Can't restore from Disk Utility while booted from OS installation DVD

I'm absolutely astounded by this.
I have a new MacBook Pro 17". I restored my files to it and in short order, had it too full/fragmented to re-partition it for Boot Camp.
So I decided to image the disk and store that image file on a FireWire drive, wipe the system disk and restore it cleanly from the image file backup, hoping that would result in contiguous blocks used so that I could then re-partition for Boot Camp.
When booted off the OS X for Intel DVD-ROM disc (10.4.6 - the one that came with my MacBook Pro), if I get out of Installer and into Disk Utility, if I select the internal hard drive and click the Restore tab, I can easily select the hard drive backup image with the button. But the "Destination Disk:" box is only accessible via dragging the disk to the box.
There's one little problem - there is no Desktop, so the disk(s) do not appear on the Desktop. There is no way to drag the target disk to be restored to into the Destination Disk: box. You cannot drag a disk out from the little sidebar inside the Disk Utility window over to the Destination box. I tried. You can't drag any disk anywhere from that sidebar. It's clear that the only way to drag a disk anywhere is if it's shown on the Desktop in Finder (which isn't running when the installation DVD-ROM is booted from). There is simply no way that I can find to restore a disk drive from a saved backup disk image when booted from the installation DVD-ROM.
Please tell me I'm ******** and missing something, or if there's a Better Way to do this. (I can't seem to run Retrospect while booted off the DVD-ROM, so I can't restore from my Retrospect full backup of the disk, either. Joy!)
(I'm really curious if there's a Better Way - especially because it appears I can't boot from an external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive, so I need something that will work in this extremely limited installation DVD-ROM booted environment, I think.)
MacBook Pro 17" dual 2.16 GHz ; Mac OS X (10.4.6) Booted from Mac OS X for Intel 10.4.6 installation DVD-ROM

You can use an external bootable drive with a MacBook Pro -- check your manual or the built in help. Your problem is that for some reason, you can't install a bootable system on one. There are several reasons why Installer won't enable you to do so: insufficient space, incompatible partition scheme (should be GUID) or file system (should be HFS+ or similar), or wrong installation option selected.
It is possible this is related to why you can't drag the startup volume to the destination box in Disk Utility. It must be an HFS+ variant file system.
I think you should check carefully with D.U. the partition scheme of all your drives & the file system format of all the volumes involved. Also run repair disk, as someone has already pointed out.
The behavior with the Restore function is not normal -- you should be able to drag a volume to the destination box from the list.

Similar Messages

Cannot repair disk errors for OSX boot volume using Disk Utility while booted from different disk

I have tried three times to repair my boot volume (OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard) permissions using Disk Utility while booted up on a different volume (running Snow Leopard 10.6.4). After hours of Disk Utility reporting that it HAD fixed the problems, an immediate click of "Verify permissions" immediately results in the apparently same continuous stream of permission errors.

Then better luck next time around. Here are some ideas for then:
How to Install Lion Successfully - You must have Snow Leopard 10.6.7 or 10.6.8 Installed
A. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.3.) if DW cannot fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall Snow Leopard.
B. Make a Bootable Backup Using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the backup volume. Source means the internal startup volume.
C. Important: Please read before installing:
If you have a FireWire hard drive connected, disconnect it before installing the update unless you will boot from this drive and install the update on it. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update. While the installation is in progress do not use the computer.
D. To upgrade to Lion:
Purchase the Lion Installer from the Mac App Store. The download will start quickly. Lion is nearly 4 GBs so a fast internet connection is essential. Download time could run upwards of 4 hours depending upon network conditions and server demands at the time.
Boot From The Lion Installer which is located in your Applications folder.
Follow instructions for installation.

