The underlying task reported failure on exit - what do I do next?

Hi,
I recently decided to verify my internal drive using Disk Utility. The programme went through the motions then I got the following message:
'First Aid failed
Disk Utility stopped verifying “Internal Drive” because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit'
In the progress window it read:
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume The volume I Drive needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
I have no idea what this means or what actions I need to take next - can anyone help me out?
By the way, everything seems to be working just fine otherwise apart from Front Row which hangs whenever I try to access media
Your sincerely
Very worried of London

Hi there,
You need to boot from your Install disk to actually repair it.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again 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.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

Similar Messages

The underlying task reported failure on exit--what do I do?

Long story short: Quicksilver G4 OS X 10.4.11 got stuck with the spinning color wheel using Eudora email, couldn't Force Quit, eventually it froze completely. I pulled the plug, restarted and ended with a blank blue screen (after the Apple logo and startup "wheel"). Reset the PMU, no difference. So I booted from the Tiger install DVD and got to Disk Utility. First, it didn't recognize any hard drive. So, I switched batteries, restarted, and the hard drive showed up. So I ran DU again, and came up with "the underlying task reported failure on exit" about 2/3 of the way through repairing the HD. Now I'm stuck.
My questions:
What difference did the battery make and why?
What do I do to repair the HD now?
Thanks!

Odell:
As roam indicated Disk Utility reports "Underlying task reported failure" when repairing a volume is a serious directory error that cannot be repaired by Disk Utility. The article linked suggests the use of a third party utility. Disk Warrior, recommended by roam, is one of the best utilities for this kind of work. Tech Tool Pro is the other utility of choice for this kind of work.
If you do not have a current backup of your data, you should look to that immediately. If you have your data backed up, another approach would be to reinstall the OS choosing the Archive and Install option.
Although this error is essentially a directory error, it can, and sometimes does, be rooted in a hardware issue, e.g. a failing/failed Hard Disk Drive. I suggest that you boot from the Apple Hardware Test disk and run all tests in a loop by holding down Command + L during the tests. It sometimes takes many many repetitions and several hours to detect intermittent issues, so leave it run and check on it occasionally.
cornelius

Disk Utility issue-Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

When I run Disk Utility on the hard drive( repair permissions/verify disk), I see an "illegal name" message and the following error message and DU will not complete the "verify disk" function.
-Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
What does this mean and how do I fix it?
Thanks, Pete
iMac 17 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) Igb ddr ram and winning attitude

Thanks, I have deleted the legal and legal. files but DU is erroring with this message now;
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

Disk Utility will not verify disk because, "The underlying task reported failure on exit." Now what?

Disk utility will not verify disk because, " The underlying task reported failure on exit." The "repair disk" button does not light up. The report says that repairs need to be made to the hard drive. I have already checked permissions. What do I do next to get the repair process started? Also, I cannot find a defragmenting drive option in Disk Utility. Doesn't it exist?

You need to boot from the install DVD (or a clone of your internal) to run Repair Disk. Repair Disk will be grayed out, dimmed, because you can't repair from the same volume you are booted from.
EDIT: No, you do not yet need to use Disk Warrior or Tech Tool or do any reformatting. These steps might become necessary only if Repair Disk fails.
Unless you have very large video files, for example, there is no need to run any defragmenting utility. OS X does it all by itself on the fly.
Try Disk Utility
Start from your Mac OS X Install disc: Insert the installation disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
Click the First Aid tab.
Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
Select your Mac OS X volume.
Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
If you don't have the install DVD, try a Safe Boot. Hold the Shift key down at startup and give it much more time to boot than usual. It's trying to repair the drive directory.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

External Hard Drive: Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

I have a LACIE external drive (120GB/ firewire) which has had no problems. Recently, I reformatted to DOS so I could use with a PC. Now, when I plug into my MACBOOK Pro, the drive is not 'recognized. I've tried to repair with Disc Utility but I get the following messages:
+Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit+
and
+1 volume could not be repaired+
Reading up on the subject, seems I could purchase Disc Warrior but I've also read that there might be a problem with 10.4.10 which potentially could be alleviated by rolling back my OS.
Before I shell out for DW; does anyone have any thoughts on rolling back the OS or perhaps other ways to resolve? What is the correct method for rolling back to a previous OS?
Best,
Rod

