How to back up when using Disk Utility off the DVD

Hello. i ran into some problems installing snow leopard and can't get back into 10.5. i can only boot into my windows partition. how would i go about creating a back up from Disk Utility being run off of the installation dvd?

If your OS X partition cannot be accessed then you may not be able to back it up. If you have another computer with FireWire then you can try booting the computer into Target Disk Mode. If you can access the drive from the other computer, then you can try recovering your files. Otherwise see the following:
Basics of File Recovery
Files in Trash
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Similar Messages

Unable to reload os or Run Disk utility off osx dvd

Late 2007 Macbook Pro ( 2.53 , 4gb Ram, 320 GB hd) Will Load into osx but has the grey status bar at every boot ( Approximate 10 Mins for full boot) Ran disk utility in osx found issues and says run off DVD to repair the disk. Ran disk utility off the original DVD that came with the mac, wont find the hard drive to run disk utility. try to reinstall the OS. The installer wont find the hard drive? any idea how to resolve the issue so I can re install the OS to remove the grey status bar.

CentCorey wrote:
I can make a partition on the HD.
You'll have to decide which works best for you:
-boot from install disc, partition the external HD, install OS X on it, boot from it and see if HD shows up there so you can try to repair it (make sure you don't wipe out your TM data; your internal HD may not be reliable).
-get DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro or another disk repair utility and see what it can repair (note that these are more expensive than a new HD, but can come in handy to have around).
-get one of the SMART utilities that supposedly tell you more about your HD (I'm not a fan of either of the ones I've seen/tried and am far from confident in their results).
-get a new HD and try restoring from your TM backup.
-get an external enclosure (15 bucks or so for a USB model from newegg, amazon, macsales and others).

How to back up Files on Disk Utility

My Mac Book Pro doesn't start. when I press the start button It chimes, apple logo, line loading and turns off. Once and again. I tried the Comand-option-P-R and nothing. Tried a lot of tricks I found online and nothing. Finally -And Im not sure how, I think it was the Comand-R opened the Disk Utility and could hit the repair the disk, It said that It couldn't repair -I have almost full capacity 499GB used- but cant remove files since I cant start the computer. Disk Utility told me to Back up Files and Restore -meaning it will wipe out the data, but i will have it on my back up- How do I back up using external hard drive. Thanks for any help.

You need to boot from your backup disk using:
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 desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Once booted from the backup drive then:
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 now erased internal drive. Source means the external backup drive.
Once booted from the backup drive you need to partition and format the internal drive:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the 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.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

I recently downloaded is x mountain lion and while it finished it erased all my data, some of which I need. When using disk utility I found my old data but it says corrupted. I can't repair and while restoring the error code 32 Broken Pipe appears. Help?

My data I need is on my computer but it needs to be repaired but can't and when I try to restore it/back it up it ends abruptly with error code 32 broken pipe.
It was damaged while installing os x mountain lion and I found my data on disk repair (utility)

Sounds like your hard drive is badly corrupted, likely due to problems that were already there when you started trying to install Mountain Lion. The problem is, if you don't have any backups already, you may not be able to recover all your data from this state. Do you have backups of that data already?
If not, I assume when you say that "it needs to be repaired but can't," you mean that Disk Utility tells you there is a problem with the disk, but that it is unable to repair it? If so, you can try repairing the drive using DiskWarrior, which can repair problems that Disk Utility cannot. That may give you access to your data again, but may not.
Also, it's important to understand that if your data is not backed up, everything you do with the computer runs the risk of overwriting or corrupting that data. You may want to go straight to trying to recover your data. See Recovering deleted files.
Regarding the error code, if you're trying to back up the drive using Disk Utility's Restore tab, note that that is often not successful when the drive you're trying to back up is corrupt.
Once the situation is resolved - either because you have backups, are able to recover your data files or are forced to accept that they are gone permanently - you will need to erase the hard drive and reinstall the system and all your apps from scratch.

Can't press apply button when using disk utility to make a new partition

Hey guys,
It might sound silly but when I use disk utility to divide my hd without deleting my files the apply button stays blank, it doesn't allow me to press apply, can anyone help me with this?
Thanks in advance

Hi Tom,
Of course, that makes perfect sense! When I made my last disk image backup, my PowerBook had a serious, undiagnosed problem and I had booted from the startup disk to have a current backup of everything before I sent it off for repair.
Thanks for your help.
Rick

When using disk utility to copy one drive to another is it common for the screen to go black

I have a G5 and the main HD is making a little noise. I installed a new HD and was using disk utilities to copy the old to the new. The message came up that it would take 5 hours to copy. The screen went black ... is this common? How do I know it's doing it's thing?

