Can Disk Utility warnings and odd behavior be ignored safely?

I have a late 2012 Mac mini with a fusion drive. which will not repair using Disk Utility. In addition, I have been unable to partition it. When I try to verify the disk I get: Unable to bootstrap transaction group 461088: invalid field value
No valid commit checkpoint found
The volume CEF34A3F-08C3-45A5-9A87-C383B300541E was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.
If I run disk repair it goes into a loop saying that the disk needs to be repaired.
I took it to the Apple store where they were also unable to partition it, but they did say that there is nothing wrong with the disk. Can the above warning and behavior be safely ignored? Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the mini often hangs when I restart from the Apple menu.

The problem is solved,
I took the Mac mini to the
Apple store again and this time they rebuilt the fusion drive and installed a fresh copy of OSX. After copying my stuff over from a Time Machine backup and running Disk Utility again a get a nice reassuring green text saying that; 'the volume appears to be o.k.'
Thanks to all.

Similar Messages

I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red-keys out of order, and --Volume corrupt, can't be repaired. I tried

I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red…keys out of order, and ……Volume corrupt, can't be repaired.
I tried to do a system install, but message said…disk can't be changed. Will a complete erase and install fix this ?
Everything is backed-up.

There's hardware and software.
Your drive could physically be in good condition but something has caused the file structure to be messed up (it just happens sometimes). The directory that keep track of files is corrupt. Disk Utility can help determine if that is the issue. In some cases it can repair the problem but it cannot do it to a drive that is being used to boot the system while you are doing that. You have to boot from another drive. Some things DU cannot repair and you need to try a stronger utility such as Diskwarrior.
A failing hard drive (one with mechanical issues) can be a cause of file structure issues but this is by no means always the case. Apart from looking at the SMART diagnosis feature of Disk Utility (and smart isn't totally reliable) there often isn't a way to tell if a drive is failing until it suddenly happens, which is why you need to maintain backups.
In your situation it does sound serious and not just minor directory corruption. You can try erasing (formatting) the drive, You may need to do this if it is really corrupt, in which case there could be underlying physical issues. I use old technology but if you have the patience you can try erasing the drive with the security option of writing zeros once (don't do more unless you are going on a 3 week vacation). This makes the drive not simply assume everything is okay by forcing it try every part of the drive by writing data. If something is gong wrong you may find it marks a lot of bad sectors, or flat out refuses to format. Then you know you need a new drive.

IMac 21" late 09: Slow, screen flickering/tearing and odd behavior - the problem that puzzles everyone

PLEASE HELP!
My iMac 21" late -09, started acting a bit wierd a year ago. Things got worse rapidly, it got slower, the screen flickers/tears (see link below), short moments of lost internet connection, lost connection whit the keyboard (might be keyboard that is broken), almost overheats when gaming and odd behavior on some webbsites whit galleries and/or videos.
Let's begin whit the screen: it's not vertikal lines or major distortions, just a subtle horisontal line that "wanders" from bottom to topp and some lagging from time to time. Looks like this: http://cl.ly/3i2W2o3S1D2T
The wierd thing is that hi-res does not mean more "tearing". Yes the lagg and risk of tearing increases, but the connection seems to be: lots of movement=tearing. So a pixeld 240p video of people dancing can be way worse than a news debbate in1080p!?!
Lost connection whit internet and keyboard rarely happens and is probably due to something else, but thought that was good to have in mind.
Odd behavior: galleries ex: when browsing images on Facebook in fullscreen, the image sometimes jumps around in the beginning and when clicking on next the same picture might appear again or just nothing at all. When scrolling down overwiewing a gallery, the updating stops and you can't scroll down further. This problem appers mainly on FB, deviantart also acts a bit wierd but there is often small issues whit image sites. Doesn't help to switch browsers either!
Videos: Youtube is horrible to use, stops loading, dosen't start loading, erases everything loaded (grey bar disapears and reloads), refuse to switch ressolution and suddenly stops the video like it was done! "ehh.. wasn't this 2min long? Not anymore, now its 34sec!". Mainly a Youtube problem but many similar sites can be a bit problematic to use.
NO, it's not the HTML-5 problem or any standard flash issue and using a different browser dosen't help!
Worst is the fact that most of these errors are not constant! One day your watching youtube or mabey a movie in VLC, a bit laggy, but almost no problem. Next day **** brakes lose and after 2hours of struggling you are ready to stabb yourself in the face!
What i tried: Most easy buggfixes that might cause the above problems, updating most things, Switched from OS X SL to OS X ML, complete reinstall and some things i probably forgot by now. Then went to MacStore for repair, they didn't find anything wrong and said it worked fine after the standard diagnostic/repair program!?! Went home and everything was the same! Went a second time to MacStore, same result.
So I'v reinstalled a few times and it seems to improve the Mac. But 2-3weeks later every error is back, even if I barely installed or downloaded anything!?!
Any idea what this could be? Or is the graphic card broken and MacStore has a blind, inbred muppet as a technician?

