Disk Utility found missing folders, my computer acting weird

My Macbook has been stuttering a lot in the past day.
I ran Disk Utility and it found the folder count was off. The 'Repair Disk' option is not available. It is grayed out.
Any suggestions?
kkamin is online now Report Post Edit/Delete Message

I ran Disk Utility from the Installation Disk and it seems to have repaired the problem for now. I had to run it twice, the first time it said it repaired it, but when I ran a 'verify' it still had a mismatch in number of files and folders. I still don't feel the computer is running as fast as it should be. And I will occaisonally get the spinning beach ball for a few seconds for no apparent reason to me.
1. Is this issue indicative of a failing hard drive or a hard drive with bad sectors?
If anyone knows:
2. Is there a way to detect if I am have bad sectors on my drive? I'm not sure Disk Utility will tell me the underlying issue, perhaps it more informs of symptoms. Rather than running a Disk Repair every week and potentially losing files in the process, it would be nice to know if I should just buy a new internal hard drive.
3. I use Time Machine. If I need to wipe my lap top's drive clean as a future remedy to problems and copy my Time Machine back-up over, and there are bad sectors on my drive or the drive is failing, would that really help in the long run?
Thanks for reading.

Similar Messages

Disk Utility Found Problems

Hi, I just ran Disk Utility on my Pismo and it displayed the following error "MountCheck Found Serious Errors" and when I tried to repair the disk, it said it could not be repaired. Could anyone please tell what is 'MountCheck" and what would the problems be? Thank you.

It usually indicates hard drive directory file corruption. DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

HT2711 I used the "repair disk utility" to see why my computer is running slow but it gives me an error message saying, "disk utility can't repair this disk, and restore your backed up files. My computer was running slow and taking some time to load page

I haven't used my computer in a month, so when I turned it on, I saw it was running slow. The circle that is used to load the page kept coming up and it took sometime for things to load up. I tried to go Into safe mode, and it worked, but I know your limited on what you can do in that world. I also tried to repair the disk but it kept giving me an error message. How can I resolve this problem?

Time Machine is a back up you have to set up to back up before there is a problem like a hard drive failure.
It is possible to recover files from a failed drive, but it is an expensive proposition.
There is a faint hope that an app like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro might repair the drive. You could try making an appointment at an Apple store and ask a technician there to take a look... the diagnosis will not cost you.
http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

The Startup Disk utility is missing from Preference Panel.

I recently realized that I no longer have the Startup Disk preference pane in the Preferene Panel. I sometimes boot from other drives and now I'm forced to hold down the option key at restart or startup instead of being able to select the startup drive through the Startup Disk pane. If anybody can help shed some light on this issue, I thank you abundantly.
MacMini 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo
2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.6.8

I was hoping to avoid a reinstall but it's probably going to be the best way to solve the problem.
Thanks again, baltwo.

Computer acting weird?

For the first time ever my computer crashed on me just completely shut off. I don't really remember what i was doing but I restarted my computer back everything on to an external and ran a bunch of main menu task. Its still giving me problems freezing up my computer clock is set to 1970 and every time i try to change it system preferences crashes. And know when I'm using photoshop it gives me an error something about my scratch disk is full? I'm not sure it this one problem causing all my problems or a bunch of problems is there some kinda of diagnostic i can run for the entire computer?
1.5 GHz Powerbook G4 17in 1GB ddr sdram

When you restart and date goes back to 1969 or thereabouts, your internal battery needs to be replaced. This is not the external battery you have access to, this one is inside the case, with requires the case to be taken apart to get to the battery.
On the hardware issues, you should run the Apple hardware test, or TechTool Deluxe or Pro if you have one of those. Insert your first OS X CD in the drive (may say in small letters AHT Version x.x on it), and reboot holding the option key down. Choose the Apple hardware test, and follow directions. Choose the extended test. That should point out any hardware-related issues.
On the scratch disk message, how much free disk space do you have on your system? You want to keep at least 10% free for systems usage.

Malicious website, now computer acting weird - help please

I was looking for "see through" fireplaces and searched on google. This led me to a website which is (DO NOT CONNECT please): "picadezign.com/indzh/show.php?pg=236368*368" which supposedly showed photos of these fireplaces. This was a connection to a malicious website that started scanning my computer for viruses without my permission. I first tried to shut down safari, then turn the computer off using the power button but no surprise no luck. So I unplugged the computer and closed the lid and removed the battery. Turned it on again and it went straight to the website again (no login screen). So I unplugged the computer, closed the lid, removed the battery and unplugged the WiFi. Waited and then turned on everything again. This time, computer turned on but safari and mail would not connect to the internet. Turned everything off again, then on again and things seemed fine, the internet connected etc.
Then I went out of the room and the computer went to sleep with the lid open. But it would no longer wake up from sleep regardless of what I did. So I turned it on and off using the power button and it seemed to work.
I repaired permissions though this is not the problem. Any other housekeeping/fixing ideas? Also, who can I report the bad website to (there was no warning on either Yahoo search or Google search that it was malicious).
<Edited by Host>

