Best disk utility?

I have been reading about disk utilities and Disk Warrior keeps coming up, but also Drive Genius which seems to have more features.
Can anyone please comment on which disk utility might be the best choice?
Thanks a lot for any advice.

Hi
I might just have been very lucky indeed but in over twenty years of using Macs I've never needed to use a third party disc utility.
When I used the classic OS I had the Norton Utilities suite but I never needed to use it to actually cure any problems.
In the last year I did need to use Apple's own Disk Utility to cure a problem created when installing Adobe's CS2 suite, however Apple's Disk Utility sorted everything out fine.
I do think that backing up your stuff is very important and I do this every day. I use external hard-drives and some online server space.
If some terrible software fault caused problems on my computer I'd just erase the hard-drive and re-install.

Similar Messages

Is Drive Genius the best disk utility for Mac?

I just wanted to see if any one had an opinion on Drive Genius? I have one computer that is brand new (Imac) and a Powerbook that is a bit old. I want to keep them both running in tip-top shape.

I've not used Drive Genius and cannot comment on that program but I have used Disk Warrior and Tech Tools Pro and Data Rescue. All three have fixed me up but if I had to choose just one of these it would be Tech Tools Pro because DW is a one-trick pony for the price and I think that Tech Tools Pro can now do what Data Rescue can do. I just didn't have it when I used Data Rescue but the app seems to have caught up doing what the other two can do. More for your money!
BTW: I didn't buy Drive Genius because when I decided on buying Disk Warrior I read some negatives about it. Things like additional corruption caused by running it and inabilities to fix things that seemed like Disk Utility could easily resolve. That was a few years ago so hopefully they fixed some of the failures it had that seemed as valid issues at the time.
Message was edited by: David Farah

Best disk maintenance utility

Is there a 'best' disk utility program that cleans up the disk of unnecessary files, etc?
I am not 'strong' computer user so need something that is pretty user friendly and intuitive to use.
Thank You...