No I didn't. The first time i explained the problem thoroughly and thought that they just couldn't miss such a visual error. I was wrong. The second time the technician wasn't there so i showed the above clip to the salesstaff and explained everything onceagain. Later the technician called me and we talked for 10min.
Btw, the problems always "manifests themselves", just varies between strenght and frequence.
But all other issues aside, what could cause the tearing of the screen as seen int the above clip?

I just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

i just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

It sounds like your hard drive either has a software problem that Disk Utility cannot fix or that the HD has failed (mechanically).
Your Mac may have booted either to your recovery partition or to internet recovery in an attempt to repair the drive- I can't tell from your post.
I'll assume that it was the recovery partition.
Try to boot into internet recovery (hold down option command R at restart), and see if you can repair your HD with Disk Utility. You should also repair permissions while you're there.
If that doesn't work, try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
If that doesn't work you have a few options:
If your mac originally came with installation disks, you can try to boot from the installation disk and then see if you can repair the HD.
There is a small chance that Techtool Pro 7 will be able to repair your HD if Disk Utility can't.
If none of that works then your HD has probably failed and will need to be replaced, which is not too difficult to do yourself if you can use a screwdriver.

Can Disk Utility burn a Blu-ray ISO file?

This is a simple question to pose: assuming only the best of media and burner hardware (so that problems with those don't come into play), can Disk Utility reliably burn ISO images that represent a Blu-ray disk, complete with chapters and whatever else is contained on a Blu-ray disk?
Background
I'll be using Adobe Premiere to generate videos for burning to Blu-ray disk. There seems to be several ways for me to do that, and most of them seem to have problems:
1. From the completed Premiere project, I can jump into Adobe Encore and burn from there. But… many comments on the Adobe forum suggest that route may be problematic. No burn-speed control for instance. The Encore forum is full of people who don't use Encore's burning abilities, but instead use Toast or the PC equivalent.
2. Use Toast. I've just received a special offer form Other World Computing to buy Toast 11 Pro for $49. But… I've been put off buying Toast because of many poor reviews on Amazon. A handful of poor reviews I could ignore, but there are dozens.
3. Use Encore to generate an ISO image of my completed Blu-ray, then use Disk Utility to burn that ISO. But… there are websites in the internet jungle telling me I need to download their product to be able to burn Blu-ray ISO images on a Mac. On the other hand, there are reputable websites (here and here) that explain how to use Disk Utility to burn Blu-ray ISOs.
Basically, I'm confused. It seems to me that Encore > ISO > Disk Utility is the way to go, but I would like confirmation from Apple users that this route will work and is reliable. If not, maybe I should be buying Toast before the special runs out on 30 April.

