HT4718 FileVault 2, the Recovery System, and the use of Disk Utility

I have FileVault 2 turned on for my Lion-equipped Powerbook Pro. When booting from the Recovery System, however, the Disk Utility thereon cannot even verify the internal HD, much less repair anything. I am aware that this is due to the encryption, of course.
However, for external encrypted drives, all I need to do is enter the password to mount them. So is there something that one can do in order to get the Disk Utility on the Recovery System -- on this very same drive -- to recognize the main volume, in order to enable it to perform diagnostics?
Secondarily, if I put the Powerbook Pro into target mode, and connect it to another Mac (which I have not tried yet) will I be able to mount it from the other computer if (A) It is running Lion OSX or higher, and (B) I can provide one or more of the login passwords?
I am one who has always liked to keep my hard drives running smoothly (e.g using Disk Warrior, Drive Genius, Disk Utility...whatever). So this is a bit foreign to me to be unable to run at least basic diagnostics. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

If you're talking about just the Recovery HD, you only need 1GB so use a 4GB USB thumb drive and the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant to create it.
If you're talking about the ML installer (installESD.dmg) use an 8GB USB thumb drive.

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I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data.

I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data and it does not show on the desktop when connected.

Ok if disk utility was able to verify the drive I doubt there is any problem.. are you trying to open a TM backup??
You need to mount the sparsebundle then check the actual info inside the bundle.
Don't use disk warrior.. if the disk has verified then unless you deliberately deleted files there is nothing that is going to do.
Pondini has a lot of stuff about getting access to the sparsebundle.
http://pondini.org/TM/17.html
But if you have copied info to the TC that is now gone.. and the disk is ok.. I am not sure.. the TC will not have deleted the files itself.

When I go to disc utility, repair disc is not functioning, neither is the verify disc. There is a statement that says,"start up from the mac OS X intallation disc and then choose utilities Disk utility. However there is no option for that

Verify disc and repair disc are not working. They give me the option to install the "installation disc" click on utilities>Disk utility from there. When I try this, there is no option to do this that I can find. Can anyone help me to do this?

You can't run Repair Disk from the Utilities folder. With 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 or 10.8 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.

What does this alert mean? "To use this disk as a source, restart your computer using recovery system and open DU again." Trying to clone Lion?

Errors making a bootable clone? Message said "To use this disk as a source, restart your computer using recovery system and open DU again". Need help making a bootable clone of a MacPro/Lion to a new external hard drive? Thanks.

Use CarbonCopyCloner or Super Duper.

Hi, i had recently bought a toshiba 3.0, 1.5tb hdd and i had to change the settings through Disk Utility on my mac to be able to transfer files from my mac to my HDD. The problem i am having now is, it wont connect to my TV or PS3? Can someone please help

Hi, i had recently bought a toshiba 3.0, 1.5tb hdd and i had to change the settings through Disk Utility on my mac to be able to transfer files from my mac to my HDD. The problem i am having now is, it wont connect to my TV or PS3? Can someone please help

"....and i had to change the settings through Disk Utility on my mac to be able to transfer files from my mac to my HDD"
What do you mean by that? Did you format?

I'm running Lion on a Late 2008 MacBook Air. With no other applications running, I can no longer Check for Software Updates. It gets abut half way through the checking process and then freezes. The MBA passes Disk Utility. Thoughts?

I'm running Lion on a Late 2008 MacBook Air.
With no other applications running, I can no longer Check for Software Updates. It gets about half way through the checking process and then freezes.
The MBA passes Disk Utility. Thoughts?
Thanks
Jim Taylor

How long do you leave it?
Mine can sometimes sit for quite a while (maybe 10 minutes??) before it finally finishes.
You could look at the relevant logs via Console (Utilities folder) to see if Software Update is complaining about anything.
charlie

How to move a partition to the top of Disk Utility pile?

