Disk Utility scare - then filesystem repairs itself!

Yesterday, when my iMac was running badly after the latest Software Update downloads, I ran a Disk Utility check on the hard drive and it refused to run, reporting "Invalid node structure" and "Filesystem verify or repair failed". So I booted to my external drive and ran DU from there on my internal drive. This time it reported that "Disk MacHD could not be unmounted".
Fearing the worst, I booted from my Leopard installer disk and ran DU from there. It gave me the same result as the original test, "Invalid node structure" and "Filesystem verify or repair failed".
Next I boot into Boot Camp/WindowsXP and my iMac is running just fine without any errors. So I decide to give the internal MacOs boot disk another chance and despite the fact that it takes forever to boot up (about an hour anyway) I eventually get there and run Disk Utility again and this time it does the test and reports that the HD is OK!! Permissions were also checked without any apparent problem.
At one stage in this little saga - when the Leopard install disk was finding problems on my internal HD - I rang Apple tech support and they concluded that my iMac was hosed and that I should get it repaired under warranty.
In fact, even though I eventually got a clean bill of health from Disk Utility, I wasn't happy with the way the system was running (slow, beach balls) so I used Time Machine to restore it to just before Wednesday's software update and all was well again.
I hate not knowing what caused this weird behaviour. Can anyone diagnose what could have happened?
Simon

Regrettably I have hit a major problem using Diskwarrior on my external Os 10.5.1 boot drive: it checked the directory of my internal drive and reported a few not-too-serious-looking errors and offered to replace the directory. This I let it do but it got almost to the end - step 9 I think of rebuilding the directory - and then froze. Activity Monitor reported that Diskwarrior was not responding (after an hour of inactivity) so I had no choice but to Force Quit it. Of course, DW had dismounted my internal HD and it quit without restoring the disk icon on my desktop. I tried launching DW again but it just spent ages looking for mounted volumes and had to be Force Quit again. I currently have Disk Utility doing the same thing - "Gathering Disk Information..." - which it has been trying to do for the last hour and I have left it whirring away since at least the process is still active.
But it looks as though I have lost (again) the contents of my internal drive so I will (again) have to restore from Time Machine. And it looks to me as though there are serious issues with Diskwarrior 4.1.
Before letting DW replace the disk directory I had run file and folder repairs and permissions repairs on both the internal and external disk, all without much to worry about.
Hopefully I can still rescue my data because I turned TM off after restoring last night and I have several hours of work today which isn't backed up.
Simon

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OSX Lion Disk Utility won't verify/repair RAID volumes

SInce I upgraded to Lion (now at 10.7.4) I can't use the Disk utility to verify or repair the disk catalog (disk first Aid) on apple soft RAID volumes. These volumes were created in 10.6 use the Apple RAID feature of disk utility.
I have one striped and one concatenated volume - neither will work. Press the button and the progress bar flashes for a fraction of a second, then nothing. no error, no message in the window - just no repsonse. Works fine on non raid volumes in the same disk enclosure -Firmtek Seritek/5PM, with seritek 2ME4-E sata card.
Not sure I really want to recreate and recopy the drives....
Any ideas? Seaches haven't turned up this specific issue.

A quick search in these forums for permissions or *permissions problem* reveals many posts the past four months.
In a nutshell, repairing permissions w/Leopard takes anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on what's installed and what's contained in /Library/Receipts/bom/. The repair permissions operation has changed in Leopard. The stalled progress bar is an unresolved bug (they haven't figured out how to make it work whilst it's checking or rebuilding the a.receiptdb, in /Library/Receipts/db/. To see what's really going on, open that folder in a Finder window, select list view, launch Disk Utility, select your boot volume, and click on repair permissions. Watch the Finder window flash files that are being read and checked against the current a.receiptdb file. That's what's taking all the time and freezing the progress bar. Once that's finished, the progress bar starts moving and the permissions are being checked and repaired. Also note, that you won't get any *they were repaired* message back for any that are noted to be incorrect.

Disk Utility unable to Verify/Repair Permissions since this week's update

Hey there folks- I am experiencing some software problems with certain apps not launching (I understand it is an issue with QT now but am not clear on how to revert... Help?) and naturally panicked a bit.
I went into Disk Utility and tried to Repair Permissions.
Starts checking and then claims to lose connection and that I need to quit it and relaunch. This, of course, tells me that I am about to corrupt the disk and will "pay" for it (not seriously but feels like it!).
Anyone know what I can do to fix this as I really cannot, this minute, afford to reformat as I am working flat out with the machine.
So- review- unable to repair permissions and sometimes the machine runs slower than usual on the net as well as no longer launching some applications. Missing a few too but I can live with that!
Any help VERY gratefully received.

