Problem in Repairing Startup Disk

This morning I began a routine cleaning using Onyx. Although I usually skip the step, today I let Onyx go through the verifying startup volume. I got the message that I needed to do a Disk Repair. Using the instructions from this website (Testing and repairing your startup disk) I kept getting the message "There were errors installing the software. Please try installing again. I did, twice more, with the same result. How should I work around this to do the disk repair?

What whippersnapper Limnos says!
You must repair the HD, if Disk Utility or fsck should fail to repair it, your best bet is DiskWarrior from Alsoft, you'll need the CD to boot from if you don't have another boot drive...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Your best bet is DiskWarrior, you need the CD/DVD though, if you don't have another Hard Drive to boot from.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
But others that may work…
Intech Speedtools Pro...
http://www.intechusa.com/STU3.html
Drive Genius…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83
BTW, you might enjoy these DiskWarrior review/recommendations...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9645801&#9645801
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10541019#10541019
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11918925&#11918925
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12684129#12684129
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12744794&#12744794
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12912879#12912879

Similar Messages

Repairing Startup Disk: The underlying task reported failure on exit.

I'm running a G5 dual 2 ghz PowerPC with 2.5 ram with OS X 10.4.11.
A quick rundown: I've had some crashing and dropouts of apps. nothing too extreme but not as smooth as it should be. I ran OnyX (which I do every few weeks) and it found a problem with the startup disk, it needed to be repaired.
After booting from my Tiger Disc and running Disk Utilities I got the following:
- overlapped extent allocation (file 12412030d)
volume bit map needs minor repair
the volume '*' could not be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
I tried this twice, repairing permissions in between (which I later read I shouldn't have done). I haven't noticed any data loss but I'm concerned. I don't have a complete bootable backup of the drive though most of my important data is backed up on an external drive.
(BTW: I'm gunshy of Discwarrior, before that $100 recommendation is made, as the one time before I used it, about 5 years ago, it fried my OS entirely and required a complete reinstall.)
What should be my next step? Any thoughts/suggestions?

(BTW: I'm gunshy of Discwarrior, before that $100 recommendation is made, as the one time before I used it, about 5 years ago, it fried my OS entirely and required a complete reinstall.)
Hmmm, only time I've ever seen that is if Norton Disk Doctor touched it first.
BTW, you might enjoy this DiskWarrior review/recommendation...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9645801&#9645801
You must repair the HD, if Disk Utility or fsck should fail to repair it, your best bet is DiskWarrior from Alsoft, you'll need the CD to boot from if you don't have another boot drive...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
But others that may work…
Drive Genius 2…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro 4…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83

I have repaired startup disk in disk utility but still get message saying startup disk needs repair, help.

I am on a macbook pro running the latest version of yosemite. I was going to use Onyx to clean it, but I got a message stating that my startup disk needs repair. I command R went to disk utility to verify and repair and the disk was fine. However, I still get the same message when using Onyx. What should I do? Should I command R and reinstall? Will the fact that my startup disk needs repair cause a problem?

Thank you @EricRoot, I think you may be correct. I don't get that message with other programs. However, I did locate files on my computer taking up way too much space...

Startup Disk Doesn't Shut Down All The Way (restart required)

Is anyone experiencing problems using the Startup Disk in System Preferences?
95% of the time all my system does is close all applications, including the Finder, and then pause with my desktop picture, no mouse and no choice to try anything. I have to press and hold the power button to restart and when it does it doesn't start on the disk I asked for...
When it works it works as it should, but mostly it doesn't at all. Any ideas?

inknpaper wrote:
Leopard should be a more efficient operating system than Tiger and thus everything should work slightly faster, if not a lot faster.
In every version of OS X, improved speed is largely the result of caching more data. Hopefully, it is obvious that creating the caches initially takes substantial time, & that updating them may also do so if there have been substantial changes to what should be cached.
This could be done on the 'back end' before shutdown, on the 'front end' after restart occurs, or with a combination of both techniques. From what I can tell, Tiger uses mostly the 'front end' approach, which makes for quick shutdowns but sometimes long startup times. Leopard seems to favor the reverse, doing what cache housekeeping it can before shutting down.
For me, this usually results in quicker overall restart times with Leopard, especially after doing anything that requires much cache maintenance. I guess your mileage may vary....

