Repair disk without OS install cd's?

Hi, about a year ago I was having trouble with my hard drive and when I brought it to the Genuis bar they were able to fix it, but they installed Tiger (I was on Leopard at the time). Which has been great, but now when I ran my disk utility and it told me that there are some things that need repairing, but alas - I don't have the disks for 10.4, just 10.3. Is there anyway I can repair my drive without the discs, or should I try to make an appointment at the Genius bar to have them do it.
I have all my files backed up, but I don't have a firewire external drive so I couldn't "clone" my hard drive to create a mirrored back up. Not really worried about the programs - I can re-install them.
Thanks!

SemperFi94:
I suggest that you try it before you suggest it. In the first place, the YouTube video you linked deals with installing the OS from an disk image, and most people who responded said it did not work for them. In the second place, you cannot boot a PPC Mac from a USB device. The method in the article Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck, suggested by eww in an earlier post, is the only way to do it, except, as eww also noted, you have a bootable clone on an external firewire HDD.
cornelius

Similar Messages

In Lion, how would a user REPAIR disk without a disk to boot from?

In Lion, how would a user REPAIR Disk without a disk to boot from? It's cool to download Lion from App Store, but I think they need to solve how they will repair disk without optical disk to boot from. I have had to repair disk in with the disk utility around 5-10 times in the past.

Kappy wrote:
No doubt, but who's going to delete their installer? That would be a tad stupid don't you think?
Well it should be stupid, but people do it anyway not realizing it's importance later when something goes wrong.
Kappy wrote:
We'll need a GIF with a Bill Engvall "Here's your sign."
Not familiar with Bill Engvall's acts I'm afraid, I know it's terrible.
Kappy wrote:
I guess we shouldn't forget the recovery partition. But why confuse the issue.
That does confuse the issue, a bootable DVD is for installing the operating system after a hard drive replacement, which also will include the recovery partition.
Recovery parititions are a great idea for Windows as it fails often, but hard drives fail more often in Mac's than the operating system.

Repair Disk without CD (Snow Leopard)?

Hi everyone!
My good ol' macbook has been running a bit slow lately so I went to Disk Utility and selected to verify the disk. I was then informed that it was corrupt and I need to repair the disk, but I need my OSX installation to do it since I've been traveling and no longer have access.
So, I have several questions:
1. Is there a way to repair the disk without the CD or do I just need to go buy another one?
2. How do I actually go about repairing the disk when I get the CD (if I absolutely need one)?
3. Do I need to be sure that I have everything backed up on my external harddrive before I do this? I have time machine going frequently already, but I just want to be sure if the time machine back up is enough or if I have to do a manual copy & paste backup.
Also, I'm running OSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). My macbook is a 2007 model (still kicking! Just when I think of getting another one she proves me wrong) and I don't think I can go up to Lion... or at least not Mountain Lion for sure.
Thanks!

1. Yes, there is. Restart the computer with the Shift key held down to quietly run a disk repair utility.
2. Restart from the CD and open the Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
3. Create a bootable clone on a second external drive. The Time Machine backup won't itself help if the internal drive gets erased and there isn't a second bootable system available.
(90178)

"Repair disk permissions" fixed install problem for me.

First time trying to install SL I got nothing. No windows opened, no error messages, no nothing. The system just looked at me like I was stupid.
After a good nights sleep I ran "repair disk permissions." It repaired a bunch of files (how did THAT happen???) and ran installer for SL again.
Worked perfectly!!! Gained a whopping 19.945 gig of HD space. YIKES!!!

First time trying to install SL I got nothing. No windows opened, no error messages, no nothing. The system just looked at me like I was stupid.
After a good nights sleep I ran "repair disk permissions." It repaired a bunch of files (how did THAT happen???) and ran installer for SL again.
Worked perfectly!!! Gained a whopping 19.945 gig of HD space. YIKES!!!

Method to repair disk without using Panther CDs?