First, I duplicated one of the links in my original post. The correct links are (1) and (2).
Thanks for the replies, but they haven't cleared up my confusion.
On the last page of the first link, lifted from the California Institute of the Arts website, clear instructions are given for using Disk Utility to burn a Blu-ray ISO.
Right at the bottom of the second link, lifted from the Drexel University website, similar instructions are given for using Disk Utility to burn a Blu-ray ISO.
Are both instructions incorrect in their basic assumption? When their students go to video lab to burn a Blu-ray, do the students find it can't be done?
This is really confusing. Toast gets very poor reviews, yet I've never had a problem with Toast 9. Two tertiary education sites tell me how to burn a Blu-ray with Disk Utility, but I've just received two responses which tell me it can't be done. I'm intrigued.

Can Disk Utility repair FAT32?

hi, folks:
I'm jammed up. I need to repair the drive in my PS3. It's FAT32-formatted. Im a Mac user, obviously. Can Disk Utility repair it, or does it only do Mac discs?
Please say "yes" (and mean it!). (Barring, of course, hardware problems, I mean. I understand that if the platter is scratched or the controller's no good, I've had the radish.)
BInky

Grf. This wasn't the answer I wanted, but it's what I needed. Thanks, Kurt. I'm now off on a quest to find a Windows laptop. I appreciate the quick response.
BInky

Can Disk Utility clone just like CCC and Super Duper?

Is it true that I can create a clone simply using disk utility?
Ive been searching for hours - and i cannot find any support docs on this.
can it be done?
Thanks

Yes. But it's so much easier to use Super Duper.
Here's the Apple doc. I think you want.
DALE

Issues Exiting Sleep Mode and Odd Behavior On Restart with GPU

I'm running a completely stock HP P7-1240 desktop except for an EVGA GeForce GTX 750 TI SC GPU. The GPU runs fine when the computer is up and running (which is odd because the forums have several other threads mentioning that the 700 series should be incompatible with my BIOS).
However, there are two main strange problems that have arisen since installing the GPU. One is that, whenever the computer enters sleep mode, it refuses to wake back up properly. It seems to me that the computer activates but does not send any signals out from the back panel (at the very least, no video signal because my monitors stay blank). On a rare occasion, it will wake back up properly, but at least 90% of the time, it needs to be restarted. Upon restart, sometimes the same issue occurs (no video output), and the computer needs to be restarted a second time before it will boot up again.
This leads to the second problem. When starting, the computer goes to a black screen listing basic computer specs (see attached photo. At this screen, the computer does not respond to any input. It proceeds to beep 3 times, all the same length and pitch spaced about 30 seconds apart. After the third beep, the screen goes black and then the computer boots up normally with no further odd behavior.
Without the GPU, none of these issues happen. At the very least, not regularly.
I have seen another thread mentioning that, although the HP support page for my desktop does not list it, there is a BIOS update for my motherboard that has fixed issues relating to more modern GPU's. By nature of it being a BIOS update that does not (appear to) officially support Windows 7, I'm hesitant to move forward with that potential solution.
Although I'm planning to build myself a new computer from scratch at some point, I was hoping to at least get another year out of this machine, if not 2. While this issue doesn't appear to be immediately threatening the stability of the computer, I can't help but think that this is an issue I should iron soon to avoid future issues (not to mention it would save me a fair amount of electricity to be able to enter sleep mode on a regular basis).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hello @johnmwalker,
I understand that you are having some issues with your HP Pavilion p7-1240 Desktop PC waking up from sleep mode. I am not sure how much can be done for the delay on your startup with an OEM BIOS you are limited in what you can do and since your graphic card works I think you would be better off not messing too much with the BIOS at this point. The one thing I would try is going into the BIOS using the HP Support document:BIOS Setup Utility Information and Menu Options, and under Advanced > Power-On Options set POST Messages to Disable and POST Delay (in seconds) to None.
Now the waking from sleep mode issue could just be the hybrid sleep setting causing you an issue with sleep mode. Use the following steps to disable hybrid sleep:
Step 1. Click Start
Step 2. Click Control Panel.
Step 3. Click System and Security
Step 4. Click Power Options
Step 5. Click High Performance from Power Options
Step 6. Click Change plan settings
Step 7. Select Change advanced power settings
Step 8. Click the plus (+) sign next to Sleep
Step 9. Click the plus (+) sign next to Allow hybrid sleep
Step 10. Select Off from the drop-down menu
Step 11. Click OK
Please re-post if you require additional support. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
Dunidar
I work on behalf of HP
Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

Can Disk Utility's seven-pass Erase feature do unfixable damage?

