Disk Utility - No Drives & No Shutdown

I've upgraded a Power Mac G5 2ghz machine:
Original Config: 1.5 gig memory, 2 x 160 gb HD, Tiger OS.
New Config: 3.5 gig memory, 1 x 320 gb HD, 3 x 500 gb HD, 1 x Sonnet Tempo SATA PCI Expansion Card , 1 x Sonnet G5 Jive Internal SATA Mounting.
The 2 additional 500 gb Baracuda HDs are mounted in the Sonnet Jive Mounting,( connected to the PCI card in slot 3), and powered with the supplied cable and plug from the optical drive, as per the sonnet instructions. The 2 remaining HDs are in the original slots A & B in the G5. Total of 7 volumes on 4 drives - 2 on drive 1, 3 on drive 2, one each on Drives 3 & 4
Problem: Computer suddenly is unable to locate any discs with Disk Utility - just get a spinning wheel. Can force quit Disk Utility, but then computer fails to shutdown, again the dreaded spinning wheel. Only means of shut down is by FORCE QUITTING (holding power button in).
Went back to square one. Refitted 2 original HDs slots A & B - complete with the OS already on HD (Tiger). Removed PCI card and mounting kit plus extra drives.
Result - all systems working normally. Went through a test sequence on this and all subsequent modifications:
All disks verified by Disk Utility, Images on other disc accessed via Bridge & Photoshop, start up and shutdown times logged.
Then added PCI card, tested as above - OK
Then added 3rd drive via mounting kit, tested as above - OK
Then added 4th drive via mounting kit, tested as above - OK
Removed mounting kit, PCI card, all drives and installed one new drive with Leopard in G5 position A. (Partitioned into 2 volumes)
Tested as above - OK
Then added 2nd new disk with images, position B, tested as above - OK
Then added PCI card, tested as above - OK
Then added 3rd drive via mounting kit, tested as above - OK
Then added 4th drive via mounting kit, tested as above - OK
Used this set up with Bridge & CS2 for an hour or so without a problem. The I re- partitioned Disk 2 (500 gb Seagate Baracuda) into 3 volumes, but disk still empty of data.
Then went through my test sequence and SAME PROBLEM RECURRED - Disk Utility (which I'd just used to partition disk) was unable to locate ANY drives - just the spinning wheel again. Sure enough the G5 refused to shutdown, spinning wheel again. I FORCE QUIT and left it alone!
I've phoned Sonnet and the card is compatible, firm ware is updated. Computer recognizes all discs and memory, until this problem appears. It seems that something in the system may not like more than 5 volumes being present. Additionally when I did a Leopard re-installation it failed to complete and just stopped installing before the software installation was complete. When I switched from "Erase & Install" to "Update" on the install menu it went in OK. I've successfully installed using this Leopard disk on a Quad Pro, so I don't think it's corrupted.
I'm now at a loss as what to do next to find and cure the problem - any advice would be appreciated
Regards
Max Dutton

Being a new Mac Mini the system is attempting to create a Fusion Drive setup out of your SSD. Do you have dual drives in the system, the built-in one in addition to the new one you installed?
This is an issue with the new Mac Mini and iMac systems (see here: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57584237-263/disk-utility-may-combine-custo m-drive-setups-on-some-macs/) as these systems ship with Fusion Drive setups and Disk Utility assumes this is the desired setup when you use it to "fix" the drives.
You can see that when you select "Internal Drive" the type is "Logical Volume Group." Since this group is greater than the 840GB, my guess is this is the combined space from your SSD and the built-in one.
To clear this issue, open the Terminal (from the Utilities menu in the OS X installer), and run the following command:
diskutil cs list
You will see a tree of information, with one grouping showing a UUID for the Logical Volume Group (the UUID will be a string of numbers and letters, separated by several dashes).
With this UUID, run the following command to destroy the logical volume group (you can try copying and pasting the UUID, though I"m not sure if the services in the Recovery HD partition support copy and paste--otherwise just type it in manually):
diskutil cs delete UUID
When finished, follow the instructions in the artifcle I linked to above to install OS X to an external drive (if available) and use Disk Utility there to fix and manage the drives, as opposed to the version in the Recovery HD partition.

