Apple Disk Utility made thing substantially WORSE!

Our Powerbook 1.67 Ghz 15" Aluminum wouldn't run iCal (it quit unexpectedly) so we ran Apple Disk Utility. It said it couldn't verify so ran repair, then - 1 HFS volume checked couldn't be repaired. After this the computer would not run at all! Gray Apple screen with spinner until shutdown. Bought Apple tech support and went through all options of restarting with option button, etc, etc. Tried to do target disk something or another with fire wire between desktop and powerbook, that didn't work. HDD doesn't show as destination in utility "startup". They eventually said "All is Lost". What gives here? The thing was running fine, except for iCal, I ran Disk Repair - and now ALL is Lost? How can this be? Any advise GREATLY appreciated. We have family and business photos that number in the thousands at risk.

I agree, Disk Utility didn't kill your hard drive. The fact that it said it could not repair the disk says there is a problem that is more complex than Disk Utility can handle. Often, programs like Disk Warrior are one option used to fix those problems Disk Utility can't fix. You may want to try that. If Disk Warrior can't fix it, then you'll need to use a data recovery service to pull the data off. If you don't have one, buy a firewire backup (Powerbooks can only boot from a firewire device) to use with your replacement hard drive. One example might be http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go . SuperDuper is a good backup program: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Do you have OS X CDs that you can boot from? Insert the first one and boot holding the C key down. That should boot to the CD. Pull up Disk Utility from the Utilities on the menu bar. First, what does it say for SMART status? If it's anything but verified, there's a pretty serious problem on the hard drive, as in close to failing. If it says verified, nothing has tripped the SMART sensors. Run disk utility and repair the disk ... does it still say it can't be repaired? If so, proceed as above.
Replacement hard drive would be a 2.5" parallel ATA interface hard drive. Serial ATA or SATA hard drives won't work in our Powerbooks. New drives mostly come in 5400rpm speed, some are slower and there's no reason to buy them.

Similar Messages

Always have Permission Errors running Apple Disk Utility

I always have Permissions errors when running Apple Disk Utility. Even after a clean install (and restore of User prefs using Time Capsule).
Most of the errors are "Repaired" but are still there if I "Repair Permissions" immediately again.
Is this a problem that I can just ignore of should I try and rid my system of them?
For example:
Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/Rem ote Desktop Message.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/UIAgent.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/Rem ote Desktop Message.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/UIAgent.nib”
The above error will still be there if I re-repair.

You can just ignore them all.

Apple Disk Utility message

Hi all,
I opened Apple's Disk Utility, chose "Macintosh HD," and clicked "Verify Disk." No more than 1 minute into the Verify, I got a message (in red) in the Show Details output box saying "Incorrect number of file hard links."
Before I boot from the OS X Recovery HD (command-r) and try to fix it with Apple's Disk Utility, I was wondering if anyone had any insight about the message I got. My HD is not experiencing any problems.
MacBookPro8,3. OS X 10.8.3.

Thanks birmingham for responding to my post. I think the problem i encountered is more common than i at first thought, so i'm gonna sum up what i learned.
Sometimes, when upgrading the OS a full dot point -- 10.7. to 10.8. for example -- via Mac Application Store, the User will get an error saying, " Incorrect number of file hard links" when running apple's Disk Utility. The error is an "inode" error -- look it up at wikipedia. The solution is simple enough: Don't freak out and run apple's Disk Utility from the Recovery HD (command-r). Don't use DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, TechTool Pro, or anything other than apple's Disk Utility. Also no need to reinstall the OS or anything like that.
hope this helps someone in the future,
jim
she's from birmingham, way down in alabam. whoa black betty. BAM-BA-LAM.

Using Apple "Disk Utility" to partition a disk drive

I have seen some incorrect info on the forums about partitioning disks.
You CAN do this with Disk Utility.
To do this will erase the new partitions you create, so BE CAREFUL.
To partition a disk, start Disk Utility and click on the DRIVE (not Volume) you want to partition.
The DRIVEs are the icons all the way on the left side of the Disk/Volume window area.
If you click on a Drive, the PARTITION tab will appear. Click on it and it's pretty self-explanatory.
Good luck.

It looks like the mountable image option only applies to NTFS partitions. The preferences interface does not show a choice for FAT32.