No hard drive found on disk utility while booting from OS X dvd

My Macbook crashed recently, the screen wouldn't give me video when I opened the lid from closing it earlier and the fan was doing its ominous thing with getting louder and louder. I had to force shut down. On restarting it wouldn't boot beyond the infamous grey screen, where the loading sign eventually turned into the prohibitory sign. I found a support article and worked my way through safe boot, various resets to eventually booting from the OS X dvd (Leopard 10.6.??), at which point (according to the article), I was supposed to perform a disk utility check. Except that in disk utility nothing shows up except for the software dvd, no hard drive or anything else to be seen. On checking the system profiler I found that "there was an error while scanning for serial ATA devices" (which I found out means hard drive :-P).
What do I do from here? I haven't been able to find a support article that deals with this exact situation, what more can I try to solve this problem?
Thanks in advance.

That means the drive needs to be repartitioned if it's still functional. See:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs,) then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Possibly dumb Q: Running Disk Utility when booted from OSX Install DVD

Hey there Mac folks. I was wondering about this:
I'm running OSX 10.4.5 on a 2x2.0GHz G5 with 4 internal drives. (I stuffed 2 into the PCI bay with a G5Jam bracket kit.) I use Disk Utility v10.5.3, which is current for OSX 10.4.5, when doing basic maintenance/repair on my secondary drives, as well as to repair permissions and do a verify (but not repair) on my startup drive. When I have to do a repair on my startup drive, barring the use of other 3rd party apps, I have to boot from my OS 10.4 DVD, and use the Disk Utility there. However, since it's a 10.4.0, the Disk Utility there is v 10.5.0.
So, the question: Should I care? Any chance of a problem? I know the Disk Utility's repairing doesn't really care what OS, if any, is installed on a drive it's repairing (at least I think that's true?), but I have no idea what changes/improvemnts have been made to Disk Utility. Actually, I've always wondered about this sort of thing since OS 10.0.
I think I can make a copy of my Tiger install DVD with the newer version of Disk Utility inserted onto it, replacing the old one with v10.5.3. I don't know if it's worth the trouble though. I figure that for the newbie users, Apple would have thought of this, and addressed it if it were a potential problem. (Despite this Q, I'm not a newbie!)

Hi, JonYo.
Booting from your Tiger Install DVD to Verify or Repair your startup disk is fine. No worries!
The major changes in Disk Utility from 10.5 to 10.5.3 were:
• Better handling of overlapped extent allocation errors. Third-party utilities, such as Alsoft’s DiskWarrior may still be better at this task.
• The addition of live verification: the ability to Verify your startup disk while booted from such. One of the intermediate releases
The key point is to only use Tiger-compatible disk utilities with Tiger.
If you've implemented a proper backup and recovery solution where you are creating a bootable duplicate of your startup disk, you could also start up from the duplicate and run the latest version of Disk Utility on such to Verify or Repair your usual startup disk. For advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.
Computing without a comprehensive backup and recovery solution is like driving without auto insurance.
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.

Hard disk doesn't appear in disk utility when booting from dvd only via usb

i put a new hard disk (wd3200bevt) in my macbook white and my macbook pro 2.4 (not alu). when i boot from the dvd (10.5) disk utility doesnt find any disk. when i boot from an usb stick with leopard on it then it found the disk and i can install the system. when the system is installed and the books can boot the installed system anything looks fine, but when i boot from the original dvds disk utility doesn't find any hard disk once more.... when i boot from my usb stick it shows the new disk in disk utility. what is the problem when i boot from dvd?

don't know but try two boots in a row. worked for me.

Save Log file from Disk Utility App running from Recovery HD?