I always set the Energy Saver settings to "never" whenever I do things like volume cloning, software (especially OS) downloading and installing, or using Disk Utility for most anything.

Partitioning error when using Disk Utility

To better facilitate backups, I have decided to create a dedicated partition on my external hard drive for Time Machine to use. This is a 300GB disk (don't laugh) with 116 GB of music on it (mostly in the iTunes library) plus some other original AIFF files. Disk Utility reports that there is 163 GB of free space on it. When I try to create a partition of about 100GB (or even 75) it gives me the "Partition failed with the error: No space left on device". I get this even if I just try to resize the original partition. I tried rebuilding the directory with Disk Warrior and it didn't help. If I give it a small enough partition to try- say 25 GB or so- it will work. Much above that though, and it always gives me the "No space" error.
I should mention that this disc, without any partition, was used for a while as the Time Machine backup disc. I don't remember why we stopped backing up, but I think it had something to do with running out of space.
I told Time Machine to use the (unpartitioned) disc once again as the backup disc, and it started backing up to it. I stopped it before it got too far.
Could there be files on there that I can't see that are taking up space? I did the "Erase free space" thing in Disk Utility but that didn't seem to clear out any more space. Like I said, it reports that there is 163 GB of available space.
I need to be able to Time Machine the startup drive so that I can install Snow Leopard and also re-do the Boot Camp thing so I can re-install Windows XP, as my wife will have a need to use the dark side for work starting next week. I'm trying not to spend any money, so getting another drive isn't really an option and neither is getting another partitioning utility, as they seem to run about $40-$50 dollars or so, and I can't be sure that they will work either.
Any ideas on this?
Thanks-
Val

Most likely issue is fragmentation. Clone it to another and then restore it after erasing. That will defrag the disk. BTW, TM usually needs about three or four times the size of what it's backing up. I suggest popping for another ext HD; they're relatively cheap: <$100 USD. for 500-1,000 GB.

Warning signs when using disk utility for my power mac g5

I have a dual 2GHz PowerPC G5. I just upgraded to the latest Leopard & installed FCP2. I noticed when I use Repair Disk Permissions, there are so many warning signs & I'm not sure what to make of it. I do notice that my computer freezes a lot, can someone help interpret these warning signs for me? And, how do I fix it? Here are some samples of those warning signs during repair disk permissions:
Warning: SUID file "sbin/mount-nfs' has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "sbin/unmount" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "sbin/ping' has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "sbin/ping6" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "sbin/route" has been modified and will not be repaired
The list goes on and on, please help.
many thanks in advance.

The catalog is the index for all the files on disk. It is useless without the related disk files so cloning just the catalog isn't really an option. You would need to clone the entire drive (SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner and even Disk Utility will do this).
Disk Warrior is a utility to clean up the catalog, make it into an order that should speed up file operations. It has potential to loose files because of the nature of it's job, but it is pretty reliable in my opinion. The catalog is like a telephone directory for files
The repairing of permissions involves the system keeping receipts of all the things that are installed & updated (with the appropriate permission values) and then the repair permissions utility resets the files to what the receipts say. The recieots are kept in the /Library/Receipts folder. You haven't deleted anything from there have you? if you have you would need to replace them with copies from a similar system, not an easy task.
I believe the items contained in /sbin/ are system binaries that come from the BSD package when installing Mac OSX. I would consider doing software updates then try repairing the permissions again.

Using Disk Utility to burn DVD

My burn option spped is 1x, 4x and maxium speed. What is the best speed here to burn my DVD from disk utility?

Set it for Maximum Speed. If there's a problem (which there shouldn't) bring it down a notch.

Using Disk Utility From Recovery Partition

Is there an advantage to repairing permissions after booting into Recovery disk? (Hold Option key as restart) I realize that Repair disk will be available if needed & it is not available when using Disk Utility from Mac HD partition.

Thanks!
I thought that was the case but I had read multiple accounts of people with slow Macs after upgrading to Mavericks, running repair disk permissions from recovery disk to fix the problem. I wondered why not just run repair permissions w/o restarting into recovery disk. Then they can also run verify disk, if they wish & only if there is a problem with the disk would they need to boot to recovery disk in order to run repair disk.

Cloning drive to external & partitioning using Disk Utility.....!

