Disk Utility: First Aid: "Repair Disk" grayed out when i select the HD

I'm getting the flashing question mark folder icon at startup and my Mac never does start. I'm trying to run through the repair suggestions on this forum and on the support pages but I can't do much of anything with the disk utility. (I've done the reset PRAM step and I've tried reselecting a startup volume both with the startup manager --HD wasn't shown as an option-- and by holding down "X" on startup... neither helped.)
Under first aid, verify disk permissions, i get the "no valid packages" error message. But "Verify Disk Permissions" is the only button available to me when I select my internal hard disk. The support pages say to "Repair Disk" but I can't select that option.
I've tried to reinstall the OSX from the CD, but when the installer asks me to select a destination volume, nothing is available to select.
I am running version 10.4.something at least. My CD is the one that came with the computer a couple of years ago. I have one of the early Intel Macbooks.
I have an appointment at the Genius Bar after work tonight but I'd love it if I could fix this baby sooner.
Am I hosed?

OK- Try a Single User boot- hold command +s while starting, and try and repair with fsck.
-Startup in Single User mode.
-At the command-line prompt, type */sbin/fsck -fy*. Press Return.
fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found:
*The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK*
-If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:
*FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED*
Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command again, until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
-When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type *reboot* at the prompt and then press Return.
-Your computer should start up normally and allow you to log in.
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

Similar Messages

Disk Utility - First Aid - The underlying task reported failure on exit

Disk Utility -> First Aid -> Repair Disk Permissions provides in red
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit'
This was a nightmare for me to fix, but after I learned how it was easy. If you get this error and you have not already restarted your computer, open you sharing preferences and make sure you ahve not set the everyone group to 'no access'. If you have change it and retry to run the permissions repair. If you have already restarted you will need to startup using your install DVD and then open terminal. In terminal type the following to fix your permissions.
chmod 775 /Volumes/'Macintosh HD'
This will change your permissions and you should be able then to get past the grey screen.
Hope this helps someone.

Hi everyone, I believe my permissions are the problem.
I let someone change permission settings to share music files on their hard drive and mine and another mac (3 in total) yesterday. I seemed to work. I can't remember if I then shut down my mac or just closed it. Anyway last night I was trying to organise the music files and burn them to dvd. I also tried change the permissions as some of the files were read only. I though it worked. It seemed to be burning and the screen saver came up, I clicked to exit screen saver and it just went to black and back to screen saver and i couldn't go any further. I had to hold down the power button to turn if off.
I tried to turn it on and now it's stuck on start up gray screen with the loading wheel thing? just loading forever.
I used disk utility, verified volume and repair disk are ok, but verify permissions and repair permissions, I get an Error message "the underlying task reported failure on exit"
I opened terminal and typed in what tryjezus1 said,"chmod 775 /Volumes/'Macintosh HD'" and pressed return. Not sure if I should have pressed return or if I should have just closed the window?. Anyway I'm still stuck.
I only have the mac since march so I believe I still have phone support, but if anyone can help I'd like to try and sort this out myself.

Older OS Disk Utility first aid use on newer OS

I have an external drive that has a bootable backup (10.3.7) of my Powerbook. The Powerbook currently is out of commision. I plugged the drive into an iMac and found the drive would not mount. The iMac's OS is 10.0.3. Can I use it's Disk Utility, First Aid to repair the error on the backup drive? The iMac says that there is an "Invalid node structure."

No, because Disk Utility cannot repair an "invalid node structure" problem. Disk Warrior (www.alsoft.com) may - and I stress "may" - be able to repair the directory, but if not you will need to reformat the drive.

Disk utility can't repair disk, back up and restore files......I need help, I'm worried I'll lose all my photos, files etc

Mac started hanging up while streamlining a kids show. Restarted and got the screen with the apple and the circle. restarted with control-option p and r. Ran disk repairitem got the following results;
invalid index key,
it rebuilds catalog b-tree,
volume repair complete,
updating boot support partitions for the volume as required,
Error disk utility can't repair disk
I'm then prompted to back up all files, reformat the disk and restore backed up files.
Obviously need help here as I think I'm in danger of losing my files, photos etc if I don't do this right.
Can anyone help
Steve

You might want to back up the disk as soon as possible, do the repair, then back it up again. First time will have the issues that Disk Utility can't fix, however, you'll have the data saved. Then, once you get things repaired, make a new backup, and go from there.
If you're going to use a hard drive directly connected to your iMac for backup, this is what I mentioned earlier: http://twelvesouth.com/products/backpack/ Great way to use space behind the iMac without adding something else to the desk top. You can buy it through Apple online/stores or Amazon, and there are probably other sources too.
For external hard drives, I like those sold by OWC at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/ as many of them use Oxford chip sets, wihch work well with macs (I've used several for years with no issues). Most pre-packaged drive/cases have a 3 year warranty, although you can buy a case and add your own hard drive. I like Western Digital Scorpio Blacks that have a 5 year warranty.