HI Anne,
Check Safari cookies. From the Safari Menu Bar click Safari/Preferences and select the Security tab.
Click the Show Cookies button. If you see a cookie similar to the "picadezign.com..." just delete it.
Go here to report a site that may contain malware. http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
As long as your Mac is running ok I wouldn't worry. There are no Mac viruses in the wild.
Carolyn

Disk Utility missing after Time Machine Recovery

My MacPro 2014 had OS 10.9.5 as its operating system and I upgraded to Yosemite, which was a disaster because all the fonts and graphics became blurry (I don't use a Retina Display monitor) which is a known bug waiting to be fixed in an update. I decided to go back to OS 10.9.5 by using Time Machine and Recovery. I recovered the old system onto one of my external hard drives and then used Super Duper to copy that back to my original Mac Pro SSD hard drive. The problem is Disk Utility is missing. It doesn't appear in Spotlight and is not in the Applications/Utility folder. I restarted in Recovery mode and Disk Utility is present there, and I used it to repair the Hard Drive. After restart, still no Disk Utility. Help!!

If you go to the Purchased section in the Mac App Store is Mavericks available for redownload?
It is for me but I also had 2009 Mac Mini that upgraded to Mavericks.

I want to make a .iso to backup my computer - disk utility won't let me

Just like the title says - disk utility refuses to back up my computer as a disk image. I've tried the hard disk, and the Mac HD volume, but it both cases disk utility tells me "resource busy"...***? What should I do to get around this problem? I thought it might be errors on my hard disk or hd volume, but disk utility seems impotent to take any action saying:
"Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
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.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Are these processes related? Are errors on my HD volume causing disk utility to not backup my computer?
Any and all help is appreciated!
Vincenso

Vincenso, you need to repair that error first, but it can't be done while booted from it.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Tiger 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.
And where are you trying to put the ISO?
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
Have a look at Synchronize! Pro X 6.0.5
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6897/synchronize!-pro-x
Or the most expensive one & my favorite, Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html

Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
ATA version: 6
ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
Here is some current output from smartmontools:
---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
# 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
#11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
#20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
---end output---
Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
Questions
how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
- cfr

The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

Disk Utility reports minor repair required - how risky is this?

I was verifying permissions the other day and thought I'd check the hard drive as well. When running the verify hard drive it stopped with an error report as follows:
Volume Header needs minor repair
The Volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired
Error the underliying task reported failure on exit. 1HFS volume checked. Volume needs repair.
The Macbook seem to be running fine. Should I run the repair or leave it. Someone once told me that if the Disk Utility fails to repair the problem it can leave the disk unusable. Any truth in that?
Thanks
Michael
iMac G4 15" flat screen : MacBook 1.83 (Tiger) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Directory structure issues can lead to freezing, general slowness, startup issues (computer may not startup all the way), Applications or files may not open.
It is usually suggested to repair the disk with Disk Utility that came with the computer or a disk utility that is compatible with the operating system that you are using.
Here are some articles from Apple's knowledge base. Some are technical:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302411
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=13628
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=7565
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19516
Directory structure issues usually are not HW issues, but is the way the computer or OS, stores/sorts information on the Hard drive.

What & where to get version of disk utility to use for mac os x 10.6.3?

i recently installed snow leopard to my macbook 13 inch and wanted to reformat my usb flash drive and external buffalo mini station. the disk utility cannot be used. the computer said i cant use this version of disk utility with mac os x snow leopard coz i have disk utility version 11.1.
what now? can somebody please advice what version of disk utility to get and where to get it.
thanks.
gina

You either messed up the install or you subsequently copied an older version of Disk Utility from another machine, an old backup or the like. It's hard to know exactly what happened, but without more info I would view your system as potentially compromised and would recommend reinstalling it. Just run the installer and install on top of the system you have currently installed. It'll replace all the system components and leave everything else alone. (Of course, it should go without saying that you should have a good set of backups before doing anything like this.)

Disk utility not recognizing HD

Hi,
I have a G4 PowerMac with two 80 GB hard drives. When I boot up the computer, it boots up from the primary drive and runs fine. At this time, both my primary and my secondary drives are accessible and visible.
However, when I boot up the computer using either the Tiger or Leopard DVDs and then run Disk Utility, it only recognizes my secondary hard drive and not my main hard drive.
Also, if I quit Disk Utility at this time and tell it to re-start, it asks me which drive to boot from and the only option is either the DVD or the secondary hard drive. It just doesn't even see my main hard drive. I have to eject the DVD and re-boot for it to boot from the primary drive again.
Any advice?

