Disk repair utility

What do forum members like to use besides the disk utilites supplied with the mac to repair hard dive problems. are ther more rubust disk utilites out there???

Hi Chris:
You bet, I like DiskWarrior by Alsoft, and it gets excellent marks here in these forums, so I think for HD corruption/Directory rebuilding, its 'king of the hill'. I also use TechTool Pro 4 (Micromat) and iDefrag (Coriolis) as well as Drive Genius & Data Rescue by Prosoft Engineering. Each have their strengths but if i had to choose just one it would be DiskWarrior.
-Robert

Similar Messages

Disk repair utility & printer issue

I will admit right now that until last night, have never touched an iMac but I have a friend that due to health issues, needs a hand. Can I ask a couple of questions of this forum?
1: She has an external Lacie H/D that is making wierd noises after being knocked over. Her backup software says to run the Disk Repair Utility. I haven't the slightest idea where to find this Disk Repair Utility, nor if I can run it on an external drive.
2: Her printer, mac book and iMac were recently moved from one location to another home. I need her printer connected wirelessly to both computers. I was able to get her Macbook connected but I am having issues with iMac. Can I uninstall her printer and reinstall? Not even sure how to do that basic process so advice would be appreciated.

Disk Utility should be able to check the LaCie - whether it will be able to complete any repairs that may be needed will become obvious when it's attempted. Disk Utility is normally in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
Regarding the printer, yes you can uninstall it in System Preferences>Printers & Scanners (or similar wording depending on version of OS X). The +/- buttons add/remove printers.
If you still have problems, post back.

Purchased Lion, installed it - once I log in - i get the curtain and message to hold the power button till it shuts down. Worked with the disk repair utility - fixed permissions - still can't get past the "black curtain of death" any suggestions?

purchased Lion, installed it - once I log in - i get the curtain and message to hold the power button till it shuts down. Worked with the disk repair utility - fixed permissions to hold the power button till it shuts down. Worked with the disk repair utility - fixed permissions - still can't get past the "black curtain of death" any suggestions?
My machine was patched to date 10.x.x. I was lucky to get an internet connection and I selected the option to re-download Lion... its curruently being downloaded. What if that doesn't work?
Any thougths would be appreciated.
Joe

And you have a workstation? not a notebook.
Usually a driver or hardware, nothing that Disk utility will fix.
You know of course what a Prohititory Sign is?
prohibitory sign, kernel panic
Forum devoted to Lion:
Mac OS X v10.7 Lion Communities
Tips and FAQs
FAQ kernelpanic
Resolving Kernel Panics
Avoiding eliminating Kernel panics
Lion App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps
RoaringApps Mac OS X Lion Application Compatibility
did you make sure your apps, drivers, and hardware support Lion?

Drives stopped mounting with FW800, but FW400 is OK. Worked OK before, but won't now. Tried new cables, zapping pram, Disk Repair Utility. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Drives stopped mounting with FW800, but FW400 is OK. Worked OK before, but won't now. Tried new cables, zapping pram, Disk Repair Utility. Any suggestions? Thanks.

If your external drive does not have an independent power supply, you may wish to consider a couple of lower-cost options before tossing the drive. Bus-powered drives have no external power source and must get all their power from the computer. They can exceed the computer's USB energy budget.
Cheapest option:
1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
This gets power from two of the computers USB porst sna can provide enough power to wake up an under-performaing bus-powered drive.
If you don't have enough ports to use this, try the next cheapest option:
Newer Technology 7 Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Hub with Power Adapter for Mac & PC
Such a hub has a an independent power supply to make up for wahat the comptuer fails to provide.