I have begun posting about this under a different HD topic, but thought I would open a new thread as this would seem to be an important issue not much remarked on. If anyone has any ideas how to fix this, they are most welcome. First, my cautionary tale.
About ten days ago I removed a lot of financial data from my laptop. I also had consolidated all my passwords into a program called Pastor, so I removed the other insecure files where this info was previously stored (like from my email client, and from a word file). When I emptied the Trash, however, I neglected to use the Secure Empty function, and was suddenly seized with anxiety lest my laptop fall into the wrong hands. So I opened up Disk Utility, and clicked on Erase Free Space, using the 7-pass process which is highly secure.
DU warns you that this process will take 7 times longer than the single-pass erase (makes sense), and when it started up, it gave an estimated time as 4hrs something. When I got up next morning, some 14 hours having passed, it was still working. I just couldn't wait any longer and hit the Stop button. A warning came up saying, "Interrupting this operation may damage a disk or render it unusable." That sounded so extreme that I discounted it. I thought Apple was being a bit Nervous Nellie about it--I mean, all it's doing is writing zeros all over the thing, what's the big deal? BAD IDEA.
What I didn't understand was that the seven-pass process doesn't empty your HD, it fills it up. With zeros, to be sure, but it fills it up. Upon completion, if I understand correctly, it resets itself so that all those zeros are read as empty space. If you interrupt it before completion, it does not reset and sees all that space as full. NOT GOOD.
My HD was now sluggish, programs were quitting unexpectedly, some wouldn't start, and others gave the Error-50 message. Worst of all, Word was saying "can't create or save this file because memory is almost full" or "Cannot save file. Your disk may be damaged or write-protected." And yet the system profile indicates 40GB of free space.
I have tried the following: Repair Permissions (from the Home HD); repeating the Erase procedure using single-pass to completeion; resetting PRAM; Safe Boot and then Repairing Permissions from within Safe Mode; changing Startup Disk to my external and running Repair Disk and Repair Permissions from there; rebooting and running Repair Permissions from the Home drive once more.
That was my latest attack on the problem. Repair Disk is finding no problems, and Repair Permissions is finding nothing to repair. At this moment, the computer seems okay, and maybe this is over. But several times in the past week it has seemed okay only for the problems to start up again, which is why I'm writing this now in case I'm looking at complete drive failure in a day or two. Here are my questions:
Has anyone here had experience with an aborted 7-pass Erase function? Does it truly damage the disk?
Should I try running the 7-pass Erase again, this time letting it go to completion no matter how long it takes? (In order to make sure it properly resets.) Or is that risking making things worse?
Is there some other diagnostic test I cam make to determine just wherein the problem lies?
Am I looking at buying a new HD (the current one was expensive and is only a year old)?
I always get good advice from this forum, so I'm hoping someone knows what to do. Any advice much appreciated.
Giles

DiskWarrior is your best bet for curing Disk Problems that nothing else can.
Other than that, if you can afford to erase and reinstall...
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the Erase tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Highlight the drive, select Erase Tab, then Format type... MacOS Extended Journalled, select the Security Options button, choose Zero Out Data, Erase... after completion hopefully you'll be able to have a clean install.

Can Disk Utility make a "New Image" from a desktop copy of a DVD?

