Need to repair disk but dvd is broke

Question

hi. despite using logic9 and ableton8 extensively for some years my actual knowledge of computers and the os is shameful just to warn you
ive often done "repair permissions" but was told to do disk repair also from time to time, so i did the verify disk and was told i need to do a repair of the disk
the trouble is when i got my imac it came with leopard os and unfortunately disk 01 of the 2 osx discs that came with the mac is broken.  i have since upgraded to snow leopard and have that disk still in one piece but i think its just an upgrade disk and not sure if i can use that insted to repair the disk?
when it comes to things like this i have no clue which is shameful concidering the extent to which i use my mac
manny thanks
kev

Answer 1

kevherb wrote:
well yeah this is my problem as that is the broken disc.  so say i one day need to format the hd reinstal osx and recover files from ext hd (like if the mac went for hardware repair) am i basically screwed?  or can i still get a leopard disk from apple?
You should still be able to, just call Apple Customer Service  with the Mac's serial no. and model (and a credit card handy). Replacement discs are usually around $16 or so, I understand - that's the cost of burning one from the master for that build, post and packing. Take that number as a guide only - it's been quoted for a long time now so it may be different.
Meanwhile, if all you want to do just now is Repair Disk, boot into Single User mode (hold down ⌘S on start up).
When everything stops loading, type
fsck -fy
and press return (note the space between k and the hyphen),
If it comes up as repair carried out and HD seems OK, run the command one more time to ensure it just says HD OK without any repairs noted.
If it says more repairs are needed, run it until either it comes up OK or it says the disc can't be repaired.
To exit, type
reboot    and press return..