Issues with "Verify Disk" in Disk Utility under Mavericks

When I run the verify disk option in the disk utility I get different functions listed each time I run and sometimes it does not run to completion; however, when it runs to completion it states that everything is okay.
I did not have this issue before updating to Mavericks.
Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Don't use it, it is flawed. Just use Repair Disk. There is no point running Verify since it doesn't fix anything as Repair Disk does.

Similar Messages

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported. Is this a bug in Mavericks?

When I check my boot SSD drive using Disk Utility under Mavericks, I often get "Incorrect number of extended attributes" errors. But if I boot off an external drive and check the same SSD, no errors are reported.
This happens not just with the SSD in my Mac Mini, but with another SSD in my MacBook (both now running Mavericks). So far as I know, all of the kit I am using is in good order (despite the file corruption reports). So I am beginning to wonder if it could be due to a bug in Mavericks? Both SSD drives have been formatted to MacOS Extended (journaled) format. Should I have used a different format, I wonder?
Has anyone else encountered this issue?
Does anyone have a solution?
Or an explanation that might help my investigation of the issue?
Thanks guys,

I understand that the Corsair Force 3 is not one of the SSD drives that are supported on Apple Macs.
I did try downloading and using Trim Enabler, but the error message came up both when it was off and when it was on.
I understand that not everyone thinks Trim Enabler is a good program, though there is a new version out now, so I may give it another try.

I am having issues with my Disk Utility.

I have a mid2012 Macbook Pro. I installed Maverick about three weeks ago. My computer has been a little spotty since then. But since yesterday, my computer isn't booting up; a folder with a question mark is flashing. So I started up the internet recovery, trying to reinstall OS X or disk repairs. I don't think it can find my hard drive to do repairs or reinstall OS X. What do I do?

Do you have a Standard MBP or one with a Retina screen?
Flashing ? Mark.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
But in the end it is more than likely what was pointed out above, failed drive or failed cable.

Can't format HDD with Leopard Disk Utility

I have two identical drives P/N: WD 7500AAK (Western Digital 750GB MyBook (USB)). I formatted one drive using 'Disk Utility' under Tiger with a Volume Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with no problem. I am now trying to format the other drive under Lepoard and the formatting fails 100% of the time. The drive will format to Fat16, but not to the desired Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Unfortunately I no longer have a computer with the Tiger OS. Any idea what is going wrong? The drive is useless if I can't format it.

Try partitioning the drive GUID before formatting it. This article explains how to format a drive for Time Machine. Once you have gotten rid of the Master Boot Record you should be able to reformat the drive the way you want.
One poster reported that zeroing out a Maxtor did not get rid of the Master Boot Record but I don't know if that would necessarily be true for a WD drive.

TS2570 Hi, MacBook Pro & Snow Leopard- startup probs. I have tried repairing with the disk utility, resetting PRAM, booting in safe mode, and finally trying to get to archive&install the o/s, but it cannot find the destination volume. IsAn erase the only

(10.6.8 Intel core duo 2009)
Hi,
I have a grey screen and grey rotating wheel startup probs. I have tried repairing with the disk utility, resetting PRAM, booting in safe mode (which gave a subset of the errors that 'disk repair' did- namely- 'invalid sibling link,invalid record count, invalid node structure, invalid key length) and finally trying to get to archive&install the o/s, but it cannot find the destination volume. Is an erase the only option? PS I have backed up most files individually, but my daughter did not back up any from her user account. Any help would be appreciated. J

Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
Why is my computer slow?
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

So I recently removed my partition so I can repartition but its telling me to do something with the disk utility I don't understand what I'm suppose to do?

So I recently removed my partition so I can repartition but its telling me to do something with the disk utility I don't understand what I'm suppose to do?

GCapinpin wrote:
So I recently removed my partition so I can repartition but its telling me to do something with the disk utility I don't understand what I'm suppose to do?
Unless you tell us what it is telling you we can't help.

My mac can't find the volume" Data" on Time Capsule. Also Ican't find with the disk utility program the hard disk in the Time Capule; so I can't format the disk again. What can I do?