Disk utility unable to repair disk. What next?

Disk utility unable to repair disk. What next?

I encountered the same problem. After verify disk, I got the message to repair the disk. But it was unable to complete the repair. Rather than purchase Disk Warrior, I tried something else.
What I did was reinstall the OSX (this iMac is still on Leopard). I backed up everything, naturally, before doing the reinstall. I chose the "Archive and Install" option, along with "Preserve Users and Network Settings". This method moves existing files to a folder named "Previous System" and imports existing user accounts, network settings, and home folders into the new OSX.
After the successful reinstall, I ran Disk Utility. It checked AND repaired Permissions. It verified that the disk was fine and no longer needed repair.
If this didn't work, my plan "B" was to reinstall the OSX again, this time with the "Erase and Install" option. Fortunately, I didn't have to go to plan "B".

Boot Camp Assistant & Disk Utility First Aid failing?

Hi,
I am trying to open my download of 3DS Max for an assignment but the following problems are stopping me:
1. The message ' The document "Autodesk_3ds_Max_Design_2012_English_Win_32-64bit" could not be opened. The file is too large'
2. After advice on this forum I tried to create a partition with Boot Camp Assistant (of 32gb). But this failed and told me to repair the disk with Disk Utility.
3. Disk Utility gives the following messages after I have tried repairing and also verifying the disk
Would really appreciate some help!
Thanks

Reinstall Leopard, but first use the Leopard install DVD Disk Utility to reformat the HD to one partition. See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh14.html
It's for Tiger, but applies for Leopard as well.
WARNING, you must have your data saved somewhere else.
Message was edited by: xnav

Macbook w/ whole slew of problems...Won't Start Up, Disk Utility Can't Repair Disk, Horizontal Lines on Screen, Etc.

I purchased my Macbook in the summer of 2011 and before it went berserk it was running Mavericks. 3 years later, it's finally seemed to have run its course.
It won't start up normally and it won't start up on safe boot. Attempting to use disk utility to repair the disk only gives me the message: "Disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible." There are also horizontal lines across the start screen (before it inevitably shuts down) and the screen looks very faintly purple-ish/off-colored.
This actually didn't come out of the blue. On Monday, my macbook suddenly froze, went white, and beeped three beeps repeatedly. I restarted it and backed up all my important work files and set up an appointment at the genius bar for Friday once work ended. It remained buggy during this process with the beeps returning an occasionally a blue screen popping up.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space to back up my important photos and by the time I returned on the next day with an external hard drive to store them on, my macbook would no longer turn on.
Is there anything I can do to bring my macbook back to life? Ideally I'd like for it to last one more year before I graduate college. Is it still salvageable, and if so, is it worth salvaging?

I hate to spread gloom, but that computer has serious problems. The only people who can diagnose the problem(s) are technicians. I would take it back to the Apple store for further testing.
Barry

Encodings folder empty, Disk Utility won't repair disk

Hello, I've been having some issues with my old powerbookg4. I've done a clean reinstall already on this machine, which seemed to correct alot of problems, but there seems to be at least one significant problem remaining. the Encodings folder in system/library/coreservices/encodings is completely empty, so ichat will crash when trying to type a message, or firefox crashes when it hits a website with chinese on it. Anyways, I went to disk repair with the 10.3 install disc, but after a while the repair stops, saying that it can't repair the volume. I've also tried just copying the encodings folder from the install disc, but that encounters an error (i think its error 52 or something). thank you very much for any help you could provide.

i should also add that I've run it with the apple hardware test cd that came with the computer, and that says all the hardware is fine. But when I've booted the computer up in safe mode and had Disk Utility try to "Repair Disc," it stops after about ten-twenty minutes saying that "the volume can't be repaired." So, I'm wondering if there really is a problem with the hard drive that the hardware test isn't picking up, and so even if I reinstall the OS or try and do a clean install of a newer os like os 10.5, the problems won't go away. Is this a hardware issue, or am I just going about this the wrong way?
I've tried reinstalling several of the language packages on the os 10.3 disc, but I didn't try much because I don't know which of the language packages installs the files for the Encodings folder.
And on the first OS10.3 install cd, I found the path to the Encodings folder, and tried copying those contents over into the Encodings folder on my hard drive, working under the assumption that for about five minutes I get root access. It throws up an error message when I do that, even though it lets me tinker around in the other parts.
I'm really as in the dark as to what I'm doing here, which is why I haven't tried much else. So any advice or info you can throw my way would be very much appreciated.