How to maintain a Mac
1. Make redundant backups, keeping at least one off site at all times. One backup is not enough. Don’t back up your backups; all should be made directly from the original data. Don’t rely completely on any single backup method, such as Time Machine. If you get an indication that a backup has failed, don't ignore it.
2. Keep your software up to date. In the App Store or Software Update preference pane (depending on the OS version), you can configure automatic notifications of updates to OS X and other Mac App Store products. Some third-party applications from other sources have a similar feature, if you don’t mind letting them phone home. Otherwise you have to check yourself on a regular basis.
Keeping up to date is especially important for complex software that modifies the operating system, such as device drivers. Before installing any Apple update, you must check that all such modifications that you use are compatible. Incompatibility with third-party software is by far the most common cause of trouble with system updates.
3. Don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” "boosters," “extenders,” “cleaners,” "doctors," "tune-ups," “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, such stuff is useless or worse than useless. Above all, avoid any software that purports to change the look and feel of the user interface.
It's not much of an exaggeration to say that the whole "utility" software industry for the Mac is a fraud on consumers. The most extreme examples are the "CleanMyMac" and “MacKeeper” scams, but there are many others.
As a rule, the only software you should install is that which directly enables you to do the things you use a computer for, and doesn't change the way other software works.
Safari extensions, and perhaps the equivalent for other web browsers, are a partial exception to the above rule. Most are safe, and they're easy to get rid of if they don't work. Some may cause the browser to crash or otherwise malfunction. Some are malicious. Use with caution, and install only well-known extensions from relatively trustworthy sources, such as the Safari Extensions Gallery.
Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it. Otherwise you may create problems that are very hard to solve. Do not rely on "utilities" such as "AppCleaner" and the like that purport to remove software.
4. Don't install bad, conflicting, or unnecessary fonts. Whenever you install new fonts, use the validation feature of the built-in Font Book application to make sure the fonts aren't defective and don't conflict with each other or with others that you already have. See the built-in help and this support article for instructions. Deactivate or remove fonts that you don't really need to speed up application launching.
5. Avoid malware. Malware is malicious software that circulates on the Internet. This kind of attack on OS X was once so rare that it was hardly a concern, but malware is now increasingly common, and increasingly dangerous.
There is some built-in protection against downloading malware, but you can’t rely on it — the attackers are always at least one day ahead of the defense. You can’t rely on third-party protection either. What you can rely on is common-sense awareness — not paranoia, which only makes you more vulnerable.
Never install software from an untrustworthy or unknown source. If in doubt, do some research. Any website that prompts you to install a “codec” or “plugin” that comes from the same site, or an unknown site, is untrustworthy. Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must come directly from the developer's website. No intermediary is acceptable, and don’t trust links unless you know how to parse them. Any file that is automatically downloaded from the web, without your having requested it, should go straight into the Trash. A web page that tells you that your computer has a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with it, is a scam.
In OS X 10.7.5 or later, downloaded applications and Installer packages that have not been digitally signed by a developer registered with Apple are blocked from loading by default. The block can be overridden, but think carefully before you do so.
Because of recurring security issues in Java, it’s best to disable it in your web browsers, if it’s installed. Few websites have Java content nowadays, so you won’t be missing much. This action is mandatory if you’re running any version of OS X older than 10.6.8 with the latest Java update. Note: Java has nothing to do with JavaScript, despite the similar names. Don't install Java unless you're sure you need it. Most people don't.
6. Don't fill up your boot volume. A common mistake is adding more and more large files to your home folder until you start to get warnings that you're out of space, which may be followed in short order by a boot failure. This is more prone to happen on the newer Macs that come with an internal SSD instead of the traditional hard drive. The drive can be very nearly full before you become aware of the problem.
While it's not true that you should or must keep any particular percentage of space free, you should monitor your storage use and make sure you're not in immediate danger of using it up. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of free space on the startup volume for normal operation.
If storage space is running low, use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the most space. Move seldom-used large files to secondary storage.
7. Relax, don’t do it. Besides the above, no routine maintenance is necessary or beneficial for the vast majority of users; specifically not “cleaning caches,” “zapping the PRAM,” "resetting the SMC," “rebuilding the directory,” "defragmenting the drive," “running periodic scripts,” “dumping logs,” "deleting temp files," “scanning for viruses,” "purging memory," "checking for bad blocks," "testing the hardware," or “repairing permissions.” Such measures are either completely pointless or are useful only for solving problems, not for prevention.
To use a Mac effectively, you have to free yourself from the Windows mindset that every computer needs regular downtime maintenance such as "defragging" and "registry cleaning." Those concepts do not apply to the Mac platform. A computing device should not be a focus of your attention. It should be an almost invisible tool by means of which you communicate, work, and play. If you want a machine that is always whining for your attention like a neurotic dog, use a PC.
The very height of futility is running an expensive third-party application called “Disk Warrior” when nothing is wrong, or even when something is wrong and you have backups, which you must have. Disk Warrior is a data-salvage tool, not a maintenance tool, and you will never need it if your backups are adequate. Don’t waste money on it or anything like it.

When I delete files on a USB, it doesn't free up memory on the stik. I find I have to empty the entire stik, use Disk Utility to 'erase' it, then transfer back the files I removed to free up all the space on the stik. Is this the best practice?

It frustrates me that if I delete a file from a USB, it doesn't free up the memory on the stik. I have been removing all the files from the stik, opening Disk Utility and erasing the empty USB. That frees up the entire stik. Then I have been transferring back the files I removed from the stik. The result is that I have memory available to use again. It seems to me this is an unnecessarily complicated and time consuming way to get the result. Is there a shorter way to do this?

Hello Horst,
Thank you for the question. Have you been emptying your trash after deleting the items? For the item to be removed from your USB device, you will need to empty the trash on your MacBook Pro after you delete the items, as described in the featured discussion below. Your USB device will still need to be connected when you do this:
Choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu. Unlike Windows, the trash needs to be emptied manually for any drive other than one mounted through the network.
Can't delete off my USB drive
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1946841
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Tiger Disk Utility The Best?

Is the "Disk Utility" found on the DVD Install of Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger, the "best" software for "repairing disk permissions?"

