Disk Utility: Defrag and Scandisk

Hey all!
I was looking into running a disk defrag on my computer but apparently defrag runs in the background all the time.
I dropped the macbook while it was on today and I am afraid of a head crash. Is there any utility to run such as scan disk to check for any disk errors?

Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. Select the hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab. In the DU status are look for the SMART info. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive has failed. Otherwise, click on Verify Disk button. If no errors are reported the drive is OK. If errors are reported then you will need to boot from your OS X Installer Disc and run Disk Utility from the installer's Utilities menu. Select your startup volume then click on First Aid tab. Click on the Repair Disk button. If errors are reported that are fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.

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I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red-keys out of order, and --Volume corrupt, can't be repaired. I tried

I have an iMac mid 2010. After Disk utilities said the drive was corrupt, I ran the hardware test (extended) 3 times. No problems. I than ran Disk utility again and got 2 messages in red…keys out of order, and ……Volume corrupt, can't be repaired.
I tried to do a system install, but message said…disk can't be changed. Will a complete erase and install fix this ?
Everything is backed-up.

There's hardware and software.
Your drive could physically be in good condition but something has caused the file structure to be messed up (it just happens sometimes). The directory that keep track of files is corrupt. Disk Utility can help determine if that is the issue. In some cases it can repair the problem but it cannot do it to a drive that is being used to boot the system while you are doing that. You have to boot from another drive. Some things DU cannot repair and you need to try a stronger utility such as Diskwarrior.
A failing hard drive (one with mechanical issues) can be a cause of file structure issues but this is by no means always the case. Apart from looking at the SMART diagnosis feature of Disk Utility (and smart isn't totally reliable) there often isn't a way to tell if a drive is failing until it suddenly happens, which is why you need to maintain backups.
In your situation it does sound serious and not just minor directory corruption. You can try erasing (formatting) the drive, You may need to do this if it is really corrupt, in which case there could be underlying physical issues. I use old technology but if you have the patience you can try erasing the drive with the security option of writing zeros once (don't do more unless you are going on a 3 week vacation). This makes the drive not simply assume everything is okay by forcing it try every part of the drive by writing data. If something is gong wrong you may find it marks a lot of bad sectors, or flat out refuses to format. Then you know you need a new drive.

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.

Does Disk Utility defragment files during clone?

Scenario:
Boot from OS X (10.6) install disc > run Disk Utility > format a second drive (internal SATA) using HFS+ (Journaled) > Restore tab > Erase and Restore function
Question:
Does the above procedure actually defragment file clusters or just remove fragmented free space during the 'clone' process?
Thanks in advance for knowledge.
Note - this question was prompted by a post regarding fragmented Aperture library databases but I realized this is probably a better place to raise the question.

No. When you clone to a freshly formatted drive the result is by definition defragmented. That is because the destination's sector blocks are sequential. Fragmentation only occurs when a file is changed and requires more space than was used by the previous version. If there isn't a contiguous block of space available then the OS uses any available block elsewhere. This results in the file not being saved in a contiguous block of space - hence fragmentation.
Therefore, when you clone a drive to a newly formatted drive the result is a fully defragmented drive. This is the fastest and safest way to defragment a drive: clone it to a newly formatted drive, erase the fragmented drive, then clone back.
Fragmentation is unlikely to occur unless files over 20 MBs are being frequently changed and re-written to a drive that hasn't enough free space to continuously change large files that are growing. These files can no longer be saved into a contiguous block of space - hence they become fragmented. Otherwise OS X automatically defragments files under 20 MBs on the fly. Typically rapid drive fragmentation is more a problem from small files than very large ones.

Can Disk Utility warnings and odd behavior be ignored safely?

I have a late 2012 Mac mini with a fusion drive. which will not repair using Disk Utility. In addition, I have been unable to partition it. When I try to verify the disk I get: Unable to bootstrap transaction group 461088: invalid field value
No valid commit checkpoint found
The volume CEF34A3F-08C3-45A5-9A87-C383B300541E was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.
If I run disk repair it goes into a loop saying that the disk needs to be repaired.
    I took it to the Apple store where they were also unable to partition it, but they did say that there is nothing wrong with the disk. Can the above warning and behavior be safely ignored? Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the mini often hangs when I restart from the Apple menu.

