Disk Utility Back Up - Is my Math correct?

I have a 320 GB hard drive. Of that I have used 115 GB.
I have an external hard drive that has 135 GB free.
Is that enough space to make a bootable disk image?
Second Question:
Once I upgrade to 10.6.1, do I use the SL disk to create a new backup image, or do I use the original install discs?
Thanks - Jess!

Yes, but you cannot boot from a disk image. That image has to be 'Restored' to some medium such as a hard drive. If you Restore to a hard drive it uses the entire drive, meaning that anything else on that drive will be erased.
Use the SL disk.

Similar Messages

Time machine disk grayed out in Disk Utility - back up not working

The disk does not show in Time Machine.
In Disk Utility it shows but is grayed out. Tried to repair disk. Got message that disk cannot be repaired. Tells me to back up and erase the disk. Not sure how to back it up if it is not being recognized. Disk Verify says the volume is corrupt and needs to be repaired. But Repair Disk doesn't work!
I can go into Time Machine and shows me one entry -- the one from the last successful back up.
The disk is a WD MyBook. Map scheme GUID Partition. Do you think the reformat will work? Is there a way if I can tell if the disk is bad? Tech Tools for Apple Care doesn't recognize the volume either.
Any ideas?

It turns out the fix for this was to just then remove the Aperture library from the exclusion list. Once I did that Time Machine did a massive 200GB backup of my entire Aperture library and everything is running fine since.
No idea what caused the problem in the first place still.

Apple/Grey Screen Stuck - Disk utility - back up

Hello,
So I was on my computer and it randomly turned off and turned back on and stayed on the apple/grey screen. I've done the vram reset and ended up where I can boot up the installation disk. I've gotten to where I can access the disk utility and repair/verify disk permissions but ended up getting the error code: 'Error: no valid packages.' From my hard drive, all I need are pictures and videos that I had just backed up the day before. Could someone help me (easiest way for me to follow is through steps) on how to just back up specific files or folders (i.e. pictures folders)??
Thanks again for your help!
Chad

.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive

I have tried to repair my disk and this is the message I get: "Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use disk Utility to repair" How do I correctly perform this action?

I have a boot disk that needs repair and I would like to know the correct way to repair this disk using another install disc. I guess there is an issue with the volume free block count.
Please advise.
Thanks.

Insert/connect that disk if needed, start up with the Option key held down, tab to it, and press Enter. If it's a Mac OS X install DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. If it's a different Mac OS X installation, open the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Repair the drive.
(61964)

Disk Utility crashing, mounting encrypted drives w/out passwd

MacBook Pro
15-inch, Mid 2012
Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
Boot drive: OCZ-VERTEX4 256GB SSD
Data drive: APPLE HDD HTS547575A9E384 (original 750GB spindle moved to Optical bay)
OSX 10.8.5 with all OS level updates installed
Disk Utilty has become progressively worse, crashing randomly when mounting drives. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not. Does not matter if the computer is freshly booted or running for some time. Both with and without external drives. Tried zapping the PRAM. No difference.
What's more, my Data drive (the HDD listed above) is encrypted and should NOT auto-mount. I have NEVER selected the auto-mount check-box. And yet, there are times (not always) that I enter the passwd for the one-time (until next reboot) Unlocking of the drive and the correct passwd yields the "Incorrect Password" error over and over again. I quit Disk Utility and wha-lah! --the drive is mounted.
It got to the point that Disk Utility was auto-mounting the encrypted HDD drive without my ever selecting the auto-mount check-box. I deleted all Keychain preferences and this re-set Disk Utility back to its normal behaviour. The preferences / Keychain file must have corrupted with all the Disk Utility crashes.
What is going on? How can one of the oldest apps in OSX behave like this?
Ideas?!
kai

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.
Step 1
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.
Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. 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.
Step 2
In the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the crashed process. The report name starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

Disk Utility and other Utilities GONE from Utilitis Folder

On my PowerBook G4 I noticed that some icons don't look right and an installer disk (for iLife 06) won't run....So I remember it's been a long time since I've run permimssions repair. I go the DiskUtility Folder and almost everything is gone The only thing in there is Bluetooth File Exchange and one or two other items. There should be about 30 apps in there...! What happened? How can I get Disk Utility back ? Is it possible all these files are actually there but the Mac's directly has just lost them? Perhaps running permissions repair would fix it -- but I can't find it!

Have you tried booting while holding down the shift key? This will force it to boot in to Safe Mode which will force the system to check the disk and to check the fonts. If you can boot this way it may give you some clues as to what is happening. My guess is since you did an archive and install which keeps all of your networks settings, preferences, and cache files intact that the issue is really with one or more of them.
As the problem seems to be caused by Safari and/or AOL I would start by trashing all t he preference files for both applications. In fact it may be a good idea to completely reset Safari which you do by going to the Safari menu and selecting "reset Safari" When you do this it will wipe out all the cache files and other files and give you a kind of new Safari.
These solutions I am proposing a fairly radical. You may lose all your bookmarks, and all or the preferences you had originally set but it may solve the issue.
Another thing you could try is to get a program like Tiger Cache Cleaner or Cocktail or YASU and use it to clean all your cache files.
If doing things like this still don't stop Safari and AOL from causing problems then I think you may have to reformat your drive and reinstall everything from scratch. Make sure you have backups of your personal files.
Good Luck!!