Similar Messages

Disk Utility says "drive can't be repaired, disk and restore your backed up files."

My Mac Book Pro froze yesterday and I had to force restart it. It had been showing me messages that my hard drive disk was full for a while and I was in the middle of transferring files to my external hard drive and I accidentally put a huge large file from my external hard drive into the trash on my laptop which makes me wonder if that means I added more GB to a computer that was already very full. Anyway, after freezing I restarted it and the desktop wouldn't load properly. The desktop picture was there, but folders on desktop did not appear, finder bar was missing and the dock was acting super slow and nothing worked when clicked on. Then the next few attempts were around the same result and eventually became stuck on the apple logo, spinning gear and a progress bar that was not loading at all.
Here's what I've tried so far:
Safe mode- nothing happens
Command + R - I am unsure how to work this since I can't seem to find an internet connection when it prompts for one. None of the internet connections have much signal and my own information doesn't seem to load since the gear spins to find the internet connection name and password I typed to load it but can't seem to find it. Perhaps I have the wrong internet information, but I don't think so.
I tried Command + S to use in single user mode and type in a command to help fix the drive, BUT, even though the black screen and white lettering mode did show up, it remained in a place where I was not allowed to type anything and the last thing written at the bottom of the screen was something about set up for bluetooth, I think. I tried this twice and both times it stopped in the same place and I could not type a command.
Disk Utility using installation dvd to verify and repair disk. Verify says disk needs repair and then repair has some red colored phrases: Invalid volume file count. (It should be 786374 instead of 786274) Incorrect number of thread records. And there was another problem listed but I do not remember it. Then, near the end of repairing it says: "Disk Utility stopped repairing Macintosh HD." It tells me it couldn't repair the disk and that I should back up as many of my files as possible, reformat the disk and restore backed up files.
That would be fine and dandy, but I have no idea how to back up my files and do all this. I have no idea how to exactly get the data off my hard drive. If someone does, please list a step by step guide for me on how to do so.
I have an external hard drive and I tried plugging in and selecting the hard drive and making a "New Image" to copy to the external hard drive destination, but it just stops a few seconds into it and tells me there is an input/output error. I tried read only, read/write only, compressed options for making a copy and all yield the same result.
In Disk Utility, I believe I have a partition -the Macintosh HD. I have listed on the left hand side: 320.07 GB Hitachi HTSS45.....etc. and below it in non-bolded, grey lettering it says "Macintosh HD."
The Hitachi, when clicked upon, shows the S.M.A.R.T. status as Verified and the Macintosh HD doesn't show much in details except for "Not mounted."
At one point, the Macintosh HD was in bold lettering and seemed to be mounted for a few minutes. When that happened, I was able to see the details reading: Mount Point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD, Capacity: 319.73 GB, Available: 11.92 GB, Used: 307.81 GB, etc.
I'm getting nervous to keep turning on and off the computer on force start and shut downs, especially since I have been reading up that the longer the computer is on, the more the hard drive is in use and the more chance for it to start deleting or overwriting my files. Is this true?
It's not mounted anymore since it was momentarily mounted. I just want to get my files off the disk and save them to my external hard drive. That is my main goal right now. What can I do?
Thank you in advance for your help!

If you want to preserve the data on the boot drive, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot into Recovery (command-R at startup) or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

My Late 2013 iMac with Yosemite 10.10.2 randomly shuts down and displays a grey screen with a flashing question mark folder. According to Disk Utility, my drive is OK. What should I do?

I've had this problem for a while and I thought it went away. I've looked at all of the other discussions and tried what they suggest, nothing. I preferably don't want to erase everything on here. Is there a way to fix it without having to do that? I also noticed that other people have the screen when they first boot their computer. Mine are in the middle of a college essay or browsing online. I would really like to fix this issue. I haven't even had my iMac for a year yet. Any suggestions?