Only if you are running Tiger!
Permission repairs should be done in Disk Utility on your internal hard drive.
Repairs to the hard drive itself should be done via Disk Utility on your install DVD once you have booted up from that.

Best format to burn with disk utility?

Can anyone suggest the best video format(s) to use if I want to burn a video file to DVD using disk utility, (if there's even a difference) and secondly, if I need to make a DVD (best quality possible) that auto plays when inserted, will Roxio Toast or some other program give me better results than IDVD, or should I not waste the money?
Thanks for any help.
IMAC - OSX 10.4.11

Unless Toast has improved significantly, iDVD does a better job encoding.
On the other hand, Toast does a bunch of other useful things (like allow you to use R/W disks) that it is a worth while investment.
x

Disk Utility: Differences between "Zero Out Data" and "7-Pass Erase"?

I'm wondering if anyone knows if there's a significant difference between the "Zero Out Data" erase option in Disk Utility (specifically Disk Utility 10.5.5), and the "7-Pass Erase" and "35-Pass Erase" options in same software.
Here's why I'm asking: I have a co-worker with an iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz with 160GB internal hard drive. As a result of the power supply overheating a week ago due to dust, some hard drive problems resulted. I'm trying to assess whether these are 'soft' formatting problems that can be recovered from, or 'hard' problems requiring replacement of the hard drive and/or power supply.
Following the failure, I removed the dust and restored the iMac to servicable form. The power supply seems to be OK now. The next thing was to attempt to recover as much data as possible from the 160GB, as the last full backup was a week old. Carbon Copy Cloner, shell copy via 'sudo cp -p -R -v', Finder copy, and DiskWarrior recovery all met with problems. TechTool Pro identified a huge swatch of unreadable sectors during repeated surface scans. Unfortunately, these unreadable sectors were located midway in the OSX boot partition (an 80GB partition), and not in the other 80GB partition devoted to lower priority video data.
When I was satisfied I had backed up the data to the best of my abilities, I next set out to reformat the drive and see if the bad sectors could be eliminated or remapped out of existence. I did a "Zero Out Data" erasure in Disk Utility (with no errors during the erase), but TechTool Pro showed the bad sectors persisted in equal strength at the same location. I next executed a sixteen hour "7-Pass Erase" (again no errors, and confirming that it takes about an hour per 10GB). The next day when I ran TechTool pro, all of the sector errors had disappeared. I'm a bit perplexed as to why the "7-Pass Erase" seems to have recovered the use of the drive. Is it possible that there are simply thousands of bad sectors now remapped that I'm not seeing? [If so, how do I check for this?] TechTool Pro has not reported any S.M.A.R.T. issues to date on the drive. What am I to make of that?
There are some related threads I've checked into, but I'm not sure how to properly assess my situation based on this information:
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=232007>
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=138559>
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=118455>
Since the iMac has three weeks left on it's one year warranty, and I've already moved the user to another machine temporarily, I'm thinking that the smart thing to so is to send it in to Apple to have them look at the power supply and hard drive. That way, when it returns, even if there is still a lingering hardware problem, at least it will be covered under warranty for another 90 days.
Any thoughts?
iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.25GB RAM, 160GB hard disk, SuperDrive

HI, Bret.
The only differences between "Zero Out Data", "7-Pass Erase", and "35-Pass Erase" are the number of times a binary zero is written to every bit on the disk. "Zero Out Data" writes a binary zero once, whereas the 7- and 35-Pass options write a zero seven and 35 times, respectively.
Technically, one pass with Zero Out Data should be sufficient to map bad sectors out of service, a process also known as sparing. If a bad sector is encountered, it is both marked as "in use" in the directory's allocation table and added to the directory's "bad blocks file."
My understanding is that the Surface Scan of Tech Tool Pro should identify bad sectors every time it is run unless the bad sectors have been locked out by the drive controller of the ATA drive itself. This is because Surface Scan checks the entire surface of the disk.
What may have happened is that running "Zero Out Data" spared the bad blocks from a directory standpoint, but did not result in the drive's controller locking out those sectors for reasons detailed in the "Surface Scan" section of the Tech Tool Pro manual. However, the 7-Pass Erase may have resulted in the drive's controller locking out the bad sectors and why Surface Scan did not pick them up after such.
Given the problems you described, I concur with your plan to have Apple check the affected computer. You might also want to consider purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan for that Mac: I recommend and buy these for all my Macs.
For some additional information on bad sectors, see the "Bad Sectors" section of my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Wife about to give birth and Disk Utility failing to repair HD.