Oh dear lady upstairs! Sorry to not have responded sooner- I never got the message that you had answered me... Bit odd that!
OK- thanks for that. I do so like understanding what I am doing and, more importantly- WHY!
Will do and let you know if that sorts matters...
As for QT- I hear tell that it can interfere with the running of applications and I certainly had a lot more than just Disk Utility fail on me. Stuff APPEARS to launch and then just stops after a few bounces of the icon on the dock.
Of course that TOO began only after the update.
I have to say- if it weren't for your calming influence I'd have freaked by now. I mean- how can we trust the updates if they cause such agro?!
LOL!

I lost the hd recovery in my mac. I already erased and the hardrve using the disk utility but then if i try to install the os x using os x utility it sees that could not find installation information for this machine .

I lost the hd recovery in my mac. I already erased and the hardrve using the disk utility but then if i try to install the os x using os x utility it sees that could not find installation information for this machine .. Plz help

Recovery Partition – Recreate Without Reinstalling
Recovery Partition – Recreate Without Reinstalling (Requires Installer)

Disk utility stopped verifying; need repair... over and over and over

I've gone through the restart, Command+R drill 4 times. Repaired the disk using "Disk Utility." Restarted after repair, ran disk utility to verify the repair and BAM disk utility stops verifying and instructs me to restart ... etc.
The errors have been consistent: orphaned blocks, invalid volume free block count. But when I use utility disk after restarting and pressing command+r, the "repair disk" does not appear to do anythign beyond "Load and Verify" freespace summary and block accounting. Am I missing a step?
Any suggestions appreciated.

That article does not pertain to the OS you are running. "This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple."
It pertains to using fsck not Disk Utility for:
Products Affected
Mac OS X 10.3.9, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X Server 10.2, Mac OS X Server 10.3, Mac OS X Server 10.4, Mac OS X Server 10.4.7, Mac OS X Server 10.5

Disk utility's will not repair permission launch from option V 1.0(53)

Disk utility's will not repair permission launch from option V 1.0(53)

What is Option V in reference to? What happens when you attempt to repair permissions? Please describe your issue in more detail. Thanks.

Disk Utility error msg: Filesystem verify or repair failed!!!

Ok so after erasing my partitioned HD I wanted to use the rest of my HD on my start up HD, So I pulled the expander in the partition window to resize the volume of the HD. Then I clicked apply to resize the HD and ended up with a Partition Failed message that stated
Partition failed with the error:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
What do I do from here to get my current HD at full capacity?
The current size is 19.9 GB and it should be at 60 GB.

Ok, so I had a partitioned hard drive, and I wanted to expand the start up drive and delete the unnecessary partition. So in disk utility I clicked on partition and deleted the partition I didn't want.
Then I used the expander thing in the bottom corner of the start up hard drive box and clicked apply to enlarge it, but filesystem verify or repair failed message appeared.

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.

How do I fix a volume if Disk utility says cannot be repaired?

Greetings all,
Am having some annoying issues with my PowerMac G5 hard drive, nothing very specific, just lots of small issues like crashes and hangs and the fan going into hyper-drive every now and then. Started up from my system disc/Disk Utility and ran repair permissions and repair disc.
On repair disk it gets to the end then says:
1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired
I cannot find out what this means so can anyone advise?
I also run repair permissions over and over and it never stops finding something to repair.
Any advice much appreciated.

Started up from my system disc/Disk Utility and ran repair permissions and repair disc.
Do you mean the System install DVD? - that's what you should do as you cannot repair an HD you're booted from.
On repair disk it gets to the end then says:
1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired
This is a little odd: is there another hard disk connected? Or possibly it was trying to repair the install disk as well?
I also run repair permissions over and over and it never stops finding something to repair.
Repairing permissions does thrown up a lot of things which can't be repaired: this is a bug arising from a system update and is harmless: you can ignore it.
You could try downloading Applejack which you run in single-user mode and provides an easy way of using the built-in disk repair procedure: this is quicker than starting from the DVD and you won't get any confusion with the DVD. It's quite safe: it doesn't do the check itself, just invokes the repair that you would get by typing arcane Linux codes. But note that you must run it only in single user mode (starting up and holding command-s while booting), never while booted normally.