Background:
I had an issue with QT and screen recording; it was coming out solid green. I read on Apple Support that I should restart holding down Command-R. I did that, booted into Recovery HD, then opened Disk Utility. I repaired permissions, then decided to repair my HDD for good measure. I noticed that Disk Utility did make a repair to my HDD. Something like "found 57" instead of "56" files in the directory on the HDD; directory needs to be updated. Not sure, I just remember those numbers… "56" is what the system knew of but there were really "57" on the HDD. I sound ignorant… I know.
After I rebooted QuickTime worked correctly (maybe merely repairing permissions was the solution) however another issue, I have been struggling with for years, was also resovlved!
I have been having an issue for years with an Icy Dock external enclosure in RAID 1 mode with my older 2009 iMac. The issue remained after upgrading from Snow Leopard to Tiger to Mountain Lion and resetting PRAM and repairing permissions and repairing it's HDD etc. many times over. After powering up the enclosure a message would appear: "The Disk you insterted was not readable by this computer." "Initialize…" "Ignore" "Eject". Then the volume would mount on the Desktop behind the warning and work perfectly. I would then click "Ignore". I had modified the old iMac with an internal SSD in place of the optical drive… at one point.
I recently sold that iMac and bought a 2012 iMac
Regardless I continued to have the same issue with the enclosure and my new iMac. However, after repairing the internal HDD today, the external Icy Dock RAID now mounts without giving me a warning to, "Initialize…" "Ignore" "Eject". This warning was appearing just before I repaired permissions and repaired the internal HDD on the iMac using the Recovery HD. In fact the reason I was tyring to use QT screen capture was to make a screen capture of the terminal window process while runing a "diskutil activity" command during powering-on my external enclosure to send to Icy Dock to troubleshoot this cross computer and cross OS incompatibility with their enclosure.
My external RAID enclosure wasn't even powered on during repair of the internal HDD?! So how could a brand new iMac's HDD directory be effected in such a way by an external RAID enclosure as to make changes to it's directory. And now how could an issue with mounting an external RAID enclosure be corrected by repairing the directory structure on the internal HDD on the iMac? Could it be a conflict with USB IDs? Are those written to the directory? The internal and external sharing the same ID and the external having to be unmounted and remounted using a new ID each time? How could it have been repaired? Lots of questions…
Main Question:
Anyway,,, I want to copy the Disk Utility Log from my Recovery HD so I could see exactly what was repaired and report it to Icy Dock. But I am not sure if the log files are saved or not when rebooting from Recovery HD. Not sure how I could find the log file at this point. Are logfiles saved when running DiskUtility from the Recovery HD???
Sorry for the length.

Oh crap. The enclosure was working properly, now it's exhibiting the same problem as before and I haven't even rebooted the computer yet. So, what's up?

Disk Utility broken while booted from Installation CDs??

Situation: I have a Macbook Pro with a 120 GB HDD. I had partitioned it into two partitions, and later desired that I should have only one partition on the drive. I booted the Mac OS X installation CDs and attempted the following three-step procedure:
1. Use Disk Utility to image my system partition into a file on an external USB drive
2. Verify the image and repartition ("Erase") my laptop's internal HDD
3. Restore the disk image from the external HDD to the laptop's HDD.
I made it to step 3 without issue. So currently I have one unbootable Macbook Pro, an 85 GB image of a system partition on a USB HDD, and a perfectly bootable Intel Mac Mini from which I'm writing this post.
Problem: Disk Utility doesn't seem to be able to restore images when booted from the Installation CDs. On the 'Restore' tab there are two fields you must fill in, a 'source' field and a 'destination' field. The source field has a button where you can summon a very helpful file-picker, and it pulls up my disk image from my USB drive just fine. However, the destination field can only be filled in by clicking and dragging a drive from the left panel in Disk Utility.
However, it seems impossible to do this while booted from the Installation CDs. When I attempt to click and drag a disk from the left panel list, all I end up accomplishing is selecting multiple items from the list. To make a visual illustration:
Instead of this, like I get when I try it on my mac mini booted normally:
http://upload.pbase.com/silentplummet/image/72221384.jpg
...I get this, which is a photo of my macbook pro booted from the installation CDs:
http://upload.pbase.com/silentplummet/image/72221397.jpg
There doesn't seem to be any way to actually select a destination drive. If I had to hypothesize, I would guess that the GUI is crippled when you boot from CD and click+drag is deactivated. But that appears to make it impossible to restore images since the only way to select destination drives is by clicking and dragging.
Now I am a college student; I'm not really losing revenue or anything over this, but this is an awful oversight on Apple's part and I am stuck on what to do about it. There is no documentation that says "Restore functionality is crippled in Disk Utility when booting from installation CDs." Here are the steps I have tried for an alternate solution:
-Commandline diskutil. Unfortunately Apple has crippled it and there appears to be no imaging functionality whatsoever.
-Mount the image manually and cp the files back over. Unfortunately I can't make it preserve permissions. I passed the right options to cp but it just won't do what it's supposed to. I tried copying it anyway and using Disk Utility to repair the permissions, but it still wouldn't boot.
-Call Applecare. The support rep was kind and helpful but couldn't offer a solution. The higher-ups fed me some BS about not supporting third party applications, well, I hardly think Disk Utility constitutes a third party application.
My next step is to boot the MBP in target disk mode and use my mac mini to restore the image to the MBP HDD, but I have to buy a firewire cable for that and I don't really want to.
Seeking: acknowledgement that Disk Utility is broken and Apple *****, or otherwise immediate solutions to restore the image to my HDD that do not constitute monetary expenditures on my part.
Macbook Pro 15" 2.0 GHz Mac mini 1.5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Others have (in the Mac Pro forum) noticed this bug in Disk Utility on the Intel version install disks. Your easiest fix would be to reinstall OSX on you Macbook disk, boot it, mount the disk image from the USB drive, and use the Migration Assistant to copy over all your accounts and data files.