Hi guys, I just received the same message on my G5 with a hard drive that I've been using for about two years. Today when I turned on my computer, I saw the icon for my second internal hard drive which is a Western Digital 250 Gb. When I clicked on the icon in finder, it didn't show me any files on my drive and soon after, the icon just vanished. I turned off my computer and made sure that all the connections where in properly and they were. I also tried other hard drive to make sure there was nothing wrong with the connectors, and they worked fine. When I go to disk utility, I see my hard drive but its not bolded, the title of the drive is faded and if I try to verify disk or repair, I get the Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972) 1 volume checked, 0 HFS volumes verified, 1 volume failed verification.
I've had hard drives die on me before and I know where they are going to go due to the sound that it makes but today my computer was as quiet as can be. What is the problem here and is there something I can do to get the hard drive to work so I can retireve my data?
Thanks

MacBook won't boot - Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

My wife's new MacBook won't start up. It crashed earlier today and when she tried to restart it, it got as far as the gray Apple logo and the spinning gear and then it reboots again. I booted it with the Leopard install disc and two strange things happened.
1. When the installer first opens, it gives me an error that says I cannot install Mac OS X on this computer. This is a 3 month old MacBook that shipped with Leopard, but it's telling me that OS X can't be installed.
2. When I run verify or repair permissions with Disk Utility from the Leopard disc, I almost immediately get an error stating "The underlying task reported failure on exit". When I try to verify or repair the disk, it says everything is fine.
The HD appears to be fine. I can access it from Firewire Target Disk Mode and everything is still there. I can also boot into Single User Mode, but not Safe Mode.
The night before the crash I made a change to the HD permissions via "Get Info". I copied the "Read/Write" settings to all enclosed folders because it was telling me that it couldn't install Flashplayer because I didn't have sufficient permission, even though she has an Admin account. After the change, Flashplayer installed just fine and everything was OK until this afternoon when she had a kernel panic while iChatting. iChat was the only program open at the time. She rebooted and hasn't gotten past the gray Apple logo since. I read in some other threads about people having the same issue after accidently setting HD permissions to "none". One suggestion was to use Firewire Target Disk Mode to open the drive with another computer and change the permissions back. I tried that, and the drive opened just fine, as I mentioned, but the permissions didn't appear to be set in a way that would cause problems. I set all of them to read/write and applied them to all enclosed folders just to be sure, but nothing changed when I rebooted.
Any other suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks!

ndelc wrote:
When I looked at the permissions for the HD in FW Target Disk mode, it was set to:
System: Read/Write
Admin: Read/Write
Everyone: Read Only
This is not your problem unless you have changed the r/w for special accounts elsewhere.
I have the same on my HD. But it's the individual files that are important.
Nothing there indicates that it should be locking her account out.
How do you create a new admin account from the Leopard DVD? It wouldn't allow me to do much of anything except Disk Utility.
I have not done it so I don't know, but there is a way to create a new administrator account using the DVD. Search these forums because I know others have done it.
Would it be possible to attempt to change things back by booting into single user mode? If so, what do I need to do?
I am not sure you can even boot into the Single User mode, or do you mean the Super User mode?
You have taken write privs away from everyone so I believe only a Super User can fix it. I am not even sure the Sudo will work in your case.
Thanks for your help!
If you find out how to access your drive from the Leopard DVD, you need to invoke SU privileges and undo whatever it was you did.
Were you using Time Machine? That would make fixing it a piece of cake. Just revert to the last backup before you made these changes.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Can't boot up and error "The underlying task reported failure on exit"

I've spent some time searching the forums and internet for my problem to no avail, so hopefully this isn't something that was posted before.
I recently upgraded my internal drive on my Macbook. Everything has been fine for a week or so, and Leopard ran smoothly. Yesterday, the machine got hung up on backing up to Time Machine. For whatever reason, it got hung up and now all I get when I try to reboot is a gray screen, the Apple logo, and a spinning progress disc.
I can boot from another external drive just fine, and the data on the disk is all there. I just cannot boot from my master internal drive.
I ran Disk Utility from the other external drive (also runs Leopard), and when I try to repair the disk, Mac OS X says everything is fine.
However, when I try to repair permissions, I get the following error:
Verify permissions for “John HD”
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
Permissions verification complete
That's it...nothing else to it. I cannot seem to get over this error no matter what.
Also, I'm a bit nervous because my Time Machine folder has a folder labeled "Update in Progress" that is all white. Will I be able to backup from Time Macine, or is that data now corrupted?
Thanks, and any help will do!
John
Macbook Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz
2 Gig of RAM
Note...I have the same thread in the Time Machine section, since I didn't know where to post this.