Disk Utility can't repair disk...Can I still create a new image to back up?

Two days ago my computer died and I haven't been able to get past the Apple screen since. I've tried starting in Safe mode, etc. that did not work. I just started up using my installation disk and got into Disk Utility. It says it cannot repair the disk and that I should back up as many files as possible and reformat the disk. How am I supposed to back up if I can't start up? I am currently creating a new image of the HD to an external drive but my question is if Disk Utility couldn't repair the disk, with the external drive copy also be problematic? How can I tell before I reformat the whole thing and start over?
Please help someone! I am in a little over my head!
Thanks

I am currently creating a new image of the HD to an external drive but my question is if Disk Utility couldn't repair the disk, with the external drive copy also be problematic?
Maybe.
How can I tell before I reformat the whole thing and start over?
Run Repair Disk on the copy.

Macbook Pro not booting after update. ''Disk Utility can't repair disk''. Help needed!

I have recently updated my macbook pro as I had some pending software updates. I left it to do the job over night and the next day I noticed it was not letting me sign in to my account session as usual.
I restarted the computer and ever since then when I boot it, it just shows the apple grey screen with a bar that loads to about a 3rd and then it turns off again. I have contacted apple but they were unable to help me with this.
So far I have tried to:
1. Re-install OS X 10.8 - but it says the disk is locked or OS X cannot be installed on Recovery HD.
2. Verify and Repair the disk and I errors but it cannot fix them. Some are:
               'invalid leaf count''
               ''missing thread record''
               ''incorrect number of file hard links''
               ''overlapped extent allocation''
          and it finally says ''the volume Macintosh HD cannot be repaired'' Error: ''Disk Utility can't repair this disk.. disk, and restore your backed up files.
I would like to know a way to back up my files so that i can completely restore the disk without any data loss as I havent backed up for a while!
If anyone has any solution to this issue it would be much appreciated!

I just ran the Disk Utility, and cannot very disk. It gives me an error message;
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
and when I run the repair, this is the message:
The volume GERRARD could not be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired
Prior to running Disk Utility, I have already tried DiskWarrior, and could not repair my disk. Anyway I can fix this problem??? Formatting the disk would be my last option (though I am unsure if it will fix the problem). Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Meanwhile, I will continue to back up my file, and delete unused data and try to run it again.
Thank you all very much for any input.
Cheers,
Matt

Disk Utility - Can't repair Disk - Help needed :(

Hi,
I have some trouble to use Disk Utility (on my iBook G4 - 1.33 Ghz+1 GB RAM)
I run Disk Utility to verify and repair permissions, which worked, and then Verify Disk. HEre is the logged result:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Aug 26 09:32:58: Disk Utility started.
Verify permissions for “E=G4”
Determining correct file permissions.
Permissions verification complete
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Verifying volume “E=G4”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
Invalid volume free block count
uld be %@ instead of %@)",2)
4078185
4078184
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume E=G4 needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
Disk Utility stopped verifying “E=G4” because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I wanted to run Disk Repair, but the button would not highlight, therefore could not be started.
I retried today, and now the Verify Disk task won't even work, blocking Disk Utility (needs force quit)
(E=G4 is the name of my Hard Drive on the iBook)
I also tried TechTool Deluxe coming with Applecare protection plan, but TTD can not check the "Volume Structure".
Has anyone got any tips or sequence to solve this?
Thanks in advance
Yann
Message was edited by: ObiYann

I just ran the Disk Utility, and cannot very disk. It gives me an error message;
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
and when I run the repair, this is the message:
The volume GERRARD could not be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired
Prior to running Disk Utility, I have already tried DiskWarrior, and could not repair my disk. Anyway I can fix this problem??? Formatting the disk would be my last option (though I am unsure if it will fix the problem). Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Meanwhile, I will continue to back up my file, and delete unused data and try to run it again.
Thank you all very much for any input.
Cheers,
Matt

Only turns on in OSX Recovery, Disk Utility can't repair disk

Hi guys, I really need your help, as my Macbook Pro running on OSX Mavericks is having problems.
Today I turned my Mac on, and it started up with a loading wheel and a loading bar. When the loading bar finished, the Mac turned itself off. I tried many times, same happened every time. I then went into OSX Recovery, started repairing Macintosh HD, but the error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair Macintosh HD" came up and now I don't now what to do.
Is there any way I can back up my files in this situation?
Is there any way I can repair the disk without having to erase all data and reinstalling OSX?
Or do I really need to bring it to a Apple Store for repair?
Thx for reading

If you have access to another Mac and both computers have the appropriate connects, try the Target Disk mode to see if you can copy the files.
Target Disc Mode
Is there any way I can repair the disk without having to erase all data and reinstalling OSX?
No.

