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.

Similar Messages

Hi, how do I manage storage? Disk Utility says "other" is taking up most of my storage but I don't know where to find "other". Please help!

Hi, how do I manage storage? Disk Utility says “other” is taking up most of my storage but I don’t know where to find “other". Please help!

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper 2>&-
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective 2>&-
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I have to replace my hard drive as it is failing, I'm away and just bought a new external HD for backups,,only problem is it is fsiling to backup without a reason. Disk utility says ex HD is ok. I need to backup before i get it repaired. Any Advice?

Hi my hard drive is failing and I'm overseas in Thailand. I bought a Buffalo 1TB to back up my mac 13inch HD version 10.6.8, only problem is it wont back up. Disk Utility says ex HD is fine. I need to backup before I take it for repairs. What can I do? Thanks advice appreciated. NL

I think we both had our wires crossed a little.
Then just go ahead and clone your internal drive to your Buffalo. You are not going to use Time Machine, and you do not have to partition it. So ignore all that stuff I posted. Let me start from scratch.
First check that your Buffalo drive is partitioned GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. So open Disk Utility, select the topmost entry for the Buffalo drive. You should see something like this:
I have selected the entry of my CalDigit drive. Note that the Partition Map Scheme is GUID. Now, select the volume (mine is "System Backup."
Here you see it is a Format type of Mac OS Extended, Journaled. If that's what you see then you are good to go.
With Disk Utility still open:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the Buffalo drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Xserve RAID: Server Monitor says degraded, disk utility says mirror FAILED.

Xserve Quad Intel 4x2GH
4096 GB RAM
OS X Server 10.4.11
Xserve RAID 7TB 14x 500 GB ADM via dual fiber channel, Mirrored, 3.5 TB array.
Flashing yellow indicator light on Xserve this morning. Investigated and found that RAID Admin says everything is OK, all 14 drives normal.
RAID Admin log says :"4000 1 Wed Apr 08 09:37:59 EDT 2009 Disk 2 Failed To Respond. Retrying. RETRY COUNT:0 LBA:0x1C700"
Under the RAID tab, Disk utility says: "Mirrored RAID Set: Degraded" and "Disc2s3: FAILED"
All LED's are solid green across the front of the ADMs.
Since all my drives are reporting OK, could this be a problem with the Fiber Channel interfaces?
Should I just backup (again), shut down and rebuild the mirror using Disk Utility?

Hi Kappy<
I am trying to migrate user data from a RAID - 1 slice from my old PowerMac G4 running OS X 10.4.11 to my new MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.4 by reading a mirror RAID slice from my old Mac that is mounted in an external drive enclosure and connected by FireWire.
The problem is that the new Mac cannot read the old Mac disk, it never shows up on the desktop, or comes up as available when trying to use Migration Assistant. Then, if I go into Disk Utility, the external RAID slice shows up briefly with a locked yellow padlock beside it, then I suddenly get the window shade of death, and have to hold down the power button to reset/restart my MacBook.
Why can my new computer not read my old computers disk, and how can I change permissions, or make the old drive readable by the new mac.
Regrettably I am away from the original Desktop, and cannot load the old drive back into it, connect the two machines and migrate that way. My only option for reaching my necessary data is to retrieve it off the drive I have with me.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Disk Utility says of USB Drive - "This partition can't be modified" "This disk is not writeable and cannot be partitioned"

Several months ago I bought a 64GB PNY USB memory stick to transpord data quickly.
It seemed to work fine. I could format it as a Mac partition and use it. I hardly ever need
it so I just put it away.
Today I wanted to use it to put a file on and take it to the Kinko's/FedEx to print, and I
find I cannot mount it on any of my computers, iMac, MacMini or MacBookPro.
In Disk Utility virtually everything is greyed out.
Disk Utility says: "This partition can't be modified" "This disk is not writeable and cannot be partitioned"
If I try to mount it, it says "This disk cannot be mounted"
There is no physical read-only switch or setting on the disk that I can see and it is very small.
I has a Mac OS installed on it, so I wonder if that is a problem? I should be able to write over that
or reformat it I would think.

Thanks for these replies.
I've got regular time machine backups and just backed up some of my data by copying some key folders to an external drive. I'm bit paranoid about backup integrity and would ideally like to do another full backup to a different drive using a system other than time machine, in the event that something goes wrong with the time machine backup. Any recommendations on good and affordable backup software to do a backup of my TM backup?
One other question: I seem to encounter problems like this pretty frequently. I'd say once a year or so, my drive fails completely or gets near enough to failing that I have to wipe and restore. (I've never had a TM backup fail to work, though the last go around there were some hiccups which has led to my backup paranoia.) I've had this happen on multiple computers, so I'm becoming pretty convinced that the problem lies somewhere in my data. Is it possible (even likely) that there's something in my data causing this recurring problem? If so, is there anything I might be able to do to try and pinpoint and address this problem? I'd love to go one year without having to wipe/restore my machine!
For a while I thought I just had bad luck. But I think this is like the 4th or 5th time this has happened in the past 4 years and every time, I'm restoring from a backup, so I come back with the same data. It's the one constant since I've had 3 different machines over this same time period.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.