I had Lion and SL installed in two separte partitions. But since I didnt like Lion I decided to erase Lion's partition and then fuse the free left space with the SL partition so I could have more HD space. The thing is disk utility only alows to expanded downwards from the down border of the partition. As you can see I've got tons of free space above Macintosh HD 2. 224GB. I want to move Macintosh HD 2 up so then I can expand it to "catch" all that free space. Do I make any sense? I don't want 2 Partitions, just one! With SL. But I can't expand it up only down
Please help guys Its killing me... didnt find any solution to this particular problem here.
Thanks in advanced
- Tiago

Like Neil said, you have to clone your SL off to a external drive, option boot from it, format the internal drive again so it's one partition, then reverse clone SL back onto it.
Doing it all on the same drive is rather risky and might not be possible if the second partition is larger with data than the first. A clone on a external drive will also give bootable backup in case all heck breaks loose.
Important thing is that the entire drive is erased, (select the Toshiba, Western Digital, or Seagate internal "media" on the far left side) as there is a hidden Lion Recovery partition that also needs to be removed.
So you really have 3 (actually 4 counting EFI partition) partitions on your boot drive if Lion is installed so you need to reduce that to two (SL and the hidden EFI, Disk Utility creates)
It's easier than it sounds really, make sure all other drives, media is removed so there are no accidents.
1: get a blank external drive, use Disk Utility to Erase Security Option > Zero All Data and format 1 partition, Option: GUID OS X Extended in the Partition Tab.
2: free Carbon Copy Cloner to clone internal SL to external (default settings are fine for first clone)
3: hold option boot the external SL drive, use Disk Utility (on the external drive!) to erase the whole internal drive media
4: use CCC to reverse clone onto the internal drive
5: use free Onyx and run ALL maintainence and cleaning aspects and reboot at the end when finished (cleans up caches, makes your machine run faster)
http://www.titanium.free.fr/
You can learn all how to do that in my huge thread here
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

IMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 running10.10.2 (14C1514). Trying to install Windows 7 64 bit from an install disc. When attempting to create an ISO image I can save the file in disk utility but can convert cdr to iso

iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 running10.10.2 (14C1514). Trying to install Windows 7 64 bit from an install disc. When attempting to create an ISO image I can save the file in disk utility but can convert cdr to iso. I select the file and the hit return as in step 8 of the Creating an
iSO image document but the box that should open to select use iso does not open. How should I proceed?

The Mac SuperDrive built into your Mac is the Optical drive.
1. Insert your Windows DVD in Optical drive. Disconnect any external storage.
2. Insert a USB2 Flash drive. This will be used to hold the BC drivers.
3. Start BCA. Check the options to download software and Install Windows. You do not need to download Windows. The BCA will download the BC drivers to the USB.
4. Partition your drive.
5. You can see the Windows installer screens at https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/mac/5.0/help/#/bcmp173b3bf2.

Is Disk Utility in OS X 10.8.2 the version of Disk utilit that controls the Fusion Drive on new Imacs?

is Disk Utility in OS X 10.8.2 the version of Disk utilit that controls the Fusion Drive on new Imacs?

No. Only those computers with a Fusion Drive installed will get the special version of Disk Utility. Do a Google search if you want to find out how to create a fusion drive with older systems, but I suggest it's a waste of time.

How to recover after performing an 'Erase' and then 'Partition' within Disk Utility of an External USB drive?

Hi - I accidently ran an 'Erase' and then 'Partition' within Disk Utility of an External USB drive (meant to run it against another drive that was plugged in). Does anyone have any suggestions on if it is possible to recover from this? It has all my family photos on it and my backup is a few months old :-(
I tried running Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery but it found what looks like basic mac folder structure (probably from the first erase). I think what messed me up was that I rain the repartition which formats the drive a 2nd time! Any help is truly appreciated!
thank you,
-Steve

Hello RalphR_MI,
Take a look at this page, which lists several articles. Please let me know if any of these help you restore your backup.
Also, take a look at this article, as well as this one.
I hope this helps. I'm not sure of a few things, so I'm sorry for sending you so much, but I'm confident it will give you something new to try.
Please let me know if this helps. Good luck!
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

Free storage space under partition and macintosh HD in Disk Utility are not the same.

Model - Macbook Pro 2013 Retina
Issue - In the disk utility, the free space under partition and Macintosh HD do not reflect on each other. There is the difference of about 10GB between these two.
Any solution to solve? Thank You.

You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed.
About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

Why i can't erase the hd in disk utility

i'm using os x lion and can't erase my hd using disk utility, what i need to do is create a bootcamp partition but the system won't let me unless i first erase my hd, recover using time machine and then try again the bootcamp partition, any help?
thx!

