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.

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Disk Utility doesn't run from installation dvd.....

hi there:)
i ran a scheduled maintenance check using Onyx. It turned out that the disk could not be verified and it had to be fixed by inserting the installation dvd and running 'disk utility'. i inserted the dvd and ran the 'disk utility', however, it quit unexpectedly. the following message came up:
Process: Disk Utility [417]
Path: /Volumes/Mac OS X Install Disc 1/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility
Identifier: com.apple.DiskUtility
Version: 10.5.8 (198.16)
Build Info: DiskUtility-1981600~17
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [172]
Date/Time: 2008-12-28 12:28:49.499 +0000
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0
Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: __commpagedsmos
Referenced from: /Volumes/Mac OS X Install Disc 1/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
i really want to know what to do to save my mac book!
please help
regards,
rik

Rik,
Please reread my first post carefully & make sure you follow its instructions closely. The "Repair Disk" step (not the verify one) should be run while your Mac is started up from the install disk, then the "Repair Permissions" step should be run after you have restarted normally.
Some background info that may be helpful:
Disk Utility (& all such disk utilities) must temporarily "unmount" a disk to affect a repair of its file system (which is what the "Repair Disk" step does). Unmounting a disk makes it unavailable for normal use. The disk containing the operating system that is currently running the computer (the startup disk) cannot be unmounted. This is why the "Repair Disk" button is grayed out if you run Disk Utility with your startup disk as its target.
Repairing permissions does not require unmounting the disk but it does require a healthy file system, which is why the disk repair must precede it. Apple recommends repairing permissions on the start up disk while booted from it, which is why it should be done after restarting normally.
The verify steps do not actually repair anything. They just run the checks that the repair steps run to determine if any repairs are needed & report the results of those checks.
The routine that repairs permissions is part of the OS itself. Disk Utility, Onyx, & all other such utilities that repair permissions actually just tell the OS to perform this routine. Thus, it doesn't matter which one you use to do this repair, nor is one utility any better than another at doing this. So if you prefer, after restarting after doing the disk repair from the install disk you can do the permissions repair with Onyx.

[Solved] Getting a rolling screen while booting from installer

So, this problem is one that originally existed for me with the latest Ubuntu stable live CD. It did not happen with an old Live CD I had from 2007. I ended up trying the netboot install CD for Arch because I've been thinking of switching to this distro anyway, and when I saw the same problem happening I thought I'd come here. I gave this preamble because it might help point to where the issue is (something in more recent versions of the kernal maybe?)
So here's what happens. I boot from the 64 bit netinstall CD. It goes along the boot process fine until I get to:
Waiting for udev events to be processed
Note, I'm only pretty sure that's what it says, as I have to write it down from my own memory as the screen is unreadable after that point.
A bit after that the screen starts scrolling rapidly, like it's out of sync or something. I can't really read anything on the screen because it's scrolling so fast.
In terms of hardware I have an older 64 bit system, with a video card going to an analog TV (old style, not HD). I think I can get more hardware info from the install CD from the menu before it actually gets to booting up the system, if there is some sort of specific information that would help.
Thanks in advance for all your help.
Last edited by zenten (2012-04-17 12:12:57)

It booted fine fully installed with an older version of Ubuntu that I ended up breaking in a totally unrelated issue. Rather than trying to restore what was left I thought I'd just install from scratch. And I haven't tried a monitor hooked up, because that would require a lot of lugging things around and whatnot.
I'm going to try http://schlunix.org/archlinux/iso/2009. … so.torrent and see if that works, and if so setting up that framebuffer console.

OS X Recover Disk Assistant won't boot from USB

I just replaced my hard drive in my iMac (2008). I'm trying to get the OS installed and I don't have both of my original install disks (I believe they were Leopard disks). When I purchased Lion I did create an install disk, however. I ignorantly tried to install Lion straight up from my disk onto the new hard drive. Now, it says there's a problem with the installation and to try and install again. The problem is the install disk just goes straight to that message and I can't use it to install. I tried to Erase the drive with Disk Utility and start over, but the install disk still goes straight to the "problem" message.
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*Mac OS X Base System

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)
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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.
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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.
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Hi,
I have a grey screen and grey rotating wheel startup probs. I have tried repairing with the disk utility, resetting PRAM, booting in safe mode (which gave a subset of the errors that 'disk repair' did- namely- 'invalid sibling link,invalid record count, invalid node structure, invalid key length) and finally trying to get to archive&install the o/s, but it cannot find the destination volume. Is an erase the only option? PS I have backed up most files individually, but my daughter did not back up any from her user account. Any help would be appreciated. J

Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Why is my computer slow?
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Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

Disk utility will not boot using COMMAND R. It won't give me the 'ERASE' option when I open Disk Utility. How do I wipe my hard drive?

