Disk Utility gathers info infinitum - help?

I need to repair permissions on my hard drive in order to get my external LaCie 500 G back up and running (I think an improper shutdown screwed it up -- I can't get any of my macs to recognize it). The problem is, that when I try start my disk utility, the gathering information process never stops. Seems to be in a loop and I have to force quit to get out.
Everything else on my computer seems to be fine -- this is my dual 1ghz G4 that I use for editing.
I'd greatly appreciate any ideas or solutions. Thanks.

To repair your permissions without access to the Disk Utility, open the Script Editor in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder and run the following:
do shell script "diskutil repairPermissions /" with administrator privileges
You will be asked to provide your password. To do this on an external drive, use /Volumes/volumename/ as the path; if the disk's name contains spaces or other special characters, place \" at the beginning and end of the path.
(11931)

Similar Messages

  • HT203176 My computer gets bogged down in disk utility "gathering disk information." I can't get past this to reach the first aid tab. The little icon just keeps going round and round. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

    My Mac crashed today for the first time in the seven years I have owned it. I was working in Photoshop. It had been getting slower and slower in Photoshop. Now I can't start the computer at all. Using the Installer CD, I can't get through to use the Disk Utility to try to fix it. The computer gets bogged down in disk utility "gathering disk information." I can't get past this to reach the first aid tab. The little icon just keeps going round and round. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

    You may have had a hard drive failure. Have you been hearing any unusual sounds? Have you been getting messages about a full hard drive?
    Will it boot in Safe Mode? See What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392 Takes a while to run, but it usually "fixes" problems.
    Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
     Cheers, Tom

  • Disk Utility and Info do not agree on capacity Used?

    Hi.
    Macbook pro 13' 2010.
    120Gb SSD.
    (320GB Harddrive in optical drive).
    The SSD  is used to mainly run O/S and has only 5 first tier files, The size of each from Info tabs are:
    11.14GB
    6.77GB
    4.07GB
    6.3MB
    8.0KB
    Total: 22GB approx.
    Disc Utility tells me that: 99.58 used . 19.6 available.
    Info tells me that:  36.06 used . 83.12 available.
    Why is there such a great difference between the amount of disk space used?
    Thanks
    Patrick.

       Re-index Macintosh HD.
       Spotlight reindexing will take a while to finish.
       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
          About “Other”:
       http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867
      Note:
      If you don’t have Macintosh HD icon on the desktop,
      Finder > Preferences > General > Show these items on the desktop:
      Enable “Hard disks”.
       Discrepancy in calculating space between Finder and Disk Utility
      “Finder does not take into account the  Backups/ local snapshots,
      but disk utility includes them.”
      http://pondini.org/TM/30.html
      Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
      Local backups
      http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878

  • HT1782 Disk Utility for existing content - help!

    Hello - I was wondering if anyone can help.
    I've got an external har drive that i've been using for the last 6 months as my time machine back-up.
    I've used the disk utility in the past to create  an image and password protect my drive that way. But....
    is there a way i can use the same process for a drive that already has content on it? Can i password protect my drive using the disk utility which will password any current content as well as any future content?
    Thanks in advance!
    ps - im using 10.7.3

    I'd say the answer is no, you can't.
    But you're in the wrong forum. Re-post your question in the Lion forum.

  • Disk Utility Says Problem! Help?

    I checked my disk utility this morning and it says there is a problem, and when i try repair it, it doesn't work.
    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Incorrect size for file host.frm
    (It should be 0 instead of 9148)
    9148
    Checking multi-linked files.
    Checking Catalog hierarchy.
    Checking Extended Attributes file.
    Checking volume bitmap.
    Checking volume bitmap.
    ",0)
    The volume Daniel needs to be repaired.
    Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
    1 HFS volume checked
    Volume needs repair
    Is this a big problem?

    Is this a big problem?
    Well, yes and no. It might be a problem, so you should definitively backup your data.
    Then, boot from Installation disk that came with your computer and once you get to the installer, choose from Menu bar: Utilities>Disk Utility and try to repair your disk. If this doesn't help, you should try to erase your drive and reinstall the system.
    If you have AppleCare, you might also consider downloading TechTools Pro from Apple for free. It is said to be more powerful than Disk Utility.
    If the problem reappears, call Apple.

  • Disk utility not completing, please help...

    Hi everyone, I'm trying to erase an external drive I've had for a while. I formatted it once with no probs. I've hooked it all up via USB, gone to disk utility, clicked the volume, clicked erase, zero out all data, selected "journaled" from the drop down list, clicked erase. It get about 90% done, which takes about 2 hours (80gb drive) then just doesnt move and i have to force quit.
    Any ideas?
    Thanks
    Phil

    If that HD has a FireWire connection, try Disk Utility with that configuration.
    If it doesn't have a FW connection, then you can try these steps. Unmount the ext HD, power it down, and disconnect it. Boot the computer with the install disk, select your language, and, when the menu bar pops up, select Utilities, and repair the disk and permissions. If you get a clean bill of health, then quit DU and select Utilities->Startup Disk->G5 boot volume and click Restart. Reinstall the 10.4.9 COMBO update, after restart, launch Disk Utility, and repair permissions. Shutdown the computer for at least 30 minutes. Restart it, hook up the ext HD, and give Disk Utility another whirl.
    Another option is to get a FWHD. They're much faster and more reliable than USB.