Your hard disk is probably fragmented. You have several options:
1. Use a 3rd party disk defragmenter like idfrag and defragment your drive (may or may not work)
2. Go to disk utility and repair the volume (works for some)
3. Do a complete reinstall (like you said)
I'm sorry, but I don't really know how to wipe it. Try some Google searches or take it to an apple store to get some proffesional help. You could always try the other two options though.
Good luck, sorry I can't help much,
NWB1

Can one use the 10.3 Disk Utility on a machine running 10.4?

Greetings, everyone:
About a month ago, right before departing upon an international voyage, I purchased a used iBook G4 for a really good price off of eBay as I was apprehensive about dragging my much more expensive MacBook Pro along with me (and the iBook handled Finale, the music notation software I use, and its internet terminal responsibilities more than adequately). While the iBook arrived as advertised in superb condition with 10.4.11 freshly installed on the system, the installation discs that came with it are 10.3 installation discs, leading me to believe that the seller uses 10.4 on his primary computer and had simply installed it on the iBook as a courtesy.
As nothing has gone awry with the computer so far, my question is more of a precautionary one than anything else: if I were to ever need to check my iBook's HDD for errors, could I boot the machine off the 10.3 installation disc and run Disk Utility from there, or would that version's DU no longer be compatible with the computer as it is now running 10.4? I suppose I should acquire a 10.4 installer at some point, but seeing as it's really only a computer I'd use on extended trips/as a backup in case something happens to my MBP, I would rather not if I absolutely didn't have to.
Thank you in advance,
Benjamin

Hi Benjamin, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Supposedly, if the Discs are 10.3.9 you can use them to repair 10.4.x, but I doubt ant 10.3 Install discs are 10.3.9, less than that is a no-no.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2648
Workarounds...
A Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), attempts Disk Repair.
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.
Get & instal Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
DiskWarrior from Alsoft...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Reformat and restore directed by disk utility

I have mid 2011 Air. Disk utility has told me to reformat and restore system to solve problem with SSD. Won't reformating destroy the ability to restore ystem fron the SSD? How should I do this?

On systems delivered with Lion or later, you have the recovery partition, which is what you are booting from when you boot with the command and r keys held down. The recovery partition is a separate partition on the hard drive/SSD and is not visible in DIsk Utility. Think of it as the same as install disks you used to get with the system. When you say to erase the disk, you are erasing the partition that houses all the system/data, not the recovery partition.
See this for general description of OS X recovery, noting it says you can erase your hard drive from thru OS X recovery.
See this for how to use Time Capsule for recovery
See this for more details on OS X recovery

Uninstall iMovie and Reinstall using Applications disk

Hi there everybody,
When I open iMovie, I get a message saying that some of the Quicktime components are missing and reinstall iMovie. This happened after I uninstalled Final Cut Express. Since iMovie is installed, the Applications Disk does not give an option to install iMovie, so I'm guessing that I need to uninstall iMovie and reinstall.
How do I go about this properly without losing any of my movie data (there isn't that much).
Thanks in advance.
One more thing: I'm using Lion and iMovie 11 is my issue.
Big K

If you have an iLife disk that you purchased, (you should have iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD)
This will not affect your iMovie Project, Events, or finished movies.
Drag the iMovie app from the applications folder to the trash. Then use your disk to reinstall.
If your iMovie came preinstalled on a new imac and you get your iMovie updates through the App Store...
In this case, you would have iMovie, GarageBand, and iPhoto, but not iWeb or iDVD.
This will not affect your iMovie Project, Events, or finished movies.
You can either drag iMovie to the trash from the Applications folder. OR you can open LaunchPad and drag the icon for iMovie to the trash. Then open App Store and install from there.
If your iMovie came preinstalled on a new Mac, and you do not get iMovie through the App Store.
In this case, you should have iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD.
This will not affect your iMovie Project, Events, or finished movies.
Go to the Applications Folder and drag the icon for iMovie to the trash. Then reinstall from your OSX System Disk that came with your Mac. Do not reinstall OSX, but look under the Utilities menu for software to install.

HT4718 FileVault 2, the Recovery System, and the use of Disk Utility

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