After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely." What do I do now? This is an iMac and I'm running 10.6.8.

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it. See below for how to clone a drive.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer.  Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the  "C" key.  Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.)  Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.  Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer.  Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X.  You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
You may be able to backup your data if you have an erased external drive you can use. Before you do the above but after you have opened Disk Utility you can try to clone your drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
  4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
  5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
  6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Now this will only work if the drive is accessible and can be cloned by Disk Utility. Otherwise, you would need to access your drive from another Mac that you can connect via Firewire - Target Disk Mode.

Similar Messages

  • Error disk utility can't repair this disk...disk and restore your backed-up files

    I have been working on a project using an external hard disk. I used my Macbook Pro (2010)  to create this project and files (about 31 GB). Now I am trying to open the disk on my iMac (2014) and it doesn't show up. I can see the HDD when I use disk utility but get this message when I try to repair/restore the disc:
    "error disk utility can't repair this disk...disk and restore your backed-up files"
    The funny thing is that the disk works absolutely fine with my Macbook Pro. What am I missing?
    Imac :OSX 10.9.4 , 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 Gb Ram.

    Nico,
    Did you find a way?
    This just happened to me too.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5981446
    -John

  • TS1901 Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

    Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
    *** ??? I need to take out the data from a WD320 that shows this error and then format the WD and put the data into again
    THANKS !!!

    I'm sorry, is there a question here? You seem to know precisely what you need to do…

  • Can I fix a disk with this message?-Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

    Can I fix a disk with this message?
    Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

    Some problems can indeed be fixed this way. But working from Recovery_HD or Disk Warrior DVDs and working in the restricted environment those provide can be difficult. You can literally spend days working on this problem (while your regular work is unavailable) only to discover the old drive is unsalvageable.
    There is no way to know up front whether you are facing a major Hardware failure or a minor software glitch, or something in between. Often you are forced to work from the drive you no longer trust. I continue to recommend you do this work from a different, fully functioning Mac OS X booted from a different drive.
    If you have had the foresight to (as The hatter often recommends) clone your virgin install onto another drive for use in such situations, you will be able to recover from such problems in record time. If not, my previous recommendations stands:
    Buy a new Drive. Or  two. Install Mac OS X from scratch on a new drive, and get your Mac running again. Later, you can use the full power of Mac OS X to attempt to rescue your data, if needed. Then Zero the old drive, to see if it can hold data again reliably.
    If the old drive eventually provides some needed data, and is salvageable, Merry Christmas.

  • My computer is shutting down before fully booting up.  I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files.  Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

    My computer is shutting down before fully booting up.  I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files.  Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

    So, you can't Install OSX to the external?
    Or you can't boot from it when you do?
    You're not the only one wondering... I'm reminded of the Goose that laid the Golden Egg story.

  • Disk Utility says "drive can't be repaired, disk and restore your backed up files."

    My Mac Book Pro froze yesterday and I had to force restart it. It had been showing me messages that my hard drive disk was full for a while and I was in the middle of transferring files to my external hard drive and I accidentally put a huge large file from my external hard drive into the trash on my laptop which makes me wonder if that means I added more GB to a computer that was already very full. Anyway, after freezing I restarted it and the desktop wouldn't load properly. The desktop picture was there, but folders on desktop did not appear, finder bar was missing and the dock was acting super slow and nothing worked when clicked on. Then the next few attempts were around the same result and eventually became stuck on the apple logo, spinning gear and a progress bar that was not loading at all.
    Here's what I've tried so far:
    Safe mode- nothing happens
    Command + R - I am unsure how to work this since I can't seem to find an internet connection when it prompts for one. None of the internet connections have much signal and my own information doesn't seem to load since the gear spins to find the internet connection name and password I typed to load it but can't seem to find it. Perhaps I have the wrong internet information, but I don't think so.
    I tried Command + S to use in single user mode and type in a command to help fix the drive, BUT, even though the black screen and white lettering mode did show up, it remained in a place where I was not allowed to type anything and the last thing written at the bottom of the screen was something about set up for bluetooth, I think. I tried this twice and both times it stopped in the same place and I could not type a command.
    Disk Utility using installation dvd to verify and repair disk. Verify says disk needs repair and then repair has some red colored phrases: Invalid volume file count. (It should be 786374 instead of 786274) Incorrect number of thread records. And there was another problem listed but I do not remember it. Then, near the end of repairing it says: "Disk Utility stopped repairing Macintosh HD." It tells me it couldn't repair the disk and that I should back up as many of my files as possible, reformat the disk and restore backed up files.
    That would be fine and dandy, but I have no idea how to back up my files and do all this. I have no idea how to exactly get the data off my hard drive. If someone does, please list a step by step guide for me on how to do so.
    I have an external hard drive and I tried plugging in and selecting the hard drive and making a "New Image" to copy to the external hard drive destination, but it just stops a few seconds into it and tells me there is an input/output error. I tried read only, read/write only, compressed options for making a copy and all yield the same result.
    In Disk Utility, I believe I have a partition -the Macintosh HD. I have listed on the left hand side: 320.07 GB Hitachi HTSS45.....etc. and below it in non-bolded, grey lettering it says "Macintosh HD."
    The Hitachi, when clicked upon, shows the S.M.A.R.T. status as Verified and the Macintosh HD doesn't show much in details except for "Not mounted."
    At one point, the Macintosh HD was in bold lettering and seemed to be mounted for a few minutes. When that happened, I was able to see the details reading: Mount Point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD, Capacity: 319.73 GB, Available: 11.92 GB, Used: 307.81 GB, etc.
    I'm getting nervous to keep turning on and off the computer on force start and shut downs, especially since I have been reading up that the longer the computer is on, the more the hard drive is in use and the more chance for it to start deleting or overwriting my files. Is this true?
    It's not mounted anymore since it was momentarily mounted. I just want to get my files off the disk and save them to my external hard drive. That is my main goal right now. What can I do?
    Thank you in advance for your help!

