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

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

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

Similar Messages

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

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

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

Disk Utility stopped repairing the disk. I was instructed to backup as many of my files as possible.reformat the disk and store my backed files. I am using an I Mac 2010. I am not sure what caused this problem. I use time machine

Disk Utility stopped repairing the disk. I was instructed to backup as many of my files as possible.reformat the disk and restore my backed up files. Since I use time machine, can I assume that all my files and programs can be restored from my recent back ups?

Hi jeromefrodia,
Welcome to the Apple Support Community!
I understand that you are concerned about your data before reformatting the disk. Because you use Time Machine your information should be safe. Please refer to the attached article for information about what Time Machine backs up and how to restore from that backup.
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
Cheers,
Joe

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

Hi, my Western Digital HDD crashed few days ago.
I had approximatly 450GB on it.
It doesn't want to be repaired or verified.
Does someone know a way to save all my files before restoring the Western Digital drive ?
Thanks you by advance.
Hope you will find a way.
Nico

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

I have had my iMac for 55 days now and twice I had to power off/on and then It does not power up correctly. I verified my disk and found errors that could not be repaired. I erased the drive and restored system back to the previous day.

I have had my iMac for 55 days now and twice I had to power off/on and then It does not power up correctly. I verified my disk and found errors that could not be repaired (errors were associated with boot drive) I erased the drive and restored system back to the previous day. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Since it's a new machine, contact Apple's Support and let them deal with it. Allen's already recommended an Apple repair station visit. Do note that if you have AppleCare's protection plan and you're within 50 miles (80 KM) of an Apple repair station, you might be eligible for an onsite repair since yours is a desktop machine (depends on where you're located). BTW, the AppleCare Protection Plan's the best warranty policy available for desktop machines. Get it if you don't have it before contacting Apple.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have a older Airport Express unit that requires Airport Utility 5.6. When I try to install 5.8 on my OS X10.8 iMac, I get the message "Airport Utility can't be installed on this disk. The version of Mac OS X on this volume in not Supported"

I have a older Airport Express unit that requires Airport Utility 5.6. When I try to install 5.8 on my OS X10.8 iMac, I get the message "Airport Utility can't be installed on this disk. The version of Mac OS X on this volume in not Supported"

Why should I have to spend money to solve this problem? Many others have the same concern, Airport Utility 6 does not support older Airport Express units. This is Apple's problem. I've tried many solutions proposed on the net but none worked. I'm still trying for a work around.

I received this message on iWeb: Can't create the file "Mod_footer_bg.jpg." The disk may be damaged or full, or you may not have sufficient access privileges.

I made some changes to my iWeb site, and when I try to publish it, I get the error message: Can’t create the file “Mod_footer_bg.jpg.” The disk may be damaged or full, or you may not have sufficient access privileges.
What do I do now?

Try the troubleshooting steps under "Fix iWeb" here...
http://www.iwebformusicians.com/iWeb/iWeb-Tips.htm

Receiving this message"Can't create the file "highlighter_welcome_header.jpg." The disk may be damaged or full, or you may not have sufficient access privileges." I have enough storage how do I find the problem?

Can’t create the file “highlighter_welcome_header.jpg.” The disk may be damaged or full, or you may not have sufficient access privileges.
How do I find the problem? Disk is not full.

Try the following:
delete the iWeb preference files, com.apple.iWeb.plist and com.apple.iWeb.plist.lockfile, that resides in your Home() /Library/Preferences folder.
go to your Home()/Library/Caches/com.apple.iWeb folder and delete its contents.
Click to view full size
launch iWeb and try again.
If that doesn't help continue with:
move the domain file from your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder to the Desktop.
launch iWeb, create a new test site, save the new domain file and close iWeb.
go to the your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder and delete the new domain file.
move your original domain file from the Desktop to the iWeb folder.
launch iWeb and try again.
OT

How come I can't add a song to my playlists in itunes match? Is it me or itunes match? It keeps on coming up with a message " iCloud playlists can only contain songs from your iCloud music library. If you continue, the playlist will be removed from iCloud

How come I can't add a song to my playlists in itunes match? Is it me or itunes match? It keeps on coming up with a message " iCloud playlists can only contain songs from your iCloud music library. If you continue, the playlist will be removed from iCloud and will only be available on this computer"?
You must surely be able to add and subtract songs on specific playlist?

I fixed this issue (with help from tech support) and it involved several things.
After adding a song to iTunes, right-click on the song in iTunes and select "Update iTunes Match."
OR go to the iTunes menu-->Store-->Update iTunes Match.
Maybe that's the reason, it just hadn't updated to the cloud.
OR maybe it's not a high-enough bitrate file. This happens to me because most of my tunes are home-recorded.
Sometimes converting to .mp3 or Create AAC version might work. (You do this with a right-click in iTunes, and then you will want to remove the original file from iTunes.)
There is an iTunes Preferences setting, under General Preferences called Import Settings. Try setting it to AAC Encoder and iTunes Plus. That (I think) causes imports to be slightly better quality.
Good luck! The tech support person at Apple is requesting that a knowlege-base article be written about this.

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

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

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

I am having problems importing some CDs into iTunes on a laptop with Windows 8. Most CDs import without problem. The ones I can't import can be imported into iTunes with Windows 7. Does anybody know why this problem is occurring?

I am having problems importing some CDs into iTunes on a laptop with Windows 8. Most CDs import without problem. The ones I can't import can be imported into iTunes with Windows 7. Does anybody know why this problem is occurring?

First-off, this seems to be a general problem with 10.4 (across all the operating systems of which I am aware). Unfortunately, I cannot provide a permanent solution but, if you need a quick fix, this will (hopefully) work for you.
For some inexplicable reason, iTunes no longer recognises standard Windows paths. For example:
Y:\Music\Buddy Holly\Buddy Holly - Rave On.mp3
The end result is that it will import a playlist with no content.
It will, however, recognise the equivalent Apple paths which look like this:
file://localhost/Y:/Buddy Holly/Buddy Holly - Rave On.mp3
It is possible to convert your existing playlists using a few basic replace commands in something like Notepad. In my case, I made some code changes in my music manager and now generate two sets of playslists (one standard and one to accommodate iTunes).
Forgive me foir stating the obvious but please remember to make sure that the disk / path containing your music is accessible when doing the import otherwise you will probably get a blank result. Note that you can do a bulk import by selecting all the (revised) playlists and dragging them onto the iTunes sidebar.
I am sorry that this is not a "clean" solution but it will work if you are in a bind. The only alternative of which I am aware is to wait for Apple to fix the problem.

HI there, I am having trouble updating my CS5 Master's Collection Suite for at least a month now. I keep gettin this message "There was an error downloading this update. Please quit now and try again later" every time and do not know how to fix it.

I am having trouble updating my CS5 Master's Collection Suite for at least a month now. I keep getting this message "There was an error downloading this update. Please quit now and try again later" every time and do not know how to fix it.
Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot in advance.
Sincerely,
Uvaldocj@@
Here is a list of the products I am troubled with:
Adobe After Effects CS5 10.0.2 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Adobe Bridge CS5 4.0.5 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Adobe Extension Manager CS5 5.0 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Adobe Illustrator CS5 15.0.2 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit 2.5 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Adobe® InDesign® CS5 7.0.4 update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Dreamweaver CS5 11.0.4 Updater
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Fireworks CS5 11.0.2 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Photoshop 12.0.4 update for Photoshop CS5
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.
Photoshop Camera Raw 6.7 Update
There was an error downloading this update. Please quit and try again later.

I'm having the same issue. And Dreamweaver now crashes after just a few seconds.

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

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