Why does my mac show in Startup Disk section of System Preferences that I have OS X Lion Server?

I have bought my Macbook pro half a year ago and I have recently installed Windows 7 on it in addition to OS X Lion. The problem is that Startup Disk in System Preferences shows that I have a Server version, while I don't. How can it be possible? And is it possible to fix it?

You should post that on the Boot Camp forum, that is where all the Boot Camp and Windows guys hang out.
Good luck.

Both time machine drive and startup disk can't be repaired by disk utilities and needs to be formatted!!??

ok so i accidentally remove the USB while my laptop was backing up to the time machine partition on my external HDD. I plug it in again, and no time machine partition. just the other part (fat 32 partition). so i open disk utilities.. the partition is there but grayed out. so I repair it.. and it says it cant repair it i need to back it up and format it. ok great.. i tried to do that and it said it can't access the disk.. super.
any way.. i don't know why i decided to check my other drives and see how they're doing.. and it turns out.. my startup disk has problems.. and you guessed it.. it can not be repaired:D so i restart in recovery mode.. did it again.. and? it can't be repaired.. i need to backup the drive and format it... (like the same problem with the time machine partition) just great! so i restart the laptop.. it safe boots.. I dnno why.. and everything is like it was.. I mean I don't see a problem with my drive.. i can do everything but that "cant repair" thing is scaring me.. what should I do? just leave it? or brace myself for a possible HDD death? I DON'T EVEN HAVE A BACKUP)
help me i feel vulnerable

As you have indicated, you don’t want to touch the partitions on your existing external drive because it has live files in the FAT32 partition for which there are no copies anywhere else. That leaves you with two sets of data that are currently not backed up: your FAT32 partition and your system drive. I suggest you need at least one more external HD for backups.
A “backup” drive should never have live files on it because should that drive fail all the live files on it would be lost. So you need a second external HD anyway for a proper backup scheme.
I would partition a new disk as you have the current one and then copy all the FAT32 files form the old disk to the new one. Then you can try repartitioning the old drive. I would then setup a backup scheme to periodically clone the new FAT32 drive onto the old FAT32 one, using the new disk for your live FAT32 files and dedicating the old disk to backups. You could also continue using the old disk for Time Machine backups.
You can use Mac cloning software such as Carbon Copy Cloner to maintain the cloned backup copy of your FAT32 data.
http://help.bombich.com/kb/usage-scenarios/backing-up-tofrom-network-volumes-and -other-non-hfs-volumes

Problems with Snow Leopard and choosing startup disk.

I just installed Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on my external drive to test it out. Most things seem to work just fine, but I'm having problems selecting a start up disk from system preferences. When I bring up start up disk, I see the internal and external drives but they are greyed out and unselectable. How do I get back to starting up off of my internal drive? Is this a common problem?

Do try CT's suggestion first; that might be the most likely explanation.
In Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, do you see both drives?
You might be able to get back into the Internal by starting up from Startup Manager. Hold the Option (Alt) key down at the startup chime. When that finishes loading, you should be presented with icons for both drives. If that succeeds, and you can return to the Internal, you can then see if the options in Startup Disk are available.
In Disk Utility, I would also repair the External, if and when you are booted back from the Internal.
And once you are booted back normally, highlight the mounted External Volume and do a Get info (CMD-I). Make sure "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked.
Edit: as CT suggested, you should also repair Permissions, but -- and this may have changed in 10.6, not sure -- you should generally repair Permissions booted from the Volume you are repairing. Before repairing Permissions, however, on any Volume, you should first Verify that Volume. Repairing Permissions on a Volume with problems will only make those problems worse.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Startup disk question/problem

