Disk Utility won't launch

This might be a coincidence but I set up a new 2Tb Time Capsule today and assumed all was working as planned. I setup Time Machine to refer to the Time Capsule drive and the backups have been performed in keeping with the schedule etc.
My issue is that for some reason the Disk Utility doesn't display. The icon will bob in the dock and then after that nothing happens. Like I said, coincidence?
Latest OS X Lion 10.7.4 with one External HD attached and working as expected. In fact I used the Disk Utility only two days ago to format said external drive.
Any ideas anyone?

Try in safe boot mode ( start the machine with the left shift key held down) if it launches repair the disk permissions and the disk itself, reboot and re try.
If it doesnt work in safe boot mode, boot from the recovery partition in lion ( cmd + R while booting) if snow leopard or below boot from the install cd by holding c when your turn the machine on and try disk permissions from disk utility in that menu.
let me know that if doesnt help

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10.4.11 Installed -Safari Crashes, Disk Utility Won't Open

Installed 10.4.11 yesterday via software update on our 2.0GHz Core Duo Macbook Pro.
After installing Safari crashes seconds after opening (it freezes then crashes) and then I downloaded the 10.4.11 update from Apples website (using firefox) but Disk Utility won't open it. If I try and launch disk utility myself it just bounces in the dock once and closes. Please help!

Same here - two identical iBook G4's, both updated to 10.4.11 - one is fine and everything works, the other one has the following problems: safari crashes 100% of the time, USB devices are failing to be recognised (mouse, storage key etc).
Looking in /var/log/system there is an error message saying a previous version of a kernel module is already loaded (cant get to the original error message text sorry!).
Looking on other forums looked like a simple 'trash the cache' fix - which I did - and hey presto the usb devices started working - but not safari. Messing around trying to flush out a safari cache failed after a few attempt, as did fixing file perms, zapping PRAM, booting from open firmware, and all the other usual things mentioned in the forums.
As it happens the iBook has nothing precious on it - so though to reinstall from the original installation disk. iBook G4 specific OSX Tiger distribution disk 1 inserted, but iBook now refuses to boot from it - holding down the c key on reboot just pops up a blue screen with a folder icon on it and an alternating finder and question mark logo - as in 'error I can't find a system on this installation disk' - the iBook then boots from the internal disk - getting nowhere fast.
Out come the Leopard install disks, and iBook quite happily boots from there and is right now doing a clean install from them (like I said nothing precious on there and thats why I cant get to the original error message...).
I've seen lots of posts about folks struggling to boot from the original install disks recently - wondering if patch 11 did something to knock the OSX version number on the machine greater than the version on the shipped G4 install disks??
And there is something very odd about patch 11 that seems to have hit this iBook and not my other one - they both installed fine, they have identical software apps on them and they are both the same spec.
Can't help more than this - but given I've seen these issues raised in several places worth adding to the thread.

IPhoto 06 and Disk Utility will not launch

I have a friend who has upgraded to iLife 06 on her G4 Mirrored Doors and when she tries to launch iPhoto 06 it bounces in the dock and then stops. iWeb will launch, as well as iDVD and iMovieHD, but Disk Utility will not. I have used the Tiger Install DVD to repair permissions as well as run FSCK -fy in single user mode. Nothing seems to fix these problems. Any advice will be appreciated.
TIA.
Lance
PowerBook G4 15 Al Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Since Disk Utility won't run I'd reinstall the 10.4.8 COMBO updater. Then see if DU will launch. If so repair disk permissions with it. Then see if iPhoto will launch. If not then reinstall iPhoto from the iLife disks, update to 6.0.4 with System update, and then download and run the 6.0.5 updater (it will only run on 6.0.4). Then run Disk Utility again and repair disk permissions.
Before reinstalling however, all files with "iPhoto" in the file name that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder must be deleted along with the current application.

