Disk utility/repair problem - can't verify disk

i am trying to run disk utility to clean up my hard drive. i was able to verify and repair permissions without a problem. i have run into 2 problems with disk repair:
1 - i can't complete the verify disk portion. i get this error message, "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." the next line in the box reads, "1 HFS volume checked - Volume needs repair." this leads to the next problem ...
2 - the repair disk button is nonoperable (doesn't light up) so there is nothing to push for the repair.
i could use any help you can offer. screen shots are available upon request.
thanks,
j

Hi Dr,g
The startup drive can only be repaired from another drive. You cannot repair the boot drive from your HD (which is your boot drive). You have to boot from the install disk.
To do this: Insert the Install Disk 1 into the drive and then select Restart; when you hear the chime hold down C key until the apple logo appears.
This will take you to the installation software, but you do not want to install.
Select your language, then go up to the top menu bar to Utilities and navigate to the Disk Utilities application.
Select the start up drive, then follow the instructions in the First Aid pane where you can click on Repair Disk.
If it finds errors, repeat the process until it reports no errors.
After these repairs, quit the application, and restart normally.
Once restarted normally run Repair Permissions. from the Disk Utility application found on your hard drive in Application/Utilities.
regards roam

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Disk Utility repair problem

I am running Yosemite on an mid-2011 iMac. I ran the Disk Utility and got this message after running Verify:
<< Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility. >>
I followed the instructions, but when the Utilities window appeared, I was unable to start the Disk Utility from the menu. There was a dialog saying that OS X had not been successfully installed.
What could be causing this problem?

The startup drive may be failing, or there is some other internal hardware fault.
Back up all data on the drive immediately if you don't already have a current backup. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional—ask if you need guidance.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
Apple also recommends that you deauthorize a device in the iTunes Store before having it serviced.
*An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.

Internal Hard Drive Disk Utility Repair Problem

Hello all! I'm really hoping someone can help me out because I'm in a bit of a panic right now about all of this.
For starters, I have a Mid-2007 20" Intel based iMac.
The other day, I turned on my computer and got a flashing question mark and the computer would not boot. Luckily, I have an external hard drive, so I went through the process of using the Install Discs to use the Hard Drive to start up my computer. Everything worked out and once the computer turned on, I was able to access my Hard Drive and had full access to my files. I powered down my computer as I had to run out the door for school and was planning on backing all of my files up on my external hard drive tonight.
Unfortunately, when I turned on my computer, my internal hard drive had disappeared. I can only start the computer with my external drive plugged in.
I accessed the Disk Utility, and it was the first place I was able to locate my Hard Drive. On the left hand side, underneath the external drive, it simply says "Media". I cannot click on ANY of the options under First Aid and the only thing it seems I can do is Erase the drive.
I would REALLY like to avoid this option, as there are nearly 5 years worth of documents on this computer.
My S.M.A.R.T. Status says Not Supported, and it's saying that the Total Capacity is 0 Bytes.
I suppose I should also mention that with the disc I used I am now running OS X 10.4.11, but previously, I was running 10.5. I can't remember the last decimal place. I don't know why there was a difference, as I used the same disk...
I have NO IDEA where to go from this point besides taking it somewhere to see if my files can be recovered.
Can anyone help me out here?
If you need any more details about my computer/the actions I took, just let me know.
Thanks so much!!

If you cannot access the internal HD then it may have crashed, I am getting you may not have been backing up either so if it has crashed and you don't have a backup then your data is probably gone. If you can get the internal HD to show up again before you do ANYTHING else back it up using Time Machine (assuming you use 10.5.x or above) or create a clone on an external HD using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
My recommendation at this point is to take the machine into and an Apple Store or AASP to have it looked at.

Disk Utility can't "Verify Disk Permission" and "Repair Disk Permission"

I booted up the Leopard 10.5.5 server from the Install Disc, and tried to do disk checks on all drives using Disk Utility.
When the system drive was selected all the "Verify Disk", "Repair Disk", "Verify Disk Permission" and "Repair Disk Permission" functions are able to perform, however, if the non-system drives are selected only "Verify Disk" and "Repair Disk" are able to perform, the "Verify Disk Permission" and "Repair Disk Permission" are GRAYED OUT ! and UNABLE TO perform the permission check and repair!! Any idea ?