My Mac can't find the volume " Data" on Time Capsule, Also I can't find with the disk-utility program the hard disk in the Time Capusule.
So I can't format the disk in the Time Capsule
Deconnevt and then connecting the power tp the Time Capsule gives also no solution.
What can I do?
Joe

I listed the commands.. that is how you manually mount the disk.. follow exactly the commands I gave you.
In finder use top menu, go, connect to server.
Type in the following.
AFP://TCname or AFP://TCIpaddress (obviously you replace with the actual name or the actual IP address).
If that fails..
try
SMB://TCname
Here is the screenshot.
tardis4 being the name of my TC.
It should then ask you for your credentials.
And it should remember them in the keychain and be able to then get TM to connect.

Verify Disk stops in Mavericks

I installed Mavericks on my 15" MBP, and it seemed to go fine (too soon to tell, really). In Disk Utility, I ran Verify Disk for the whole disk and it checked out OK. But when I tried it on my single partition (as I usually do), it stopped spontaneously. Repair Permissions worked, but Verify stopped three times: twice after "Checking Volume Information" and once after "Checking Extended Attributes File". No error message; it just stopped.
Should I be concerned about this?

Same here with 10.9.4. Sometimes I see the green OK on the 3rd or 4th attempt, or and after relaunching Disk Utility and or my MacBook Pro.
I tried this:
Battle ArenaApr 10, 2014 10:04 PM Re: Verify Disk stops in Mavericks
Re: Verify Disk stops in Mavericksin response to BobFromIN
Hello.
I'm using Mavricks 10.9.2
Try this:
Open "Disk Utility"
Click the "Log" button (top right hand of window)
Click back to "DIsk Utility"
Select start up partition eg. "Macintosh HD"
Click "Verify"
I got the green text confirmation,
Also, the log should mention confirmation as well.
Looks like this is a simple bug.
and it seemed to work. But I agree with this:
Still not fixed in 10.9.4. Kind of annoying.
Hey, seeing the Green OK is an Extra Piece of Mind. Not seeing Red Errors is nice, but seeing Green OK is even nicer:)!
Let's hope that 10.9.5 or whatever other OS Update will fix this, assuming that Apple already know about this!
Here is a Suggestion I have for Apple:
If there is an Error with Macintosh HD Internal Startup Disk, it'd be great if there was a Button in Disk Utility that we could click on and it would do the Following:
Restart Mac into Recovery Partition
Open Disk Utility
Select that Macintosh HD Internal Startup Disk
Offer to Repair it
Why do I think of that Button? Because sometimes, particularly when it's not a very experienced user, who becomes nervous when they see Error(s) in Red, they might forget about
Just hold down Command-R during startup and OS X
as described here https://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/ and, if there is no Internet Access at that time, it might be harder for them to look this topic up.
But then, maybe such Suggestion is too hard to do? Just a thought on my part!
Either way, let's hope that this issue "Verify Disk stops in Mavericks" is fixed soon! Thanks in advance for your help, Apple!

Disk Utility in Mavericks Verify Disk gives no report

When I use Disk Utility, version 13, in OS X Mavericks (10.9) to verify a disk, it goes through the various steps ...
Verifying volume “MacSSD”
Starting verification tool:
Checking file system
Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
...and then gives no report at the end of the process -- the way it used to under Mountain Lion, where you'd see a (green) statement that the disk was OK. Instead, the Verify Disk button once again is highlighted.
Am I correct that this is a change in behavior? and why no report -- not even in the log?? Is this just "no news is good news"?

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback
Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.
Feedback via Apple Developer

What is the correct fsck syntax for issue with invisible disk ?