I'm concerned I may need to repair my drive but as I'm sure most of you know, I would need to start up using the OS X Panther install CDs. I can't; I moved recently and forgot them.
Is there a method, such as if I started up in single user mode, to run a disk utility program?
My computer seems a little less efficient lately; Photoshop won't run as smoothly (although it's not a huge difference, it's noticeable) and videos can be jittery/drop frames. Even if use the renice command and give VLC or the DVD Player a fair amount of CPU priority. It's not all the time, but it can happen when it just shouldn't.
Note: using the fsck command (i can't remember the exact options i used with it, someone suggested it to me in another forum) I checked the drive and it said it appeared to be OKAY.

You can repair the drive by booting into single-user mode and using fsck. The following explains the procedures:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

Any way to repair disks without the installation CD?

I have the latest version of snow leopard and haven't used my laptop in awhile because I needed to get repairs done on it. Finally repaired it at the apple store, took it home, ran the updates, but disk utility is saying my drive is corrupted and to repair it with the installation disk. I have been looking everywhere and only found the TechTool deluxe CD but can't find my actual installation disks.
Anyone know how I would go about repairing my disk ?
Thank you in advance.

You need an installer disc or an external drive from which you can boot the computer. Otherwise you cn try:
File System Maint. - fsck
Boot into single-user mode. After startup is completed you will be in command line mode and should see a prompt with a cursor positioned after it. At the prompt enter the following then press RETURN:
/sbin/fsck -fy
If you receive a message that says "***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****" then re-run the command until you receive a message that says "** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK." If you re-run the command more than seven times and do not get the OK message, then the drive cannot be repaired this way. If you were successful then enter:
reboot
and press RETURN to restart the computer.

Repair disk w/o install disk?

My old Macbook (2008 model) running Snow Leopard has been getting slower and slower (it's now just the kids' machine) so I checked Verify Disk in Disk Utilities.
It tells me I need to repair the disk, and to restart with the installation disk, which I no longer have. Are there any other ways to do this?
Thanks in advance!
Christine

Restart with the Shift key held down; this quietly runs a disk repair utility. Regardless of whether or not this succeeds, get a replacement disk as soon as you can.
(111988)

Is booting from Tiger install disk possible to repair disk?

I have leopard 10.5.3 installed and updated, but I don't have the install disks on me, just the Tiger install disks. Can I boot from the Tiger install disks and repair the HD?

repair disk - yes,
repair permissions - no.
you can also repair disk without using an install DVD at all.
boot into single user mode by holding command+s at the chime on restart. at the prompt enter
/sbin/fsck -fy
that's the command to run "repair disk". when it's done type
reboot
to restart normally.

Repairing Disk/bootcamp Issues

I tried extending my Windows hard drive capacity using Disk Utility but it said my disk needed to be repaired. I read that i could re-install bootcamp and just select a larger GB capacity for the windows partition to increase its capacity but will i have issues since my disk needs repairing? I really need the windows partition so i want to be sure before i try to re-install bootcamp. and everything has been backed up already.
either way ill probably have to repair my disk but Ive lost my Installation disks for my macbook pro Im running OS X Snow Leopard, so i was wondering if i would be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion can repair disks without the need for CD's which is what i would like to do but since my disk needs to be repaired would it allow me to uninstall snow leopard and install Mountain Lion or will i run into issues? Again just trying to make sure that mountain lion will work before i buy it. Dont want to spend 20 bucks on it and end up having to buy the Snow Leopard installation CD's. Thanks for all your help.

A Clean install would be the plan then. So im guessing that will repair the disk since my laptop will start fresh and new with the new Mountain Lion System.