Should the startup disk always be at the top of the list of disks upon startup? Or is it now the case, with 10.5 on a MacBook, that the internal disk is at the top of the list whether or not it is the startup disk?
Situation: New MacBook Mac OS 10.5.8, new Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT 320GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive in an external MacAlly SATA FW/USB case. I erased (formated) the external drive, and, using Restore in Disk Utility, made what I expected to be a clone of the MacBook's internal drive.
Problem: After repairing permissions, using Start Up Disk preferences I selected the new drive as the start up drive. Upon restart I get mixed signals as to which is the startup drive. The original (internal) drive is at the top of the list on the right of desktop but, in the Start Up Disk Preferences list, the new drive is highlighted. (Further: I am able, after right clicking on the internal disk, to select it, to eject it.)
Questions: Have I bought a drive that won't work as a start up drive or doesn't Disk Utility Restore in 10.5.8 create a bootable drive as in 10.4 or does the internal disk always show up at the top of the list on the desktop in 10.5.8? When I swap the drives, putting the new drive in the MacBook, will it boot?
This procedure for swapping new drives has always worked with my Macs thru Mac OS 10.4.11.

Check with Western Digital (the FAQs on their website) whether that hard drive is bootable on your Mac. Not all of them are.
Quote from a Western Digital FAQ:
While it may be possible to boot your computer to an external hard drive, Western Digital does not provide technical support for booting your computer using an external hard drive. If you intend to make a copy of your boot drive, or install your operating system, please use a second internal drive (EIDE or Serial ATA), rather than an external drive.
And their list of bootable drives:
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through USB:
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Premium ES Edition
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• WD My Book Premium Edition
• WD My Book Pro Edition
The following external hard drives are not bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through USB/FireWire 1394(a/b):
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
• My Passport Elite
• My Passport Essential
• WD Passport
• WD Passport (Silver)
You will find a more up to date list on their website.

G4 won't boot from startup disk, disk utility can't repair, is all lost?

My G4 will not boot from the startup disk which is my second hard drive a 160GB. That's been my startup disk for the past 3 years. I tried running disk utilities, but get the error message "underlying task reported a failure on exit." "Invalid key length." "Volume check failed." "Disk repair failed."
I've tried loading in safe mode, and fsck (or something like that) nothing has worked. When I did force start by holding down the "x" key, the second hard drive image was on my desktop, but when I clicked it-it did not have any current information or files. Is everything lost? Is there a way to boot this hard drive or save all of my photos and music?
Thanks in advance for the help.

DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

Startup disk partition map repair difficulties

Disk Utility is reporting that "The partition map needs to be repaired because there's a problem with the EFI system partition's file system." However, after booting into the Recovery HD and attempting to repair this, I keep getting the error, "Live file system repair is not supported." And yet I can verify that I am definitely not booting from the startup disk so I don't know why or how this is happening. Any ideas on next steps short of backing up, reformatting and wiping the drive?
Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Hi Richard,
If you are having issues resolving a disk issue when booted to the Recovery partition on the internal hard drive, especially issues regarding partitions themselves, you may want to try creating a Recovery System on an external volume, as outlined in the following article:
OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
Regards,
- Brenden

Problems after repairing disk with Mac OS X install Discs

Having been experiencing slowness in my iMac, I tried to verify disk and found that my HD Volume needed to be repaired. However, the "Repair Disk" button was gray. I later learned from online mac discussions that I should reboot my iMac with the Mac OSx install Disc. I followed the steps and then got the answer that there was nothing to be repaired.
The next thing I knew was that I could not get out of there. By choosing "Restart", I was bought back to choosing the language and installing the disc. Not wanting to do that I went around and around and finally had no choice but installing the Disc 1 and then 2. At one point, I was asked if I wanted to move previous files to the new location (don't remember the exact words), I said no. I was astonished to find out very soon that my computer was put back at its original state, meaning all the applications were empty.
I managed to get my safari and email (Microsoft Entourage) back. I transfered all photos from the "Previous System" folder to the present iPhoto. However, they are only sorted by year. all the categories and sub-categories that I so painstakingly created were gone, so were the keywords.
Among other problems, my iTune wouldn't open unless I have Mac OS X 10.4.9 (mine is 10.4.4). I am quite desperate at this moment. I know the previous settings are somewhere but have no idea how to bring them back.
I hope someone can help me get out of this mess. Thank in advance.
P.S. my iMac is much faster now. That is the only good news.
LN

There is an option to +select the drive to restart from+ (don't remember the exact wording) in the Installer's menu. If you previously set the startup disk to be the disc in the optical drive, it will continue to restart from the Mac OS X installation disk until you change it. Alternately, you could press and hold the Option key at startup to bring up Startup Manager. This will allow you to select the disk to use for startup. For future reference...
If you did a complete reinstallation of the OS, you need to select Software Update from the Apple menu. This will get to you to the latest version of Tiger, which is 10.4.11.