Good morning. Starting last night I began having serious issues with my 2007 20" 2.4ghz iMac. I hope someone can help before I employ the "nuke" option.
First a little background. My wife is about to give birth to our second child. I have several in-laws in town and my house is a wreck. So, last night I thought it would be a great time to upgrade my iPhone 3G to iOS 4. I am not implying that updating my phone caused the problems with my iMac but they started about 30 seconds after pushing the "Update" button in iTunes.
The phone did update to iOS 4 after about 3 hours of backing up but immediately the iMac started "hanging up" and the spinning beach ball appeared for minutes at a time. late last night after my iPhone was functioning again, I went to bed.
This morning, the iMac was still responding very slowly and I was getting the spinning beach ball for even longer periods of time. So, I rebooted the machine and upon reboot the iMac would get stuck on the grey screen with the Apple logo and a spinning gear.
I tried all of the methods on this support document.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
It would not boot into Safe Mode.
I reset the NVRAM/PRAM.
I checked the power cables.
I removed all USB and perpherial attachments. (Including even trying to boot without the keyboard or mouse plugged in.)
After booting from the Install DVD and running Disk Utility, Disk Utility was telling me that almost the entire HD is available and that it could not repair the disk. I was receiving "Invalid Node Structure" and "Volume Check Failed" error messages.
So the last thing the support document suggested was a complete erase and re-install. I have been running Time Machine, but have never actually used it to recover anything, much less the 1000s of photos and 1000s of songs on the iMac.
Is there anything else I can or should try before pulling the plug and erasing the hard drive and praying that Time Machine has worked?
My very pregnant wife will have a heart attack if we lost everything on the computer. (I really am not joking that she might go into labor any second, her due date was last week.)
Thanks for the help and advice. I need it.

I know that I am a bother and asking alot of questions in quick succession, but I am hoping to take care of this before the baby makes its appearance.
I'm getting you have a lot on your mind right now, try not to not worry about it. Might be time to take a few deep breaths and try to relax.
If you have had your machine connected to Time Machine and it has been doing backups (I'm sure it has been) you have done everything necessary.
You can attempt an erase and restore however if your disk is dodgy or has failed at best it's a temporary solution. As I stated I would recommend taking it into an AASP and have it looked at.

Disk repair button in disk utility greyed out and I cant repair my disk

Safari stopped working totally and I downloaded it again but it wont allow me to install it onto the hard drive saying it cant use the software. Disk utility has detected that the disk needs repair but the repair button is blanked out.
Also I have password issues because it wont recognise my master password even though I know what it is. Even though I dont need it now I am sure I will in the future.
Crappy apple 'support' want our money but they only give support for 90 days. If they were so confident about their products working properly they would give us more than 90 day support and if their products really were good then we woudn't need to call would we? MAC *****

I don't know about AppleCare, but they will do an electronic bank draft type vehicle for major purchases as well.
Tiger DVD (now 10.4.6):
Disk Utility - Restore to backup
Reset Password
And "fsck" is your friend to repair the boot drive when you don't have a back up system/clone. Also get a copy of Applejack and use it as well.
Always always backup before applying OS installs and updates.
Might want to start with Apple's Mac 101 Help:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
It can help walk you (and us) through what steps...
boot into Open Firmware and Reset NVRAM
boot to your Apple Hardware Test disk using OPTION key and run tests
run Memtest 4 from Single User Mode
MacIntouch: Bad RAM
clone your boot drive system and apps and backup data
Tiger is now out on DVD with 10.4.6 - updated and easier to upgrade
boot into Single User Mode
run
- Best done after ANY freeze or hard restart
install Applejack gets run in Single User Mode
Using Applejack
MacFixit: Repairing Permissions
General Troubleshooting permissions
Repairing Drives
Backup!
G4 MDD 1.25 1.75GB UL3D 15K/10K RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6) SoftRAID 3.5