Hello everybody,
My problem actually (I also have a problem with the 17" Install DVD) is to repair *3 disks* with *fsck command*, as the filesystems are damaged. I phoned Apple Assistance Saturday, for about 30 minutes, but finally the Advisor sent me a link to one of their thousands (and sometimes obsolete) articles, and the solution wasn't there entirely.
I'll describe you the problem :
One of my USB external disks (4TB data) *doesn't appear* after Startup, but when I use the Install DVD and Disk Utility, the application tells me it's OK, that the disk "SEEMS" to be alright etc. That's false.
When I reboot with *Cmd + S* (root level), and tell Terminal (I have been obliged to print the four states of an American Extended keyboard) :
"sudo fsck -fy /dev/disk4s1"
the reply is :
"BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SUPERBLOCKS? yes
SEARCH FOR ALTERNATE SUPER-BLOCK FAILED. YOU MUST USE THE
-b OPTION TO FSCK TO SPECIFY THE LOCATION OF AN ALTERNATE
SUPER-BLOCK TO SUPPLY NEEDED INFORMATION; SEE fsck(8)."
So, I use the *-b option* of *fsck command*, and :
"fsck: -b flag *requires a number*"
"-b size Specify the size, in bytes, of the physical blocks used by
the -B option."
So, I'm searching *since 3 days* (and *I'm learning a lot*, but nothing, of course, concerning my problem) the full info command to know *what sector address* I have to tell to -b to install an alternate superblock, because I need to know exactly at which places filesystems and *data start* and end.
You understand, I suppose, that I can't use any of my softwares, because the disk is INVISIBLE (doesn't exist) after normal restarting.
It's not MOUNTED nor UNMOUNTED.
It exists (very well, thank you) when rebooting *with Apple Install DVD*.
I'm under *Snow Leopard 10.6.5*, and I don't know if, perhaps,
*there wouldn't be a problem* (or more) with this update ...
That's what I've seen, in any case, on other places here,
about several different issues.
Please, Bob, Gary, Camelot, etresoft, Bill, Jun, Nils, Cole, Charles, Michael,
gimme some help !
If someone has the full solution, a beginning of solution,
or a path to solution,
thank you very, very much in advance !
With my best regards
Vialatte