The problem is solved,
   I took the Mac mini to the
Apple store again and this time they rebuilt the fusion drive and installed a fresh copy of OSX. After copying my stuff over from a Time Machine backup and running Disk Utility again a get a nice reassuring green text saying that; 'the volume appears to be o.k.'
   Thanks to all.

MacBook Pro failing to boot up despite disk utility repair and PRAM

Problem: MBP frozen on boot up screen with Apple logo and turning gear (which freezes after a while aswell)
Solutions attempted: disk repair via custom recovery- disk utility, PRAM
Device: MacBook Pro 15" (early 2010) running 10.9
Additional info-
Never had any issue with the device and this seems to have happened all of a sudden. Installed an SSD a few months ago, and just realised the ssd did not have a recovery partition. However I connected my older hardrive via USB to access recovery which seemed to work fine.
NOTE: for the past few weeks, every now and then I was unable to power the device off and whenever this occurred, there seemed to be a few bugs (ie unable to empty thrash-error 50 and enable to increase/decrease volume/screen brightness). However, holding the power button and restarting it seemed to have fixed it.
Had the same issue but this time around MBP failed to boot up.
Any possible suggestions?

Ranban wrote:
Are you suggesting reinstalling the os?
No.
Furthermore, is there a way to keep the data intact using this method? Or retrieve it at the least?
Repairing a disk should have no affect on the data, nor would an OSX installation. However if the data has value, there always should be a backup, preferably two.
In your original post you said "attempted: disk repair via custom recovery- disk utility". The term 'custom recovery' to me is alien and thus confusing.
What I am suggesting is a repair of the HDD using the original installation disk, not an OSX installation.
You insert the disk holding down the C key at startup. Proceed with the process until you see on the top of the display a menu bar. Select UTILITIES and from the drop down menu select Disk Utility. Then select Disk Utility>First Aid and then run Verify and repair. Exit from the installation process.
That way I know that the attempted repair was properly executed. You may have in essence done that, but there is an element of doubt in my mind.
Ciao.

Disk Utility Crashing and Disk Images Not Opening Properly?

Hi,
I got a new G-Tech 500GB external drive that I've got into three partitions. All of them have Tiger on them but the main one I'm using is giving me problems. I have Stuffit Expander 11 on here and when I try to open a disk image it looks like it's opening but doesn't. Also I try and open Disk Utility and it crashes on me. I did a repair disk permissions a few hours ago after restarting up again and it seemed to be fine but now the problem is back.
The other problem I have on and off is that out of the three partitions I'm supposed to put them in the trash before shutting down and sometimes the two not in use won't go in the trash.
Any ideas? The two other partitions I have right now I'm using for recovery stuff from my internal drive.
S.

Its the improper unmount of the firewire drive which is the problem. Try to reset all.
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
      reset-nvram and hit the Return key
      set-defaults and hit the Return key
      reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
All your FireWire devices should reapear, if not repeat the procedure
How to avoid the issue :
The only really proven way to avoid burning up a FireWire port is to connect all devices and to turn them on PRIOR turning on the Mac. Likely, one must unplug them and turn them off AFTER the Mac has been turned off. If you need to connect another device, then you're on for a shutdown of your machine...  It's a tad annoying but it guarantees that the FW ports won't be damaged.  Be careful when using self powered devices such as webcams, iPods, hard drives or hubs, as they can destroy the port pretty easily. Another thing is to avoid daisy-chaining hard drives.
When the FW port doesn't respond anymore :
In this case, peripherals won't be mounted upon plugging, and won't be displayed in Apple's System Profiler. The self powered devices will still be fed by the port, but won't respond either.  It happens that the PHY just hangs after a surge or a random problem. Once hung, the port will not respond any longer, it is possible to reset the component by going through the following steps :
1° boot the mac in Open Firmware by holding [ Apple key - Option - O - F ] after the startup chime.  2° you'll get to a command prompt. the keyboard mapping will be QWERTY, so pay attention when you type the following :  RESET-NVRAM (enter)  RESET-ALL (enter)  3° Now the mac should restart itself and the port should function properly again.  If it still doesn't work, then it means that the PHY is damaged.
http://www.hardmac.com/articles/16/