I can see and use the hard drive only when I boot from it. When I boot from it, it is on my desktop, in my System Profiler, and visible under Disk Utility.
When I boot from DVD, the drive is not visible anywhere - not in System Profiler and not in Disk Utility.
I booted the computer using the HD and did a "Verify Disk". It gave me several errors and one in red that told me I needed to do a disk repair. I did a disk repair by booting the computer into Safe Mode (which performs a disk repair automatically). Then I rebooted regularly (from the HD) and went into Disk Utility and did another "Verify Disk". This time it verified successfully. I also repaired permissions successfully.
However...
when I booted from DVD, the drive was again invisible.

Tiger Disk Utility The Best?

Is the "Disk Utility" found on the DVD Install of Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger, the "best" software for "repairing disk permissions?"

Only if you are running Tiger!
Permission repairs should be done in Disk Utility on your internal hard drive.
Repairs to the hard drive itself should be done via Disk Utility on your install DVD once you have booted up from that.

After SN install can't launch Disk Utility from external drive

I recently upgraded 10.5.9 to SN on my white Macbook. First I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive onto the replacement drive in an external enclosure. Then I swapped drives so that the new drive is now the internal drive and the old drive is in the enclosure. I then upgraded the OS on the internal drive via SN installer on DVD.
Now when I start from the external drive in OS X 10.5.9 and try to launch Disk Utility from this drive I get a weird error message that "Disk Utility can't be launched because it's incompatible with this architecture." The only things I can think of is that Snow Leopard installs something that globally effects all perhipherals (like new disk drivers?), or that there is something in the enclosure's USB bridge which is causing this, or that installing Snow Leopard breaks the PRAM for older versions of OS X. Tech support for the enclosure vendor tells me there is nothing in the enclosure's USB that would cause this. Any insights into what's happening appreciated.

Thanks for response. Ah, that's it. I was trying to launch it from the applications folder I had dragged to the dock, which was done while running Snow Leopard. That's why (duh!) all the application icons were slashed out. : |

Disk Utility and fsck report 'missing thread records' and can't repair.

Hello,
What first made me realise there was a problem with my iMac was that when I tried to update a application it failed. I then manually download the .dmg of the update and tried replaced the app (Transmission 1.82 being that app in question). This failed, OS X claiming that it could not replace the older version (1.81). I then tried copying the file to the desktop where OS X claimed that there was already a copy of the application and so left a corrupted file on my desktop. This also happened when i attempted to move and copy a couple of pages documents and movie files around. I decided the best thing to do at this point was to reboot my computer; OS X decided it needed to install a couple of security updates at this point. This installation failed.
My iMac booted up, but only after a progress bar has appeared under the Apple logo and spinner and has done its thing (From what I've read this means that OS X is trying its best to resolve some sort of errors). This happens upon every boot.
This made me think that something must be going on with the file system of my Mac so I ran all the tests in Disk Utility. Permissions repair ran fine and fixed a few issues, but when I verified the disk this is what it reported:
"Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Missing thread record (id = 2045563)
Missing thread record (id = 2096282)
Keys out of order
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk."
I booted up from the DVD and tried to repair; this failed. Next I tried using fsck in single user mode; this also failed. Upon rebooting again and waiting for the progress bar to fill I was able to move files around and update Transmission without issue. Disk Utility still reports the same error.
If I boot into Windows Vista everything works perfectly; as of yet I haven't got around to installing the new Boot Camp update for Windows 7 support incase that changes anything. When running the diagnostic tool on the Windows Vista DVD it reports that everything is fine for Windows.
I really am at a loss for what to do next. All my data is backed up by Time Machine onto a Time Capsule as well as manually onto a FW external. I also made a clone of the Windows partition using the free app Winclone. Does anyone know anything I can do to fix this problem?
Thanks so much,
Sam.

I have been experiencing exactly the same problem here with my MacPro. Apple replaced the hard disk because it was reporting bad sectors. However even with the replacement hard disk I'm experiencing the "missing thread" issue again. I'm guessing its either a software issue that keeps recurring or a fundamental hardware issue. Is the disk controller part of the hard disk or the motherboard? I've never had hard disk problems like this before.
Here's my Disk Utility report from earlier today:
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Missing thread record (id = 1067066)
Missing thread record (id = 1111528)
Missing thread record (id = 1196845)
Missing thread record (id = 1200621)
Missing thread record (id = 1260154)
Missing thread record (id = 1277166)
Missing thread record (id = 1285010)
Missing thread record (id = 1297257)
Missing thread record (id = 1316679)
Missing thread record (id = 1437800)
Incorrect number of thread records
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 155085 instead of 155095)
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Repairing volume.
Missing directory record (id = 1437800)
Missing directory record (id = 1316679)
Missing directory record (id = 1297257)
Missing directory record (id = 1285010)
Missing directory record (id = 1277166)
Missing directory record (id = 1260154)
Missing directory record (id = 1200621)
Missing directory record (id = 1196845)
Missing directory record (id = 1111528)
Missing directory record (id = 1067066)
Look for missing items in lost+found directory.
Rechecking volume.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 155106 instead of 155096)
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume MacHD was repaired successfully.

Disk Utility found missing folders, my computer acting weird

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