I have not been able to get Disk Utility to make "new images" of a couple of DVDs. For one of the DVDs, it may have something to do with a hyphen in the title. I haven't a clue why I'm failing with the second of the two DVDs. (Previously, I've had no trouble with about a dozen DVDs so far.)
Several members of this discussion group recommended me to copy&paste or drag&drop the files from a DVD to a new folder (say on the desktop), and then to drag the resulting new folder into the box in Disk Utility, and then to make a disk image using Disk Utility.
(Note: While I believe the original DVDs are not encrypted, I ran an experiment to make double sure, by using MacTheRipper first to produce folders containing clean files.)
However, when I drag the new folder into the box in Disk Utility, and let go of the mouse button, then the folder does not stay in Disk Utility window, but instead springs back to the desktop.
How can I get Disk Utility to make new images from the new desktop folders?
Note:
As a partially successsful work around:
For one of the two original DVDs - which has only about 3.7GB on it - I can sometimes (only sometimes) succeed in doing without Disk Utility simply by dragging the audio and video files from the new desktop folder onto a blank DVD, and then burning that DVD. However, in an average of about two out of every three attempts so far, my Mac rejects the new disk as unusable during the burn process.
For the other original DVD - which has about 4.36GB on it - the contents of the new desktop folder won't fit onto a blank DVD. It then gets messy - shrinking the files - so I'd like to avoid all of that by getting DIsk Utility to work properly.

For the answer, see the following excerpt from my own posting dated 2 May 2006, i.e.:
"I finally found out for myself (from Disk Utility Help) that to make a new image from a file/folder, rather than dragging the folder to the Disk Utility pane, in the top menu bar in Disk Utility you select Images/New/Image from Folder."

Disk Utility Crashing and Disk Images Not Opening Properly?

Hi,
I got a new G-Tech 500GB external drive that I've got into three partitions. All of them have Tiger on them but the main one I'm using is giving me problems. I have Stuffit Expander 11 on here and when I try to open a disk image it looks like it's opening but doesn't. Also I try and open Disk Utility and it crashes on me. I did a repair disk permissions a few hours ago after restarting up again and it seemed to be fine but now the problem is back.
The other problem I have on and off is that out of the three partitions I'm supposed to put them in the trash before shutting down and sometimes the two not in use won't go in the trash.
Any ideas? The two other partitions I have right now I'm using for recovery stuff from my internal drive.
S.

Its the improper unmount of the firewire drive which is the problem. Try to reset all.
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
      reset-nvram and hit the Return key
      set-defaults and hit the Return key
      reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure
How to avoid the issue :
The only really proven way to avoid burning up a FireWire port is to connect all devices and to turn them on PRIOR turning on the Mac. Likely, one must unplug them and turn them off AFTER the Mac has been turned off. If you need to connect another device, then you're on for a shutdown of your machine...  It's a tad annoying but it guarantees that the FW ports won't be damaged.  Be careful when using self powered devices such as webcams, iPods, hard drives or hubs, as they can destroy the port pretty easily. Another thing is to avoid daisy-chaining hard drives.
When the FW port doesn't respond anymore :
In this case, peripherals won't be mounted upon plugging, and won't be displayed in Apple's System Profiler. The self powered devices will still be fed by the port, but won't respond either.  It happens that the PHY just hangs after a surge or a random problem. Once hung, the port will not respond any longer, it is possible to reset the component by going through the following steps :
1° boot the mac in Open Firmware by holding [ Apple key - Option - O - F ] after the startup chime.  2° you'll get to a command prompt. the keyboard mapping will be QWERTY, so pay attention when you type the following :  RESET-NVRAM (enter)  RESET-ALL (enter)  3° Now the mac should restart itself and the port should function properly again.  If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.
http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16/

Disk utility Restore and Back up

when using Disk utility and dragging my source internal HD to the source window and then dragging my external HD to the destination window then clicking on restore.
After this completes can I then boot from the external HD? I have been using DeJuVu with no problems on a lacie ext HD. i just purchased an OWC Mercury elite and did a DeJuVu back up, but the OWC wont boot.
It mounts and shows up on the restart in sytem preferences. I contacted OWC and they recommended doing another back up. They also told me i could do the restore from disk utilities and would be able to boot from the ext.
I am now doing a restore on the imac but still wondering if this will work, if so I could do my cloning of the HD with out using DeJuVu. the only thing I would lose is the ability to do scheduling.
Thank You
Dick