Disk Utility repair and Mac OS X Install Disc not at hand

Help needed!
If i click "verify" in Disk Utility, i get "The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired." as answer. However "repair" needs to unmount the volume which is not possible because it's the system/boot partition.
Currently, I dont have access to my mac os x install disc (DVD), which could be used to boot from and run disk utility. The dvd is locked away in my office in another country.
Is there a way around this? Either by running disk utility's repair function while the system is booted or else by manually creating a boot cd/live cd?

Yes, possibly.
Boot into single-user mode. After startup is completed you will be in command line mode and should see a prompt with a cursor positioned after it. At the prompt enter the following then press RETURN:
/sbin/fsck -fy
If you receive a message that says "*** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***" then re-run the command until you receive a message that says "** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK." If you re-run the command more than seven times and do not get the OK message, then the drive cannot be repaired this way.
If you were successful then enter:
reboot
and press RETURN to restart the computer.

Disk utility Restore and Back up

when using Disk utility and dragging my source internal HD to the source window and then dragging my external HD to the destination window then clicking on restore.
After this completes can I then boot from the external HD? I have been using DeJuVu with no problems on a lacie ext HD. i just purchased an OWC Mercury elite and did a DeJuVu back up, but the OWC wont boot.
It mounts and shows up on the restart in sytem preferences. I contacted OWC and they recommended doing another back up. They also told me i could do the restore from disk utilities and would be able to boot from the ext.
I am now doing a restore on the imac but still wondering if this will work, if so I could do my cloning of the HD with out using DeJuVu. the only thing I would lose is the ability to do scheduling.
Thank You
Dick

I never had any problem backing up a clone using DeJuVu. I always backed up to external sata HD's and a Lacie firewire ext. Also when I used CCC this time it worked fine.
When I bought the OWC Mercury Elite is when I had a problem. After spending a day with there tech dept with no success. I came to the conclusion that only one HD could be booted from there ext 2 drive enclosure. I contacted the the next morning and talked to there senior tech and he confirmed that the enclosure when split using two drives independently that only one was bootable.
I am not sure why you can't get a complete bootable clone. What are the drives and what are you trying to clone to. Ext, internal or your single drive which you have partitioned?
I feel if your cloning you should always do it on a separate drive.
My methods are I never partition and never fill my operating system over half of the drive capacity.
Dcik

CD burning with disk utility - format and size for 800 MB - 90 minutes CD

Hi Support,
I'm trying to burn a CD with 800 MB (90 minutes) using disk utility. When I create a new empty image I can select the size. Unfortunately there is no option for a 90 minutes CD. When I create the image with 800 MB and I try to burn it, disk utility tells me that the image is too big. So my first question is what is the maximum size for such a CD?
Next question, which format should I use? When creating a new empty image, I have the options "Beschreibbares Image" and "Mitwachsendes Image" (I have a Germann OS). But I dont't have the option to create a "CD/DVD Master", which is availabe, when I create an image from a folder. What I have to do, is to convert the image afterwards to a "CD/DVD Master". This is very circumstantial.
So my questions are:
1. Is there an easier way o create an empty disk image for a CD/DVD?
2. Is the format "CD/DVD Master" required to burn a CD. It is also possible to burn images with other formats. What is the advantage/disadvantage of this format?
3. Which format is required to use the CD in a Windows computer or a standalone CD/DVD player? The volume format must probably "MS-DOS Filesystem" in this case?
4. Is it possible to burn multi session CD's in this case?
5. Is there a comprehensive documentation somewhere available for this burning issue on Mac? The help of disk utility is really not enough.
Thanks for answers and hints Thomas