Dear Camelot,
First, thank you very much for answering me and try to help me ;
Secundo, please read, if you have time, what I replied to Bill Scott,
and I have to thank you also for your slightly better contribution and understanding.
Some words of what I've replied to him are written for you too :
"I type *sudo fsck -fy /dev/disk4s2* (not s1, of course, and *Camelot is perfectly right*, having remarked this mistake, as *s1 is dedicated to partition map* volumes).
There's also *a strange thing* with Disk Utility when starting from DVD :
it doesn't display the s1 volumes as usual."
As you've read it in my reply to Bill, it's a *complicated issue* and *Apple has no response*.
You tell me : "+Good luck with that.+" It starts badly.
"+It's been a long time since I've had to deal with superblocks+"
I totally ignored their existence …
"+- they just don't come up any more,+" What is the meaning of this sentence ?
"+but I don't know any way of recovering the superblock address after a disk has failed.+" That's the matter of my question : *Is it a failure ?*
"+Typically (at least, historically) you get the superblock addresses in advance, storing them somewhere safe until you need them.+"
That's a total discovery for me.
You tell me then : "+Are you talking about in the Finder here?+" Yes and no, I talk about the Sidebar (see below), but it's part of the Finder.
"+Have you checked the Finder's preferences to make sure it's just not hiding external drives?+" I did, when you told me to do so.
"+Since everything else tells you that the drive is OK+" Yes, you're right, when starting from Install DVD, that's *very strange*, but remember fsck doesn't say *the same at all* as Disk Utility ... "+this just sounds like a Finder preference setting to me.+"
I'm sorry, it would have been wonderful. My settings are correct, that means :
NOTHING on Desktop, ALL (including Computer) in the Sidebar (and clicking on Computer allows me to check that *no volume* has vanished from Sidebar (it happens sometimes).
"+If it's not the Finder prefs, then please post the output of diskutil list in order to troubleshoot further.+"
Here it is (a little far below), but there's *none of the 2 4TB volumes* (yes, there are two disks missing now) here, because, as I already said that, they are invisible for the Finder and *Disk Utility*, and I think *it's the same for Terminal.*
You'll note there's *no BOOTCAMP partition* here (I removed it temporarly to solve this issue), and don't be afraid if there are several systems on the internal HD.
As I noticed it here and there, there are problems with 10.6.5.
So, I try to work with 10.6.4 (delivered with MBP 17"), but have also an universal 10.6.0 Snow Leopard, with which I can configurate 10.6 *at any state*.
Unfortunately, I *can't use* (it so that Apple decided to do) the DVD delivered with my 15" MBP (rejected by 17"), because it is with my MBP 15" that I formatted those disks.
*Another thing :* If I didn't want my wife *to install herself* (with me to help her) the 15" MBP I've gave to her (there's the 17" new 500GB 5400rpm installed in it by me), I would already have tried to connect these two 4TB, just to see.
Last login: Fri Nov 26 21:22:38 on ttys005
sys171064:~ OH$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Seagate 149.9 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS System 17 64.9 GB disk0s3
4: Apple_HFS Sys171064 34.9 GB disk0s4
5: Apple_HFS For Alu Black System 149.6 GB disk0s5
6: Apple_HFS SL 10.6.x 100.0 GB disk0s6
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Applepartitionscheme *16.1 GB disk1
1: Applepartitionmap 32.3 KB disk1s1
2: Apple_HFSX olivier_herrbach 16.1 GB disk1s2
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS HSD 01 TM 600 Go 599.9 GB disk2s2
3: Apple_HFS HSD 01 400 Go 120.6 GB disk2s3
4: Apple_HFS DiskTools > Seagate ... 279.1 GB disk2s4
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.5 TB disk3
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_HFS HELP ÉNERGIE 1,5 To 1.5 TB disk3s2
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.0 TB disk4
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1
2: Apple_HFS HSD USB 03 1To 999.9 GB disk4s2
/dev/disk5
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *32.0 GB disk5
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1
2: Apple_HFS Patriot USB Key 32 Go 31.7 GB disk5s2
/dev/disk6
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.5 TB disk6
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk6s1
2: Apple_HFS WD USB 1,5 To 1.1 TB disk6s2
3: Apple_HFS WD 02 350 Go Seagate 349.9 GB disk6s3
/dev/disk7
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.0 TB disk7
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk7s1
2: Apple_HFS HSD USB 02 50 Go 49.9 GB disk7s2
3: Apple_HFS HSD USB 02 715 Go 714.6 GB disk7s3
4: Apple_HFS HSD USB 02 110 Go 110.0 GB disk7s4
5: Apple_HFS HSD USB 02 100 Go 99.9 GB disk7s5
/dev/disk8
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk8
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk8s1
2: Apple_HFS WD USB 2To 2.0 TB disk8s2
/dev/disk9
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk9
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk9s1
2: Apple_HFS FW 03 TM 2To 2.0 TB disk9s2
/dev/disk10
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *1.5 TB disk10
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk10s1
2: Apple_HFS FW 02 1,2 To 1.2 TB disk10s2
3: Apple_HFS FW 02 200 Go 199.9 GB disk10s3
4: Apple_HFS FW 02 CS5MC 50 Go 49.9 GB disk10s4
5: Apple_HFS FW 02 Leopard 50 Go 50.0 GB disk10s5
/dev/disk11
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk11
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk11s1
2: Apple_HFS FC 02 Time Machine 1.0 TB disk11s2
3: Apple_HFS FC 02 SL 1To 999.5 GB disk11s3
/dev/disk12
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk12
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk12s1
2: Apple_HFS FC 01A USB 1To 700.0 GB disk12s2
3: Apple_HFS FC 01C 300 Go Leo 299.9 GB disk12s3
4: Apple_HFS FC 01B USB 1To 699.8 GB disk12s4
5: Apple_HFS Leopard 125 Go 300.0 GB disk12s5
/dev/disk13
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk13
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk13s1
2: Apple_HFS FW 04 TM 2To 2.0 TB disk13s2
3: Apple_HFS eDrive 12.9 GB disk13s3
/dev/disk14
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *2.0 TB disk14
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk14s1
2: Apple_HFS FW 05 2To 2.0 TB disk14s2
sys171064:~ OH$
As you and I see, I strongly believe that disk15s2 and disk16s2 (with s3, s4, s5 etc. partitions) are missing.
I must find a way to prove what I say to you. Remember that we are not in the case where I use *Cmd + s* after rebooting with Install DVD, but under normal utilisation. What follows has no interest :
Last login: Fri Nov 26 21:23:55 on ttys006
sys171064:~ OH$ sudo fsck -fy /dev/disk15s2
Password:
/dev/disk15s2: No such file or directory
Can't stat /dev/disk15s2
Can't stat /dev/disk15s2: No such file or directory
sys171064:~ OH$
So, I will now restart my MacBook Pro with Mac OS X 10.6.4 Install DVD, and go :
—1 in *Disk Utility* ;
—2 in Terminal (with *Cmd + s*).
I'll *note all* what I see, and then write you what I found.
You'll be nice to tell me if there's a way, in these conditions,
a) to *save Disk Utility log* ; or/and
b) to *save Terminal Output(s)* (.txt) ; or/and
c) to *take and save screenshots*, ; or/and
d) to *print anything*. (?)
as I don't know how it's possible to save these informations.
Thank you once more for your help. I'll do things now, but as it is 23:02 here in France, maybe I won't write you till tomorrow.
But, if you can answer to a), b), c) or d) above, post it to me please, because I'll go back here tonight.
And, also, *but I don't want to bore you*, I'd like to learn how to *copy and paste parts of messages* as you did, and how to *insert a Grab item (.png)* in a discussion, because an image is better than thousand words (that's what we say in France, but I'm sure we are not alone on Earth — like in the Universe).
With my best regards
Vialatte