Disk Repair Utility Full Disk Error

Today, my MBP froze, as in it no longer responded to keypresses or moving the mouse, so I held the power button until it powered off. Whenever I try to power it back on, it comes up with the apple logo on a gray screen, and a progress bar briefly appears beneath the apple logo, flashes a few times and dissappears, then the computer turns off.
By running the disk repair utility from the OSX install disk, the OSX partition of my hard drive needs to be repaired. When I try to repair it, it gives me an error saying that the disk is too full to do a repair on (I probably have ~10GB free, so this makes sense), and I need to wipe my disk and reinstall OSX .
I have windows installed via bootcamp and I can still boot into that and see my contents of the OSX partition (e.g. I can play my music, watch movies, open documents all of which are on the OSX partition, I just can't boot to it.).
Although probably unrelated, I've run the diagnostics, and everything came up okay. I've also tried holding shift during boot (trying to get OSX into safe mode) and holding command-option-P-R (clear the PRAM) during boot, neither of which helped.
My current strategy is copy a lot of data off my OSX partition from within my windows partition to an external HDD, in order to free up space on my OSX drive, so that hopefully disk repair can do its job. Does anyone know if this will work, or if not, can anyone recommend an alternate work around?

Backup your files, if possible. Your only recourse is to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X. Do not copy or backup files from Windows. If at all possible boot from another drive like your external HDD by installing OS X on the external drive (unless it is already a bootable drive.) You can then copy your data from the faulty OS X volume before erasing it.
You should never permit your free space to drop so low. One should maintain 10-12 GBs or 10-15% of the volume's total capacity, whichever is greater.
Since this problem will likely recur I suggest you consider just replacing the drive with one that is considerably larger. I would also be sure to arrange to maintain a bootable backup on an external drive in case problems such as this one occur.

Getting SUID has been changed and won't be fixed when using Disk Repair utility.

While attempting a disk repair, the first message that appears in the string is, "Warning: SUID file System/Library/CoreS...has been modified and will not be repaired." Is this a bad thing? If so, how do I fix it? My computer has been taking forever to startup and freezing quite often.

The long answer is that Apple doesn't update the permissions database at every system update. Since things change in the update that the permissions database doesn't know about, Repair Permissions flags them.
Repairing permissions is a long fought battle. There are those that do and those that don't. I think it's just voodoo. The only time I repair permissions is if I get errors indicating that a file cannot be read or app crashes when it is accessing something in the system level (if I can tell). Repair permissions only affects the system folders, not your home folder.

Time Machine Backups external drive developed problem which the disk repair utility cannot fix, so suggested reformat. I can't reformat because the "Resource Busy". How can I reformat this drive?

My Western Digital external hard drive which I use as a Time Machine Backup stopped working. I tried repairing the disk using the Disk Utility program,but got the message that the utility can't repair the disk and to erase and reformat the disk. When I try that, I get the message the operation can't be completed because "Resource Busy", even though Time Machine is turned off. Any suggestions for repairing the drive/disk?
Thank you.

See Pondini's TM FAQs for starters.

Disk Repair Utility can't fix problem - help needed.

I have an external drive that I have been using with Time Machine. Last night I closed up the MBP and waited for the LED to start pulsing, then I unplugged the drive and packed stuff up. When I got home, I plugged the drive back in and opened the cover on the MBP. The drive icon was not on the desktop, and there were no other error messages.
I ran Disk Utility and did a "Repair Disk", which stopped after a few seconds with the following:
Verify and Repair volume “OneTouch4 M”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
Volume check failed.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Is there anything I can do at this point, other than erasing the disk and starting over? I don't THINK there's anything vital in the backups, but still I'd rather not lose them.
Walt

Yes, that's what I usually do. I was in a hurry, and I thought "If the disk is there when I go to sleep, and is put back before I wake up, I won't know the difference". Obviously not true - I guess the Mac is still doing stuff when it's "asleep".
Thanks for the tip on Disk Warrior - there's nothing on that disk that's worth $99 to me, so I think I'll just erase it and start over. It has only the most recent 2 weeks of TM backups on it, the rest are on my previous TM disk.
Walt

Can not open any files following Disk Repair! Help!!