Disk Utility says everything's fine, but Install disk doesn't find my internal drive as a possible destination. When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping "cannot mount errno = 19" message.
Problem started when I used Tech Tool Pro 6 to "de-fragment volume". Had to cancel that process before it finished because I ran out of time. Thereafter, when I startup my machine normally, I get the gray Apple logo at first, but it changes to a prohibited symbol (circle with a slash thru it) and hangs.
When I startup holding the Option key, I can see my internal drive, but I get the same results as above.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD, it does not find my internal drive as possible destination.
When I startup using the MacBook OSX Install DVD and then run Disk Utility, it finds my drive, allows me to "repair" and says everything is fine.
When I startup with Command + S, I get a looping error message "errno = 19" and cannot stop it to do anything else.
When I startup from Disk Warrior v4.4, it does not find my internal drive to do any repairs.
When I startup from Tech Tool Pro 6 and run the "computer check" diagnostics, everything passes but the Volume Structure, which fails at "Volume Extents (B-tree)." When I use TTP's "Tools" option to run "volume repair" it will show my internal drive and allow me to click the GO button, but nothing happens and nothing changes.
I have a Time Machine backup on an external USB drive, but for as long as the internal drive doesn't mount, I can't use the backup to restore.

It's a false report and should be ignored.
I would not rely on TT as I've already said earlier even before Grant posted similar advice.
I really think the Rigid Disk Block may be corrupted. This holds the partition map and could prevent a volume from being unmounted. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix that without repartitioning the drive which will remove everything. So, before going down this road I hope you have backups or can make a backup.
Drive Partition and Format
1. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X.
5. Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Yosemite on MacBook Air - Third time installed, now will not be startup disk. Disk Utility says OK. Disk Warrior says 375 pages of bad .plist files. How delete plist files?

Yosemite on MacBook Air - Third time installed, now will not be startup disk. Disk Utility says OK. Disk Warrior says 375 pages of bad .plist files. How delete plist files?
What does "Accessibility" mean?

Had the same problem, finally realized that the FileVault Encryption was struck at 19%. Speed back up to normal after I disabled FileVault using terminal command - sudo fdesetup diable
To check whether the FileVault is the culprit, go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> FileVault to see if encryption is in progress.. For me the blue bar was less than a quarter with status 'estimating time remaining'..
Then open Terminal and type in: sudo fdesetup disable
It will then ask for the admin password (to be it asked twice), then it was disabled... Back to normal life again..
Here is my terminal log for reference:
Last login: Tue Oct 21 23:05:13 on console
Gowthams-MBP:~ asgowtham$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 18.80
Gowthams-MBP:~ asgowtham$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 18.80
Gowthams-MBP:~ asgowtham$ fdesetup status
FileVault is On.
Encryption in progress: Percent completed = 18.80
Gowthams-MBP:~ asgowtham$ sudo fdesetup disable
Password:
Enter a password for '/':
..fdes.
FileVault has been disabled.
Gowthams-MBP:~ asgowtham$ fdesetup status
FileVault is Off.

HD crash. Disk utility says invalid node structure, invalid record count. Disk utility cannot repair. Now what?

My hard drive crashed. The disk utility says it can not repair. I tried to boot in safe mode but I stopped after 10 minutes. Is that impatient or how long can it take?
I have the installation disk but doesn't that erase everything?

I have never bought a new computer from Apple so I don't know the details of what is covered by the warranty. You can try taking it to the Apple Store and they may have a copy of DW they can run. Or maybe not and they will just wipe the drive and reinstall the OS for you and if you haven't made a backup before they do that then tough luck. I'd check first!
If you buy Diskwarrior on DVD it will boot the computer. I think Apple Stores carry it, but you can also buy it directly from the vendor. I also don't use Lion OS so I don't know the details. You may be able to get their download version and boot from your recovery partition, then run it without a DVD.

USB Hard Drive that Disk Utility says it can't unmount

I have a 93.2 Gb Hard Drive (from an old G4 PowerBook) inside an enclosure with USB connection. While trying to recover data from it using Data Rescue (on a G4 PowerBook), Data Rescue II hung. After restart, the USB Hard Drive can not be read at all. Disk Utility says it can't repair it or erase it because it can't "Unmount" the disk. What can I do with the USB Hard Drive?

try this: open system preferences/spotlight/privacy and drag that external into spotlight privacy then try Disk Utility.