Desktop or Disk Utility won't show External Hard Drives

The Desktop or Disk Utility won't show 2 of my old external hard drives and so they are currently unsusable. My computer however recognise other external drives.
320GB Western Digital MyBook Premium model number: WD3200D032-000
500 GB Western Digital MyBook Premium model number: WD5000E032
I have same issues both of these external drives.
The blue circle lights come on so power is getting to it.
Tried 2 USB cables, one I know for sure is working - Nothing.
I am using Lion 10.7.4 on a mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro
All efforts to help much appreciated

No they haven't worked on this computer before. I using them on my old MacBook Pro (a computer which is no longer working) which ran Snow Leopard.
The 500GB drive "stopped working" with that old MBP too
But the 320GB drive was always working with old MBP if I remember correctly.
Cheers

Disk Utility won't start up in 10.5.3

I have been unable to open up my Disk Utility at all. I was able to do so earlier, perhaps with 10.5.0 while I was mounting my external hard drive. Now, I cannot mount the hard drive, and therefore cannot use Time Machine all because DIsk Utility won't open. I've diagnosed my hardware with "Disk 1" and found no problem. And, I've reinstalled the operating system. Any ideas?

Chris:
I just had the same issue on my son's MacBook. As long as you have a wired keyboard, the following will work.
1. Shut down the computer if it is on.
2. Press the power button to start the computer.
3. Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and the "s" key for single-user mode.
4. Type mount -uw / (then press the Return Key) wait for next line to appear with # root/
(there is a space between t and - and another space between w and /)
5. Then Type "passwd" (without quotation marks then press the Return Key)
6. Enter new password (this will be for the root user account) (watch your fingers when you type because it doesn't show what you are typing, then hit the Return Key after you type it.
It will prompt you to retype the new password again, so retype it again and then hit the Return Key) wait for next line to appear...
7. Then Type "reboot" (without the quotes and hit the Return Key)
after the computer restarts and comes up with the login window....
8. Login with any of your usernames just to get the desktop up.
9. After desktop comes up choose System Preferences, then choose accounts. Unlock if you have to and using the username: root ..... and the password you just setup in the single user mode You now should be able to make users including your existing user account an admin.
After you log back in under your real account, it is advisable to deactivate the root user account. To do this,
1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
2. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.
3. Open Directory Utility.
4. Click the lock in the Directory Utility window if you need to unlock the utility.
5. Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
6. Choose Disable Root User from the Edit menu.
Hope this helps.
David

Disk Utility won't resize a partition

Disk Utility won't resize (eliminate smaller partition from a 2-partitioned internal) Hard Drive. This is the message I get:
"Partition failed
Partition failed with the error:
Filesystem resize support required, such as HFS+ with Journaling enabled."
Help files offer no information on this error. I followed the Help instructions to do this operation, but the resize doesn't work. The older, smaller partition shows up in Disk Utility but is dimmed out. It will activate at highlight, but is not recognized on the desktop.
Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem?

Intel based Macs use a different partition scheme called GPL or GUID rather than what PowerPC used, APL.
You could try reformatting, or get a new system, and run BootCamp and Windows even.
Even if you've used Macs for years, there is always a place on my book shelf for this one, David Pogue's "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Leopard Edition)"
http://books.slashdot.org/books/08/02/27/1551206.shtml

Disk Utility won't partition ext. drive

Hi everyone,
I would like to split my external MyBook Pro drive in two so I can keep Time machine B/ups separate, but Disk utility keeps informing me that there is not enough space! I only want approx 80gb of the remaining 105gb. Where am I going wrong. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Are you willing to erase the contents on the external hard drive? Disk utility won't subdivide existing space, you have to do the entire drive at once. However, there are utilities (I believe they are purchase/commercial only) that will sub partition an existing disk partition.

Disk Utility won't verify or repair permission

As the title says I am having a problem with Disk Utility. The hard drive is brand new (just replaced by Apple Store) and I wanted to repair permissions after the dock wouldn't unhide (this had fixed it in the past). It starts, and says about 1 minute remaining. Nothing happens, the only text displayed is telling me that it has begun. The status bar doesn't move and then it hangs and i get the spinning wheel.
The same thing happens for verify and repair for permissions and disk.
Any advice would be great.

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.

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 fails to launch

disk utility just won't open in my new Leopard install (Archive & Install).
Any ideas. Just one bounce in the dock and that's it.
Also when I print anything, the printer shows in the dock then crashes. The doc still prints though.
Thanks
Matt

Hi, I'm having the same problem. Every time I launch Disk Utility it says that it 'quit unexpectedly'
I ran the unix executable in the terminal and the startup gave this output:
/Applications/Disk\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk\ Utility ; exit;
hbt-leibundgut-m-02:~ fmeggers$ /Applications/Disk\ Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk\ Utility ; exit;
dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: __commpagedsmos
Referenced from: /Applications/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
dyld: Symbol not found: __commpagedsmos
Referenced from: /Applications/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility
Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
Trace/BPT trap
logout
Is this a permission problem in the /usr folder with this dylib file? I'll try to restart in Safe Mode as suggested now.