MacBook Pro Stuck in Recovery Loop; Disk Utility Error

I am getting the error: Disk Utility Stopped Repairing "disk0s2" - says disk utility can't repair the disk and I will need to reformat the disk and restore my files. This appears to be the startup disk (could be wrong) - as I am currently in recovery mode and any time I reboot, I am taken back to recovery mode and there are no start-up disks available to be selected.
When I run Disk Utility on my Internal HD (or what appears to be - this is 250 GB Hitachi) - I get the all clear that everything appears to be working correctly.
I do have TMbackups saved to a NAS. My MacBook Pro has been running very slowly as of recent (slight boost after upgrading to Yosemite, but then returned to slow performance).
I am running OS X Server on it - and have considered migrating that to a Mac Mini (yet to be purchased) - but want to get a better idea of options before I pull that trigger. I also want to make sure my MacBook Pro is recoverable and can still be used.
1. What is the risk of reformatting just the startup disk "disk0s2"? Is that even possible?
2. Is MacBook Pro in need of service at the apple store? Or can this be completed by me? (I have above average ability, but no wizard)
3. My logic on best practice to recover MBP and then add Mac Mini, migrating OS X Server to it: (all recommendations/suggestions welcome)
a. reformat MBP startup disk
b. restore TMbackup
c. use migration wizard to migrate OS X Server to Mac Mini
d. reformat MBP again, starting from scratch and install fresh copy of Yosemite
I had also considered just a fresh build of OS X Server on a new Mac Mini and starting fresh with the MBP. I don't use a ton of services on OS X Server so think my rebuild would be less time intensive than most.
Appreciate all the feedback.

Well, your hard drive (flash storage) is good, at least. Here's what I would try next (before making a trip to the Apple Store or an AASP):
Boot into your Recovery partition and reinstall OS X. This won't damage or erase any of your user files, etc., just give you a fresh installation of Mountain Lion. Since your hardware seems to be OK, it could be that the system has just become corrupt and reinstalling it may 'fix' the problem.
Call back if that doesn't work...
Clinton

I have a mid-2010 iMac and just purchased a 2TB TC, can't join existing wireless network with AC standard so attached to iMac via ethernet with TC wifi turned off. How do i access TC now? not showing up in disk utility or on desktop. working fine with TM

I have a mid-2010 iMac and just purchased a 2TB TC, I just found out that it can't join existing wireless network with new AC standard so attached to iMac via ethernet with TC's wifi turned off. How do i access TC now? not showing up in disk utility or on desktop. It is working fine with TM. My cheeper seagate drives etc kept crashing, so i didnt trust cheeper back up options anymore. Connected those drives to TM via firewire and could see the drives and access them.
Also, I didn't want to bridge TC with my new fios router that I paid 100 dollars for, to get N speed and also paying 10 dollars more a month for fast speed. I heard that bridging slows down everything and then there can be port issues with mail etc. I connect to the internet via airport only and it is pretty fast. Getting over 50mbs downloads and over 30mbs uploads. Plus everything in my home it connected to my fios router, airport express for music streaming, two apple tvs, vuezone camer system. I really didn't want to monkey around too much with my system. But are there other options to connect the new TC. Can't find info anywhere for this and called apple who gave me the info above. after hanging up, i see that i cant access my TC and I am wondering if i would have to reset it to turn wifi on again to make changes to the drive, turn off blinking light or repair it in disk utility if it should become corrupted.
For other with similar issues i did solve some other problems: when i connected it to my ethernet port on my iMac wifi stopped working. Found that I had to turn off the ethernet in the system>network screen, but then TM didn't see the TC so i restarted after changes and then it saw it.
Now a rant. I can't believe in this wireless age that Apple would make a product that cant join a wireless net work. The apple rep said i could return it and look for the previous TC that would join an existing wireless network. Are we going backwards?
Thanks!
lennydas