  • DISK Utility issue..Please HELP

    OK I had a 200 GB Hard Disk that I was using on my Windows machine. Since I am a Mac Guy now, I decided to buy an external USB enclosure, and use this as extra storage space. I am using DISK Utility to first partition the drive (1 partition) and then proceeded to Erase with zeros (1 time). Last night when I started this process it estimated a completion time of 3 hours. A few hours later it estimated at 1 hour and 16 mins. That was 8 hours ago. I hear the disk making noise as if it is writing, but I do not see any progress.
    I was doing a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and had the Install Mac OS 9 Disk Driver option checked. Not sure what difference this makes as all I want to use this disk is for storing photographs.
    Has the process failed and am I in an eternal wait state? Does it normally take this long? Should I keep it running for the next 24 hours just to see? Suggestions please...
    Thx in advance.

    Well it sounds like Disk Utility has hanged. Open up Activity Monitor Applications/Utilities. If it is hung it will be in red...I'm pretty sure, I don't really remember the last time an app hung on my machine.
    If everything is fine, it might just be that it's a big drive and it takes along time.
    BTW, it seems sort of backwards to me to partition and then erase. If I were I would erase the disk FIRST, using the format you described, and THEN partition.

  • New HDD, trying to install Lion without disk utility or a mac (HELP!!!!!!!)

    Hello everyone,
    Here follows my situation: my previous and precious hard drive died a few months back inside my macbook pro. I bought a brand new one and am trying very hard to find a way to install the os lion on it but I cannot seem to find any plausible way or answers for people stuck only with a Windows pc to do this work.
    It is fair to mention that I no longer have my old installation DVD`s from Apple, although, I have the os dmg file to work with, an external hdd 1tb, dvd-rw´s, the lot.
    Did use a software called Transmac but it would just somehow, not cut it for me, neither trial nor full version. My External WD hard drive is fully formatted into HFS+ by the way.
    Also tried two virtual machines in order to use os lion on my Windows 7 and do the farly simple trick with disk utility itself, but those will not work for unfortunate people like me that are using AMD processors, once again, back to the drawing board.
    Would any of you guys know a way around this?
    Heard we could convert the dmg into iso and burn it using Nero and making it still bootable on Macbooks. Nevertheless, I have tried this option with two different combinations and it will still not boot.
    If anyone could just light up my way I would appreciate it very much.

    Thank you so much for your input here guys!
    I've manage to do it using the same software I was blaming here on the post: Transmac!
    So if you find yourself having the same trouble; persist!!!
    Use macdrive 8 or later on windows 7 (or other windows OS if it works for you) and format the whole external hard drive or usb stick to htf+, unfortunatelly I could not find a way to format only a smaller partition on there.
    Them go to Transmac, you need to have the full version in order for it to work and run as admin, the DMG file will them be expanded, in my case OS Lion was 3.50 roughly and expanded to 3.88.
    Choose "format with image" (something like that, correct me if I am wrong, there should be only two options for it anyway) confirm all the following options and wait for it to do its trick.
    Should anything go wrong with the writting procedure, go back and look into the small details one more time, two, three if needed.
    I can safely say that this is the easiest method I have came across to create a bootable external drive for mac using Windows given the keys I had to work with.
    Best of luck!

  • Problem with Disk Utility.  Can anyone help?

    For months now, my friend's iMac no longer verifies or repairs disk permissions. This is what it reports everytime:
    Verify permissions for “Macintosh HD”
    *Reading permissions database.*
    *Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.*
    ACL found but not expected on "Applications/Utilities".
    *Permissions verification complete*
    It does all this within 5 seconds each time. Clearly it is not verifying/repairing disk permissions because normally you get a huge list of permissions and it takes way more than 5 seconds.
    So if anyone can tell me what might be wrong or how to go about fixing, I'd really appreciate it.
    Thank You,
    David

    Try this way:
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
    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. 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 and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
    If you continue to have the same issue then while booted into the installer disc select Reset Password from the Utilities menu. Do not make any changes to the password section, rather to the bottom where there is an option to fix the permissions on the user's Home folder and to remove ACLs. Select that option and then click on the Done button (I think it's the Done button.)

  • Disk Utility denies password, pls help

    I have an external hard drive attached to the Airport Extreme 802.11n. Every few hours the Airport disk utility disconnects the disk, then refuses to accept the password. Then, I log into the router using the password and reenter the password and it starts working again. Whats up? I am using the "log on with base station password" feature.
    Is it better to use the account style login or the disk password login instead?

    i would try using a disk password and see if that works better for you,
    that is what I have been doing since I originally set up the network and it has always worked fine for me.
    and I agree, I am wondering if it is the disk you are using trying to auto shutoff or something of that nature.
    good luck.