Disk Utility - Won't Repair Flash/Thumb Drive

So my Mac froze for some reason, while my Kingston thumb/flash drive was in. I tried to eject it, but I could only force eject (which it said may cause issues). After that, whenever I put the thumb drive in, it said something like the drive won't work and I had to copy the files to my desktop. When I go into disk utility and click repair disk, it says this: "Disk Utility stopped repairing “UNTITLED 1”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
I can't erase the thumbdrive, because it says I need a source, which I don't know what that means.
Can anybody help? The files are useless now as I have transferred them to a CD, so I'm fine with erasing the whole thing. And yes, I know I can get a new on at any store for cheap, but I'd like to know if this can be repaired. Thanks.

You haven't mentioned how the thumb drive was formatted to begin with; is it GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended (Journalled), or is it FAT 32 with MBR partition map?
If it's the latter, DU can't repair it, but should be able to format it. However, the forced ejection may have damaged the file system to prevent that.
If it's FAT32, re-format it on a PC and try again on the Mac.
If it's Mac formatted, you could try erasing and reformatting on another Mac (or as Hackintosh says, from the DVD), but if that doesn't work, try the PC route; reformat to FAT32 on a PC (if the PC will recognise it - thay don't always), then go back to the Mac, repartition and format.
If that fails, it's recycling fodder.

Disk Utility won't create Disc Image from DVD

I'm trying to copy a DVD that I made in iMovie and iDVD. The DVD plays fine, using DVD Player. I open Disc Utility, select the DVD, click "New Image," and save to a directory. The hard drive has plenty of room. Disk Utility then shows a stop sign and says "No such file or directory".
Is Disc Utility saying that there's no such file/directory/DVD to copy from, or no such file/directory to copy to? I've tried many file names and many directories on 5 hard drives.
I've tried selecting under "Image Format" both "read-only" and "DVD/CD Master." I leave "Encryption" at "none."
My computer has had this problem for at least six months, with dozens of DVDs. I've used both the internal 105 optical drive and an external 111 optical drive.
I clicked "Help" in the Disk Utility menu, but there's no help pages.
Is there another software application that copies DVDs? I tried Mac the Ripper, but it seems to only copy DVDs to my hard drive. I can't figure out how to make a DVD from the M-the-R files on my hard drive. Dragging to a blank DVD and burning produces a DVD that won't play in DVD Player.
G5 dual 1.8GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi Thomas,
there are several out there. Probably the one with the highest reputation is Roxio's Toast Titanium. But you could also try Fast DVD Copy or DVD2oneX2.
If this answered your question please consider granting some stars: Why reward points?

Stuck at "starting login window" and Disk Utility won't fix it...

I downloaded some security updates, and since restarting my computer as required, I have never been able to start it up since. It gets stuck on the "starting login window" screen, with the little blue bar still shimmering and mouse still moving, but just won't ever load the login screen, even after hours.
I've seen a few other people have had this problem, and tried to follow some of the recommendations, with no joy. I tried several times to repair the disk permissions with Disk Utility, but it has an internal error saying it lost the connection to the disk manager, or something similar.... when I try to repair the disk, it fails saying something about "overlapped extent allocations" and an "invalid node structure".
I can start up in single-user mode, and doing a fsck had the same result.
What can I do??? Some people suggested an Archive and Install manoeuvre, but I'm scared of losing all my files! Will it erase them all? Do I have to back up all my files before doing this? How can I back them up if my computer won't start?
I know almost nothing about computers - all I know I have found in the past few days searching through these discussion boards trying to find an answer! I have an important essay due on Monday which is stuck in my computer, so I'm a little scared!
I'm using Mac OS X Panther or something.... not sure how to find out exactly which one, as my computer won't start!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
iBook G4