If you're truly running 10.6.8, there is no Recovery partition - that didn't come along until 10.7x.
You'll need to use the set of gray discs that originally shipped with your model. If you don't have them, you can always get your serial number from the bottom of the casing and call Apple to get a set of replacement discs. These will run you about $20 + shipping & taxes. Once you have the discs, boot from Disk One and use Disk Utility to erase your HD and then reinstall whichever version of OS X that shipped with your model. No way around of getting the discs.
Clinton

Win 7 pro installed on hp touchsmart 320-1030, the machine cannot boot from installation DVD. Assist

I have installed Win 7 professional on hp touchsmart 320-1030 with an OEM DVD to overwrite Win 7 premium preinstalled from factory.
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Hello,
So, you installed Window 7 Pro with a DVD, you boot with it to install the O.S, and now it does not work?
Have you tried to load the BIOS default values or even updating the BIOS?
If it had work before, cant understand why it does not work now...
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T500 will not boot from bootable CDs/DVDs, but will read and open files on them

System: 2 T500s, both manufactured early April 2009, win XP, ATI Radeon 3650 graphics,4GB RAM, latest Lenovo drivers installed..
Problem:- Our 2 T500s cannot boot from any windows coded recovery CD -except Lenovo's rescue/recovery discs. Some -but not all- Linux code recovery CDs do boot the T500. Every other kind of CD and DVD such as audio and video works fine in windows XP.
Here an example of our 2 T500s' failure to recognise bootable CD/DVD discs. All the files and folders on a Paragon Partition Mgr v8.5 Recovery CD can be viewed in windows explorer and files such as jpg, txt and zip can be opened. This CD will not boot the T500, however, it will boot our other -non-Lenovo- computers. The same applies when the media are DVDs with identical content.
We have tried several different kinds of CD and DVD media to no avail. Burning the media on other computers and using several kinds of burning software does not help, ourT500s refuse to boot from them too.
The problem seems clear enough, on starup our T500s fail to distinguish between windows coded bootable and ordinary CDs/DVDs -unless they are Lenovo recovery/restore discs.
A solution would be gratefully received.

Thank you for your very kind assistance,
Q: "1. Did you apply the DVD firmware fix here?"
A. It was` already installed on our 2 T500s. We have also applied just about every driver update from Lenovo.
Q: "2. Did you try booting from a USB optical drive that you first attached to another system where you could verify that booting from it was possible?"
A. Yes, many times from a USB CD/DVD drive, it failed too. We burned on that drive too, but the T500s will not boot from those CDs either.
Q: "3. In this thread the solution was to use another burning program than Roxio..".
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For some reason, our two T500s' CD/DVD drive controllers or some intermediate software act as if the CD's boot sector is not present. Clearly, something (BIOS, software, unstable hardware, or ? ) is blocking the read or write of the data necessary to boot these CDs. Whatever that 'something' is, it has no effect on burning and booting Lenovo recovery CDs.
The bizarre part of all this is that a`Lenovo recovery CD burned on the T500 drive WILL BOOT the T500. A Paragon v8.5 recovery CD or BartPE CD burned in one of our non-Lenovo computers will boot ithat and every other computer we have except our T500s.
PS Thank you for the link to the new version of Roxio, will download and install it.

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.

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.

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.

G5 wont boot from installation disk?

Any suggestions for a G5 that wont boot from the installation CD? Regular starts fail at the grey screen with the apple logo. I've re-set PRAM and SMU, and replaced the battery. G5 passed the Disk Utility tests and the hardware test run over firewire from a PowerBook. I've tried booting from the CD while holding down the various keys. Runs fine in terminal mode so I've saved all my files. Not sure where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi choriocapillaris, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Can we assume it booted from this Install Disc before, or could this be an Install Disc from another Mac?
If it is the right Disc, put it in the PB, boot the PB into Target mode...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
Boot the G5 with the Option key held down & see if the Install Disc in the PB eventually shows up as a boot choice for the G5.

Dual G5 hangs while booting from internal hard-disk

Hi,
When I switched my Dual G5 (2x2.5GHz around 15 months old, 1.5GB ram, 160GB hard disk, OS 10.4.6) on yesterday, it wouldn't boot from the internal hard disk. The spinning "wheel" (under the Apple logo) didn't show up and after a couple (5? 10?) of minutes the fans started making more noise than they ever did. I tried again with the same result.
It did boot from CD though and the disk was accessible. Disk Utility didn't report a problem and the hardware test neither. Subsequent rebooting from the internal hard disk failed again.
Then I reinstalled 10.4 (with archive & install), but with the same result. Then I got a Firewire drive from the computer support department, formatted it, installed 10.4 and copied (nearly) the entire internal hard disk's content to it. I was able to work normally from that disk.
Then I booted again from the 10.4 installation disk, formatted the internal drive, reinstalled 10.4 and then it did boot from the internal drive. I migrated all my files and now everything is working again (although a few things might have gone missing). And I lost nearly a day of work.
I conclude from this that it wasn't the disk, but that somehow an essential part of the boot software got damaged.
My question: how did this happen? What could have caused it? Is there someone with a similar experience (i.e., failure to boot from disk while the disk is still ok)? Is there any way to prevent it from happening again?

we have g5s the same as you. the few times we've ever had an issue with them refusing to boot up have been solved by running diskwarrior. it's an utter 'must have'.
it's a harsh fact that drives (and the operating system that sits on them) do fail from time to time. careful housekeeping (repairing permissions regularly, running disk utility repair and/or diskwarrior) will help to prevent any major problems.
if you have an issue that can't be fixed by doing these things (and we just had one with a file sharing problem) the best course of action is a full reinstall.
we keep a fw800 drive with the latest installers of every application we use handy in each room for this purpose. it's time consuming to stay on top of but worth it when it all goes pear-shaped.

Disk Utility broken while booted from Installation CDs??

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