Grey bar at startup - Mac HD is greyed out in Disk Utility - Can't be repaired? Need to salvage my data!

Mac Book Pro -
My MacBook Pro (2008 Model) has been unable to start up - upon the start up screen when the grey Apple logo appears, I get a loading bar below it.
After about 15-20 minutes when the bar is almost complete the machine shuts off. There seems to be no way around it.
So I booted up my laptop in recovery mode, and opened Disk Utility to check my if there was something wrong with my drives -
my Macintosh HD (under the TOSHIBA drive) is greyed out. When I hit verify/repair it returns error messages and it remains greyed out.
I tried multiple times and a few times it stopped being greyed out on the sidebar, but even then it wouldn't let me verify or repair.
Not backing up my data recently is my obvious fault here, but I just wanted to know if there is ANY way to salvage my data.
Things I've tried:
1) Recovery Mode
     -Veryify/Disk Repair doesn't work
     -Time Machine can't seem to access my HD either (greyed out)
2) TargetDisk mode
     -I connected my MacBook Pro via firewire to my Mac Pro in TargetDisk mode and no Hardrive shows up on my finder.
Any advice appreciated, going to try and take it to a tech shop on Monday.
Thank you!

I would take out the HDD and install it in an enclosure and then connect that to the Mac Pro and see if there is any success.
If not, then look for data recovery software on the Internet. Most will have a 'trial' version that will indicate if the software will be successful or not, so you do not have to commit funds without knowing if it will work or not.
The last option is a professional recovery service. There will be no guarantees of success and the costs will be very high.
Ciao.

Disk Utility - Partition map needs repair because a data partition needs loader space.

I just finished setting up both my OSX and Windows installs from scratch after fitting an SSD, which in-turn was right before my logic board died and Apple replaced it, now it looks like I have some sort of hard drive issue brewing.
This was my plan for the SSD, and how it currently displays in Disk Utility although that wasn't the case earlier:
And in Terminal:
My intention was to have two boot partitions for each OS, 'Macintosh HD' and 'Win 7 Pro' and a third shared data partition 'Projects' on the SSD, which I made in Drive Genius after installing Boot Camp. I don't want Macintosh HD accessible from Windows because I'll be using Paragon HFS+ or MacDrive to give write access and don't want OSs stomping on other OSs turf, hence needing three partitions. Everything looked fine until I just checked Disk Management under windows and realised it couldn't see the Projects volume. Even though it's fine in OS X, it was just marked black/unallocated space.
So I booted back into OSX, all my files look fine so I ran Disk Utility and the Partition tab looked really odd - unfortunately I didn't get a screenshot. All volumes reported their size correctly but visually, Macintosh HD took up most of the drive. I could see 'Windows 7 Pro' under this, but the Partition Layout section had a scrollbar, which if I scrolled down showed 'Projects' squished into a tiny gap at the bottom. I ran a Verify, which reported no problems, and at some time since the Partition Layout has reverted to how it should look (as in the screenshot above), with 'Projects' book-ended by "Macintosh HD' and 'Windows 7 Pro'.
Now when I run a Verify on Macintosh HD or Projects volumes, it says there's no problem, but if I run one on the drive, I get this message:
Volume Macintosh HD on disk0s2 has 0 bytes of trailing loader space and it needs 134217728 bytes
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Partition map needs repair because a data partition needs loader space.
I've only managed to find one other mention of this error here, but the fix is not relevant to me because I don't have Sophos installed. I've tried Single User/Safe Mode but it just boots into normal mode, so I can't do a fsck -fy.
** /dev/rdisk0s2 (NO WRITE)
Can't open /dev/rdisk0s2: Permission denied
That value in bytes is exactly 128mb, so I suspect the problem lies with one of the invisible partitions that show up in iPartition and Disk Management under Windows, but not in Disk Utility. I have backups and I suspect the root of the problem is partitioning in iPartition after installing Boot Camp, but I've never had issues with this approach in the past so I'm wary of just giving up and reinstalling Windows again will be massive hassle because I no longer have a SuperDrive and last time it refused to install from USB.
Anyone have any idea what's going on? It seems like the sort of issue Disk Utility should just handle, at least in Recovery mode, but it's not playing ball. It also doesn't seem like a massive problem since my files all look fine and performance is OK, so I'm reluctant to do anything major.
I'll update with a shot of the drive in Disk Management from Windows in a few minutes, in case that sheds light on anything. Thanks!