Issues with External Disk in Mountain Lio

I have a Mac mini from mid-2010 come pre-installed with Snow Leopard (no install disks were given). I upgraded to Lion and then Mountain Lion. I used a 1TB Iomega external hard drive formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaling) as my Time Machine backup disk until 2 days ago when my disk suddenly became unwriteable after a Finder crash.
Opened Disk Utility the first time:
Verifier did not complete and told me to repair the disk
Repair failed too and notified me to back up files, reformat, and restore. As this is where I store the time machine backups, I wasn't sure what to do.
I ejected the disk, unplugged the USB from my computer and plugged it back in.
"Mac OS X can't repair the disk" and information on inability to save
when I opened Disk Utility again
Verifier failed.
Repair failed
Attempted to remount the disk and received an error
Ejected the disk
Reload disk
Same inabiltiy to write error as above
Disk Utility attempt 3:
Tried to restore files on an emergency backup drive and even that failed.
Verify failed
Repair failed
I reformat the disk and then try to run verification when it mounts again
Still fails, told to repair disk
Repair fails, tells me to reformat again
So now not only did I lose my backups and files, the reformat did not fix the disk issue.
Strangest thing is that when I reformatted the drive for Windows on my laptop the drive had no issues loading and using a file recovery program I was able to recover many files I lost in the reformat (despite the directory loss) but no backups. i am about to test the recovered files when they finish being unRARed (I had to compress them to fit on a USB). The disk still runs without any issue on windows.
As I'm using my emergency backup drive (a 3TB Seagate) with Time Machine after this incident I want to know how to prevent a repeat of this incident or a way to make my Iomega usable on my Mac mini again. Currently running OS X 10.8.2.

See if this makes any difference...
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
Try reformatting the external there & see if it verifies/mounts OK.

Can you help with automator & disk utility?

I'm trying to set up an automated "permissions repair" to run every night. I set up a workflow using automator and saved it as an iCal item. If I double-click on the resulting .app, or run from Automator, the workflow works as I expected, but all I find in the morning is an open Disk Utility with no repair performed & no error messages. Examining the log file confirms that nothing happened except the launch.
Here's what the wf does: Launch Application-Disk Utility, Watch Me Do-Click in the text "Macintosh HD" Click the "Repair DIsk Permissions" button, Pause-for 10 seconds, Play QuicKeys Shortcut-(types admin username, tab, admin password, enter).
Like I said, works just fine except when iCal runs it. What am I doing wrong?

..."I'm trying to set up an automated "permissions repair" to run every night."...
As others have mentioned, it shouldn't be necessary to "repair permissions" every night.
And if you are an administrator in charge computers used in a shared environment (eg. schools, libraries, a shared machine in a work place, etc.), I would go further and say that "repair permissions" should definitely not be run at all without verifying them first to make sure everything checks out, and certainly should not be automated unless some sort of verification routine is included.
With Leopard's version of "repair permissions", failure to exercise sufficient caution could allow even "standard" users to gain "root" level privileges.

Cisco Agent Desktop / Supervisor Desktop Issue with Full Disk Encryption

Has anyone had any issues related to running Cisco Agent Desktop or Cisco Supervisor Desktop on a machine running full disk encryption? Our desktop team installed full disk encryption software from Check Point, and it seams to be causing some issues with call monitoring, screen pops via workflow and connectivity to the UCCX server. It's not effecting every machine (that we know of), but the fix for us right now is to provide a desktop without the encryption software. I'm just wondering if this is related to us, or if there is any supporting documentation out there?
Any help is apprecicated.