Disk Utility no longer working correctly

I did a search and couldn't find a similar problem, so here goes.
I'm running OS 10.4.11 on a G4 PPC Dual 1.25 GHz.
I've done the regular updates the last several weeks:
QuickTime-7.5.5
iTunes- 8.0
Xserve RAID Driver Update- 1.0
Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 7- 1.0
Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update- 2.2
Security Update 2008-006 (PowerPC)- 1.0
Security Update 2008-007 (PowerPC)- 1.0
Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update- 1.1
iTunes- 8.0.1
iPhoto Update- 7.1.5
Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update- 2.3
Safari- 3.2
iLife Support- 8.3.1
iTunes- 8.0.2
Safari- 3.2.1
Since the updating of the above, when launching Disk Utility, I get the spinning beachball as it tries to find my hard drives. It spins and spins and spins, but my drives don't show up.
Sometimes logging out and back in and then restarting will make DU work ok, but that can't be normal. It should work on each launch.
Is anyone having similar problems? Anyone know what the cause and solution may be?
Thanks in advance for any help, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
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 First Aid 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. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it finishes.
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, or things don't load/run, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates again, or even do an A&I if you have enough free disk space.
The combo update for PowerPC-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html
The combo update for Intel-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateintel.html
Repair Permissions before & after re-install, then reboot again each time.
If all the above do not resolve the problem, then it's time for an Archive & Install, which gives you a new OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Or, Might give a try with Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

Disk utility or time machine not discovering back up drives

Hi I'm new to Mac and before getting lost in all the benefits am looking to set up automatic back ups using my LaCie network space drives I previously used from my P/C. I have managed to discover the drive and copy required files in Finder. Next step was to re-format to Mac but Disk Utility does not discover the drive. Am using the same connection route as Finder. Have also tried finding via Time Machine without any luck. Your assistance appreciated

If I am correct on this, and I think I am, Disk Utility and Time Machine are all configured in OSX to find and communicate over only USB and Firewire, NOT ethernet. I talked to Apple Support once about employing a Buffalo Technology NAS over ethernet to backup my iMac using Time Machine and i was politely informed that this was NOT supported by Apple and likely not doable. So, we may not like it, but apparently those are the rules we must play by. As for Finder, it too primarily finds connections to devices using USB or Firewire. The exception to this is that you can connect using Finder over Wi-Fi or Ethernet to another computer, but this ability presumably involves Finder locating a device that has an IP address.
You just may be at the point where you need to consider obtaining a USB and/or Firewire based external drive. Keep us informed.
Hope this helps
Message was edited by: Radiation Mac

How to use Disk Utility to back up the HD

I'm trying to back up my HD onto an external HD as described in "The Missing Manual" (Tiger ed.), p. 389. I choose my Macintosh HD, read/write, no compression, and the appropriate partition of the external HD as the target.
But just after telling me it's creating the disk image (I guess I can't just drag the whole HD without using Disk Utility) it stops, saying, "resource busy).
What am I doing wrong?

You cannot backup your entire hard drive to a disk image. Essentially there isn't enough space to do that nor is this the best method for doing a full disk backup. Full disk backups should be done to an external hard drive using proper backup software. You can clone your hard drive to an external drive using the Restore option of Disk Utility but DU cannot do incremental backups. For that you need backup software:
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
To clone with Disk Utility do the following:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
8. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Verify the settings for Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only. If they are not correct then reset them.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

How do you create a bootable back up of the hard drive w/ disk utility?

I think it's pretty incredible that the most basic of basic topics, how to create a back up of your hard drive using the native software Disc utility, is nowhwere to be found. I tried searching "create bootable back up" and amazingly enough nothing comes up. Anyway.... can anybody let me in on this top secret information, I would really appreciate it. Once again the objective is to make a bootable clone of my hard drive onto an external disk. Thanks for the help,
-BK