Hi, I'm having a problem could be related. I've a 3 years old Xserve (not intel) with 3 HD managed by the apple original RAID board, all that running Mac OS X 10.4.
I remotely manage the server from my mac running OS 10.5.6 and Server Admin 10.5.3.
Well, I simply cannot propagate permissions because when I do it, Server Admin freezes and i must force it to quit. Obviously, privileges are not propagated.
All that di NOT happen 1 month ago when i was "happily" running Mac OS X 10.3.x and Server Admin 10.3.x. Upgrading has been a big boomerang.
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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.

Disk Utility won't allow permission verify/repair

I have started getting some odd behavior from Disk Utility. I have one hard disk on my Mac Mini which I have never partitioned. When I open Disk Utility it shows the disk but not the partition under it that used to appear. When highlighting the main disk the options to repair/verify permissions don't appear. Occasionally when I start Disk Utility I do see the main partition but a small (200Mb)unmounted partition also appears. As I said I have never partitioned the hard disk so I don't know where this small partition is coming from. I can't seem to get Disk Utility to consistently show me the main partition that is supposed to be there. Can anyone offer suggestions for why this is happening and how to fix it. I recently moved from 10.5.6 to 10.5.8, but this problem appeared just before the OS upgrade. Thanks.

That is indeed strange behaviour. I'd try reformatting and repartitioning your hard drive with Disk Utility, and then restore your data from your backups. Make sure you keep your backups up to date after that.

S.m.a.r.t. status failing, HD won't mount, verify, or repair. Can't make disk image. Any other options?

My iMac won't boot up. It gets to the grey screen with the progress bar. Gets about a third through the progress bar, then shuts off.
I boot up with the recovery disk. The S.M.A.R.T. status is "failing." Disk Utility shows the following message:
"The disk has a hardware problem that can't be repaired. Back up as much data as possible and replace the disk. See and Authorized Apple dealer for more information."
I have tried:
• In disk utility the HD can't be verified or repaired
• Making a disk image from disk utility. I got a message "input/output error"
• Using my MacBookPro laptop to boot up the iMac in target disk mode. The iMac wouldn't mount.
I backed up up a few months ago, so I'm not totally out of luck. But there's a few recent projects I'd like to salvage.
This is a 21.5" iMac with 3.33 ghz, 2x2 gb, 1000gb running the latest Yosemite OS
Any further things I should try before carting the iMac to Tekserve? Thanks everybody.

I'm afraid from your description it sounds as if the disk is seriously damaged in some way. I don't think there is anything more you can do, short of taking it to a specialist recovery service which would be extremely expensive.
Your service engineer will take the disk out and replace it with a new one; ask to keep the original disk. You could try putting it in an enclosure (more expense) and seeing whether anything will access it, but I have to say that given what you've already done it's extremely unlikely you will have any sucess.

Can Disk Utility repair FAT32?

hi, folks:
I'm jammed up. I need to repair the drive in my PS3. It's FAT32-formatted. Im a Mac user, obviously. Can Disk Utility repair it, or does it only do Mac discs?
Please say "yes" (and mean it!). (Barring, of course, hardware problems, I mean. I understand that if the platter is scratched or the controller's no good, I've had the radish.)
BInky

Grf. This wasn't the answer I wanted, but it's what I needed. Thanks, Kurt. I'm now off on a quest to find a Windows laptop. I appreciate the quick response.
BInky

In disk utility, it shows that my external hard drive is somehow unmounted and I can't access it in finder or repair it in Disk Utility. How can I get this working without losing my important data?

In disk utility, it shows that my external hard drive is somehow unmounted and I can't access it in finder or repair it in Disk Utility. How can I get this working without losing my important data?
Thank you!

When you erased the disk did you select Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format option?

My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

My external drive won't mount. Disk Utility says it can't repair disk and to backup the disk and reformat, but how can I do that if it won't mount?