CAD for IPCCX v4 does not support windows 7. See compatibility matrix:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cust_contact/contact_center/crs/express_compatibility/matrix/crscomtx.pdf
In my experience if you already have CAD installed and you upgrade the OS (without a fresh rebuild) CAD will work - but it is NOT supported. You should test this though.
You will not be able to install the older version of CAD on windows 7, the installer will give you errors.
Brian
please rate helpful posts

Formatting With The Disk Utility?

Hi! Is anyone having good success using Leopard's disk utility? I was trying to partition on the fly with little success (getting the message that it had to be OSX Extended journaled-which it was already) so I decided to erase using case sensitive journaled with no other options selected. It was a 120 gig drive and now after 4 1/2 hours I'm beginning to think it's doing a zero data option. Needless to say the disk utility's status bar isn't much help either. Tom

Hope this link helps. This should also apply to Leopard.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107863
Good Luck!

Drive imaging with Apples 'disk utility'.

If I open the Disk Utility in my Utilities folder, I notice that I can create images of the various partitions on my internal drive. In fact I've already created a few images, just to use as backups. However, quite early on, I installed Windows (via Boot Camp) and it wasn't long before I realised that it's not a good idea to tamper with a Boot Camped drive (at least, not using Apple's own utility - Coriolis's iPartition seems to be better at messing with partitions, if the drive has been Boot camped). So although I've saved a few partition images, I've never had the courage to try and restore one!
But today I realised that the Disk Utility can (apparently) produce a image of the whole drive - presumably complete with it's existing partition layout. I'm guessing that this would be reasonably safe to restore, since the entire partition layout would hopefully be preserved intact.
1) Firstly, has anyone here ever created an image of their internal drive with two or more partitions? If so, did you manage to restore it successfully - either to the same drive or some other drive?
2) Secondly, assuming that this works, how would I go about restoring such an image to my internal hard drive? I assume I'd need to boot up from a DVD or something because obviously, I can't go around erasing the partition table on my internal drive, if OS-X is currently running from it!
I know there are some other utilities (e.g. Coriolis's iPartition) that can run from a DVD. I assume they must install a bootable version of OS-X onto it. So is there an easy way to create a bootable version of OS-X on CD or DVD?

johne53 wrote:
But of course, if I'm going to resort to Boot Camp (plus a completely fresh Windows installation, plus re-activation and everything else that entails) I'm already into a procedure that's considerably more complex than just restoring an entire drive image in one fell swoop.
Which brings me back to my original question... is it possible to create an OS-X "rescue disk" - i.e. a CD or DVD that can boot the basic OS, without needing to load anything from the internal drive?
In case anyone else is curious about doing this, two of the stages succeeed but one fails....
1) Success.... Yes it's possible to create an image of your entire drive, with all partitions. And it's not a lengthy process. My (500GB) internal drive took around 30 mins to image (though to be fair, only about 40GB of space is used, across all the partitions). The image gets compressed along the way and in my case, ended up as a single image file of around 19GB. Therefore, be careful what you save it to.... several file systems have a maximum file size of only 4GB!
2) Another success.... Yes, it's possible to boot from the OS-X install disk. By pressing 'C' during bootup, you'll end up with a basic, but workable system, including the Disk Utility app.
3) But now for the downside.... No, it isn't possible to restore the image you created above. Disk Utility will only let you select an existing volume (i.e. a partition) as the restore destination. You can't select the physical drive as your destination and nor (bizarrely) can you restore to unallocated space.
So AFAICT there is no utility currently available (either for OS-X or Windows) which can back up a Boot Camped hard drive and restore the partitions in such a way that both OS-X and Windows will both be bootable. Nor -with a small caveat - can this currently be achieved with any combination of products. SuperDuper will work for the OS-X partition. WinClone claims to work for the Windows partition - but only as long as you don't compress the backup image. However at the time of writing, WinClone is no longer officially supported. Lack of support and lack of compression effectively make it too risky and too unwieldy to use, IMHO.
If I ever find a combination of products that can achieve this I'll post the information here - but don't hold your breath..!

Issues with "Verify Disk" in Disk Utility under Mavericks

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