Unable to verify and repair disk, with my new 10.5

I'm trying to work out some problems on my older G4 desktop (with lamp bass). I upgraded recently from 10.3 to 10.5 (bought new box with the 10.5 disk). I have 750 dramm.
I wish to verify and repair the disk. I can't figure out h ow with the new 10.5 disk I have.
In the past, I would boot up my computers with the 10.3 and 10.4 disks (I've had both) with "C" key down, and then I could use the utility.
That does not work with this new Leopard disk. Won't boot up with the "C" (or the "option" key for that matter).
That normal? And how do I repair disk for the install disk?
thx..
Jon

Jon,
The Leopard disk works (or is supposed to work) just like previous versions of OS X. In other words, booting the G4 while holding down the "C" key should boot the machine to the installer.
A couple of things might get in the way of this happening, though. First, let's establish that your G4 meets the minimum requirements for Leopard. For a G4, the important item would be at least an 867 MHz processor (if I'm not mistaken). Are we still "go?"
Also, let's eliminate the "duh!!!" possibility of a third-party or wireless keyboard, which may not be supported by the startup manager.
If you meet the minimum requirements, and you're using a standard, wired USB keyboard, your PRAM may be causing an issue. This happens, sometimes. To clear this up, first flush out the PRAM by holding down Command-Option-P-R at startup, and continue to hold it until you hear a total of four startup chimes. When you hear the fourth, immediately switch to holding the "C" key (with the Leopard disk inserted, of course).
If this doesn't get you booted to the installer, there may be something wrong with the installer disk.
Scott

Repair Disk with CD

Hi, is it safe to repair disk using the install cd? WHat exactly does it do? I had an error from Onyx asking me to do this. I just don't want my system preferences and system configuration all messed up. Thanks for the 411.

Matthew Jackson wrote:
Hi, is it safe to repair disk using the install cd? WHat exactly does it do? I had an error from Onyx asking me to do this. I just don't want my system preferences and system configuration all messed up. Thanks for the 411.
Since the install DVD is usually older than your current OS, it is recommended that you use the disk utility in your utilities directory. The only reason to use the DVD for repair is if the HD needs to be unmounted for real extensive repairs.
If you are only concerned with permissions, you definitely should be using the disk utility already on your computer, not the one on the install DVD.

Unable to access disk repair option on OSX Install CD

I tried to do a disk repair from the Install CD - I opened Disk Utility from the Installer menu, clicked on the Mac Harddrive in the left hand column and clicked on First Aid.
While the Repair Permissions was accessible, the Disk Repair option was greyed out.
I did not see any option to choose language during this process.
Can someone please help?
Thanks

That IS the version for some iBook G4s anyway, not certain which one you have though. Did this come from Apple with those Disks?
I don't understand why the Language never showed, or why it "thinks" the Hard Drive is in use, which is what causes that grayed out thing.
Does it Verify from the DVD?
Do you have an Open Firmware Password set perchance?
Tough without the Install disc, but some things to try...
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Tough without the Tiger Disk problems, but try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
(SPACE between fsck AND -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

I tried installing Yosemite from 10.6.8 and the install failed. Ran a check and disk needs repai but "repair disk" isn't an option (greyed out). Can't start up under old 10.6.8 because it says "could not gather enough information." Help, please!

startup disk fail

Not lame at all. It's annoying that in order to salvage a disk the "official" way is reformat it. It's just a lack of documentation.
Diskwarrior is actually a software from Alsoft. www.alsoft.com
It's been around for ages and usually it's the last resort when everything else failes.
If you don't have the software, you could try one option.
Restart the malfunctioning computer and press T when you hear the startup sound. This will start the computer in transfer mode. You will see a huge firewire icon on the screen that just floats there.
Connect the computer to a healthy mac with a firewire cable and it should appear as a HD, just as an external hard drive would. (don't worry if it doesn´t)
Open Disk utility and in the left pane the malfunctioned Hard drive should appear. Run disk repair on the HD if possible. Once the repair disk has finished, with our without errors, open a new finder window and select the external hard drive.
You could backup the data on the Drive at this stage onto the healthy computer... just to be safe.
On the root of the Malfunctioned Disk there should be a folder named "OS X install data" or something like that. Basically something that normally would not be there...
Delete that folder.
Run Disk repair once again in Disk Utility. If successful, reboot the machine and see what happens.
If that does not work at all, then perhaps you should consider purchasing Disk Warrior. Run the same process as before, connecting the malfunctioning mac via firefire, but this time run Diskwarrior on the healthy machine, locate the malfunctioning HD and select Rebuild for that Hard drive. It will take a little while but once its done processing it will ask you if you want to copy the new build, select yes. That did it for me at least.
I hope that helps. You could check the app store or search online for software that is similar to Diskwarrior, there's probably some app that does the same thing. The only reason I used Diskwarrior is it has proven a good utility for Mac breakdowns and I've used (rarely though) it for years.