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
a. Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
b. Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
c. Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
d. The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. 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.
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.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. 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.
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.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Disk Utility Hard Drive Repair Shows Following Message

Hi all
I have a Lacie FW800 External HD that was mounting on my desktop though slow to access earlier this morning.
I shut down and checked all FW 800 connections [some of the five connected drives have been daisy chained - 3 from the rear port and 2 from the front port]. I checked all power supplys also.
I then turned my machine back on and the slow hard drive would not mount and continues to fail to mount. I then opened Disk Utility from the Applications>Utilities folder/s and tried the Verify Disk option which then suggested to Repair the Disk. Unfortunately I received the following message as opposed to a "disk repaired" message.
\BEGIN TRANSCRIPT/
Verify and Repair disk “disk3s1”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid node structure
Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid node structure
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
\END TRANSCRIPT/
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to repair / reaccesss this HD. It is important that it continues to mount as it has current projects and important assets on board.
Please help asapc.
Thanks in advance.

Also, here is some information on data recovery if you think it would be worthwhile for you.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/datarecovery.html
Good luck,
Steve M.

I have run disk utility- the drive is corrupted- I get the error message restart your computer holing down the Cmd

I have now tried every variant of key compbinations but I still get the grey lock icon with a box which won't accept my password.
When re-running disc utility all I get is the same error message

I ran the Disk Utility and got a message that it can't repair the disk. This happened after I did a restart Command and R. After trying the repair cycle I got a message "Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed - up files" I found myself stuck because I couldn't shut down the Disk Utility. Out of frustration and patience I turned the I-Mac off by pressing the start key, thinking it would restart my computer. I feel like a fool now! I started the computer up and all I got was a grey screen with a flashing file with a question mark inside the file icon which is blinking off and on. I tried attaching my Seagate hard drive with no luck. What can I do? Thank You!

Disk utility verify drive error

When I run disk utility I receive the following error. In reading previous posts I discoverd that I needed to use the OSX install disk. So I get it showing in the utilities window on the left side and attempt to get disk utility running by following this path on the disk -- Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Double clicking disk utility has no result.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The error when running verify disk from disk utility on the iMac:
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

As Doug has said, & indeed you have tried....you need to run diskutility from the OS install disk. Or more accurately, you need to run diskutility when booted from the install disk.
The following ( from diskutility help) should explain it clearly.
Start up your computer using another disk.
To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc and restart your computer holding down the Option key, then select the Install Mac OS X disc and click the arrow.
Open Disk Utility.
If you're using the Mac OS X Install disk, follow the onscreen instructions until the menu bar appears with the Utilities menu in it., and then choose Utilities > Open Disk Utility.
Select the startup disk in the list of disks and volumes, then click First Aid.
Check the S.M.A.R.T. Status at the bottom of the window. If you can't see it, be sure you selected the hard disk your volume is on, and not the volume itself.
If the S.M.A.R.T. Status is "About to Fail," back up your files on the disk as soon as possible and replace the disk.
If the S.M.A.R.T. Status is "Verified" or "Not supported," click Repair Disk to repair the disk.
If Disk Utility tells you to look for links to corrupt files in the DamagedFiles directory, two or more files occupy the same space on your hard disk and at least one of them is likely to be corrupt. Examine each affected file in the DamagedFiles folder, which at the top-level of the affected disk. If you can replace it or recreate the file, delete it. If it contains necessary information, open it and examine its data to make sure it has not been corrupted.
If Disk Utility reports "The underlying task reported failure," Disk Utility encountered a problem it could not repair. Back up as much of your data as possible, reformat your disk, reinstall Mac OS X, and restore your backed up data.

10.4.10 will show external hard drive in Disk Utility (in turn, mount)

Here's the problem in a nutshell. When I'm running 10.4.10 my Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (installed in an external enclosure) will not show up in Disk Utility (in turn also unable to mount). My DVD-RW burner will work, the enclosure is fine. When I boot off of the Mac OS X Install CD and run Disk Utility the drive and its partitions display. I did an archive and install and they were back in Mac OS X (10.4.7). - Rather than using Software Update, I decided to download the 10.4.10 Combo update manually and install (with the drive ejected and unplugged of course). Same issue once booting in Mac OS X 10.4.10...
Before I do an archive and install again, and revert to 10.4.9 indefinitely, is there anything I can try. I did googling, deleted some preference/cache files with no success.