Hi. My iMac has failed to boot up a couple of times recently. I have used the Disk Repair utility to solve it twice. Both times it found errors and repaired them but the second time when I boot up normally again I can not open 99% of my files, from spreadsheets to videos. I can see the files in finder but if I click on them nothing happens. Also Finder behaves strangely jumping back to higher folder levels by itself. I can use my yahoo mail account to attach files to an email, send them to another machine, download them and they are fine so it seems like they are still there but my imac can't understand what they are in order to open them. Any ideas? - I have about 900 gig of files that i'd rather not email on by one to get them back!!! Thanks. Alex

You should not be running without a backup, preferably a bootable clone on an external hard drive. Some have redundant backups, one a clone, the other Time Machine, on two different external drives. I have clones on two externals. Drives can fail without notice at any time and everything goes down the drain.
You can use free/donationware Carbon Copy Cloner.
http://www.bombich.com/

Repair Utility for xServe RAID?

We have an xServe with an attached RAID consisting of four 350 GB drives. The drives are set up as a RAID. Due to storms/hot weather (air conditioning failed) the server restarted and the RAID powered down. The xServe is fine but the RAID is not functioning. From RAID Admin the drives all show up and are OK but the array is not showing up. Is there any disk repair utility that would be useful on a RAID?
xServe RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6)
xServe RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6)

The fact that it's showing up as spares is a significant problem. The host won't recognize it until the RAID recognizes the array. There is no separate utility to help you with this, other than RAID Admin.
What firmware version is on the array? If it's 1.5, there's a "recognize array" option that you should try. If it's an older version, I'd tell you it would be nice if you could have gone back in time and upgraded the firmware. Since that's not possible, you should call AppleCare (assuming you have got APS&S for Xserve RAID, or the machine is < 1 year old) and inquire about your options.

Disk repair on iMac

i routinely run the disk repair utility on all my computers. I runs OSX 6.8 on my iMac and when I run verify disk, i get this message "Volume header needs minor repair" and the verification run will not complete the verification. I then run disk repair off the install disk and get message that everything is ok. Have also run repair permissions and no problem shown. Need some suggestions on what to do next. I do not detect any operational issues but want to correct before I run into a problem.

No need really to bother with verification. If the repair using the install disk says everything is OK - it is!

Disk Repair Errors

I generally run the Disk Repair Utility when I install new software due to some software not abiding by the rules. When I did this a few days ago I came up with the following errors:
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/OwnerGroupTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/lppasswd" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
Permissions differ on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x .
In reading most of the postings regarding this condition, there was some hope that it would be fixed in 10.5.5. This is exactly when the errors occurred for me. As soon as I updated:
2008-09-17 13:39:38 -0400: Installed "Remote Desktop Client Update" (3.2.2)
2008-09-17 13:39:40 -0400: Installed "Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update" (2.2)
2008-09-17 13:41:05 -0400: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.5)
The modification date on the Finder.app is 2008-09-17 13:41:05, same as the 10.5.5 update. Coincidence? Not likely.
The Disk Utility blurb that these are expected did not include the Finder.app error.

Bruce --
The only real problem here is that the programmers who designed
the Repair Permisions did not have the good sense to just run the
program, and then, when everything is done, simply report
"Repair Completed," or "Everything is A-OK. Nothing to worry about."
Message was edited by: ~Bee

IMac 3.06 dual core beachballing after disk repair

Can't get to the bottom of what's going on with my machine. It's very slow after start or wake-up, beachballs with lots of disk activity even when no apps are open. After twenty minutes or so everything seems OK, well nearly OK as it will still beachball a bit every so often.
I ran the disk repair utility after having the same symtoms a couple of weeks ago and it successfully repaired it.
Running permissions repair doesn't flag up anything unusual - core tasks and java which Apple indicate is normal. These show as repaired but if you run the repair again the same result appear.
Running the activity monitor doesn't seem to show any unusual activity. kernal_task consumes most of the real memory (around 300mb), mds uses the most virtual memory (400mb).
Any help very much appreciated as this driving me nuts.

The next time you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Scroll back in the log to the time you noted above. Select any messages timestamped from then until the end of the episode. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

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.

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.

Disk repair utility

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