I never had any problem backing up a clone using DeJuVu. I always backed up to external sata HD's and a Lacie firewire ext. Also when I used CCC this time it worked fine.
When I bought the OWC Mercury Elite is when I had a problem. After spending a day with there tech dept with no success. I came to the conclusion that only one HD could be booted from there ext 2 drive enclosure. I contacted the the next morning and talked to there senior tech and he confirmed that the enclosure when split using two drives independently that only one was bootable.
I am not sure why you can't get a complete bootable clone. What are the drives and what are you trying to clone to. Ext, internal or your single drive which you have partitioned?
I feel if your cloning you should always do it on a separate drive.
My methods are I never partition and never fill my operating system over half of the drive capacity.
Dcik

CD burning with disk utility - format and size for 800 MB - 90 minutes CD

Hi Support,
I'm trying to burn a CD with 800 MB (90 minutes) using disk utility. When I create a new empty image I can select the size. Unfortunately there is no option for a 90 minutes CD. When I create the image with 800 MB and I try to burn it, disk utility tells me that the image is too big. So my first question is what is the maximum size for such a CD?
Next question, which format should I use? When creating a new empty image, I have the options "Beschreibbares Image" and "Mitwachsendes Image" (I have a Germann OS). But I dont't have the option to create a "CD/DVD Master", which is availabe, when I create an image from a folder. What I have to do, is to convert the image afterwards to a "CD/DVD Master". This is very circumstantial.
So my questions are:
1. Is there an easier way o create an empty disk image for a CD/DVD?
2. Is the format "CD/DVD Master" required to burn a CD. It is also possible to burn images with other formats. What is the advantage/disadvantage of this format?
3. Which format is required to use the CD in a Windows computer or a standalone CD/DVD player? The volume format must probably "MS-DOS Filesystem" in this case?
4. Is it possible to burn multi session CD's in this case?
5. Is there a comprehensive documentation somewhere available for this burning issue on Mac? The help of disk utility is really not enough.
Thanks for answers and hints Thomas

Hi thmayr!
Although the original instructions were for a 700 MB disc, perhaps the article linked to below, could be helpful.
From "Macworld" Feb 2005 issue p.90 Link To Article. Scroll to the second tip on the page: "Unix Tip of the Month: Utilize Extra Space on CD-Rs".
Content:
Create a new folder in the Finder.
Drag everything you want to burn, up to 700 MB, into the folder.
Open Terminal and type cd ~/Desktop
Press the Enter key. This changes Terminal's active directory to your user's Desktop folder.
Type hdiutil makehybrid -o myburn.iso (There's a space after the o in iso, and myburn can be any name you choose) DON'T press Enter
Switch to the "Finder"
Drag & drop the folder you created onto the Terminal window. Terminal should fill in the full path to the folder.
Press Enter. Enter key will then execute the command.
What you have done is used the hdiutil Unix command to create a hybrid disk image named myburn.iso (you can choose whatever name you like, in place of myburn, but use iso for the extension.
You should see the message "Creating hybrid image" in your Terminal window, as well as an indication of the task's progress.
When finished, you should see a disk image called myburn.iso on your Desktop.
You can use Disk Utility to burn this image, or you can type
hdiutil burn ~/Desktop/myburn.iso in Terminal
Insert a blank CD-R when prompted, and then just wait until it's done.
ali b

Can Disk Utility get SMART status from external drives?

I recently updated my backup plan with a NewerTech quad-interface dock and a WD Caviar Green hd. I'm using the FW800 interface to connect to my iMac (10.6.7) Everything works perfectly, as expected. I noticed, though, that Disk Utility cannot report the SMART status on the new WD drive. DU simply says "Not Supported" under SMART Status.
Is Disk Utility telling me that it doesn't read SMART status from external drives? Or is it telling me that the new drive doesn't support SMART (which I would find highly unusual)? And, if it's Disk Utility that can't read the status, are there any third-party apps that can report the SMART status on an external drive?
Thanks,
JimC