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

My Macbook aliminium unibody from late 2008 will not boot. I reach the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning grey gear. I used disk utility to boot it but it said integrity test failed. I don't know what to do can anyone please help?

My Macbook aliminium unibody from late 2008 will not boot. I reach the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning grey gear. I used disk utility to boot it but it said integrity test failed. I don't know what to do can anyone please help?

Sounds like you may have a harddrive issue. You are probably going to need to get that changed out and then install the OS X again to get it going.

Can i create a disk image of my Imac 27 triple boot from disk utility: lion 10.8.3, win 7 and snow 10.6.8

I have created a well working triple boot system on my Imac 27, I7, 16GB, 3.4.Triple boot: Lion 10.8.3, Snow leopard 10.6.8 and windows 7.
They all work great. I would like to find the simplest way to make a image or a backup of the entire system.
I am thinking of creating a new image from disk utility image option.This from the main 2 To hitachi disk. The image option at the top should create a global image of the entire triple boot. I am not shure if this is possible. The differential/incremental option is not necesary. I can deal with that.
But, In case the disk utility option will not work, which software would aloud diferential/incremental backup for each partition
A software solution that would babkup all my partitions.
A single all in one image would be great but is that possible?
Any suggestion: please d'ont talk about vm solution or other subject like that. I am looking for a backup solution for my tripleboot...
Thanks
Luc

There are a few problems here, first Mountian Lion won't install on a 2006 MacBook, it diesn't meet the minimum specifications. http://support.apple.com/kb/SP654
Secondly you shouldn't install something purchased under one apple id onto another persons computer.

I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

I know my back up exists I can see it on disk utility but migration and disc utility wont work to restore my back up on my new hard drive it shows up with the message "this disk is already in use" i am so done. someone pls help me

Otherwise software may be attempted to access the drive. The the computer up in Safe Mode by holding shift when you turn it on. Also be sure to power off and on the hard drive itself.

Can I move old video footage from Disk Utility to an external hard drive, to free up space?

I have a lot of old videos of my students located on Disk Utility.
I need to free up memory, so am wondering if I can move these videos to an external hard drive.
From time to time, I need to access these old videos, either to show to a new choreographer or to pull out a clip for a grant proposal, so I don't want to totally lose access to them.
Thanks so very much!!!

What's the file extension of the DVD in question located in Disk Utility? That's why I was asking for a screenshot. Is that .cdr? Can you do a File>Save As? If it's .cdr can you try dragging it to the external. Doesn't have to go to Disk Utility. Can just be to a folder there. As you drag it does it show with a + inside a green circle? That will mean it's copying it, but leaving the original in place. If it can be moved successfully, you can then remove the original from Disk Utility.
Or just copy (drag) it to your Desktop, then move it over to a folder on the external.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Repairing internal hard drive from disk utility