Hi,
I wonder if someone is able to answer my questions and offer some advice and help.....?
I am purchasing a new external drive and would like to know how to clone the internal drive of my Power Mac G4 using disk Utility to the external drive, so that it is also bootable. I have seen that there seems to be more then one way of doing this within disk utility, but would like to know which is the best way?
1. Please could you take me thorough the steps as I have never done this before?
2. Would it be wise to partition the external drive to keep the cloned bootable system seperate from the rest of the content that will be placed on the external drive or not? If so again please could you take me through the steps on how to do this (partition external drive)?
3. Prior to partitioning the drive is it necessary to delete the new external drive even though there is nothing on it? As I read someone that this need to be done, but didn't quite get that!
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Hello,
Hopefully it'll be an External Firewire drive, as USB cannit be booted from on PPC Macs.
I wouldn't use Disk Utility, there are easier ones for free.
I strongly recommend that you get a good Firewire drive to Clone your Internal drive to...
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/firewire+drives
Many of those come with Backup SW, or...
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
2. It depends how big the new drive is & how much space is used on the current drive.
OSX loves lots of free space on it's boot drive for VM & other temp files, I don't feel 50% is too much free space to leave.
3. Normally isn't needed to Zero the Drive, but you may have to foprmat it...
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html

Trying to use Disk Utility on my iMac --

I have had some extreme slowness on my iMac, particularly with Mail (launching and retrieving emails takes forever) so I am trying to use Disk Utility to see if I can locate and fix the problem. I'm trying to use the version of DU that's on my MacBook Pro and am connecting it to my iMac via firewire 800 to do this. I restarted my iMac with the "T" key held down to make it into a target disk and it comes up on my MacBook Pro desktop. The trouble arises when I try to use Disk Utility from the laptop to verify and repair the iMac disk -- Disk Utliity in my MacBook Pro gives me an error that reads "The disk "iMac" could not be unmounted."
I have all peripherals unplugged from the iMac and have only the firewire 800 cable plugged into it. Any idea what I'm going wrong?
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: DVDon3

DVDon3 wrote:
I have had some extreme slowness on my iMac, particularly with Mail (launching and retrieving emails takes forever) so I am trying to use Disk Utility to see if I can locate and fix the problem. I'm trying to use the version of DU that's on my MacBook Pro and am connecting it to my iMac via firewire 800 to do this. I restarted my iMac with the "T" key held down to make it into a target disk and it comes up on my MacBook Pro desktop. The trouble arises when I try to use Disk Utility from the laptop to verify and repair the iMac disk -- Disk Utliity in my MacBook Pro gives me an error that reads "The disk "iMac" could not be unmounted."
I have all peripherals unplugged from the iMac and have only the firewire 800 cable plugged into it. Any idea what I'm going wrong?
try starting up your iMac with the install disk that came with it and launch DU from the install disk.

Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1

    #!/bin/bash
      # Author : Bill Hernandez
    # Location : Plano, Texas
    # Updated : Saturday, June 6, 2009 (1:48 PM)
    # script name : setdisk_ownerenabled
    # make sure to set permissions to execute
    <hr>
    # Description :
    <hr>
    # I've noticed that sometimes when using disk utility I cannot repair permissions, or I might get :
    # ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1
    # This shell script seems to have solved the problem.
    # It worked very well for me,
    # IF YOU USE THIS SCRIPT, IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK...
    # DO NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IT DOES
    # After running it, it is best to restart before using Disk Utility again
    <hr>
    # Details :
    <hr>
    # After partitioning a disk using "Disk Utility", and then begin using it, at some point I would get
    # an arror message when trying to save to one of the partitions, yet when I looked at the permissions
    # everything looked fine. I would then try to use Disk Utility to repair permissions and end up with a
    # cryptic error that pretty much told me nothing.
    # I noticed that while in Disk Utility, if I selected a partition the lower LH corner of the dialog
    # showed : Owners Enabled : No
    # I tried selecting the partitions at the Desktop and doing a (CMD-I) and at the very bottom of each
    # info dialog there was a checkbox :
    # [ ] ignore ownership of this volume
    # which I would check, even after logging in as root, and I couldn't seem to get a consistent way
    # to get rid of the permissions dialog failure, so I found the vsdbutil command which can be used
    # as follows to get partition, or disk info :
    # $ vsdbutil -c /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # ----> Permissions on '/Volumes/driveor_partitionname' are enabled.
    # if it is not enabled you can enable the disk or partition using :
    # $ vsdbutil -a /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # It will set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    # This below script loops through the mounted disks, partitions, etc. and gives you information.
    # You can leave the three flags below all set to TRUE, or selectively use what you want and change
    # the rest to false...
    <hr>
    # CHOOSE {"TRUE", "FALSE"}
    <hr>
    getvolumestatus="TRUE"         # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
    setvolumestatus="TRUE"         # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    list_volumes="TRUE"                   # show volume names
    <hr>
    # DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW HERE
    <hr>
    if [ $getvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$getvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     vsdbutil -c $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $setvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$setvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     sudo echo -n
     # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     sudo vsdbutil -a "$i"
     echo "setting Owners Enabled : Yes for ---> $i"
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $list_volumes == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$list_volumes'
     echo '============================='
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     echo $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>


