Disk Utility

{{short description| Disk utility for macOS}} {{About|the software by Apple|disk utilities in general|disk utility}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}} {{Infobox software | name = Disk Utility | logo = Diskutil.png | screenshot = Disk Utility screenshot.png | caption = Disk Utility running on macOS Big Sur | latest release version = 22.7 | operating system = macOS | genre = Utility }}

'''Disk Utility''' is a system utility for performing disk and disk volume-related tasks on macOS.

Features include:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Intro to Disk Utility on Mac |url=https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/disk-utility/dskutl1029/22.0/mac/13.0 |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=Apple Support |language=en}}</ref> * Create, convert, backup, compress, and encrypt logical volume images from a wide range of formats to .dmg or, for CD/DVD images, .cdr * Mount, unmount and eject disk volumes (including hard disks, removable media, and disk volume images) * Enable or disable journaling * Verify a disk's integrity, and repair it if damaged (works for both Mac-compatible partitions and for FAT32 partitions with Windows installed) * Erase, format, partition,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Partition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac |url=https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/disk-utility/dskutl14027/22.0/mac/13.0 |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=Apple Support |language=en}}</ref> and clone disks * Securely delete free space or disk using a "zero out" data, a 7-pass DOD 5220-22 M standard, or a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm * Add or change partition table between Apple Partition Map, GUID Partition Table, and master boot record (MBR) * Restore volumes from Apple Software Restore (ASR) images * Check the S.M.A.R.T. status of a hard disk

Disk Utility functions may also be accessed via the command line with commands <code>diskutil</code> and <code>hdiutil</code>.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vf4U4UkDANsC&q=Disk+Utility+functions+may+also+be+accessed+from+the+macOS+command+line+with+the+diskutil+and+hdiutil+commands.&pg=PA991|title=Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition|last1=Landau|first1=Ted|last2=Frakes|first2=Dan|date=2005-12-20|publisher=Peachpit Press|isbn=9780132705240|language=en}}</ref> The commands also can create and manage RAM disk images.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://osxdaily.com/2007/03/23/create-a-ram-disk-in-mac-os-x/|title = Create a RAM Disk in Mac OS X|date = March 23, 2007}}</ref>

==History== In the classic Mac OS, similar functionality to the verification features of Disk Utility could be found in the Disk First Aid application. Another application called Drive Setup was used for drive formatting and partitioning and the application Disk Copy was used for working with disk images.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Before Mac OS X Panther, the functionality of Disk Utility was spread across two applications: Disk Copy and Disk Utility. Disk Copy was used for creating and mounting disk image files whereas Disk Utility was used for formatting, partitioning, verifying, and repairing file structures. The ability to "zero" all data (multi-pass formatting) on a disk was not added until Mac OS X 10.2.3.<ref>[http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107263 "Mac OS X: About the Mac OS X 10.2.3 Update"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327133307/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107263 |date=March 27, 2008 }}. Apple Inc.</ref> Further changes introduced in Mac OS X Tiger, specifically version 10.4.3, allowed Disk Utility to be used to verify the file structure of the current boot drive. Mac OS X Leopard added the ability to create, resize, and delete disk partitions without erasing them, a feature known as live partitioning. In OS X El Capitan, Disk Utility has a different user interface and lost the abilities to repair permissions due to obsolescence,<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/General/rn-osx-10.11/|title = OS X v10.11 Developer Beta 7 Release Notes|date = August 18, 2015|access-date = October 7, 2015|website = Mac Developer Library|publisher = Apple Inc.}}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> create and manage disks formatted as RAID, burn discs, and multi-pass format internal solid-state drives and encrypted external drives.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://arstechnica.co.uk/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-the-ars-technica-review/6/#h3|title = OS X 10.11 El Capitan: The Ars Technica Review|date = September 29, 2015|access-date = September 30, 2015|website = Ars Technica|last1 = Cunningham|first1 = Andrew|last2 = Hutchinson|first2 = Lee}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://ss64.com/osx/diskutil.html Online man page for diskutil] * [https://ss64.com/osx/hdiutil.html Online man page for hdiutil]

Category:MacOS Category:Disk partitioning software Category:Hard disk software Category:Data erasure software Category:Backup software for macOS Category:MacOS archivers and compression-related utilities