    If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data, you can skip this step.
    There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
    1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
    How to back up and restore your files
    2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
    How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
    3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

  • Macintosh HD could not be verified completely

    Own a Mac air (purchased late 2012) haven't had issues until today when it would not start up.  It chimed, the grey apple appeared. Then nothing. Ran a verify disk and got a message the Hd could not be verified and error: this disk needs to be repaired.  I clicked the Repair Disk which then says disk utility can't repair this disk.
    So to complicate this issue a backup has not been done recently and we live out of country and don't have access to an Apple store.  We have an iPad, which I am using now and have an external disk drive but that's all we have to work with. :(
    Is there a way to back up the data from a safe mode or whatever Mac calls it?  And could a problem with a file system cause the error? If so, how can that be fixed. Any help is appreciated.
    Thanks

    So it will boot the Recovery Partition quickly and you show you options for Disk Utility and Reinstall OS X (among others).  That is a good sign.
    Try booting in Safe Mode and then running a Time Machine (or other) backup.
    (You cannot backup to a Time Capsule while in Safe Boot mode.)
    Press the power button and as you hear the bong hold down the Shift key.
    If it will boot then run a Time Machine backup.
    Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
    If you could not compete a backup from Safe Mode then skip to the Emergency Data Recovery below before attempting to repair the disk.
    Repairing the Disk and Reinstalling OS X.
    Boot the Recovery Partition and start Disk Utility.
    Click on your system volume (Macintosh HD).
    If the S.M.A.R.T status does not say “Verified” then when you are done with these procedures the SSD will need to be replaced.
    Repair Disk.
    If it did not repair completely the first time, try once more.
    Try a Safe Mode boot to backup the data and then a normal boot.
    If a normal boot did not work boot the Recovery Partition and reinstall OS X.
    Try a Safe Mode boot to backup the data and then a normal boot.
    If a normal boot did not work it is time for a clean install.  This will wipe all data from the SSD.  Hopefully by now you have recovered your data.
    Unplug any external disks. 
    Boot the Recovery Partition. 
    Format the system drive using the procedures below, selecting the system disk.
    Reinstall OS X.
    Boot normally.  If it still won’t boot then there is something still wrong with the SSD or other hardware.
    If it boots normally, this time it will ask to reload the data.
    Tell it to reload your data from your Time Machine backup or the emergency data recovery disk.
    Recover data by booting from an external system disk:
    You will need an external drive which you will erase for this procedure. 
    (Do not erase your existing backup, even if it is not current.)
    Format the external disk as instructed below.
    Install OS X onto that external disk, booting the Recovery Partition.
    Boot from that external disk (Boot then hold down Option).
    Using the Finder drag as many folders as you can to the external disk.
    Formatting the external drive:
    Boot the recovery partition.
    Format (and erase) the destination recovery disk:
              Plug in the drive you are about to erase.
              Select the volume that is NOT your system disk.
              Click on Partition.
              Pull down under Partition Layout to 1 Partition.
              Click on Options…
              Select GUID Partition Table.
              Name: Emergency Backup
              Format: Select Mac OS Extended (journaled)
              Click Apply.
              Click Partition.
    Once your system is healthy again be sure to maintain one or two reasonably current backups.
    More about backups:
    Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
    Most commonly used backup methods:  https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
    Methodology to protect your data.  Backups vs. Archives.  Long-term data protection: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031

  • HT2711 I used the "repair disk utility" to see why my computer is running slow but it gives me an error message saying, "disk utility can't repair this disk, and restore your backed up files.  My computer was running slow and taking some time to load page

    I haven't used my computer in a month, so when I turned it on, I saw it was running slow. The circle that is used to load the page kept coming up and it took sometime for things to load up. I tried to go Into safe mode, and it worked, but I know your limited on what you can do in that world. I also tried to repair the disk but it kept giving me an error message. How can I resolve this problem?

    Time Machine is a back up you have to set up to back up before there is a problem like a hard drive failure.
    It is possible to recover files from a failed drive, but it is an expensive proposition.
    There is a faint hope that an app like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro might repair the drive. You could try making an appointment at an Apple store and ask a technician there to take a look... the diagnosis will not cost you.
    http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

  • Disk utility can't repair my 2011 Macbook.  It says "disk and restore your backed-up files".  Now what?

    My Macbook crashed so I tried everything to restart it.  what finally worked is opening it from the install disk.  I performed a "repair disk", and after saying "invalid node structure" and "invalid record count", it says it cannot repair the disk.  I don't know what step to take next.  How do I see if time machine has backed my files up?  Do I need to erase the HD and reinstall? 
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    It seems your hard disk is dead, but you must check further. The easiest way to check is to connect your mac to another mac via firewire cable, then restart in Target Mode. this will turn you mac into an external drive, just the right place to test if your disk is still good.
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mchlp1443.html
    See also
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.7/en/mh26785.html

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    Did you find a way?
    This just happened to me too.
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    -John

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