    Are you saying I could still use Disk Utility's Restore function to clone a 90GB startup drive, that had 40GBs used, to a clean 60GB backup drive?
Correct. The size of the source drive is completely irrelevant – as Kappy is saying, it's just the size of the data to be copied that counts. (An explanation that some people like is that "empty space is not copied").
    I've always used a dedicated backup drive that was larger than my startup drive
Nothing 'wrong' with that, but unnecessary. Same size would be large enough for any future possibility. Theoretically, if you had a 250GB internal drive but knew that you would never have more than 20GB of data on it, a 40GB backup drive would be considerably more than sufficient (a bit of a silly example, but true). Other considerations: 1. you already know about the 15% free space recommendation, and 2. with drives, 'bigger' is nearly always a better investment for the future. I would always advise someone about to buy a drive to multiply the size they were thinking of by at least 4.
    always reformatted and zeroed it
Again not 'wrong', but overkill. A simple 'erase' (2 seconds) would suffice – erased is 'clean' enough. Consider that those, like myself, who do "synchronized" backups (copying only added or changed items for the saving of time) NEVER erase the target, or just once in a blue moon. If your backup drive is stationary on your desk the chances of it developing another bad block are close to nil. The time when a re-zeroing (mapping out of bad blocks) becomes imperative is immediately after the cat knocked the drive onto the floor! We are in the main talking here about a software solution (the mapping) of a hardware problem, physical imperfections on the surface of the disk.
=-=-=-=-
Regarding 'other stuff' on the backup/target drive, our suggestion for CCC users is:
[Note that this is NOT for the situation where the target is to be erased every time.]
    For your first cloning you should find a temporary home for that stuff on the external drive so that you can prepare the drive correctly [instructions…] After that you can move that 'other stuff' back onto the external drive.
    If you absolutely cannot find the needed 'temporary home' you can proceed anyway but you must take responsibilty for any consequences due to inadequate preparation of the drive (e.g. not 'zeroing' it to map out any bad blocks) – you should be OK but it is a question of luck. For subsequent clones, and for this first one if you wish to proceed, you do not need to move that 'other stuff' if you do as follows…
    You have to ensure that the clone will not interfere with that other stuff. Put all that 'other stuff' into a folder (with sub-folders as you desire) on the target (at root level, i.e. what you see when you dbl-click on the disk icon) and give that folder a unique name, i.e. a name which you know you will never use on your source drive. If you did have such a folder on the source the cloning would make the folder on the source overwrite the one on the clone, so choose the name with some thought. (How about: "Nevercall_methis"? ;=))
A dedicated backup drive is, beyond doubt, to be highly recommended as the best arrangement. 'Other stuff' on that drive is possible, easily 'do-able', but is often the cause of complications at some stage. (Buy another drive! ;=)).
"Buy another drive" is not just me being facetious. If you data is vital to you, you should have TWO backups on different drives. Consider this: while you are cloning/backing up, you actually have NO backup – a power outage and all, source and backup, could be lost at the same time – unlikely but not impossible. I do hate to be a harbinger of gloom, but…
Happy cloning! ;=)
Moderator, forums.bombich.com

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.

I need help with boot camp. "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
"Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
Please, any suggestions?

This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
"Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
Please, any suggestions?

My early '06 iMac won't boot, just clicks with question mark on screen. SMC reset, Pram reset can bring it up, works OK for a day or two, then back to no boot. disk utility finds no problem with disk

anytime I get it to boot, it works for a day or two then goes back to the Question mark screen.

Hi! It could be HD issue. You should back up your data in the computer first when you can boot to normal desktop. boot to install disk to run disk utility - if it got error over there, you should bring the computer to repair centre to fix it. You also could try to erase with zero out and install again And see will that be fix the issue!

HT3275 I continue to get the following error message: Unable to complete back up.an error occurred while creating backup folder. It's a brand new drive. When I attempt to repair it using disk utility I get:unable to repair disk cannot unmounted

I have been trying to use time machine on a new lacie 2tb usb 2 drive for back up. I continue to get: "unable to complete backup.An error occured while creating backup folder". When I use disk utility to repair I get another error message: unable to repair disk unmountable.
Help me Obie One Canobie you are my last hope

I have confused myself with the facts! Started out keeping track of every step and every variable but have sort of lost it as we progress here. First I quit all applications then swapped connections between mouse port and backup disk port to influence possible bad connections question. Changed power outlet receptacle for the backup disk. Disabled the put-the-HD-to-sleep option. Then powered down the computerator.
Next started up computerator. Turned Time Machine ON and experienced multiple successful backups! Then I started up a few applications, Mail and Text Edit (but not Safari so far). Had a few more successes. After each backup, I used Disk Utility to verify the backup disk is still OK. This because the error about unable to unmount the backup disk seems to go hand in hand with Disk Utility finding the backup disk to be bad.
Put computer to sleep for the night. Upon starting up in the morning, and before doing anything else, I did a backup disk verification... BAD! Did a restart and verified the backup disk... OK.
Did a few Sleep-bad, Restart -OK repetitions.
It seems consistent: Sleeping the computer apparently messes up the backup disk but doing a Restart "repairs" it.
=============================
Now then, I don't understand everything I know here. Methinks that maybe keeping the HD from sleeping during lulls in activity has allowed successful backups through the day but manually putting everything to sleep for the night causes a return to the problem of spinning-back-up-too-slowly (which was explained earlier). Is there any truth in this?
I may abandon this Seagate thing for something more compatible. What's out there that we know works reliably for us?

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.

Disk Utility Back Up - Is my Math correct?

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