Hi thmayr!
Although the original instructions were for a 700 MB disc, perhaps the article linked to below, could be helpful.
From "Macworld" Feb 2005 issue p.90 Link To Article. Scroll to the second tip on the page: "Unix Tip of the Month: Utilize Extra Space on CD-Rs".
Content:
Create a new folder in the Finder.
Drag everything you want to burn, up to 700 MB, into the folder.
Open Terminal and type cd ~/Desktop
Press the Enter key. This changes Terminal's active directory to your user's Desktop folder.
Type hdiutil makehybrid -o myburn.iso (There's a space after the o in iso, and myburn can be any name you choose) DON'T press Enter
Switch to the "Finder"
Drag & drop the folder you created onto the Terminal window. Terminal should fill in the full path to the folder.
Press Enter. Enter key will then execute the command.
What you have done is used the hdiutil Unix command to create a hybrid disk image named myburn.iso (you can choose whatever name you like, in place of myburn, but use iso for the extension.
You should see the message "Creating hybrid image" in your Terminal window, as well as an indication of the task's progress.
When finished, you should see a disk image called myburn.iso on your Desktop.
You can use Disk Utility to burn this image, or you can type
hdiutil burn ~/Desktop/myburn.iso in Terminal
Insert a blank CD-R when prompted, and then just wait until it's done.
ali b

Disk utility/erase and lost HD free space

HELP!
In an attempt to clear up space from deleted files I ran the disk utility>erase>erase free space>35-Pass erase deleted files programme. Then did verify disk permissions and repair disk permissions.
Iv now dropped from 7.8GB of free space to 1.8 of free space on the HD. So that things aren't working right. Plus, I can't download music that I bought on iTunes because there isn't enough space on the HD.
How do I get all that space back? What did I do wrong?
All I was doing was trying to free up space from deleted files that Iv been getting rid of. I know that when you delete from one portion of the HD it doesn't always delete it totally off the system only the portion where you're looking at it.
HELP

Do you by any chance have FileVault enabled?

Disk Utility, Bootcamp, and Mountain Lion

Basically the following message will include all the above.
I just recently upgraded to Mountain Lion, and decided that I wanted to install Windows. When I tried to use bootcamp to create the partition, the error message that stated something along the lines of needing to have one partition that needs to journalized. The problem that I found with this statement was when I used the 'Disk Utility' only two partitions were shown, the Mac partition and the recovery partition. So next I tried to create and delete a partition hoping that would get rid of the error message. Again I hit a brick wall because the error message was still present, and then a new problem emerged with the 'Disk Utility.'
The partitions that I manually created after bootcamp failed caused other problems for the 'Disk Utility.' The problem was that I could no longer resize my partitions. The process would complete but the partition would still be at the same amount it was before the partition was supposedly resized. (Ex. Hard Drive has extra 20 GB, Current Harddrive partition is 420 GB. Resize to 440 GB. Go through the Process, which states success and the hard Drive still states partition is at 420 GB instead of 440GB). I then went into recovery mode to try the 'Disk Utility' and resize the hard drive, but again the hard drive could not be resized. Nothing seemed to work, so then I reinstalled OSX Mountain Lion.
After reinstalling everything, I tried to install Windows with bootcamp. This was also a failure. I was then forced to realize that maybe it was because of the recovery partition. I then deleted the recovery partition in order to see if maybe I could resize the disk so that way there was only one partition on the harddrive. This too led the problem discussed in the previous paragraph. In the end, I used my Snow Leopard Disk to restore my system. Then using Snow Leopard's Bootcamp I was able to install Windows. I just thought that I should share my experience with the community
PS. I did the repair disk, and permission before executing a new resize of the partition. As a matter of fact, I did these steps any time I used 'Disk Utility' to change something.