Wipe for resale - have no install or repair disks

I am ready to sell my old iBook on eBay, but of course I need to wipe it first. I bought it used, and it did not come with ANY install or repair disks. How can I wipe it without those?

The idea to make another OS X user account (admin level) is good, if the old iBook has an
OS X 10.1 ~ 10.3 installed on its hard disk drive. As suggested, this requires certain steps.
What kind of OS does it have? OS 9.x can be easy if you have some basic utilities. If there
is a mac user group or a used computer store around with Macs, talk to someone about
this matter. Sometimes, you can find Mac OS discs in charity thrift stores; or craigslist ads.
If no OS X in the computer... and you just want your stuff totally wiped:
If you have access to another Mac with FireWire ports, a dual-end FireWire cable could
be used to connect two FW capable Macs; and then boot this iBook G3 into FireWire
*Target Disk Mode*, to use the other Mac's Disk Utility, to secure erase the iBook's internal
hard disk drive; then be sure the partition map is Apple Partition Map, (APM) & reformat
the hard disk drive to HFS+ (journaled) so at some later time, someone would be able
to install a working OS 9.2 or OS X 10.2 on the computer by simply using an install CD.
Without the discs, you can't totally erase everything; and if you use a different system
than one may expect in the computer to erase it, then another new owner may be lost.
{And you can't use an older installer disc than the computer; it has to be either the exact
version it would have shipped with when new, or a retail full install newer than the Mac.
Since the model you have there, usually has a CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, an OS X
version would have to be a Retail set on several CDs. Not one from a different Mac.}
The software set the computer shipped with would be about the best to have with it;
and to have sold that without its original Apple install/restore software packet was not
responsible. The software is an official part of the computer sale, to be included.
With the iBook G3 (white model?) erased and reformatted, anyone with a retail OS 9.2.1
CD could install a working system fairly easy. A few downloads to update that to 9.2.2
are online; but there are no official sources to download the whole OS 9.2 installer and
the OS is no longer available from Apple directly. Some resellers may have suitable disc
sets, or retail ones newer than the computer, which may be supported by the hardware.
You may be able to find information about the install disc set (missing) through use of the
database download from MacTracker: http://mactracker.ca & online @ http://everymac.com
There are Identify by serial number web sites; where build info about your Mac can be found
to help further detail the specific hardware configuration (& help find suitable OS disc sets.)
Once the computer is erased and formatted correctly, it may be possible install a test
OS 9.2 system on there, since OS 9 supports 'drag and drop' installation; this may be
possible if the file were in another computer connected by FireWire (target disc mode.)
There are several means of working around issues specific to older systems & hardware;
so if you have time and interest, the answers are available in greater detail - if needed.
If you can erase & reformat the old iBook, someone could install/restore an OS later.
Good luck & happy computing!

"Repair disk" when installing Mountain Lion

I was just upgrading to Moutain Lion OS X right now when it tells me my disk needs repair. I tried, but it says "Macintosh HD couldn't be verified properly" (might not be exact wording, it's in Norwegian for me). When I click the "repair disk" button nothing happens, it just gives me the same message.
What are my options? I do have a back up (time machine), BUT it's from 2 years ago and thus I'd be losing a lot of files I have on here since after then, and that would really suck..

Then quit the Mountain Lion installer. Do you have a bootable system on your external hard drive? If so, then boot from it as follows:
Boot Using OPTION key:
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
Release the key when the boot manager appears.
Select the desired disk icon of the external HDD.
Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Once you have booted from the external drive do the following:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder. After DU loads select your internal hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Restart the computer. Locate the Mountain Lion installer in the Applications folder. Now see the following before proceeding if you want to make a bootable USB flash drive installer:
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
As an alternative to the above you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process.

Repair disk without OS install cd's?

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