my external harddrives partition cause if I do I can't locate the lion osx install image..any tips please?


Edit: I'm running on Lion now and want to stay on Lion

 

[heisenberg123]

Hey guys, I have my "InstallESD.dmg" image in my Iomega external harddrive. Whenever I go to disk utility and select the drive I want to erase, I go to restore and in the source I drag the InstallESD.dmg and put the drive I want to erase as the destination but then I get an error...this is what it all looks like

Image

I can't unmount my external harddrives partition cause if I do I can't locate the lion osx install image..any tips please?


Edit: Was I supposed to erase all freespace from my drive first?

Install lion on the external, than restart Mac and hold option choose the external as the boot drive, now you can format the internal drive

 

[Yass-Attack]

Install lion on the external, than restart Mac and hold option choose the external as the boot drive, now you can format the internal drive

It didn't quite work. I saw 3 options...the original drive, recovery and Iomega. I clicked Iomega and it just loaded up the computer as it normally would.

 

[heisenberg123]

It didn't quite work. I saw 3 options...the original drive, recovery and Iomega. I clicked Iomega and it just loaded up the computer as it normally would.

Yes it would look normal but as long as you boot from Iomega you can erase the internal, you can't erase a drive your currently booted on

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Yes it would look normal but as long as you boot from Iomega you can erase the internal, you can erase a drive your currently booted on

What the heck are you talking about? You can NEVER erase the drive you're currently booted from, apart from certain nefarious terminal commands.

OP, you're going about this all wrong. First, tell us what you're trying to accomplish by erasing your internal HDD. Are you trying to reinstall the OS? Are you going to sell it? This will help us figure out exactly how to help you.

Basically, you're trying to restore an install image to your internal drive. Why? If you're trying to reinstall Lion, that's not going to let you do it. If you want to erase your computer and reinstall Lion, you need to boot from your recovery partition, erase your main partition, and have it reinstall Lion. Alternatively, you could restore the InstallESD.dmg to your Iomega drive (right now, it sounds like you simply have the file on your Iomega drive, which the Mac won't be able to boot from). Note that doing so will erase any data you currently have on your Iomega drive.

Let us know what you're trying to accomplish and we'll be able to help you out much better.

As to why it looks normal, the solution is that your Mac is trying to boot from the Iomega drive, failing, and then booting from the internal drive. This is why the internal drive is at the top of the list in Disk Utility (your boot drive always is first) and your Iomega drive is listed later. You can see where, towards the bottom of the window, it says "Mount Point: /" Only the boot drive can have that mount point.

 

[heisenberg123]

What the heck are you talking about? You can NEVER erase the drive you're currently booted from, apart from certain nefarious terminal commands.

OP, you're going about this all wrong. First, tell us what you're trying to accomplish by erasing your internal HDD. Are you trying to reinstall the OS? Are you going to sell it? This will help us figure out exactly how to help you.

Basically, you're trying to restore an install image to your internal drive. Why? If you're trying to reinstall Lion, that's not going to let you do it. If you want to erase your computer and reinstall Lion, you need to boot from your recovery partition, erase your main partition, and have it reinstall Lion. Alternatively, you could restore the InstallESD.dmg to your Iomega drive (right now, it sounds like you simply have the file on your Iomega drive, which the Mac won't be able to boot from). Note that doing so will erase any data you currently have on your Iomega drive.

Let us know what you're trying to accomplish and we'll be able to help you out much better.

read my edit, i meant you CAN'T erase the drive your currently booted on, the OP is trying to erase his internal drive i told him to boot from lion thats installed on his external to do this, other than the " 'T " on my one word I was not that off

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

read my edit, i meant you CAN'T erase the drive your currently booted on, the OP is trying to erase his internal drive i told him to boot from lion thats installed on his external to do this, other than the " 'T " on my one word I was not that off

True, but your edit was posted 3 minutes after my post so I could hardly have read it before I posted could I?

From what I can tell, OP doesn't actually have Lion installed on his external drive, he just has the InstallESD.dmg file sitting on his external drive. His Mac won't, of course, boot from it that way.

OP really should just use the recovery partition to do all of this, as it would be far easier and wouldn't require finagling with the external drive.

 

[heisenberg123]

True, but your edit was posted 3 minutes after my post so I could hardly have read it before I posted could I?

From what I can tell, OP doesn't actually have Lion installed on his external drive, he just has the InstallESD.dmg file sitting on his external drive. His Mac won't, of course, boot from it that way.

OP really should just use the recovery partition to do all of this, as it would be far easier and wouldn't require finagling with the external drive.

ya your right my edit was a bit late

correct it won't from the istallesd.dmg

i told him to install Lion on his Iomega drive so he could use it to boot

sounds like he did because he has Iomega has a boot choice when i told him to hold option after a reboot

OP since you have the InstallESD.dmg file

use this tutorial to make a bootable dvd version of Lion maybe you will find it easier to do what your trying if you have a bootable dvd

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/09/how-to-create-a-bootable-dvd-disc-for-os-x-lion/

 

[Yass-Attack]

Problem resolved

ya your right my edit was a bit late

correct it won't from the istallesd.dmg

i told him to install Lion on his Iomega drive so he could use it to boot

sounds like he did because he has Iomega has a boot choice when i told him to hold option after a reboot

OP since you have the InstallESD.dmg file

use this tutorial to make a bootable dvd version of Lion maybe you will find it easier to do what your trying if you have a bootable dvd

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/09/how-to-create-a-bootable-dvd-disc-for-os-x-lion/

I did what you told me to do and it worked out well! Thanks a lot for your help and you too iThinkergoiMac!