This bug popped up after 10.4.9 was released and many folks (myself included) have experienced the same problem - after the install external hard drives, both FireWire and USB, are no longer accessible or visible.
In fact, I'm searching the discussion boards now to see if the 10.4.10 update fixed this. Apparently it has not.
Here are some other threads about this and 10.4.9 that might be of use to you:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=897541
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=892387
I finally reverted to 10.4.8, which perfectly recognizes my external drives, and will not update until I know this bug has been fixed. As far as I know, reverting is unfortunately the only way to fix this issue.:(

Single external hard drive appearing as two drives in Disk Utility

I have a single 3TB hard drive in an enclosure that is appearing as two phyiscal hard drives in Disk Utility (1 "drive" is 2.2 TB, the other "drive is 800MB, give or take). I attached a screen shot so you all can see what I see. This is definitely a single drive (as opposed to some of those MyBook options that actually have two physical drives in one enclosure).
I'm aware that I can concatenate the drives together to make one logical volume, but I'm trying to figure out why on earth this happened.
To give you a picture of the drive's history, it was previously mounted in a Synology 4 bay NAS as part of a RAID 5 configuration. A few weeks ago, the Synology told me that this disk was having issues, so I replaced it, ran a few rounds of disk repair, and it has been working fine since. I'm not going to put it back in my NAS, since the replacement drive is working fine, and I'd like to use this disk for completely non-essential data (as you can see from the screen shot, I have a few smaller drives in use for 'scratch' work, and I'd like to free those up to use as photo/essential data backups).
As stated before, I'm really just trying to figure out how this could happen, and if there's a way to have the single drive be actually recognized as a single drive, without having to concat or anything.
Thanks in advance.

Thank you.
As I originally stated, I took this disk out when it gave me a generic "drive-has-problems" warning, and then put it into a separate (lets call it a quarantine) enclosure, and ran extensive testing and 'repairing,' without actually finding any problems.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm considering the initial error message to be a 'false-positive' of sorts, due to repeated diagnostics not being able to find any acutal errors, logically or physically.
That being said, I have no reason to 'replace' this drive, as it's original function has already been replaced by a new drive. As I originally stated (twice, actually), I'm really just trying to figure out how this might have happened, and if there are any steps (aside from just concat-ing the two 'disks') to to have the disk function as one physical, rather than two physical, disks.

Disk utility on remote drive

Hello,
I look around and found nothing on this forum. I would like to use Disk Utility to verify a remote USB Hard drive plugged to my Airport Extreme. When I open Disk Utility this drive does not appear in the choices. Is it possible to see it?
I have another USB drive directly plug to my Mac and I use it for time Machine, I was able to verify this disk without problem.
Thanks for any answer you may provide.
Thierry

Disk Utility will not work on a networked drive such as your situation. If you need to scan the drive with Disk Utility, then disconnect it from the AEBS and connect it directly to your computer.

Disk Utility Drive report anomaly

I've been trying to solve a series of crashes and odd problems on my machine. I always run Disk Utility first and I've never seen this particular item in the report before. In the stream of items reported by Disk Utility (the drive is okay, it says), I get this line:
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
I've never seen the percent sign followed by a single close parentheses.
Is this meaningful?
Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Probably not. If you re-run Repair Disk do you get the same result? Are there any defects reported? Did you also repair permissions?
What odd problems are you having, specifically?

Reported Fatal Hardware Error to Disk Utility

I see the following message in my Power Book G4 Disk Utility:
"This drive has Reported Fatal Hardware Error to Disk Utility. If drive has not failed completely, back up as much data as you can and then replace it with a new drive."
I already made a back up my Home folder to my external HD. The install disk utility reports the same and has grey the repair uptions.
The spinning beachball appears constantly when using Safari and iTunes. What should I do?