Boot Camp forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

Disk Utility crashes and dmg files won't mount

My girlfriend's Powerbook has been acting up for a while now, and we still can't seem to get it working properly.
One day, her Adobe programs just stopped working. Tried several things, but nothing worked and she ended up reinstalling OSX. That fixed the problem, but then she noticed she could no longer open DMG files. Accordingly, she tried to run Disk Utility but then found that it would always crash when trying to open.
She ran Disk Utility from the install disc, but nothing turned up. She also tried looking up several methods of fixing the DMG problem (deleting various files), but nothing's worked.
If I remember correctly, she also tried using the 10.3.9 combo updater some time ago, but that didn't help. We're actually not totally sure about that, so we're trying to reinstall the 10.3.9 combo updater, except for the fact that Apple has only made the file available as a DMG (which she obviously can't open).
So can anyone please help us get Disk Utility to stop crashing, and get those DMG files to open/mount? I have the crash logs but they're huge, so I'm not so sure if I should post them. Thanks everyone!
PS. I can open DMG files for her using MagicISO (I'm on a PC), but it's a bit of a pain transferring those larger files to her.
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

What files did you try deleting? If you don't know what a file does or why you're messing around with it, you shouldn't; that's just asking for trouble.
Let's assume for the moment that you have a corrupted preferences file. To find out, go to Users/Library/Preferences and locate the com.apple.DiskUtility.plist file and drag it to the Desktop. Now relaunch Disk Utility and see if the problem continues. If not, then use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions, and then you can Trash the file on your Desktop.
You should also use your OS X install disc to boot the system and use Disk Utility to Repair Disk, to see if there are any problems. If it reports any errors that it can fix, keep running it until no more are reported.
If there's an error that it cannot fix, stop using your system immediately and make a backup of everything; then get a disk utility such as DiskWarrior to see if it can fix your drive. If your drive cannot be repaired, you will need to replace the internal drive and restore from your backup (if you have one).
Hope this helps,
Mulder
If my answer helped solve your problem, please consider awarding some points. Why Reward Points?
iMac G4 700Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi! Missing disk utility apps and problems with external disc

Hi everybody! after installing snow leopard, as a way to get to lion, I dont have the disk utility apps.
Besides Im having a lot of problems with an external new Toshiba 1T disc that I try to use with Time machine cause I daily receive the OSX msg CANT REPAIR THE DISK REFORMAT IT!
Thanks a lot to all of the community
I do love Apple product. And counting the days for the iOS 6 upgrade!!

hugorodri wrote:
Hi everybody! after installing snow leopard, as a way to get to lion, I dont have the disk utility apps...
Before you go to Lion, just a reminder. I know you recently moved up to Snow Leopard. Be sure that everything you were running in Leopard, and now in SL, will work for you in Lion.
Remember, Rosetta and all PPC apps are gone (Word 2004, some versions of PhotoShop etc) Check the compatibility list before you ditch SL.
As far as your Disk Utility problem, how hard is it to reinstall SL?
I've taken a screen shot of my Utilities folder to show you what you are looking for. The Utilities folder as mentioned above is in the Aplication Folder (or you may have pulled it out to the side bar as well, in which case there will be an icon and the word Utilities in Places in the side bar.
Mrs H

Disk Utility/verify and repair grayed out, using startup disk

I'm frustrated. I'm trying to repair my hard drive. I restarted from the OS X Mac Mini install CD (holding down the letter C when I heard the chime), opened Disk Utility from the Utilities folder, selected my hard drive image, but the "verify disk" and "repair disk" options are grayed out. I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. Thanks for any help.

"...opened Disk Utility from the Utilities folder,..."
If that's what you did then you didn't boot from the disk. You booted from your hard drive and that's why Repair Disk was grayed out. Try again. Insert the disk into the Mac restart and hold down the 'c' key and keep it down until you see the Apple logo and the spinning cog. You'll know you've booted to the installer disk when you need to select your language to proceed with OS installation. Select your language and then from the menu Utilities select Disk Utility.

Disk Utility: Defrag and Scandisk

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