By the way, this is the information that Disk Utility gives me when I try to repair the disk and then repair the permissions:
Verify and Repair volume “John HD”
Checking Journaled 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.
The volume John HD appears to be OK.
Repairing permissions for “John HD”
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
Permissions repair complete
Like I said, the drive seems healthy enough. I just cannot get it to boot.
John

Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1

    #!/bin/bash
      # Author : Bill Hernandez
    # Location : Plano, Texas
    # Updated : Saturday, June 6, 2009 (1:48 PM)
    # script name : setdisk_ownerenabled
    # make sure to set permissions to execute
    <hr>
    # Description :
    <hr>
    # I've noticed that sometimes when using disk utility I cannot repair permissions, or I might get :
    # ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1
    # This shell script seems to have solved the problem.
    # It worked very well for me,
    # IF YOU USE THIS SCRIPT, IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK...
    # DO NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IT DOES
    # After running it, it is best to restart before using Disk Utility again
    <hr>
    # Details :
    <hr>
    # After partitioning a disk using "Disk Utility", and then begin using it, at some point I would get
    # an arror message when trying to save to one of the partitions, yet when I looked at the permissions
    # everything looked fine. I would then try to use Disk Utility to repair permissions and end up with a
    # cryptic error that pretty much told me nothing.
    # I noticed that while in Disk Utility, if I selected a partition the lower LH corner of the dialog
    # showed : Owners Enabled : No
    # I tried selecting the partitions at the Desktop and doing a (CMD-I) and at the very bottom of each
    # info dialog there was a checkbox :
    # [ ] ignore ownership of this volume
    # which I would check, even after logging in as root, and I couldn't seem to get a consistent way
    # to get rid of the permissions dialog failure, so I found the vsdbutil command which can be used
    # as follows to get partition, or disk info :
    # $ vsdbutil -c /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # ----> Permissions on '/Volumes/driveor_partitionname' are enabled.
    # if it is not enabled you can enable the disk or partition using :
    # $ vsdbutil -a /Volumes/driveor_partitionname
    # It will set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    # This below script loops through the mounted disks, partitions, etc. and gives you information.
    # You can leave the three flags below all set to TRUE, or selectively use what you want and change
    # the rest to false...
    <hr>
    # CHOOSE {"TRUE", "FALSE"}
    <hr>
    getvolumestatus="TRUE"         # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
    setvolumestatus="TRUE"         # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
    list_volumes="TRUE"                   # show volume names
    <hr>
    # DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW HERE
    <hr>
    if [ $getvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$getvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     # get "Owners Enabled : (Yes|No)" status
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     vsdbutil -c $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $setvolumestatus == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$setvolumestatus'
     echo '============================='
     sudo echo -n
     # set "Owners Enabled : Yes"
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     sudo vsdbutil -a "$i"
     echo "setting Owners Enabled : Yes for ---> $i"
     done
    fi
    <hr>
    if [ $list_volumes == "TRUE" ]; then
     echo '============================='
     echo '$list_volumes'
     echo '============================='
     for i in $( df -l | sort -u | awk '{print $6}' | grep '/' ); do
     echo $i
     done
    fi
    <hr>