Unfortunately I cannot speak to the NewerTech enclosure, but in principle it appears to be possible to have SMART information displayed even for external drives if the enclosure's bridge controller chip allows it.
My experience:
I've used two MacPower Pleiades FW800/400/USB/eSATA enclosures for several years and I've now supplemented them with two additional inXtron enclosures. They all work as expected daisy-chained to the iMac.
The interesting thing is that the inXtron enclosures came with a CD with some software on it ("Smart AP") which is not available for download, notably a Dashboard Widget for displaying actual and maximum temperatures, total hours of operation, start/stop cycles, drive model and serial number.
This widget is complete garbage, though – it is a nauseating nightmare of extreme over-design at the expense of even basic usability:
http://www.inxtron.com/information-center/smart-ap-for-external-hard-drives
To make matters even worse, it can only display the above information for the first external drive connected.
BUT: This Widget internally calls a command line utility which does the actual parameter retrieval, and that one can be called from the terminal as well.
So after installing the software from CD and effectively discarding the Widget, I checked out the command line utility in the Terminal and found that this utility actually reported data about ALL my enclosures, both the inXtron and the MacPower ones (there seems to be firmware compatibility across these):
(The '$' is supposed to be Terminal's bash prompt – type in only the rest of the respective line.)
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 1
29 50 13 8
53 67 645 15829
52 53 90 7105
51 52 18 13
Each line reports the following for one connected enclosure:
[temp] [maxtemp] [cycles] [hours]
The drives are reported first USB, then FireWire drives, each in the order of first connection / mounting.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 2
WD-WCA**************
WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
WD-WMA**************
WDC WD30EZRS-00J99B0
Each drive gets two lines reported, first the drive's serial number ("***" blocking out my exact ones), then the drive model.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 3
29 50 13 8
WD-WCA**************
WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0
53 67 645 15829
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
52 53 90 7105
5TE09***************
ST31000333AS-00MMMB0
51 52 18 13
WD-WMA**************
WDC WD30EZRS-00J99B0
This combines both of the above.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 5
disk4
disk1
disk2
disk3
This reports the mounted disk names (referring not to the volume names but to the internal Unix names as in /dev/[drive]); Numbering is in connection / mounting order, the actual sequence is as always USB drives, then FireWire drives.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 6
USB
1394
1394
1394
This reports the connection interface for each drive in the same sequence as all other commands.
$ /Applications/MacpowerAP/GetSMART 7
MPT934DS1.20.0104.00
MPT934DS1.20.0104.00
This might report the firmware revision or something like that.
These are the commands I know about, and they apply only to the "Smart AP" software supplied with current inXtron enclosures, but it may be possible that other brands use it as well.
I have not been able to identify information about the self-test (early(?) failure warning), but it might be contained as well in the data reported above.
As always, your mileage may vary and you should never do such experiments without FIRST making sure you've got backups of your data and that such backup is not connected during experimentation!
Maybe this can help some people getting the information they need; And maybe there are similar capabilities with other enclosures. At the very least it demonstrates that with the proper firmware in the enclosures themselves and some software on the Mac it IS possible to get at least some of the SMART information from the drive in an external FireWire- or USB-connected enclosure.
None of that is fed into the system's "official" SMART mechanism, though, so no luck using standard mechanisms or applications for it. It's strictly a command-line affair (deservedly disregarding the mishappen Widget).
Good luck!

Disk utility/erase and lost HD free space

HELP!
In an attempt to clear up space from deleted files I ran the disk utility>erase>erase free space>35-Pass erase deleted files programme. Then did verify disk permissions and repair disk permissions.
Iv now dropped from 7.8GB of free space to 1.8 of free space on the HD. So that things aren't working right. Plus, I can't download music that I bought on iTunes because there isn't enough space on the HD.
How do I get all that space back? What did I do wrong?
All I was doing was trying to free up space from deleted files that Iv been getting rid of. I know that when you delete from one portion of the HD it doesn't always delete it totally off the system only the portion where you're looking at it.
HELP

Do you by any chance have FileVault enabled?

Can Disk Utility warnings and odd behavior be ignored safely?

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