Hd wont boot, disk utility won't help me :(

I have a macbook pro 13 mid 2010 running os x mavericks
when i power on my macbook, its stuck at the apple logo..after about 10 minutes it goes to some os x menu giving me options to open up disk utlity and other stuff.
i took out my harddrive, and plugged it into another computer via usb adapter, and found out the drive works fine, all my files are there and are accessible.
when i use disk utility on that other computer with my nonworking hd attached, and choose "verify disk" , it says my disk needs to be repaired. when i try and repair it, a popup comes up saying "disk utility stopped repairing my harddrive..and that it couldn't unmount disk.....
how can i get my harddrive to be repaired to be able to boot again normally?

Your drive is not functioning properly. When connected to any Mac in any way and you hold down the option key at startup of that Mac your drive should show the name the hard drive has been assigned. Which normally is Macintosh HD.
Like this. Only my drive is called Mavericks.
Along with the Recovery HD partition or partitions as in my screen shot.
If should not show Boot EFI.

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I just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

i just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

It sounds like your hard drive either has a software problem that Disk Utility cannot fix or that the HD has failed (mechanically).
Your Mac may have booted either to your recovery partition or to internet recovery in an attempt to repair the drive- I can't tell from your post.
I'll assume that it was the recovery partition.
Try to boot into internet recovery (hold down option command R at restart), and see if you can repair your HD with Disk Utility. You should also repair permissions while you're there.
If that doesn't work, try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
If that doesn't work you have a few options:
If your mac originally came with installation disks, you can try to boot from the installation disk and then see if you can repair the HD.
There is a small chance that Techtool Pro 7 will be able to repair your HD if Disk Utility can't.
If none of that works then your HD has probably failed and will need to be replaced, which is not too difficult to do yourself if you can use a screwdriver.

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.

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.

At a complete loss. Worried data is gone for good. Trying to fix disk by booting Disk Utility from installation DVD but disk ejects. Help!

Hello Comunity,
I'm at a complete loss and I hope you could help me.
The machine I have is I believe an early 2006 iMac model. (Model identifier 4,1 if I recall correctly).
Awhile ago I installed Snow Leopard on the machine but have since begun encountering serious problems (but I think it's due to the hardware and it's age rather than the software, Snow Leo was running smoothly) and now the computer won't start - I'm faced with a grey screen and a flashing folder with a question mark on it. I tried booting using the various key combinations and as I understood it, my last resort at fixing it myself would be using Disk Utility on the installation DVD.
This is what happens:
I boot the computer, insert the disk, press down and hold C (also tried Option). I hear the computer trying to read the disk, but after a considerable aount of time holding down the key and a grey screen, the disk ejects and the flashing folder returns.
Could anyone offer an insight or advice?
At this point I'm not even that interested in fixing the machine, but there are some extremely valuable files that I need to recover (the machine gave out just days before I got my extrenal HDD to back them up).
I'm worried about taking the machine down to the Genius Bar - I'm a completely self-supporting student and I imagine the recovery cost would be huge (if anyone could provide any information on the potential cost of the repair and/or recovery that would help).

One thing to try without needing the install disk: reboot holding down cmd-S. It should reboot to a black screen and text prompt. Type the following, with spacing exactly as shown, hit the return key after each line:
mount -uw /
fsck -fy
Then type
reboot
and see if that helps.
Do you have any other Macs in the household (or cna use a friend's) that you can try connecting to it with a Firewire cable? If so, reboot the iMac holding down T, you should see a large Firewire symbol moving across the screen. Connecting to another Mac with a FW cable will show you the iMac's hard drive mounted to the other Mac's desktop.
You can also try Diskwarrior, which fixes drive filestructure problems. It's around $100.
Professional data recovery cost would depend on a) whether the hard drive is actually at fault, b) if it's physically damaged or just has a filestructure problem. A physically damaged drive can go into the thousands of dollars for data recovery; a drive with filestructure issues usually costs a lot less to recover files.
Matt

Disk Utility won't allow Master Boot Record?