Serious X11 Problems - Reinstalling X11 made things far worse - PLEASE hel

I was trying to run Darwine and I got an error that said "_X11TransSocketUNIXConnect: path too long", so after trying to find some info and finding nothing useful, I decided the easiest thing to do would be to reinstall X11 from the Leopard DVD. Well, now I have a COMPLETELY broken copy of X11 that REFUSES to start, and yet I can see the icon flash and disappear in the dock every 5 seconds like it's trying to autostart constantly. GIMP is broken (plus an old Release Candidate version seems to try to open up THREE copies of X11 and yet fails to start), Inkscape is broken, Darwine is still broken, and I'm REALLY mad.
How do I fix this?

Well, I followed the instructions on http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=80171&page=3 (the last post) and it worked great, but now when I start any X11 application it opens up 2 copies of X11, one of which I can quit, one of which actually is running the app. Also, Darwine and the Gimp Release Candidate work, but the latest version of Gimp from Wilber-Loves-Apple, as well as Inkscape, don't work. I think there was a patch for X11 that I installed for these long ago, but I can't remember how I fixed it.

Stipr Sets with Apple Disk Utility DU

We have installed a Raid System with two Raid Volumes, partitioned into 2 spaces, striped together as Stripe Level0. After expanding the two Volumes trough adding new disks, we will have two new Bigger Raid Volumes which can the DU see, but the two Stripe Sets based on the two new bigger Volumes will have the same size we had before!
I can remember that we have done the same in Panther, which was running fine,
after expanding we have the same Partitiones like before, just bigger!
How to solve the problem without Backup 2TB, restriping it again etc.???
G5 PCIx Mac OS X (10.4.8) Atto/ Driver 3.0

You cannot assume that someone else reading your post is as familiar with your problem as you are.
If you make the message clearer someone may be able to help you.
Good luck.

Can't format ssd... Disk Utility Hangs

Hi all!
Too long; didn't read: I need a way of formatting clean SSD for installing OS X, as the apple Disk Utility doesn't seem to be up to the task!?
A bit of background (UNRELEVANT for question, here to make thread useful to others when searching): A couple of days ago I upgraded my MacBook Pro mid 2010 from OS X 10.7 Lion to 10.9 Mavericks.
It's a standard 13" Macbook Pro mid 2010, cheap edition, except for the HDD to SSD upgrade (upgrade ordered while ordering computer, this it's an Apple SSD).
Suddenly yesterday my computer would not wake from sleep. I closed it by a long press on the power button, restarted it, it used a lot of time to show the Apple logo on white background along with the "working wheel" (around 10 or 15 minutes), then replaced the Apple logo with a "No Access"-logo.
While runnig a Disk Repair un Disk Utilities from a Lion Setup DVD fixed the startup issue in the first attempt, the the computer just froze when I logged in, and I choose to reinstall from scratch.
The SystemsRescueCD (small Linux with a lot of file-system support) proved very useful for making a backup of my data.
Attempts at formatting: The Apple Disk Utility (no matter if it's run from Lion DVD or Apple Internet Recovery) is extremely slow at formatting the SSD. Sometimes it will hang for 10 to 20 minutes, and it only completed the formatting once... kinda...
it took around 6 hours, but after trying to unmount the disk for 4 hours, I choose to kill the computer (and restart), as the partitioning step was complete. OS X could not be installed to the disk.
Since the Apple Disk Utility couldn't format the SSD, I tried formatting in GParted (using SystemsRescueCD) to HFS+ with Master Boot Record GPT (GUID Partitioning Table). It took around one second to complete.
When rebooting and starting the OS X installation, it did "see" the partition, but complained that the file system wasn't journaled. I used the Apple Disk Utility to enable journaling (it seemed to work!), but when I restarted the installation, it froze when it had to deal with the filesystem.
To check if the SSD was able to boot a operation system, I installed Linux Mint. Besides from the usual driver issues with Linux, it worked.
I really hope someone can help -- my Bs.C. thesis is due quite soon, and this computer crash couldn't happen at a worse time

Longtallsally28
I was thinking that same thing but it said it only applied to MacBook Airs.
Not so,...any and all SSD can fail.
#1) Why does the computer not recognize SSD partitions? (i.e. revert to Disk0s1)
A likely failed SSD
#2) Is there a possible component within the computer causing the continued failure? ( Is there a diagram showing all the components within the MBP?)
Yes, the SSD controller on the SSD module
#3) What do I have to do to make this computer work?
Contact Apple for full free in shop diagnostic
peace