  • Disk utility errors? please help explain

    Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
    Reading permissions database.
    Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
    Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station Agent.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "Applications/Utilities/AirPort Utility.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/DVD.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSettings.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/FRSources.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Movies.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Music.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Photos.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/Podcasts.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app/Contents/PlugIns/TV.frappliance/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BackRow.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
    Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Frameworks/InternetUtilities.bundle/Contents/ CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
    Permissions differ on "Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunesHelper.app/Contents/CodeResou rces", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrw-rw-r-- .
    Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources /DiskManagementTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file "sbin/umount" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/RemoteDesktop.menu/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r-- .
    Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/quota" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Permissions repair complete
    what does this mean?

    Your profile shows your at 10.5.3, what version of the OS X are you running?
    Leopard is up to 10.5.8
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1058comboupdate .html
    Snow Leopard is at 10.6.2
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosxv1062updatecomb o.html
    If you are behind on the updates, reinstalled the OS X from your Install Disk or are having an issue with OS X, Download and Install the appropriate Combo Update above.
    Then when you run Disk Utility > Repair Permissions again, most if not all of those should go away.

  • Stuck in Disk Utility...Please Help!

    Tried to upgrade to Mavericks, failed, then made it worse by trying to clean and erase the drive without backing up. Long story short, bought macbook pro 13' from a reseller last summer, no issues, tried to upgrade a few weeks ago and failed now stuck on disk utility screen. Checked the serial number, not under warranty. Clicked on reinstall mountain lion, it said my apple id not affiliated with original purchase of software, so I bought it from the apple store on another computer. Can't download or open the zip drive since my plugins are blocked on my macbook pro in disk utility. Can it be fixed? Do I have to take it to the apple store to fix and if so any idea on how much it would cost to fix?

    If it is a 2009 it will not do the command option R boot, it is not equipped to do Internet recovery.
    Try the command R boot, that will try to boot off the recovery partition on the local disk.
    If that fails you will need to get the original OS DVD that shipped with that system. If you do not have them and you can;t reach the seller you will need to contact Apple. They ill be able to supply the disk for a nominal charge
    In any case, even if you can get the system running now,  you should get the original DVD and do a clean install. Right now you are running on a machine, that while you own it, looks to  Apple like it still belongs to the seller.

  • Can't access/mount hard drive, Permission denied message in Disk Utility.

    Hello,
    Need some help here. I was upgrading from 10.4 to 10.5. I got an error message when I tried to upgrade from the DVD. My hard drive had an exclamation mark by it and I was told I would need to erase it in order to install. When I tried quitting the installer, I had to go through startup disk to pick my Hard drive, which showed it had 10.4 installed. When I tried restarting, it would only boot off of the DVD. I checked startup disk again, but my hard drive was now not visible. I have a tower with a back-up system on it. When I picked it, it started up fine. I went under disk utility and the hard drive is listed, but is ghosted/grayed out. Repair & Verify Disk permissions are ghosted back as well.When I try to repair or verify disk, it says it can't it gives me the disk number and sector number and Permission Denied. I poked around on disk utility for info, and it looks like it doesn't have a mount point anymore and under permissions, it says that they are not enabled. So, apparently the access privileges have been erased & I don't know how to mount my disk again. I'm assuming I need some sort of commmand line in Terminal to restore my priveleges or get it to auto-mount. I do not want to erase my drive to upgrade. All my applications are on that drive. Please help!
    Message was edited by: koobiak

    See if Niel's User Tip can help you: I accidentally set a disk's permissions to No Access .

  • Boot camp probl"back up disk and use disk util. to reform as single MAC OS.

    The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
    Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.
    I am trying to install win 7 32 bit but before i partition my mac osx an error message pops up with the above wording...I went to disk utility and it is already a single mac osx (journaled). any help would be great and much appreciated..thank you for viewing.

    The error message must be the title of 100s of threads.
    Do you know how to backup?
    It can't move files, some are fixed, the free space has to also be unfragmented contiguous chunk at the end of the drive.
    Disk Utility Restore tab (and Help menu).
    and of course external backup drive. And backup is step #1. There is a PDF you can save or print from the Boot Camp Assistant.
    If you only have TimeMachine for backup you might want to install OS X anyway on a small 30GB partition (shrink partition size) or use your OS X DVD.
    From OS X DVD go to Utility and then Disk Utility. Restore to another drive and that should be then bootable.
    Or pick up SuperDuper or Carbon Copy to clone-backup and use one of those.
    iDefrag $$ may be able to optimize the free space.
    But it is wiser to first insure any data and files are backed up before changing or installing another OS, and before changing partitions around.

  • My MacBook Pro started running very slow. I did disk utility/repair

    My MacBook Pro started running very slow. I did disk utility/repair and it helped but still very slow. Repair gave me this message, "SUID file 'System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent has been modified and will not be repaired." Any suggestions on this message and/or what else I can do to get my computer back to the way it used to run? Thank you!

    It says 199.15 GB free of 499.25 GB. Can I remove the Remote Management program to solve the other unrepairable problem?

Maybe you are looking for