FCPX 10.0.5 Bugs & Problems

To wipe the USB completely clean you can use Disk Utility to "repartition" the drive.

If I understand what is going on (and I might have it wrong) your issue may be one of expectations. Booting from a DW drive is not the same as booting OS X then running DW. The DW recovery loads a special version of OS X that automatically runs DW. When I insert my DW USB drive and hold down the option key I get a choice of booting from my Mac HD, the Recovery HD (which is a hidden partition on my Mac HD), a PowerPC DiskWarrior start, or the Intel DiskWarrior start. Picking the intel DiskWarrior startup launches a standalone version of DiskWarrior. Since it is running from the USB drive it can be used to rebuild the directory of your main drive. When you quit this version of DW it reboots your system.

It sounds like you've not yet created your bootable DiskWarrior USB drive.

Or there is some other way of doing what you want that I'm not aware of and that is what you are trying to do. If that is the case sorry for adding to the confusion.

I really hate to keep going on about this, if it's boring you, think about how much time I've spent on it. DiskUtility can not seem to erase my 8 Gig usb flash drive, since I put the Recovery Disk on it. That part of the disk remains invisible, yet can be seen when I click on Partition in Disk Utility. I've tried erasing, repartioning, several times, but nothing can get rid of it. Thus, when I use CarbonCopyCloner to copy my DiskWarrior dmg onto the drive (which is also a boot disk), the machine never recognizes it on restart, the Recovery Disk takes precedent.

Then, as tediously detailed previously, once in the Recovery Disk mode, I can never mount the part of the drive with DiskWarrior on it. If I'd known that Recovery Disk was going to ruin my 8 Gig flash drive, or make part of it unusable for anything else, I would have gone out & bought blank DVD's - even at the extortion prices in this country.

Anyone got any ideas to save my flash drive?
Also, when I try to use CarbonCopyCloner to clone my DiskWarrior dmg, it won't recognize the dmg, only folders, so I have to put it in a folder, hope that's not a problem.

All I wanted was to have a clean running system so FCPX would be hassle free, this has turned into weeks of headaches for me, & continual pestering for you… I'm sorry.

If you have any blank CD's, or if they are cheaper where you are, you could try and see if GParted will help. It's never failed me in the past.

gparted.sourceforge.net/

Addition: I should have probably added what it is. It's a linux based partition editor, you boot directly from the cd into a stripped down version of a linux OS that only has partition tools.

Launch the DMG so its a drive on your Desktop, CCC will clone it as a drive.

Trix,
If I understand you correctly, currently your USB drive has DW Recovery Disk partition on the boot block. You are unable to erase remove this. I no longer have DW so I cannot verify what I am about to tell you.
Recovery Partitions are designed to protect themselves. They do this by being owned by "root". Under unix, root has special permissions to change file structures, change, erase, etc...
MacOSX goes even further by protecting root. For files that are only owned by root, no other user can affect that file. Even sudo under terminal is locked out from certain files. The only way to change the root protected file is to enable root. This may be why you can't erase the partition. Haven't played with this for Lion recovery, no time now.
If I am right about the Recovery Disk under DW being root protected, then the only way to remove that partition is to enable root from your OSX on your computer, not the usb drive, cd (change directory/drive) in terminal, and either change owner from root to yourself, or to just erase the usb drive while in root from the Mac. (On second thought, you could enable root on USB to change owner and unlock file, then Disk Utility could erase drive)
Since you have said you are not comfortable with terminal, Cautious me, I don't want to be responsible for root terminal commands that if you get it wrong could wipe the wrong drive.
Apple has a KB on enabling root if you are still "throwing caution to the wind".
Having said this, another install file like Lion installer might overwrite the DW partition, don't know how DW set owner. If you re-download Lion (hold down option key while clicking on install button, I believe) from AppStore, you should be able to grab the install dmg and install on the usb stick. Don't re-install on you MacHD.

When I get more time I could play with what I have to see if I can erase a recovery partition under Lion, but I don't own DW anymore. Maybe BenB can check if DW recovery disk is root protected. BenB, got DW on usb? Able to wipe using only DU? Root enabled erase only? usb>ls -lae?

If everything on your computer is working fine, my advice is to leave it alone.
Good Luck Trix.

MacOSX goes even further by protecting root.

Do you think this would make sense that booting GParted, rather than OSX, and accessing the USB drive from there would show all partitions and enable an easy restructure of the drive?

If getting it onto a CD is a possibility anyway.

Disk Utility should be able to re-partition the USB easily.

TrixTrax9000 wrote: DiskUtility can not seem to erase my 8 Gig usb flash drive, since I put the Recovery Disk on it.

Not erase, PARTITION. See, for example, macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/ss/usbflash_3.htm

Note: that example set the thumb drive for OS X use only. You may want to use a different Format if you want to use the thumb drive in a PC, too.

Just to clarify, the Recovery Disk partition was installed by Lion, not DW. It takes over the flash drive, yet is invisible. Disk Utility erasing, rewriting, repartitioning, all leave the hidden invisible Lion Recovery Disk intact, making it impossible to use the DW dmg I put on the other partition.

I will try Ben's suggestion, or else get a blank cd.

Thanks Everyone

Followed the latest advice, but no progress. Opened up the DiskWarrior dmg, then CCC'd it. The CarbonCopyClone takes longer this way, but actually produced an image on the usb flash drive that was visible as a startup choice during the Option Key Reboot. This time there were 3 choices, as the Recovery Disk section is still impossible to erase from the flash drive. So I choose the DiskWarrior partition & away we go… well.. almost. It whirs for a moment, & then an ominous looking dark screen descends like a curtain, with a warning message in 5 languages, "You must hold down the power button to restart your computer." That's it, frozen lockout, have to do the hard reboot with the power button. Tried again, same result.

A normal reboot without the option key brought me back to the desktop with a new warning; the security system HandsOff had turned itself off because of a Kernel Panic. Oh well, at least I got to experience one of those. FCPX seems to be working ok, so I guess the main objective of this exercise has been met.

So, until I get my hand on some blank media, it appears that the dream of booting from a usb flash drive to diagnose my system, is… well, just that, a dream.

Thanks for all your help, gents.

Are you running 10.7.4? Cause I have a USB drive made from that same DMG that works just fine.

I also just created a boot USB with the Lion utility, and am able to erase it with Disk Utility, too. Not sure what's going on at your end.

I'd suggest mail me that USB, I'll mail you a working one back. But you may find a blank DVD faster.

Yes, I'm on 10.7.4
Thanks for the offer, Ben.
But since I'm in Europe, it will not only be faster, but much cheaper to just buy a blank cd.
Though not by much.... (just wait until the full brunt of enviro-madness comes to North America - things get very pricey)

TrixTrax9000 wrote: This time there were 3 choices, as the Recovery Disk section is still impossible to erase from the flash drive.

Perhaps that's because the recovery disk may not be on the flash drive. Current versions of Lion add a recovery disk to your boot drive. This is done so if your OS fails you can boot from the recovery drive and download a new copy of the OS. If you saw three choices I'd guess those three choices to be lion startup on main drive, recovery startup on main drive, and DW startup on the USB drive. You can verify this to be either true or false by rebooting with the option key when the thumb drive isn't in the machine. I believe you will still see the recovery disk as an option.

Be aware: When booting from the DiskWarrior CD it took my 4 year old iMac over 15 minutes to start up and load DiskWarrior. I'd thought it crashed and went to get a cup of coffee while thinking "what next" only to come back and find that I'd just not been patient enough!