Disk Utility - Scan Image for Restore - Freeze

I backed up my wife's iBook by starting her computer in target disk to my iBook which has a huge external attached. After about an hour, the image process was complete. Apple disk utility help says next to scan image for restore (not too sure why because I'm not restoring anything unless her drive dies). I begin the scan image for restore and get the progress bar that never shows and progress. Just keeps spinning/scanning for hours and I have no option to shut if off. Can't move external to trash because it in use, etc.
Does this mean the original disk image may be bad? Do over?
I'm using Disk Image as a solution for a total disk backup if a drive fails. No messing around with reconfiguring apps, etc. (i.e. plug and play) Is this the best way to do this?
I come from the Mac Plus days. Hopefully I can contribute to the new OS discussions at some point. Thank you much!

What format is the external drive?
Is it Firewire or USB?
Does the external drive have one of those front button touch things, like a My Book?
I'm using Disk Image as a solution for a total disk backup if a drive fails. No messing around with reconfiguring apps, etc. (i.e. plug and play) Is this the best way to do this?
I prefer a Clone myself.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Have a look at Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6897/synchronize!-pro-x
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, ...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
Does this mean the original disk image may be bad? Do over?
It can take quite awhile, and the progress bar isn't accurate at all, but it sounds like something is wrong.

Volumes Won't Drag Over in Disk Utility

I'm in Disk Utility. I am trying to mirror the 250gb drive that came with the computer with a 250gb partition I've made of another drive. I am following the directions in the disk utility help page to the T, and there is a weird problem. I can't drag the disks into the list.
first disk info:
http://thepunctuator.net/LBWS/raid1.png
Mount Point : / Capacity : 232.6 GB (249,715,376,128 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 208.6 GB (223,937,794,048 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 24.0 GB (25,777,582,080 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 112,925 Number of Files : 499,501
second disk info:
http://thepunctuator.net/LBWS/raid2.png
Mount Point : /Volumes/Macintosh HD2 Capacity : 232.9 GB (250,053,931,008 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 232.8 GB (249,976,754,176 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 73.6 MB (77,176,832 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 4 Number of Files : 9
When I first loaded up Disk Utility, I couldn't even drag the disks at all. I would click&hold and start moving, and the disks didn't pop into icons and start dragging. I quit the program and loaded it back up, and now they pop into icons, but when I hover them over the list box, nothing happens. It doesn't add them to the list. No amount of quitting and restarting the application fixes it. Restarting the computer did not resolve the issue either.
Here is kind of what it looks like when I drag the disks over, if you pretend the cursor is there as well:
http://thepunctuator.net/LBWS/raid3.png
When I release, the disks are not added to the list.
If no one knows how to resolve this issue, does anyone know a way to do this operation from the terminal?
Mac Pro 8-core Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Re: "
In Disk Utility, go to Help menu and read how to use the program to create RAIDs."
I've read that manual (as I mentioned in my original post, thanks for reading). Here is what it says:
"If you booted your computer from a disk that has multiple partitions, you cannot create a RAID set that contains partitions from your boot disk. To create a RAID disk that contains partitions from that disk, you must boot your computer from another disk first."
That's fine, but I can't believe I have to format the partition in order to RAID it. Why can't I just mirror it and have it rebuild the information onto the second partition? That seems like a simple and obvious bit of functionality. What is it about HFS that prevents this from happening? To be honest, I just don't believe you.
Re: "Apple Disk Utility RAIDs will only use the smaller capacity for building parts. You would be better to format each drive, with a 2nd partition on the larger. However, using drives of unlike capacity and speed (seek times do vary and just like with SCSI it is best if they are identical DNA down to firmware)."
Thank you, but if you spent five seconds looking at my original post you would have seen that the partitions I'm using are the same size. (Ok, they're not exactly the same size, but less than .1% difference). As far as having identical DNA, shrug. I have a server with 3.5 tb RAID5 array sitting by my knee that has, not only disks from different manufacturers, but also a mishmash of SATA and IDE devices. It hasn't had a problem in three months. The performance is great.
Anyway, I am trying to get help with a specific issue which I recounted in my original post. I am not here to discuss the finer points of disk management with you guys - I am trying to deal with this specifically Mac issue of the Disk Utility application. I know how to handle myself in *nix, and if it fails, that's fine, I have a backup.
Thanks for your administration advice, but then again, no thanks. Does anyone have any help for the above issue?
Mac Pro 8-core Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Is there any danger in using Disk Utility