Ok... it is getting a bit clearer but there are still some questions.
I connect to the internet via airport only and it is pretty fast.
I was assuming airport in this statement in your first post meant the TC or the Express.. but I now realise we are still in the mass confusion stage where apple calls everything wireless an airport. So what you mean is the airport internal card of the computer??
Also, I didn't want to bridge TC with my new fios router that I paid 100 dollars for, to get N speed and also paying 10 dollars more a month for fast speed. I heard that bridging slows down everything and then there can be port issues with mail etc.
I think this is mistaken.
Putting the TC in bridge mode plugged into your FIOS will not slow the network.. nor will it cause mail or port issues.. in bridge the TC is just a fancy WAP and switch plus the network hard drive.
If the computer is close it will be faster than the FIOS.
You can run both wireless networks with different names.. so it is clear which is which. But you can also setup roaming so the computers themselves pick which is the best wireless.
I tried extending the wireless net work and tried joining wireless network, but the TC kept crashing and I had to keep resetting the TC. the Apple support person said these, extend wireless network and joint wireless network, are no longer a connection option with the new TC because of the new AC protocol.
Thanks again!
You cannot extend to a non-apple wireless router.
You cannot use join a wireless network because when you do the ethernet ports will be cut off.
But that has not changed.. I don't think Apple support is correct.. there has been no change with the AC model.. it is simply a fact that apple routers do not work in join wireless mode other than as a dumb client. The same applies to AC as to the earlier version.. but I have asked another person to check this.
Join in the express is the only apple router that still allows an ethernet connection.
For now you best use of the TC is bridged to the FIOS. Wireless you can sort out between several options.

Disk utility reports "Device could not be opened" - error when trying to format a new drive in a Mac Pro 1,1

MacPro 1,1 Quadcore 3 GHz (2006 "Woodcrest")
32 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770
OS X 10.7.5 Lion
I have encountered the following behavior when trying to format a new drive with disk utility. This description has also been send via the Mac Pro feedback as a bug report to Apple.
On searching the web and forums with this particular error message and behaviour I could not find any usful results. So maybe the following description may be helpful for some users.
Best regards.
1. Drive Bay 1 contains the original 250 GB Startupdisk. It works without errors.
2. Drive Bays 3 and 4 contain each a WD Caviar Black 2 TB SATA 3 HDD. They work without errors.
3. I have purchased a third WD Caviar Black 2 TB HDD.
4. In Drive Bay 2 there has been a Seagate 750 GB HDD, which worked in conjunction with all the other drives without error.
5. I exchanged the Seagate HDD in Drive Bay 2 with the new WD Caviar Black 2 TB HDD.
6. On starting the system, it will report to initialize the new drive.
7. On trying to initialize the new drive with disk utility it reports the error [translated from German] "Erasing of the volume has failed. The device could not be opened."
8. I thought that the drive is faulty. Thus I created an RMA-Case at WD. They exchanged the drive without problems.
9. On getting the exchanged WD Caviar Black 2 TB drive I put it in Drive Bay 2 as before.
10. On trying to erase and format the exchange drive I got the same error message "Drive could not be opened."
10.1 On selecting the physical drive in the devices list, disk utility reports all information in the bottom area of its window as usual, e. g. hard disk description, connection bus, type and place, capacity, write status, SMART-status, partition scheme.
10.1 On leaving that drive selected in the devices list and clicking the info-button, disk utility will also report additional information as usual, e. g. Name, Type, partition scheme, media-identification, media name, media type, device tree, … , number of relocated sectors, etc.. All this information appears to be valid, as can be compared to the other devices information inside the other Drive Bays. Also the disk numbering scheme appears to be standard - 4 HDDs give the numbering disk0, disk1, disk2, disk3.
10.2 From that information I conclude that the SATA-bus and connectors electrically work properly, the drive has spun up and can be accessed by the system normally.
11. I powered down the computer, took out the HDDs from Drive Bays 3 and 4 and put the caddy with the new exchange drive in Drive Bay 4 [Maybe, I could have also just left it alone in Drive Bay 2, or 3].
12. After powering on the system, disk utility will quick format the exchange drive without any error message. Also, when erasing again by selecting the option to write zeros to the drive, disk utility will finish without error.
13. After disk utility finished formatting, I put back the original drives into Drive Bay 3 and 4 and put the now newly formatted drive back into Drive Bay 2.
14. After switching on the computer the system start and login proceeds without any error message. All drives appear as expected on the desktop.