If your Mac is no longer under the standard 1-yr warranty period or under the 3-yr extended warranty if you purchased the AppleCare extended warranty for your PB, you need to purchase a new internal hard drive that is compatible with your Mac model. This is something you can install yourself or take your Mac to an Apple authorized repair facility to purchase and have a new internal hard drive installed.
The repair facility should include re-installing whichever OX version and all software that was pre-installed and shipped with this Mac when purchased new. If this wasn't Tiger and you purchased a Tiger retail install package, you can re-install the Tiger upgrade yourself and then replace all data from your backup on the new hard drive.

Files show in Disk Utility, but NOT in Finder

Hi there, having trouble with my backup drive. It's a 1TB WD My Passport Ultra.
The drive mounts in Finder, but is extremely slow. In Disk Utility, the drive shows the correct disk space usage and number of files;
but in Finder it only shows the folders/files at the root level of the drive, and each has a size of zero bytes with no items:
What is happening? How can I access the data (it's obviously still there if DU shows the files) and (possibly) fix this?

Also, Finder displays the correct disk usage at the root level:

Disk Utility Mistake

Hi, I have three hard disks. While using "Disk Utility," on "3rd Disk" (3rd Disk is run on Mac OS X, Tiger 10.4.11) I made a mistake and clicked on "Repair Disk" instead of "Repair Disk Permissions." Now the "3rd Disk" icon is grayed out, and when I click on the grayed out icon nothing happens. The "3rd Disk" icon is also missing from my startup "Hard Disk." What should I do to fix this problem?
Angel

Repair disk should not have done anything like that unless the drive was already in a very bad state and ready to go. Did it do this instantly, or did it work on the drive first? Did the drive report any other errors? Is this an internal or is it an external drive? Is this drive formatted to Mac format? Is this drive being run through a PCI controller card? A Quicksilver can normally only take 2 hard drives so you must be doing something extra.
Do you mean the third disk has Tiger on it? A disk isn't run on anything individually. If your computer is booted to Tiger all disks are being run on Tiger. If your computer is booted to Leopard all disks are being run on Leopard.
I have seen Disk Utility leaves drives unmountable if the drive is bad, but only when formatting.
Have you tried restarting the computer? Does the drive mount on the desktop? Does Disk Utility see the drive?

Raided xserve raid boot volume, OK to run disk utility?

I have been asked to assist another site in our organization, and they have an older g5 xserve and xserve raid. They have the xserve booting off a raided boot volume on the xserve raid (2 drives in a raid 1 config)
They have started having some issues, so I thought I would check the obvious stuff first (i.e. disk util > repair drives)....Just wanted to check here first and make sure that I can SAFELY run disk util on a raided boot volume that is hosted on the xserve raid...
also, does anyone know if diskwarrior will also work in this config? (again, safety being an issue)
Thanks in advance...

Yes, you can run Disk Utility to check the disk, or Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro and any other tool that checks the HD.
That is the point of RAID, it changes nothing of what an OS understands of a HD. If there are any problems and the drive/data is somehow 'lost' it is not due to RAID.
Safety would expect that you ahve a backup of this drive already, so running a disk check would only enhance and not reduce your safety by confirming reliability.
Peter

Disk Utility failure to erase/initialize

I have a 1 TB WD MyBook Studio Edition. I sent this drive to a firm that does video conversions (from film to digital). Drive returned with expected (good) results, but now I can't write anything onto the drive - says I can only read. So I copied all files on the drive to another disk, then used Disk Utility to initialize. First Aid tab action buttons are all greyed out. Erase tab shows default format as MS DOS. I changed to Apple Extended (Journaled) and pressed OK. Process starts, but fails after a few seconds with error "Write Failure". Now disk won't mount when I attach it - only Disk Utility "sees" drive, but fails each time I try to Initialize/Erase.
What's up, and how do I correct?
Thanks

If you haven't fixed this yet, you may be able to use Disk Utility to completely erase and reformat the disk.
Click the top line of the drive, then the Partition tab. Click +1 partition+ (or however many you want) under *Volume Scheme*, then Options at the bottom. Select GUID for an Intel Mac, +Apple Partition Map+ for a PPC Mac. Setup the partition(s) you want to use on the Mac as +OSX Extended (Journaled),+ then click Apply.

Disk Utility - No Drives & No Shutdown

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