Disk utility says repair needed but repair grayed out

I ran a disk utility verification, which indicated that repair was necessary. However the repair option was grayed out. How do I effect a repair?

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.

Similar Messages

Disk Utility says I need to repair disk

My computer is running a little sluggish so I went into the Disk Utility and selected verify disk. I got the message below. I inserted the OS X disk but the repair disk option wasn't available. I bought the computer with Panther and got Tiger later, unfortunately I don't have the Tiger disk. How do I fix this problem?
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Macintosh HD
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

If you are running Tiger, you need the Tiger install disc you purchased in order to run Disk First Aid repair.
And withhout your Tiger install disc, you cannot perform an Archive & Install retaining Tiger, etc. so bad move not keeping this in a safe place.
Your only other option is running fsck.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

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

Disk Utility says HD, "needs to be repaired" Options?

Using Disk Utility to Repair Permissions has worked fine, but when I "Verify Disk" I get this:
"Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit" among other text. It says that our HD "needs to be repaired".
How do I do this best? What do you all recommend?
Is Disk Warrior the only/best option?
Is there another app that I should use first?
Is there a free option, using a built-in utility?

On an intel mac you cannot run OS 9 or classic so there is no need to worry about OS 9.
If you have the same problem and Disk Utility cannot repair the drive and you decide to do a reinstall you can either do a archive and install, which would not remove your old data and files but would just replace the system with a new one. Chances are that will not fix a problem with the disk directory.
If you want to reformat the drive and reinstall the everything will have to be reinstalled from scratch as it will all be erased.You system restore disk can be used for this and then any third party apps you have will have to be reinstalled.
Before doing either, I would recommend that you do a complete backup to an external drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper or some other backup application.

Disk Utility says HD needs repair-how to boot from original disk?

Hi,
My iMac has been acting up badly. Finally on Friday, it had trouble turning on and a burning smell arose from the top. Came on but with the blinking folder with question mark. So turned it off and tried again to turn on: no chime and couldn't turn it on.
Went to Genius bar this a.m. Tried different cord. It turned on. Everything came up fine. Genius ran special test. Everything came back with green check. But he said the internal hard drive could very likely be starting to fail.
Back home. Just ran the Disk Utility to "Verify." It couldn't continue verification. Got these messages:
Invalid volume directory count.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Questions:
1) Can I repair using the First Aid utility (or is it more about getting a new HD)?
2) If so, can someone remind me what keys to press on startup to boot from the CD?
3) I have 10.5.8 right now. Can I still boot from the original Tiger installation CD and use that Disk Utility?
Thanks for your urgently needed help!

If you're on 10.5.8 have you not got that disk as that would probably be the best one to use? If not, the disk that came with your Mac should still boot up. Disk in drive and restart holding down the 'C' key. Hopefully it'll boot - albeit slowly. At the multi-language screen choose your language and at the next screen from the menu bar select Utilities>Disk Utility. Select Macintosh HD on the left and 'repair disk'. Hopefully it'll do the necessary repairs. If it fixes anything click 'repair disk' again until you get a clean pass and then from the Apple menu restart as normal.
If you haven't got a backup make sure you make one ASAP.

Disk Utility says it can't repair hard drive...now what?

I managed to get Disk Utility to run the Repair, but it gave me a message that said after 3 attempts to repair the disk, it was unable to. Repair failed. Now what do I do? Any thoughts?

Ah, I see your other post is a duplicate of this thread. Regarding the "underlying task reported failure" message, are you getting that with respect to "temp#####" files? Per Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later to verify or repair disks, you can ignore those messages.
DiskWarrior can often make repairs that Disk Utility cannot.
If you have access to another Mac, you can try FireWire target disk mode to backup/recover the eMac data.

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

Disk utility says SMART error but Tech Tools Pro says SMART passed

Disk Utility on my Mac Pro (6GB ram, dual dual, 10.5.5) is saying my primary HD (a Seagate 1TB, one of three) has failed SMART. Tech Tools pro says it's fine and passes SMART (and all the other tests). I've got backups (Time Machine and tar files) and a new disk on the way. However I'd like to be able to know what exactly Disk Utility thinks the SAMRT error is - is there any way of finding our or is it opaque to the user?

If the drive is possible defective, then you may be able to have it replaced at no cost because it's in warranty. Most drives carry at least a 3 year manufacturer's warranty. You would contact the manufacturer about a warranty replacement if your Apple warranty has expired. If you still have Apple's warranty in effect then contact AppleCare about the replacement.

Disk Utility says volume needs repair, tests failed. Now what?