Similar issue here. I manually partitioned my hard disk for triple boot (using Gparted on Linux), then everything was just fine until I ran bootcamp, to do something as simple as create a boot USB.
I get the same error as a result and have to work my way into booting, by resorting first to a Linux live USB, then restarting from the live USB, to finally reach my rEFInd boot manager, or whichever boot manager should be initialized at startup.
I suppose that the cause in my case is that some operation "scratched" the protective MBR. See this:
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.03/APMtoGPT/index.html
I am hoping to fix it using an external Yosemite installation media: see this guide -
http://www.macworld.com/article/2367748/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-10-yosemi te-install-drive.html
And as a last resort to reinstall.
I'll admit I am negatively surprised. I need this computer for professional reasons, and for the sake of "preserving the integrity of OSX", measures defined by Apple instead tend to make partitions far easier to damage. And this problem seems to affect a number of users.
As for what I have to go through to fix it: a 5GB download, during which I have to register my credit card to the Apple Store. "Pay first, get your free software next."
IF Disk Utility can fix it, from the external media, then fair enough. The hassle is unpleasant but it files as "a choice".
Otherwise you can file it safely under software design calamity.

PNY Micro SD won't show up in Disk Utility so I can repair it!

So i have a PNY micro SD, which I use the same brand adapter. It was working fine but when I turned my mac off yesterday and restarted it, it was really slow...l couldn't move the cursor or use the keyboard so I thought it was the SD card so I took it out but it wasn't (I don't think). I reinstalled OS X and everything went normal again. When I restarted it, I tried to access files on the SD but when I clicked on it in Finder it wouldn't let me open, so I took it out and tried to put it back in. From then on, I can't see it in Finder or disk utility. When the SD card's been in for a long time, I get a message and it's a message telling me how the disk can't be mounted and I hit initialize, but when it takes me to the disk utility, the SD card is named 524kb Apple reader (something along those lines). I tried repairing that 524kb apple reader but nothing. Any one have any clue how to get this SD card working? Also it WAS formatted but now it's not...which is really weird.
Specs of Macbook Air:
MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)
1.4 GHz Intel Core i5
4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB
128 Gb HDD
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2.

I found this same question in the archives. I followed the instructions to click on New Image, but there is no Shared item on the left as suggested, so don't know what to do next. Cannot understand why Time Capsule fails to appear when it is plugged into the iMac!

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.

PPC G5 OS X 10.5.8 using disk utility not all permissions repaired

Dear apple Community,
My G5 PPC iMac OS X 10.5.8, Processor 2GHz, memory 2 GB DDR SDRAM, Total Capacity:149.1 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
Applying Disk Utility to Repair Permissions there are always 12 permissions never repaired! Should I delete then reinstall the Operating system? OR
Is there something else that could be the problem?
Hope there is someone who may help
Best Wishes,
mflick

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:
Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448
Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.
Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:
drwxrwxrwx
d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program
drwxrwxrwx
| | |
| | all other users not in first two types
| |
| group
|
owner
a little more info
Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.
After, only the user had read & write.

Software update 14 Java for Mac 10.6.8 gave me 27 permissions errorsI found 29 permissions errors.Disk Utility and Onyx cannot repair.

first time I contact Apple Support Communities
I have re-installed Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro(permissions = ok) and each Software update proposed by Apple.
After each software update installation, I have checked the permissions being ok.
But after install update 14 Java for Mac OS X 10.6.8 (proposed by Apple), I found 27 permissions errors. Disk Utility as well as Onyx cannot repair. (in fact they repair and if you check again you still have those 27 permissions errors)
It concern mainly System/library/Java/Java Virtual Machine + System/Library/Framewoks/JavaVM.Framework and System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.Bundle
Do you have an idea how to get rid of those 27 permissions errors.
Thanks in advance
claude533

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:
Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448
Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.
Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:
drwxrwxrwx
d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program
drwxrwxrwx
| | |
| | all other users not in first two types
| |
| group
|
owner
a little more info
Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.
After, only the user had read & write.

Disk Utility scare - then filesystem repairs itself!

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