Problem With Verify Disc Function

Question

I just found out that I should be using Repair Disc Permissions more often that I have been. So I went to Apps - Utilities - Disc Utilities and clicked on the first line in the list at the left of the window. Then I clicked on Verify Disc Permissions, and that seemed to go OK, then I clicked on Verify Disc and got the following messages:
First Aid Failed
Disk Utility stopped verifying “Macintosh HD” because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit
I clicked on "OK" and this is what was listed next:
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
(The bit in bold here was shown in red.)
Not knowing how to fix this, I clicked on Repair Disc Permissions, and this also seemed to go along fine, then I clicked on Verify Disc again and got the same message as above.
What does this mean? How do I fix this?
TIA,
Sue
BTW, my machine is an iMac 20" 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM. I have had it since March of this year.
iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

Answer 1

Hello Sue
Use this Testing and repairing your startup disk article to help you.
To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc and restart your computer holding down the Option key, then select the Install Mac OS X disc and click the arrow.
Open Disk Utility. In the Mac OS X Installer, choose Utilities > Open Disk Utility.
Select the startup disk you want to repair in the list of disks and volumes, then click First Aid. Click the button to verify or repair the disk or disk permissions.
After you have repaired your startup volume from Disk 1 Utilities restart again holding the Option key, then select "Mac OS X, 10.4.10 on Macintosh HD." After your Mac reboots on the Internal HD, then you can eject Disk 1.
Dennis
17" iMac Intel Core Duo - 2GB Ram -   Mac OS X (10.4.10)   - Maxtor 300GB FireWire - Creative Inspire 2.1 - 2G Nano