Hello all -
I just purchased a WD MyBook 3TB hard drive for storing our movies on. We had our previous external hard drive (250GB) plugged into our Sony Blu-Ray player and it worked smoothly. But now, I plug in our new hard drive, and the blu-ray player doesn't recognize it.
I tried re-formatting the hard drive as FAT32 (same as the old hard drive), but that didn't work.
The only noticeable thing I see is that the partition map scheme of the WD hard drive is "GUID Partition Table", and the old hard drive's map scheme is "Master Boot Record". I went into Options in the Partition page of Disk Utility to try to change the WD hard drive to Master Boot Record... but it won't let me. It's greyed out. It's there as an option, but apparently not for my hard drive.
What gives? How do I get around this? Thanks in advance for your help!

Alberto you're right, but here's what Lacie answered:
[QUOTE]<a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16913829" target="_blank">Originally Posted by Runnernorth</a>
Hi, thx for your reply:-), just a quick question, do YOU think it's possible to make my 2big thunderbolt work as RAID0 in windows 7/64bit, or just as two independent drives......?
Kindly[/QUOTE]
hi, if you already have the disks RAIDed from OSX then you can't re-RAID them in Windows. The only thing you can do is set it to a RAID, volume scheme and file system that both OSes are able to detect.
Otherwise yes, if you haven't already set a RAID mode on another OS then the disks can do RAID 0 and 1 in Windows.
~mn, LaCie

Intel iMac won't boot & Disk Utility error-can't verify disk

I posted earlier today that my 24" intel iMac (2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo) froze yesterday after a Safari crash. I had to shut it down with the power button. Since then it won't start up. Sometimes it starts, then shuts off. Other times it starts, then the little gear just spins. I've done the keyboard commands for RAM, the complete disconnect of power, then reconnect, and the Disk Uitility with the install disk. When I do Disk Utility to verify, it gives me a red-letter error that it cannot verify on both verification checks. I have also tried, via the install disk, to repair by using a Time Machine backup, but that utility has been spinning and spinning on my Time Machine for hours, and I cannot even click the "Continue" button because it is busy (checking the time machine?)
I am out of ideas as to how to move on from here. My AppleCare expired 2 months ago, so that's a problem. I've had no major issues before now, except for earlier this year when Mail wouldn't open for some reason. Anyway, I'm at my wits' end here. I NEED my Mac. I'm disabled and have no better source of entertainment or socializing. My hobbies are editing audio, video, & photos. Without my Mac, I'm just in the middle of the sea in a raft with no oars. Any helpful suggestions will obviously be much appreciated. Thanks.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. 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.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.

My mac is very slow at start up and throwing out its original boot disc, so i cant carry out any disk utility repair, any help

Hey guys, i have tried all the help i have so far been given but am still facing the same problem,
my mac is slow at start
i have tried to reboot with the os x 10.6 dvd but its just throwing it out
causing more and more frastration
can some one help

Hello,
Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

G4 Dual 1.43 Ghtz won't boot and disk utility won't repair it

I can't get the Boot Disk Disk Utility to repair the drive on my old G4 Dual 1.43 and desparately need the Documents file and home folders. Any ideas ?