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

HD problem - disk utility says "1 HFS volume checked" "Vol needs repair"

This all started with very slow response when applications were opened on iMac purchased 10/07 - went to Disk Utilty and tried to Repair Disk - but not allowed to click on that option(still grey). So, went to Disc 1 of Installer set of disks , inserted in drive and attempted to reinstall Mac OS X that came with Oct '07 (Tiger-right before Leopard became standard) purchase. When I get to the Select A Destination part of the Install MacOS X directions, there are no choices(ie- HD not recognized). Went to disk utility option available with the Installer disk and did a Repair Disk option. Following messages in RED
Invalid Volume Header
Invalid Mode Sgtructure
The volume Mac HD needs to be repaired ( ie- Volume check failed)
then Disk Utility boxpops up andsays Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
Finally
1 HFS volume checked VOLUME NEEDS REPAIR in red
Huuuum.
Next step? I am using my wife's PC to send this HELP message and it's painful. Rescue me as the song says! Is it time to box up for Apple store visit, or ......

Houston, welcome to Apple Discussions.
It appears you have some directory damage on your hard drive. Disk Utility cannot fix some of these type problems. DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

Disk Utility says no problems but Diskwarrior disagrees

Need some advice. I ran Disk Utility yesterday to verify my drives before upgrading to 10.4.4 on my Dual 2GHz. It came up with some errors but said it couldn't fix them. Went to Diskwarrior which also said it couldn't fix it. Did a safe boot which is supposed to force an 'fsck' but the system never fully booted from that, probably failed at the fsck (the fans turned on full blast at the grey bootup screen then eventually powered off by itself). When I rebooted, I ran Disk Utility and it now reports the drive is fine. Diskwarrior still scoffs at that though.
Disk Utility said something about File Allocation Table mismatch.
Diskwarrior said the directory structure could not be repaired.
SMART says the drive is fine.
TechTool Pro reports a Bitmap mismatch and could not repair the drive.
Thing is, I don't see any problems with the drive at all. System boots fine and there are no corrupt files. It's a 3 month old 300GB Seagate so I don't think it's a hardware problem. But I've had some kernel panics related to my video iPod (the one where the G5 kernel panics if you have low space left on the iPod) which is where I'm guessing this all started from.
I've left it for now with Retrospect backing up the drive to a new external 250GB drive I had to buy just for this. I was planning on formatting the problem drive, testing it again and then restoring the Retrospect backup. (The only issue I've had with Retrospect is I Duplicated the problem drive to that new drive and had about 4000 files with different dates. I'm hoping that doesn't happen using the Backup function instead.)
Is this the right path? Or anybody think it could be a hardware issue? I've never done a full system volume backup with Retrospect, will I run into problems making the restored drive bootable again? And last, are there any other programs I should try?
BTW, I thought Journaling was supposed to fix all this!!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Backup your data on that drive as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

IMac won't launch, disk utility says I cannot repair my Macintosh HD, back up files, reformat the disk and restore backed up files. How do I do all that? Help!

iMac won't start up, disk utility tried to repair disk it shows "keys out of order" error message in red and advises me to back up files, reformat disk and restore backed up files. I have no idea how to back up and restore etc... Help! Please!

Get an external drive of sufficient capacity to hold everything on your internal drive.
Partition and format the external drive.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Clone your internal drive to the external drive.
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
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.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Boot from the external drive.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the external disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Reformat the internal drive and install OS X.
Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
      the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
Open Startup Disk preferences and set the internal drive as the startup volume, then click on the Restart button.
Restore your data from your external drive backup.

H.D. Clicks When Booting But Disk Utility Says "No Problems"

My friend installed a new 300 gig Seagate on his G4 a couple of months ago. It has worked fine until now. Suddenly, it won't boot up from the HD -- just clicks. He gets the spinning ball and it freezes up. HOWEVER: (1) The icon does appear on the desktop and (2) When he starts up from the CD and runs Disk Utility, D.U. recognizes the H.D., checks it successfully, and reports "No Problems Found." He can hear it spin up and everything just fine when he is checking it with Disk Utility.
So, it seems to go into the "clicking and spinning ball syndrome" only when he is trying to boot up from it. Any ideas? Thanks!
Power Mac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Backup your data on that drive as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Help! Phantom Drive in disk Utility, causes problems

Last week I had an external firewire drive fail. I was away and just discovered it today. When I look in Disk Utility, I see a device still listed for the drive even though it won't mount. I unplugged the external drive and restarted the computer and it is still there.
This causes two problems:
1. it takes forever to reboot the computer, as it spends 10-15 minutes trying to establish communications with a hardware device that isn't there.
2. I cannot log out or shut down. I have to cut the power to the computer to restart it.
How can I remove the dead device from the list of devices OSX is looking for? I imagine my startup and shutdown problems are related to some device entry somewhere. Before I start looking into replacing the drive and recovering the data from the dead unit, I'd like to resolve the issue with the OS.
Any idea how to get rid of the traces of the old drive that are still there?
DC

While in Disk Utility and the HD disconnected, CMD or OPT click and drag that icon out of DU's window. It should go poof, just like removing stuff from the Dock.

Disk Utility Says Problem! Help?

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