See mount section in 1st linked article.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

HT4790 My Mac OS Lion 10.7 FileVaulted HD does not boot, prohibitory sign, stop sign appears some minutes after boot starts. Disk Utility repair shows four error messages: Unable to bootstrap transaction group 2517: inconsistent crosscheck (the same with

My Mac OS Lion 10.7 FileVaulted HD does not boot, prohibitory sign, stop sign appears some minutes after boot starts. Disk Utility repair shows four error messages:
Unable to bootstrap transaction group 2517: inconsistent crosscheck
No valid commit checkpoint found
The volume xxxxxxxxxxxxxx(here it shows physical volume number) was found corrupt and can not be repaired.
Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
Error: Storage system verify or repair failed.
(the same with 2518, 2519 and 2520 transaction group)
I suppose it is serious bug in Mac OS Lion managing FileVault and wonder what the help could be?

Most likely culprit is your Lacie drives which are notorious for flaky power supplies which cause just the sort of erratic behaviour that you describe. Have had similar issues myself. Lacie has been good about replacing my power converter-- twice. If you have seven of them, good luck finding the bad one or more. Like I said, the behaviour is erratic. Sometimes it'll work sometimes not. I can't comment on Samsung drives because I've never used them and have never heard anything about them. Same with Softraid. Why not just use Disk Utility. Sounds like you're ready for an external hardware raid. This will be much faster, much more reliable, and may even be cheaper than seven firewire drives. Check out G Tech, and Maxx Digital for starters.
Best of luck
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Disk utility repair permissions stops altogether

I tried running Disk Utility Repair permissions and received a grey message box saying it stopped repairing permissions because of the following error:
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
This same error message was repeated in the usual information box that disk utility uses to provide detail about what it is doing.
I believe the problem occurred because I selected Macintosh HD and added another user (myself) to read/write in the disk permission section of the information window, and I also applied that to all enclosed items. I did this in the first place because of repeated attempts and failuire to install the latest version of skype into my applications folder (being told that I didn't have enough permissions to complete the overwrite task). When I tried verifying the disk I received the error message "ERROR: could not freeze volume permissions denied"
I switched users to a specific administrator account that I reserve for troubleshooting, but got the same result when I tried running disk utility.
As a not unrelated issue when I attach my ipod touch, itunes says that it cannot recognize this ipod, then after about the third time simply doesn't acknowledge my itouch exists.
everything was working well until i did this large change permissions operation.
So does anyone have any idea what I have done (wrong) and how I can fix it?
thanks
John

John Fountain wrote:
I believe the problem occurred because I selected Macintosh HD and added another user (myself) to read/write in the disk permission section of the information window, and I also applied that to all enclosed items.
Uh-oh. You completely trashed your whole system by doing that. Boot up from your Leopard DVD and restore that last Time Machine backup that was made before you made that mistake. If you don't have any backups you will have to reinstall Leopard.
I did this in the first place because of repeated attempts and failuire to install the latest version of skype into my applications folder (being told that I didn't have enough permissions to complete the overwrite task).
When that happens, just trash the old application first, then drag in the new one.
When I tried verifying the disk I received the error message "ERROR: could not freeze volume permissions denied"
I switched users to a specific administrator account that I reserve for troubleshooting, but got the same result when I tried running disk utility.
Changing permissions on the HD and applying to enclosed items hosed your whole system. That's what's causing all your problems. It's doubtful that you will be able to repair it. Restore your system from backup, or reinstall.

Disk Utility: "Repairing disk failed with error Could not unmount disk"

Disk Utility: “Repairing disk failed with error Could not unmount disk”
Hi. I’ve been experiencing some mildly squirrelly behaviour with my system (vide infra) so decided to repair the two internal hard drives on my computer. The primary hard drive is a 74.53 GB ST380013AS that came with the system; its S.M.A.R.T. Status is “verified” and Disk Utility repairs permissions just fine. However, the second internal drive (Maxtor 6L250S0, 233.76 GB, lower Bay, Journaled HFS+), despite being verified by S.M.A.R.T. status and apparently running OK, fails to unmount when I ask Disk Utility to repair it- I get the above error message in red. I have repaired this disk with DiskWarrior (v3.03) and all appears to run AOK. Can anyone tell me why I cannot get Disk Utility to run on this secondary (eg, non-startup) disk? I have tried many times and the error is reproducible. Thank you!
G5 1.6GHz PPC, 1 GB RAM, running OS 10.4.6