This isn't going to be easy.
Does disk utility try to repair the drive? If it mounts, you could try the software I list below.
You either goint to have to get an external firewire drive & install some mac os on it. Then run some utilities from this drive or you going to have to get the drive out and mount in an external enclosure & run utilities.
There our commercial places that recover data. They will not be cheap.
I do not know what type of drive you have in the machine. So before buying an empty enclosure check.
Has everything interface:
FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface'
save a little money interface:
FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
This web page lists both external harddrive types. You may need to scroll to the right to see both.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
The latest the hard drive enclosures support the newer serial ata drives. The drive and closure that I list supports only older parallel ata.
Here is an external hd enclosure.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/
Perhaps Disk Warrior will be of some help:
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
"Data Rescue II is the best data recovery software on the market for recovering files from a problem hard drive. Data Rescue II works when other tools fail. Data Rescue II is also completely safe to use since it does not attempt any risky repairs to the drive while its scanning."
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
-- been accidentally deleted.
-- become unreadable due to media faults.
-- been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1
"TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing a partition table)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk
"*Hard drive data recovery and warranty implications*
Hard drives that have become non-functional through normal use, and have had data recovery performed on them by DriveSavers or Ontrack Data Recovery can be returned to Apple for warranty service. This includes products covered by the AppleCare Protection Plan. The cost of any data recovery attempts is not covered by the Apple Limited Warranty."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974?viewlocale=en_US
Entering:
mac data recovery
into Google will list some firms who specialize in recovering data. Data recovery isn't cheap.
Examples:
1) Ontrack Data Recovery is the world leader in data recovery services and data recovery software offering the fastest, most convenient and cost-effective solutions to clients who have experienced data loss.
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/
2) Enter the world of DriveSavers Data Recovery…
    * Data Recovery Tools
    * Data Recovery Process
    * Data Recovery Cleanroom
http://www.drivesavers.com/

Boot Camp Assistant: Using disk utility? (PLEASE HELP!)

I am trying to download Windows XP with boot camp and I waited for the disk to be partitioned (I'm not even really sure what that means) and then it says:
The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot me moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single MAC OS Extended (Journaled) Volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.
Okay, so I went to Disk Utility and now I have no idea what I am supposed to do. Please help!

If you use Time Machine you can reinstall Leopard and then using the Install Disc go to the Utilities and go to the Restore from Time Machine. You can restore your new drive to any of the saved days. It would save them to the hard disk defragmented. Another program is SuperDuper! which can make a clone of your Macintosh HD to an external disc as a bootable option. This is easier and faster though this program has not been confirmed to work with Leopard yet. And as I said before you can buy iDefrag for $30 and not have to restore and erase anything. But what ever you do, make sure to back your files up.

PB won't startup, Disk Utility won't recognize my HD (help).

So my Powerbook won't startup, goes to grey scren with sign saying I need to restart. I have a 1.2m PB 12" with 1gig ram. It's been slowing down for a week or so, and I can't trace the problem to some new installation or device. I've tried reseting PRAM, removing my extra RAM card, and used disk utility to verify & repair permissions & disk. No luck yet.
First of all, Disk Utility only recognizes the "55.9 gb Toshiba HD", and doesn't really recognize the "Macintosh HD" which is listed in grey, which seems strange (ie, bad). After Verify & Repair Disk, it lists these problems: "Invalid sibiling link, missing thread record - id=115279, invalid directory item count (should be 0 instead of 1), could NOT repair 1 volume."
So then I tried to reinstall Panther, but the installer doesn't list (doesn't recognize) any HD's into which it may install. This also seems strange (ie, very bad).
I have been unable to startup holding X, Shift, spacebar, or by reseting PRAM. I've recently backed-up my stuff, so I'm ready to wipe it all clean. But I'm running out of options, and I am in desperate need of good advice from wise Applers. Thanks in advance... -K

I had the same problem with my G3 Pismo last month; the hard drive wouldn't mount and wasn't recognized by disc utility. Luckily I had a "backup" OS on an external drive along with Disc Warrior, which would boot the Pismo.
What I was able to do was run DiscWarrior on the Pismo drive - which took about two days to complete - and build a replacement directory. Once that was done, and before I asked DiscWarrior to write the new directory, I mounted the replacement so I could pull most of the user data off of it. When that was done, I went ahead and asked DiscWarrior to try to write the replacement directory - which it refused to do as the drive's hardware had failed.

My early '06 iMac won't boot, just clicks with question mark on screen. SMC reset, Pram reset can bring it up, works OK for a day or two, then back to no boot. disk utility finds no problem with disk

anytime I get it to boot, it works for a day or two then goes back to the Question mark screen.

Hi! It could be HD issue. You should back up your data in the computer first when you can boot to normal desktop. boot to install disk to run disk utility - if it got error over there, you should bring the computer to repair centre to fix it. You also could try to erase with zero out and install again And see will that be fix the issue!

Hd wont boot, disk utility won't help me :(

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