What exactly does this mean? Unfortunately, I bought this TiBook from a classmate, and he didn't have his Tiger DVD, so all I have is 10.0 and a 10.1 upgrade. Do I have to use this to re-install?
Thanks!
Jim

Hello James:
Since you do not have the Tiger DVD you have a few choices (none particularly good). You should ALWAYS have the software install DVD - I am not sure what will happen when you run repair disk from an older software install CD/DVD. You will be unable to reinstall Tiger unless you have the proper DVD. I would return the iBook and get my money back from your classmate unless that person produces the proper software.
Incidentally, if Apple's repair disk (run from the CD/DVD) is unable to repair problems, DiskWarrior is the next option. DW is the 'gold standard' of directory repair, but it is pricey at about $90.
Barry

Disk utility says widget problem, but I have no widgets?

Everytime I do a verify and repair permision I get the same thing over and over, widgets permisions and so on. The problem is I deleted all widgets and I have checked both folders and I see nothing.

Take a look in this thread...
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=741255#741255
It may be that since the permissions instructions are stored in the HintFile and just tell DiskUtility to leave them as they are, the widget files don't actually need to be there for the messages to show.

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.

Disk Utility works for FAT but fails for Mac OS Extended

Hi Folks,
I have a 2TB WD My Book drive that I am trying to format as Mac OS Extended for Time Machine. Disk Utility will cheerfully format it as FAT (the FAT drive shows up in finder and seems to work fine), but won't format it as Mac OS Extended. I'm trying to figure out whether this is a hardware error, or whether I am doing something wrong.
To format it for Mac OS Extended, I am going into the partition tab, removing the current (FAT) partition, and adding a new Mac OS Extended partition. When I do this, Disk Utility shows the new partition as "grayed out" and it does not mount in Finder.
If I run Verify and Repair, I get the following errors:
Verify and Repair volume “Untitled 1”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid node structure
Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid record count
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: 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.
Am I doing something wrong here, or does this sound more like a hardware failure?
Thanks!

@kbd1: Yes, if I erase the disk from the erase tab and format it as MS-DOS (FAT) the disk works just fine. If I erase and format it as Mac OS Extended, I get the same errors listed above and it doesn't mount.
@Thomas: Yes, if I set the format to GUID I get the same errors. I've even tried setting up two partitions: one FAT and one GUID and the FAT one mounts and the GUID one doesn’t.
So, from both of your responses it sounds like hardware, which makes sense. What is strange to me is that it works as a FAT drive...
Message was edited by: terpfan

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.

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.

My external LaCie drive gets an error message "the disc you inserted was not readable by this computer." The only options offered are "ignore" or "eject" Disk Utility sees the disc but does not give a repair option. What can I do?

When I plug in my external LaCie drive I get an error message "the disc you inserted was not readable by this computer."
The only options offered are "ignore" or "eject"
Disk Utility sees the disc but does not give a repair option.
What can I do?

The good thing about mac-centric resellers such as OWC, is they have people on staff that can answer questions without you buying things first. They also have how-to information, and instructions are included in many of their products. I saw a link to watch a DIY video in one of their pages; an example of a RAID (with its own power supply) is shown on their drives page. Also a few in there, with no power supplies, for less money.
If I were looking to backup and perhaps also have a partition for a system clone, I'd consider something like one of these: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
Some ideas on the RAID backup methods appear in google search, some of the pages are ideas and concepts; and the better ones also warn about using RAID for the only backup plan.
Oh, OWC has live chat. Haven't tried it, nor have I bought anything from them. I have what appears to be two products from them, but have not used either. One is in a box as-new, but has only USB2.0 ports & my Macs needed FW400/800. It has been said their RAM is a good way to upgrade, too. But I can't confirm!
A 'RAID-ready' unit for backup may be more versatile for just that, but I have not checked into these details. I use single HDDs in powered enclosures, and usually manually make backup clones to FW drives, of bootable OS X systems. Some of the OWC raid-ready use eSATA ports so that may not be viable for a computer without them.
The unused in-box external drive I have is like the base model in the link above. However mine is USB2.0 (maybe) and won't boot my older Macs due to hardware variance; and my preference would be for FireWire options, these models do offer that. But the one I have does not. Dual 500GB HDDs, and they could be used in tandem as a RAID. That would be a choice set up in software. I'm not sure and not interested enough to read up just now.
My backup method is not automatic, or a moving backup plan, if I don't get a move-on and make full system clones. I do make copies of photos and documents the manual way, to USB external drives; and occasionally backup to DVD or CD media. And USB flash, that helps to move files between computers without need to use file sharing via wi-fi. {Like Why fly? Walking is better exercise unless one is a bird. Squawk!}
https://www.google.com/#q=raid+backup+mac
Depending on the ports in your Mac, you may be able to use other cables to attach between a backup or externally enclosed hard disk drive with multiple partition and bootable clone in one of them. Not sure about the Thunderbolt, and where that is the main port, adapters are required to access other devices, as allowed.
Anyway, I am going on and on, yet not really saying anything.
My ideas would not be all that interesting to follow as a backup
plan when matching available newer hardware to task, but you
can get some into better ideas if you are not in a rush. Get a
good setup and then look into more an betterer stuff.
Good luck & happy computing!

Disk utility says repair needed but repair grayed out

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for