Disk Utility: First Aid Failed, Filesystem verify or repair failed

Ouch,
So for some reason podcasts suddenly stopped downloading to my external music HD. Checked the permissions on the HD and it wasn't giving me access to the permissions even though I had permissions. Ejected the drive, mounted, ran Disk Utility and got the message above (subject of this post). The details box says the following:
Invalid Sibling Link
Volume check failed.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed
So.... is my external drive dead? Can it be fixed? Is everyone going to recommend pro tools and disk warrior again? Anyone that has a bright idea, I am all ears. I have Time Machine running, but I am not sure how I would restore the drive from that and get my data back. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Well, oddly, it just fixed itself. "Bogus" you say? It is really odd. It just mounted itself, all my audio is working and podcasts writing to the drive again. I ran disk utility again and it ejected the drive and I got the same error message. I'm getting tons of conflicts on my system ever since I did my clean install of Leopard, so I imagine it has something to do with that.

Everytime I start Macbook Air it goes straight to disk utility, First Aid shows HD but when I try and reboot from HD it doesn't show up?

Hi,
My Macbook Airs been having trouble the last couple of weeks, it got quite slow and then was taking forever to load. I tried rebooting in Safe Mode and it ran disc and permission repairs and it came back saying everything was ok (however I could still click the repair after when it normally grey's out).
The other day I turned it on and it went straight to Disc Utility, I ran the repairs again on my Hard drive - still said everything was okay. Went to the Apple menu and tried to startup from disc, but my hard drive doesn't appear - there are no options for me to start up from.
I also tried re-installing Yosemite from a USB, when I tried this my hard drive did appear with an exclamation mark on it. When I clicked this and tried to re-install it told me there wasn't enough space available? I should also mention that when I was originally doing First Aid I also erased everything to see if that would work so there should be no reason why there's no space!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Boot into the recovery partition (COMMAND + R) and see if you can reinstall the OSX from the 4 option menu.
Ciao.

Disk utility can't repair disk (1 partition) on external hard drive

I've search here some to try to find the answer to my scenario, but I really don't understand how Disk Utility got involved in my external hard drive to begin with, so here's my question.
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Studio FW800 external that has 5 partitions, connected to my 2011 iMac. I had help doing the partitions and don't really remember the reasoning, but one is just for my SuperDuper! backup, one is Miscellaneous, one for movie clips off my camcorder, one for misc scanned photo's and one for my genealogy research.
I back up using Time Machine to a Time Capsule and also to this WD hard drive with SuperDuper!
Recently I'm getting a pop up message that "Mac OS X can't repair the disk "Genealogy"'. And it needs to be reformatted. It's become a read only disk. When I look in Disk Utility it shows all the partitions as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" EXCEPT for the one in question. I also noticed that there are a lot of files with "date created" being the same date in 1969! These files may be letters I've written or photo's I added to that partition within the last few years.
I think I have to completely reformat the entire external hard drive to repair this, but I want to make sure. Because it's going to be a major hassle backing it all up to another external (having to get one first) and then figuring out how to make the files that have turned "read only" in that one partition, back to their original state!
Does this sound right, that I have to reformat the entire external hard drive? And how do I get the read-only files back to their original state.
Thanks, Sandy

I don't back them up. There isn't much on them, besides the one I save video files too, but those are 2-3 min snippets of school events, that are just uploaded to youtube without any editing (like titles, fade ins, etc.) through iMovie. All those vid's are on original tapes I have.
The partition that is giving me problems, I do have most of that on my iMac's hard drive, just not as organized. I guess it's just seeming overwhelming to re-created those files into the same file structure on my iMac, but I think it could be done.
I'm still not sure why my brother had me do the partitions like this. In the past I had just two partitions, one for the back up and the other for random stuff that I didn't want to take up space on my iMac.

Disk Utility: First Aid: "Repair Disk" grayed out when i select the HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for