Hey folks,
I need to do a repair of my internal hard drive on my PB. I understand that in order to do this, you need to boot from another disk. I cloned my hard drive using CCC to an external firewire hard drive so I can boot from the external.
So I shut down and rebooted while holding the option key but the external hard drive did not appear as a choice for which to boot. So I booted with the internal and went to the Start Up Disk icon in System Preferences. There, the external appeared so I told it to restart using it.
After restart I went to the Disk Utility to repair the internal but when I did, the "repair" button would not illuminate. I'm pretty sure I'm running off the external because when I use spotlight, it searches the external and not the internal.
Any ideas?
(I'm trying to boot off an external because I cannot find my OS X disc referenced here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6642196#6642196)

If the "repair" button does is not selectable, maybe you indeed restarted using the same INTERNAL drive by mistake? Also, it could be that your INTERNAL hard drive is beyond repair, as which happened to my PowerMac's a few weeks ago and I--which I just mentioned on another forum--had to buy Data Rescue II to salvage my data because the only solution was to reformat the drive. It was beyond repair.
I don't know if this helps, but which did you select? The disk itself? (first in the hierarchy) or the volume (second in the hierarchy... list). Sometimes that matters. But I couldn't tell you since I can't see your screen and don't know your exact issue unless I saw it or was able to test it out.
The other thing could be, are you selecting the EXTERNAL by mistake on the list of drives on the left? You can't repair the disk/volume that you are booted up from, why you would need your software discs / restore discs to do that. But since you are doing it the "workaround" way, which should work, that is my guess.
Message was edited by: Pismo 900
Just a suggestion, why not just erase and reformat the damaged drive, and then once that's over, do a "Restore" from Disk Utility, choosing your external as the SOURCE and the internal that's been reformatted, as the DESTINATION.

Can you format your hard-drive while upgrading from Leopard do Snow Leopard (upgrade version)?

Hello,
I want to purchase Snow Leopard (upgrade version) but I was planning on doing a format when installing it.
Is it possible?
Thank you!

cocoazenith wrote:
I want to purchase Snow Leopard (upgrade version) but I was planning on doing a format when installing it.
Is it possible?
Yes, the 10.6.3 white retail disk can upgrade 10.5 to 10.6 via the installer, but you can also hold c or option key down while booting from the disk and use Disk Utility to Erase and then install 10.6 fresh.
Naturally all programs and user file will be removed, so you need to backup files first and take stock of your programs that will have to be reinstalled again from original sources.
To get the white 10.6.3 disk, call Apple via the phone, it's not sold online anymore, or search Amazon.com or amc related websites for the disk.
Most commonly used backup methods
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
However if you choose to upgrade over 10.5, keeping your programs and files (backup files regardless) intact and it proceeds just fine, but want to improve the performance, you can use this method
How to properly defrag a Mac's hard drive
If your upgrading from 10.5 to get to 10.7 or 10.8, I don't advise it. Software Update to 10.6.8 max and stay there, your machine is too old.
Things to consider before upgrading OS X

Problem erasing MacBook drive while booted from external drive

Hello,
I'm booted on a MacBook Pro from an external drive, and I want to erase the drive inside the MacBook using Disk Utility from the external. For some reason or another, it won't let me do this.
When I click on the Erase tab (whether clicked on the disk itself or the volume "Macintosh HD") and try to erase it, it returns with the error:
Disk Erase failed
Disk Erase failed with the error:
Could not unmount disk.
When I try to install an image onto the drive, I get a similar error, except it says "Operation not permitted."
When I tried it while booted with an OS X DVD, it worked fine.
As far as I know, I should be able to do this while booted from the external HD.
Any solutions to this problem?
Thanks,
Jason

Hello Jason and welcome to the discussions. You could try to re-partition the internal drive while booted from the external. Using disk utility from the externals Application/Utilities folder click on the internal drive (the manufacturers #, should be above the internal name) and select the partition tab.
change the partition table and then restore it back to the original. This will wipe out all the partitions and should show the drive as empty. Then I would erase all the free space using the erase tab and selecting your Macintosh HD or whatever you named your new internal startup drive the click on the "erase free space" button. Select "zero out deleted files" then erase. It will warn you that the drive is full when it gets near the end...thats okay just click to ignore or proceed. That should do it.
Cheers,
Glynn

Can't restore from Disk Utility while booted from OS installation DVD

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