I'm helping a friend who has a (dog slow) G4 iBook running Tiger. Trying to get it limping back into shape. Cleared a lot of junk off the drive, which was essentialy full and ran Disk Utility. Lotsa red ink. Copied the user folder and the applications folder to another drive. Ready to run Disk Utility from the Tiger startup disk. Should I be worried? Can Disk Utility make things worse?
For what it's worth, the computer is working and now has 8 GB free on a 40 GB drive.
These are the problems found:
Volume Bitmap needs minor repair
Invalid volume free block count
Volume header needs minor repair
Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit.
It's that last one that's got me worried.
Should I let Disk Utility fix it?
Thanks to anybody in advance for any light they can shed.
Steve

HI Steve,
No, Disk Utility is just a utility. It can't make anything worse.
Yes, let DU fix this error. Definitely!!!!
If fact, if it doesn't repair the error(s) on the first past, click Repair again.
What did you mean by, "Lotsa red ink" ?? Do you mean the errors were reported in red? That's normal.
IF... Disk Utility cannot repair the disk, then DiskWarrior is the best bet to repair the drive.
Carolyn

Creating RAID5 with Disk Utility?

I have three new 4TB drives and wanted to set them up in my old MacPro (Early2008) as RAID5. This should give me 8TB with one redundant disk. However, I don't see a RAID5 option in Apple Disk Utility (Version 13, in OS X 10.10.1).
In doing some digging in the Knowledge Base it suggests first creating a concatenated set with 2 of the drives and then creating a mirrored RAID set with the concatenated set and the third drive.
Not sure if this is correct or will achieve what I want. Does this provide the software equivalent of RAID5 with 8TB and one redundant drive? Thanks for any help.

Disk Utility does not do RAID 5. And there is serious question about whether anyone should be using RAID 5.
RAID 5 gets its redundancy by calculating a permutation (XOR or Checksum or similar) of the bits in two blocks, and recording that as the third block. If any of the three are lost, the other two can (in theory) be used to recover the missing data for the third.
This takes some TIME to compute the check data on Write, and may take Time to check on Read. Because of this, most RAID 5 setups include a RAID controller, both to reduce the time required, and to pre-acknowlege the receipt of proper data to be written to the drives momentarily.
The Apple RAID card (NOT recommended today) acknowledges Writes and allows the System to proceed when the data hit the RAID card, and relies on its Backup Battery to maintain the data if the power fails at that moment (before the data are actually written to the drives). Mac Pro RAID card was a nice concept when it was invented, but it has not been updated in about a decade, and is showing its age. Everything about dealing with its Backup Battery today has become evil.
The tragic flaw with RAID 5 is when a drive fails. Now you are working without a net. Everything slows WAY down, and the drives work extra hard to rebuild the missing data, because all those checksums have to be re-computed and re-written to rebuild the replaced drive. And if another drive fails while the rebuild is happening, the entire set can blow to pieces without any hope of recovery. With drives getting larger and larger without substantially improving their 'unrecoverable errors per bits read', it is becoming increasingly likely that during the course of a re-build, an uncorrectable error will occur, possibly putting the entire array out of business.

Tiger Disk Utility filled up target AND system disk, CANNOT reboot!