Hi, you have some serious directory damage there, and it was probably there before the updates. An Archive and Install would not be recommended. If you did that you would likely have more problems then you have right now.
If it were me I'd run Diskwarrior and Tech Tool Pro on it. DW for the invalid node structure and Tech Tool Pro for the Overlapped Extent Allocation. But you probably would have to buy both of them, and there's no guarantee either one will fix it.
Apple doc.#25770, talking about Overlap..... says the easiest way to fix it is to Erase and Install. If you are running 10.3.9 and had access to a retail Tiger disk, you could try booting up on it and running Disk Utility. Tigers DU has the ability to fix Overlap.... sometimes, Panther's does'nt.
This is the best way to Erase and Install. First backup all your important stuff, if you can, as the following will erase everything on your drive; it will be unrecoverable. Put your install disk in your Mac and Restart while holding down the C key. In Tiger, When you get to the install screen, don't click install and go to the title bar at the top of the screen and click on Utilities (in earlier OS's click on the installer menu).
Click on Disk Utility and choose the hard drive you want your OS on. Then click on the Erase tab. In Tiger, click on the Security Options button near the bottom (it's similiar for Panther and Jaguar).
Once in there choose Zero Out Data (write zero's in earlier versions). This will map out any bad blocks on your drive and bring it back to almost new condition (providing there's nothing wrong mechanically with it, bad bearings, defective or damaged surface, etc.).
Once this is done, go back to the install screen and begin the "Erase and Install" installation. This will put a factory fresh system on a clean hard drive.
Cheers!
DALE

Disk Utility won't let me do anything with broken flash drive?

Hi there,
I own an 8GB SanDisk flashdrive that recently, and out of nowhere, changed permissions to write only. I feel like this may have something to do with the fact that when it was in my old Macbook I would close the screen with it still inserted and it would eject itself and the drive has possibly become corrupt because of this happening one too many times? Anyhow, when moving files around and to my new Macbook and what not, I tried to move some from this USB and it wouldn't let me. I eventually worked out that it would let me copy the files and paste them elsewhere, but now I have this flash drive with a bunch of files that can still be read and I don't know what to do with it because it won't let me delete them either. When I try it comes up with "The item can't be moved to the trash because it can't be deleted." I've tried Disk Utility and this is what happens under the First Aid, Erase and Partition options
I've also tried the appropriate commands in terminal to try to get the disk utility to respond and I kept recieving error messages there too. Also, when I click on the volume underneath the disk it shows all the space that all the files that are very much there are taking up but then also says there's zero files.
Anyone know what on earth is going on?! I mean I know the USB has probably just had it but I'm wondering if there's any possible way I can repair or erase it at this point?

I suspect that the USB is dead. This is the result I get when I insert my USB drive formatted the same as yours:
Note that the options are not grayed out.
You might connect it to a PC, if available, and see if there is any difference.
Ciao.

Encodings folder empty, Disk Utility won't repair disk

Hello, I've been having some issues with my old powerbookg4. I've done a clean reinstall already on this machine, which seemed to correct alot of problems, but there seems to be at least one significant problem remaining. the Encodings folder in system/library/coreservices/encodings is completely empty, so ichat will crash when trying to type a message, or firefox crashes when it hits a website with chinese on it. Anyways, I went to disk repair with the 10.3 install disc, but after a while the repair stops, saying that it can't repair the volume. I've also tried just copying the encodings folder from the install disc, but that encounters an error (i think its error 52 or something). thank you very much for any help you could provide.

i should also add that I've run it with the apple hardware test cd that came with the computer, and that says all the hardware is fine. But when I've booted the computer up in safe mode and had Disk Utility try to "Repair Disc," it stops after about ten-twenty minutes saying that "the volume can't be repaired." So, I'm wondering if there really is a problem with the hard drive that the hardware test isn't picking up, and so even if I reinstall the OS or try and do a clean install of a newer os like os 10.5, the problems won't go away. Is this a hardware issue, or am I just going about this the wrong way?
I've tried reinstalling several of the language packages on the os 10.3 disc, but I didn't try much because I don't know which of the language packages installs the files for the Encodings folder.
And on the first OS10.3 install cd, I found the path to the Encodings folder, and tried copying those contents over into the Encodings folder on my hard drive, working under the assumption that for about five minutes I get root access. It throws up an error message when I do that, even though it lets me tinker around in the other parts.
I'm really as in the dark as to what I'm doing here, which is why I haven't tried much else. So any advice or info you can throw my way would be very much appreciated.

Disk Utility won't launch

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