As it turns out, this didn't completely solve the problem, it solved part of the problem.
Here is a summary to the root cause of the problem.
SUCCESS...
Problem Summary : The system crashed and would hangup during boot, tried many things, until I eventually erased the disk and started over again.
iMacG5 24 GHZ Intel with One internal disk partitioned into 3 logical drives
Cub_1 OS X 10.5.7
Cub_2 OS X 10.5.7 (Carbon Copy Cloner backup of Cub_1)
Cub_3 OS X Server 10.5.7 (standard os x server setup)
At some point after setting up standard preferences, OS X Server crashed.
When I tried to restart, the machine would hang up during boot.
Finally after several attempts, ran Disk Utility from install dvd and repaired Cub_3
When I tried to run "Repair Permissions" on Cub_3 from install dvd, I got an error
Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1.
Rebooted, and started in single user mode (CMD-S) during boot until I saw the unix commands on the screen
RAN : root # fsck -fy
Then I began seeing the same command filling the screen :
posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder") could not find file or directory
Called Enterprise Support and spoke to Frank Alcorn, he said this was most likely a permissions problem and asked me to try repairing permissions from the install dvd. I told him about the error, but nevertheless I tried it again and got the same Disk Utility Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit 1..
He asked me to try booting into single user mode again, and to try
root # chmod 775 /
root # reboot
During the reboot process the machine got hung up again, and could not get the single user mode to work at all.
Frank said the command needed to be :
root # chmod 1775 /
Frank asked me if I had changed anything in file sharing, and I told him I had. He asked me what I had shared, and I said the entire drive Cub_3. He asked me what I had done for permissions, if I had denied permissions to anyone. I told him that I had set myself up as the only user that could have access to it, and when he said that's where the problem was the lightbulb went off, and it made sense.
Shortly after I set the sharing preferences is when the server crashed. It all makes sense now...
Frank said not to share the entire disk, only portions (share points) of it. I had done this in Panther Server, and Tiger Server and it worked fine, but apparently Leopard Server works a little differently, maybe more secure.
It seems to me that if sharing the entire disk, which is what I needed would cause such a problem there should have been some sort of warning from the operating system, but there wasn't. I had run into this problem several times over the past three weeks since I had started working with Leopard Server, but in each case I ended up re-installing OS X Server and starting over again.
I told him I would try to reboot from the OS X partition (Cub_1) and try it from there.
He asked me to let him know if it worked, and I said I would...
Problem FIX :
I booted back into the partition containing OS X (Cub_1) and did the following via the Terminal.
$ su - root
$ chmod 1775 /
$ reboot
During the reboot process I held down the (OPTION) key, and selected Cub_3 (the os x server partition) and sure enough after a few minutes of holding my breath the login window magically appeared. So I logged in, and did not have to re-install the server. Hallellujah....
This solved the boot hang problem. It is great to finally have an answer. In retrospect it makes sense, but that's why its hindsight...
The reason for sharing the entire disk in my mind was that since I was the only user on the system, it was easier to have one disk mounted on my workstation rather than several folders. It made sense to me, it still does. I don't need a bunch of folders, just one disk is easier...

PLEASE HELP !! Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.

Last night, I looked at "Get Info" for the "Macintosh HD"
At the very bottom of the window are listed Permissions, that consisted of (1) Owner, (2) Admin, (3)Everyone.
I had the idea that if I REMOVED "Everyone" by selecting it and hitting "-", I could better secure access to the "Macintosh HD".
Well, now the G5 starts its boot up routine and stalls at the gray screen with pinwheel spinning.
1. I tried purging the P-RAM... no change.
2. I tried doing a "Safe Boot", didn't do anything, couldn't get it to boot up beyond gray screen.
3. Booted up from Leopard CD, and ran "Verify Disk" with the result message that "the volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK"
4. Ran "Repair Disk" with the result message that "the volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK"
5. Tried to run "Verify Permissions" with the result message "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit. Permission verification complete"
6. Tried to run "Repair Permissions" with the result message "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit. Permission verification complete"
I assume that my stupidly removing "Everyone" from the permissions list of "Macintosh HD" is the cause.
HELP !!!! IS there an easy way to restore the Permissions to where they were before ????
PLEASE HELP.
THANKS !!!!

I think chmod 1775 sets the sticky bit.
To get more details on what chmod does, do 'man chmod' from the command line. There are man pages for most of the command-line UNIX tools.
BTW, I don't think changing the permissions at the root of the hard drive is the best idea
This is one case where 'repair permissions' might help as well. Once booted into a shell you can do 'sudo diskutil repairpermissions /'

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

Hello,
I get this error when trying to verify the mac's HD. Is this error benign? Should I boot from DVD? Does the disc need to be the one that came with my Mac or can it be a friends? Is this serious?
Sorry for the barage of questions but it's a little worrying.

DCE--
When you got the error recurrence, what copy of Disk Utility were you running--the one on your computer or the one on your install disk?
When I was using my installed copy of Disk Utility, I think I had one of those "spurious errors," although heaven knows my G5 is still not behaving some weeks later. I got the "underlying task reported failure on exit" thing when trying to verify my hard drive. If memory serves, though, Disk Utility's onscreen instructions tell you not to run "verify disk" or "repair disk" functions off the drive you are trying to check. (Unfortunately I'm not at my home computer right now). At any rate, I later spoke with somebody in Apple support and he told me that Disk Utility verification reports are "meaningless" when the application is run from the drive being verified; you have to run it from the install DVD. When I finally got THAT to work (first I had to learn that a Mighty Mouse does not necessarily behave according to its settings when talking to the disk drive), Disk Utility said no repairs were necessary.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit - PLEASE HELP