If anyone is reading this still looking for what caused the issue and how to fix it here is what I discovered.
The antivirus program our company uses, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, was causing some of the PDF files not to open. After troubleshooting the different modules and settings the culprit was..
Scan SSL in Privacy Control Settings. Turning it OFF solved the problem and all the PDF files that previously would not open now open just fine. This issue has been sent to Bitdefender for them to review. If you use a different antivirus program and are having this issue try locating the Scan SSL setting and see if turning it off solves the problem.

How do I clear my MacBook Pro HD using Disk Utility?

I'm not sure if my MacBook Pro specifications are necessary, so I'll skip those for the time being, but I have a 2009 release which already had OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on it and came with both the OS X Install DVD and Applications Install DVD for this in case I needed to clear my HD for whatever reason and start over. I skipped Lion and upgraded straight to Mountain Lion when it came out, which I paid for and finally yesterday, I upgraded to Mavericks. This was all through the App Store.
My questions are:
1. Taking into account my situation, would I be best installing Snow Leopard after clearing my HD since I have the DVD for it and then upgrading to either Mountain Lion and then Mavericks, or just straight to Mavericks, or would it be easier to get Mavericks onto a bootable USB and not bother with the Snow Leopard DVD? Keep in mind I'd like the least complicated option, as I haven't done it before. I'm curious because I've read that Mavericks was designed to be used as an upgrade and not so much for clean installs - not sure if that's true or not.
2. Obviously I've got Mountain Lion under "Purchases" in my App Store account and I don't want to have to pay again. If I clear my HD and end up installing Snow Leopard, will it be easy enough to just log in and redownload it without having to pay again? If I do this method and end up with Snow Leopard, will it be advisable to jump straight to Mavericks? The fact Mountain Lion cost around £20 or so (can't remember exactly) and Mavericks is free, I'm not sure I trust jumping...
3. I think I'm ok with actually clearing my HD, but wondering when to insert the disc or USB - will it prompt me or is it just before restarting... Or after restarting? It says on the disc, "To start up from Mac OS X, hold down the C key as the computer starts up'. Confused about the order in which I should do things!
4. In general, is a clean install advisable of just Mavericks? It seems like a huge hassle and I'd rather upgrade from what I bought the MacBook with in the first place. I've read that the recovery partition can go missing if you do a clean install? What is that and does it really happen?
If anyone could help/advise me, that'd be awesome! Thank you! PS I'm aware there are a number of different versions of Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion and so on, so any advice regarding that would also be useful.

Ok, thanks.
I forgot to add that I'm not sure whether to clear the drive through Disk Utility through the Applications folder and then put the disk in before restarting or whether to simply restart my MacBook without doing that, then put the DVD in while pressing the C key.

HT1553 Does using Disk Utility also backup MSOffice 2008 (Mac) software already installed on my Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard? If not, how would I do that?

Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade from Snow Leapord (10.6.8) to the new Mountain Lion. Have a lot of applications and softwares that I would like to back up when installing the new OS, such as MS Office, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Any ideas on what is the best way to do that.
I'm not too tech savvy, so a simple solution would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Shyam