Thank you for these useful links!
For others who have this issue, I also found very helpful advice given to this question on the MacFixIt forums by MicroMat Tech3 at
http://www.macfixitforums.com/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=tiger&Number=76265 1
He said: "Use the lsof command to find the open files on a volume that does not unmount or eject. Open Terminal, located in /Applications/Utilities. Type: sudo lsof | grep Leave a space after the p in grep, then drag the icon of the problem volume to the Terminal window. The pathname for the volume is pasted in for you; press Return. Then enter your administrative password at the prompt, and press Return."
At this point, one now has a list of the open files/processes on the volume that will not unmount. You can use Activity Monitor to terminate these processes if you wish, and then the volume will unmount as it should.

Can't verify disk

I've been trying to run the "Verify Disk" utility on Disk utility on my main 500GB hard drive that contains the OS among other things. When ever I run either verify or repair disk utility it runs for a little bit then ultimately comes back with the error "can't veryify/repair disk". I can verify and repair disk 'permissions', just not the disk.
Is a crash of the drive in it's entirety imminent or is there a way to prevent this, or at least get the utillity to do what it is supposed to?
Thanks in advance!!

Something is open and/or running that prevents verify.
You should be repairing your drive booted from another hard drive. disk utility isn't as complete and thorough as Alsoft Disk Warrior.
It is always safer and better to make sure you have a backup as well.
Until you install OS X on another drive or clone your drive (Disk Utility Repair or Carbon Copy Cloner) you'll have to settle with booting from Install DVD and go to Utilities menu from there.

Mac HD displays as "media" in disk utility, Other problems.

Hey all,
I've got a couple problems here.
First being my hard drive is failing, I am aware of that. Not much I expect from you guys for that.
Second, my backup files have been corrupted and unusable.
Third, I can not get to single user mode.
Fourth, permissions on startup disk are most likely corrupt, stalling the system.
Fifth, Disk Utility identifies the startup disk as "media" using install CD.
So here's the deal. It started as: I suspect I had corrupted files in a folder that I can neither find nor rectify.
Upon doing backups with time machine, The program & computer would freeze for hours on end (most likely hung up on this/these corrupted files), no new backups resulted, and for some reason the original backup from a year ago disappeared. This could have been a problem from a failing harddrive, I'm not sure.
Which leaves me with no backup to start over from. (And a total loss of years of photos and documents) :-(
I can not load osx from the hard drive, it just gives me the hopeless folder with a question mark. I have tried Cmd-S, to no avail. No safe mode and holding Cmd on startup gives me nothing.
I have done the Cmd-Option-P-R with success but no helpful fixes.
So, I can sometimes, with luck, restart the computer (no buttons pressed) and I will get to the blue screen before the log in window (computer set up for multiple users, but only because of migration's automatic setup on a new computer)
But I get the spinny gear and then a sort of reset back to the blue screens (light blue, darker blue, spinny gear, reset, repeat).
I assume this has to do with a screw up in permissions or privileges amongst users and is confusing itself.
I suspect that there was an issue with backing up files in relation to this.
What if anything, can I do to reset the permissions/privileges without being able to get past the log in screen?
I can get to the Disk Utility on the Mac OS install disk but it only identifies the startup disk as "media." I understand that it's most likely because of a failing hard drive.... But is there any way to access the hard drive before the CD install disk kicks in, or regular booting starts, in the off chance the hard drive is functioning?
Also, is the terminal on the install disk software able to run fsck?
Would it be possible to clone the hard drive info (if the hard drive still works) and pop it in the machine without recourse?
Any help is appreciated
Thanks

I have exactly the same problem.
Tried all the usual things, like safe boot, and PRAM resets.
Because the drive shows as a zero byte device you can't repair or reformat it.
I did managed to get it to correctly appear and run following a very cold reboot, but it soon vanished when running disk repair.
I fear that either my HDD or the controller is kaput? Any thoughts?

Disk utility/repair problem - can't verify disk

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