I used Apple Disk utility to securely erase free space on a target drive on my laptop. Disk Utility filled both my target disk and system disk (system disk was not even specified in the erase procedure). Both disks have ZERO bytes free. The System disk will NOT startup and I cannot use DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory cuz there is no space. Tried using terminal to rm temp files, but it did not see the system disk.
*Problem Path:*
1) Laptop (Leopard OS X current version) video stopped working. Likely known problem with Graphics card.
2) Connected G5 (Tiger) to Laptop via Firewire with Laptop working in Target Disk mode (data only mode).
3) Laptop disk showed up as a disk volume on G5.
4) Used Apple disk utility on Tiger G5 to securely erase FREE disk space on Laptop disk drive B4 taking it in to get repairs. Amount to be securely erased was appr 65 to 70 GB.
5) Left G5 Tiger disk utility to work overnight... had to interrupt next day. Restarted..
6) Next day, the G5 disk utility said that it would be an est. 97 hours to complete. Stopped process.
7) Both target disk and system disk showed that 0 bytes (yes, ZERO bytes free) were free on either drive.
8) Attempted to restart with literature saying that you can restart Disk Utility as though it would delete temp files and start again. System could not be found (folder/face/folder/face showed on the screen)
*Attempted Solution:* (DW ~ DiskWarrior 4)
1) Started system up using DW CD. System disk came up as unknown.
2) Used Disk Warrior to rebuild directory on disk, but I believe that there is NO space at all. Disk Warrior took a very long time...more than an hour.
3) Terminated DW (it was still verifying directory)
4) Restarted system from Tiger install.
5) Attempted to use Tiger Disk Utility to verify system disk (System still can see it, but won't mount it-- name is now disk1s3 or something like that). Disk Utility said that disk directory had problems and needed to be repaired. Ran the repair, but Disk Utility said that it could not be repaired.
6) Quit Disk Utility and entered into the terminal to see if I could access the disk through unix commands. Access volumes from root. Only the other disk on the system showed up, not the system disk. So attempt to delete temporary files that MAY have been created by Disk Utility could not be done.
7) Restarted system using DW. Drive showed up as Unknown. Clicked on [Apple key] rebuild to do scavenge function. Left it for two hours. Little to no change. Left it to work all night.
HELP!
Will DiskWarrior use other volume on system or memory to save off or rebuild directory of bad drive? Anyone know of a utility that can help?
ANY HELP you can provide would be GREATLY appreciated. I have been put behind on research in my graduate studies and am in a terrible situation in now BOTH of my systems are inaccessible.

Hello HB3, and a warm welcome to the forums!
8) Attempted to restart with literature saying that you can restart Disk Utility as though it would delete temp files and start again. System could not be found (folder/face/folder/face showed on the screen)
You really shouldn't use a lower OSes DU to work on a higher one.
2) Used Disk Warrior to rebuild directory on disk, but I believe that there is NO space at all. Disk Warrior took a very long time...more than an hour.
What version of DW?
Anyone know of a utility that can help?
If DiskWarrior can't fix it, you might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can, both can work when Disks are unmountable.

Disk Utility & Mirrored RAID

I have a 250 Gb drive installed in a G5 and want to add another and mirror the first. In setting up the mirrored set, will the first drive be erased, or will the second drive just be updated to reflect the first?
Thanks

Has to be erased. Apple Disk Utility won't allow you to do that.

Disk Utility's "Disk Description" is wrong?

When plugging in my newly bought 2TB Toshiba Canvio Basics 3.0 I get the following message:
The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. (Initialize/Ignore/Eject)
If I chose "Initialize", then it's recognized in Disk Utility. However, it is not recognized as a 2TB "Toshiba Canvio Basics 3.0", but as a 20 GB "DK23DA-20 media", which I can google as being a 20GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) For Hitachi Computers. (See screen shot)
Can anybody help me on how I should adress this issue?

Unbelievable. It certainly does seem based on your describtion, the drive is most likely fraudelent. Hope you have a recourse to get a refund. If you are still in the market for a new drive, hopefully the following info will help.
You don't have to purchase a Mac formatted drive. It's easy to format with Disk Utility. It's also recommended that you do not use the manufacturer's software to format the drive but to use Apple Disk Utility.
USB 3.0 drives work on USB 2.0 but you do get 2.0 speed. They are cheaper because they are popular PC drives. If you get a new computer you'll get the bump to 3.0 speed.
I like the Seagate USB 3.0 Backup plus drives. They come formatted for PC but easy to format in Disk Utility. Currently the Seagate Backup Plus 1T is more than the 2 & 3T drives.
This Western Digital drive has good reviews: WD My Book Hard Drive for Mac 2 TB $99.
LaCie recently was purchased by Seagate. They are known for good drives.
OWC makes good drives. http://www.macsales.com
All companies make different qualitity drives.The length of the warranty is a good indicator for quality.

Disk Utility application won't launch

After repairing some errors which appeared on my main drive and which I have now repaired Disk Utility.app no longer launches and I can no longer mount disk images. Can anybody suggest a fix? Everything else in the system seems OK. Running on 10.4.10

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Look for the com. Apple Disk Utility plist file and delete it from the Library/Preference folders. If that doesn't work one of the cache cleaning applications may have corrupted your cache or the Disk Utility application needs to be reloaded. You can extract that file with http://www.charlessoft.com/ 's Pacifist from the installer disk for 10.4 and apply the relevant 10.4.10 combo update:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10410comboupdateppc.html
If it is the G4 533 that is having trouble. If you have an Intel Mac which is having problems, use this update:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10410comboupdatev11intel.html

Apple Disk Utility made thing substantially WORSE!

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