After running Verify disc I keep getting the following message, What does it mean and how can I repair it? - the Repair disk option is always blanked out;
"The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair"

Maybe make a clone backup of the entire drive to an external FW drive that you can boot from.
Cloning a drive with directory damage, or corrupt data will result in the exact same errors. If the original isn't able to boot, most likely, the clone won't be able to either.
Backups are to protect your data when trouble strikes. After trouble rears it's ugly head, it's too late for clones. Manual (drag and drop) copying of the file can be accomplished, as long as the troubled drive mounts.
Once the original has been repaired, then cloning is once again a good backup protocol.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit / INVALID EXTENT ENTRY

In trying to verify my HD, I get this error message:
Verify and Repair disk “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid extent entry
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
I've tried Disk Utility (not from startup volume) with no luck. I've also run DiskWarrior several times and still get the same message... What am I missing? How do you repair an INVALID EXTENT ENTRY? Is my HD about to bite the dust?
Any help would be much appreciated!
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.8 Ghz / 768mb ram

1derfullymad,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I am surprised that Diskwarrior was not able to take care of this problem, but Handling "overlapped extent allocation" errors reported by Disk Utility or fsck may provide the ultimate solution for you.
Make sure to use Disk Utility to check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your drive. If you get a good report the drive should be OK.
This problem is a characteristic of a full Hard Drive. If that describes your Hard Drive, Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk, by Dr. Smoke may prove to be helpful.
;~)

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)

After much debackle that I posted a few days ago I finally was able to run scans with disk utility. I got this:
Verifying volume ROVER
** /dev/disk3s2
** Phase 1 - Read FAT
Unable to read FAT (Input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)
1 volume checked
     0 HFS volumes verified
     1 volume failed verification
Repairing disk for ROVER
** /dev/disk3s2
** Phase 1 - Read FAT
Unable to read FAT (Input/output error)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)
Repair attempted on 1 volume
     0 HFS volumes repaired
     1 volume could not be repaired
Of course I have no idea what it means so I'm turning to here.
FYI: The disk is named ROVER and it was formated for PC (FAT). I was unable to upload all my music onto the disk and eventually unable to mount it to the desktop ir iTunes.

Hi Charles,
This indicates that your disk volume has issues that Disk Utility cannot fix, you have two options:
# Back up as much of your important data and files as you can, then try using a third-party disk utility to repair the drive. Be sure that you use one that works with your version of Mac OS X.
# Back up as much of your important data and files as you can, then perform an Erase and Install installation of Mac OS X on the affected volume.
Important: This option completely erases the destination volume. You should always back up important files on the target volume before performing an Erase and Install installation. You can then restore your backed up files afterwards.

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

Help -- "The underlying task reported failure on exit" And no boot up

I've spent some time searching the forums and internet for my problem to no avail, so hopefully this isn't something that was posted before.
I recently upgraded my internal drive on my Macbook. Everything has been fine for a week or so, and Leopard ran smoothly. Yesterday, the machine got hung up on backing up to Time Machine. For whatever reason, it got hung up and now all I get when I try to reboot is a gray screen, the Apple logo, and a spinning progress disc.
I can boot from another external drive just fine, and the data on the disk is all there. I just cannot boot from my master internal drive.
I ran Disk Utility from the other external drive (also runs Leopard), and when I try to repair the disk, Mac OS X says everything is fine.
However, when I try to repair permissions, I get the following error:
Verify permissions for “John HD”
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
Permissions verification complete
That's it...nothing else to it. I cannot seem to get over this error no matter what.
Also, I'm a bit nervous because my Time Machine folder has a folder labeled "Update in Progress" that is all white. Will I be able to backup from Time Macine, or is that data now corrupted?
Thanks, and any help will do!
John
Macbook Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz
2 Gig of RAM

Before you do anything it would be worth checking very, very carefully to make sure that you installed your new disk correctly and that all connections are absolutely solid.
Also, you might want to try booting from safe mode. Hold the shift key down on startup until you see the spinning gear. It takes a long time. If that works disable all your non-apple startup items in System Preferences and add them back in one by one until you find the troublemaker.
If a previously completed backup shows up in your Time Machine browser you should be able to choose that one from the Utilities menu from the Leopard install disk. It might not be a bad idea to zero out the drive before reinstalling from Time Machine even though DU is reporting no errors.
Also, since there seems to be an interrupted Time Machine backup make sure than any of your critical data has been backed up by another method before erasing your internal drive.

The underlying task reported failure on exit - what do I do next?

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