If your not very tech savvy, I would have someone assist you in the upgrade process as your about to inflict major change on your life and computer.
There are some things to consider before you upgrade.
1: The age of your machine:
My advice has been if your Mac is less than two years old and has a dedicated graphics (not all only Intel HD 3000 or 4000 CPU graphics like the 13" has)) then you stand a very good chance of 10.8 (or 10.7) running fine on your machine.
In either case you need to check the specifications of your machine to see if it meets Apple's requirements, and unfortunately those requirements are a bit low, resulting in a slower machine when you upgrade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Mountain_Lion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Lion
(note: 10.7 is no longer being sold via the AppStore, you should upgrade to 10.8, however some machines can't, you can call Apple Sales to upgrade to 10.7)
If your machine originally came with 10.5, I would say forget it. Mac's don't last forever and laptops usually have a life of about 4 years with normal use. Desktops last longer of course and can withstand more OS X upgrades if Apple allows it.
2: The age of your software.
10.7 and 10.8 will not run PPC based software of old like 10.6 does, also upgrading to 10.8/10.7 may require expensive software upgrades that can hit you unexpected. Consult this site and your other needed software and hardware drivers/software (for printers/scanners,custom keyboards/mice etc) BEFORE you upgrade the operating system.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
3: Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper "clone" (payware)
Your OS X boot partition to a new/reliable, blank powered external drive and use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions on both afterwards. You can hold the option key down and boot from this clone drive to use the computer like before if your OS X upgrade fails and the machine gets bricked. You can also use Disk Utility to erase the entire internal drive and reverse clone if you find out the OS X upgrade is not to your liking.
Make sure all other drives are disconnected, like TimeMachine when cloning or upgrading OS X, thus when you reboot TimeMachine doesn't self update itself, which can lock you out from going back in time to restore from.
Note: If you have Bootcamp, you can clone that with WinClone (payware) to another drive and recreate Bootcamp later and restore it.
4: Some firmware updates can possibly "BRICK" your hardware
Firmware updates progress in a forward manner and can't be downgraded, so what sometimes occurs is a software error by programmers or a hardware glitch on your machine won't 100% cooperate with the firmware update and thus your machine will fail to function. Sometimes even a interruption in the OS X upgrade or firmware update process will cause the problem. When this occurs, a trip to a Apple Repair is in order and if your machine is out of AppleCare (3 years) or the 1 years standard warranty your looking at a very expensive logicboard replacement. At this time you usually consider the cost not worth it and rather spend the money on the newer machine, especially if it's 2-3 years old. This can come as quite a shock as you expected to pay $20 for a OS X upgrade and now have to buy a whole new machine.
You can't not upgrade the operating system for security and bug fixes, however you make sure you have AppleCare that will protect you for three years if such a hardware bricking occurs. If you don't have AppleCare you might want to reconsider taking the chance upgrading the operating system and thus the firmware.
AppleCare can be purchased within one year of the original machine purchase, it gives one 3 years of care from the date of machine purchase, not from the date of AppleCare purchase.
5: Market share of OS x versions (apx)
10.4 4.5% security updates > no
10.5 15% security updates > no
10.6 52% security updates > yes
10.7 30% security updates > yes
10.8 2 million upgraded so far, just released
6: Your decision to upgrade or not
It depends upon your computer technical ability, the age of your machine, your software investment and your budget.
Can you afford to pay for professional assistance if your upgrade doesn't go as expected? Are you in AppleCare?
Can you afford to pay for upgrades to third party software?
Can you afford the downtime while your machine is being repaired?
Can you live without the "new features" newer OS versions provide?
Does your hardware even support the newer features?
You might decide the upgrade is not worth it for your older machine and decide to ease yourself into a new machine gradually. I took this approach with my 2006 MacBook Pro, buying a Early 2011 model. I then upgrade to 10.7 on the older 2006 machine and glad I did, because it got bricked. Turned out 10.7 was a pretty awful upgrade and I was out of AppleCare, however 10.8 seems to be "normal" far as OS X upgrades go, some problems but not mass bricking of machines.

New WD HD isn't showing up in Installer Disk Utility?

I've checked the connections numerous time and everything is properly installed. I inserted the installer cd that came with my laptop and the HD doesn't appear in disk utility so there is no way for me to format it. The only thing that does pop up however is the DVD drive and CD. I also checked profiler in utilities and it doesn't appear either. I have no idea what to do at this point.. I've read many other forums but nothing helped.
(Mid 2009 2.26ghz MPB)

Recently there have been a number of people having great problems with some of the WD hard drives and Macs...a lot of compatibility issues and non-recognized issues.
Did you order this drive from an on-line source or a retail supplier? Best advice would be to see if you can return it and get another brand that is more Mac-compatible. You can check sites that are Mac-friendly such as OWC to see what brands are sold to get some ideas of those that will work readily.

Best disk utility?

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