Problem changing startup disk one time

My main OS is 10.8.5 but have second hard drive with OS 10.6.8 on it for use with older applications. I've never had trouble rebooting in 10.6.8 when necessary by holding down the option key. Suddenly it doesn't work; the computer just hangs with a gray screen. Nothing has really changed in my setup in the few weeks since I've last rebooted in 10.6.8. I've verified both startup disks and repaired permissions on both.
Alfred
Mac Pro 2 x 2.4 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon
12GB RAM

Yes to both questions. Since posting my question, I tried resetting the PRAM (in 10.8.5) and the result was that the computer wouldn't start in either OS; it would just get to the gray screen and hang. I found an Apple document that suggested remedies. Starting while holding down command-R or shift didn't work. Then I unplugged all my peripherals and the computer started normally. I followed the procedure of reconnecting one peripheral at a time (rebooting each time) and didn't find the culprit. I then went to the next procedure: adding them one at a time (again rebooting each time) and this didn't find the problem either. Now I can reboot normally in either my preferred 10.8.5 or the alternative 10.6.8, but I'm a little uneasy since I don't know what the problem was and never really fixed or changed anything.

Why does my startup disk need repairing?

Twice in the last month I've had to repair my startup disk? Any ideas why?

Disk Utility repairs inconsistencies in the Disk Directory, which holds information like the name, size, and which actual blocks on the disk store the data. The Directory has a balanced tree structure for rapid searching.
Occasionally the Directory gets minor errors in it. File length errors can occur when a new file is opened at the default minimum size, and its size is never adjusted to its actual size when closed. It is not a major problem.

Problem with "Prohibited name". Disk Utility can't repair the disk!

Hello,
Sorry if my english is not perfect, but I do my best!
I have a problem with almost all applications. When I quit an application, it appear the crashed window. I can submit to Apple support the report, but I don't because there is too much.
I start on a cd-rom and lauch Disk utility. It can't repair the disk because of two "prohibited name" lines in red. No more information!
What are the two "prohibited name"? File? Folder?
How to repair the disk?
Any idea?
Please, help me.
Thank.

Bienvenue To  Discussions GMDC!
Exactly which model Mac G5 is it?
What size is the Hard Drive, and how much space is available?
How much RAM is installed, and is it original or added?
What peripherals do you have connected? A keyboard, mouse, printer, external drive or modem, router, etc?
What happened between the last time the Mac functioned successfully, and when it didn't?
Have you made any changes, like upgrading the system, updated or installed any applications or programs, etc?
Have there been any unusual occurences, like freezes, crashes, power outages, etc?
See if you are able to perform the procedures posted below, and post the results.
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD
1.Insert the System Install disk, Mac OS X CD-ROM disk, or Restore DVD disk, then restart the computer while holding the C key. Use the System disk, of the OS, that is currently installed.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, on the Menubar at the top of the screen, choose Disk Utility from the Installer contextual menu for Panther, or Utilities for Tiger.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3.Click the First Aid tab.
4.Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5.Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.Repeat steps 5 & 6, but select the Hard Drive this time. It's usually the first listed with the manufacturer's model number. Make note of the S.M.A.R.T. status.
8.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
9.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
10.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
11.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
ali b

Yosemite will not install and won't let me change startup disk, it's saying there is a file system problem but disk utilities can't fix it.

I Downloaded the Yosemite upgrade and went to install it on my iMac. The install failed saying file System needed repair. Ran disk utility could do the verify but the repair button was grayed out. When I tried to change startup disk back it wouldn't let me , saying it couldn't gather enough file info. So I'm stuck and can't boot my Mac. How do I get out of this?

Do a backup. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Try to reboot normally.
OS X Recovery
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Problem in Repairing Startup Disk

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