As it turns out, this didn't completely solve the problem, it solved part of the problem.
Here is a summary to the root cause of the problem.
SUCCESS...
Problem Summary : The system crashed and would hangup during boot, tried many things, until I eventually erased the disk and started over again.
iMacG5 24 GHZ Intel with One internal disk partitioned into 3 logical drives
Cub_1 OS X 10.5.7
Cub_2 OS X 10.5.7 (Carbon Copy Cloner backup of Cub_1)
Cub_3 OS X Server 10.5.7 (standard os x server setup)
At some point after setting up standard preferences, OS X Server crashed.
When I tried to restart, the machine would hang up during boot.
Finally after several attempts, ran Disk Utility from install dvd and repaired Cub_3
When I tried to run "Repair Permissions" on Cub_3 from install dvd, I got an error
Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1.
Rebooted, and started in single user mode (CMD-S) during boot until I saw the unix commands on the screen
RAN : root # fsck -fy
Then I began seeing the same command filling the screen :
posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder") could not find file or directory
Called Enterprise Support and spoke to Frank Alcorn, he said this was most likely a permissions problem and asked me to try repairing permissions from the install dvd. I told him about the error, but nevertheless I tried it again and got the same Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1..
He asked me to try booting into single user mode again, and to try
root # chmod 775 /
root # reboot
During the reboot process the machine got hung up again, and could not get the single user mode to work at all.
Frank said the command needed to be :
root # chmod 1775 /
Frank asked me if I had changed anything in file sharing, and I told him I had. He asked me what I had shared, and I said the entire drive Cub_3. He asked me what I had done for permissions, if I had denied permissions to anyone. I told him that I had set myself up as the only user that could have access to it, and when he said that's where the problem was the lightbulb went off, and it made sense.
Shortly after I set the sharing preferences is when the server crashed. It all makes sense now...
Frank said not to share the entire disk, only portions (share points) of it. I had done this in Panther Server, and Tiger Server and it worked fine, but apparently Leopard Server works a little differently, maybe more secure.
It seems to me that if sharing the entire disk, which is what I needed would cause such a problem there should have been some sort of warning from the operating system, but there wasn't. I had run into this problem several times over the past three weeks since I had started working with Leopard Server, but in each case I ended up re-installing OS X Server and starting over again.
I told him I would try to reboot from the OS X partition (Cub_1) and try it from there.
He asked me to let him know if it worked, and I said I would...
Problem FIX :
I booted back into the partition containing OS X (Cub_1) and did the following via the Terminal.
$ su - root
$ chmod 1775 /
$ reboot
During the reboot process I held down the (OPTION) key, and selected Cub_3 (the os x server partition) and sure enough after a few minutes of holding my breath the login window magically appeared. So I logged in, and did not have to re-install the server. Hallellujah....
This solved the boot hang problem. It is great to finally have an answer. In retrospect it makes sense, but that's why its hindsight...
The reason for sharing the entire disk in my mind was that since I was the only user on the system, it was easier to have one disk mounted on my workstation rather than several folders. It made sense to me, it still does. I don't need a bunch of folders, just one disk is easier...

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 to format DVD-RAM disk

I have swapped out my Combo drive and installed an LG GSA-4163b so that I can burn, write to, DVD-RAM disks.
I have installed Patchburn which now allows me to burn CD's and all manner of DVD's but DVD-RAM disks will not mount.
DVD-RAM disk is recognized by Disk Utility but I cannot figure out how to make Disk Utility format the DVD-RAM disk. How do I do this.
Thanks,
Doug

Hi Douglas,
should work pretty straight forward:
* Open Disk Utility
* Select the disc in the column on the left
* click Erase (select Quick Erase if you don't want to zero out the disk)
* Click Erase to start the process
HTH,
Koinseb
Message was edited by: Koinseb

How to back up when using Disk Utility off the DVD

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