Two HDDs saying 'disk needs to be repaired' at same time / external drive.

Hello there,
I have had a strange problem within the last couple of days. Both my iMac which I use at the office and my MacBook Pro have had problems writing to an external FW800 drive which I work directly off [the error comes when I try and save from an application / try and copy / rename files on the drive]. The message is that either a problem occurred or that the filename is too long [it isn't]. When this happens I try and restart, but the disk causes the finder to hang.
This has happened with both machines [the iMac and MBP], and as a consequence - when I run disk utility on each machine, I get a message that the disk needs to be repaired:
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.
Has anybody had similar problems? Is this a coincidence? Or would blame point to the external drive?
The drive is a Lacie Rugged 250gb FW / USB. It does get rather hot - don't know if that should affect anything.
Many thanks,
Ben

Could this problem in turn cause the internal HDD problems I've been experiencing with the iMac and the MBP after the Lacie becomes unresponsive?
Or, your internal HD problems are transferring to the Ext.?
It's hard to say. I would at least do the following basic repairs to all your hard drives.......
Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk.
You could have some directory corruption. Let us know what errors Disk Utility reports and if DU was able to repair them. Disk Utility's Disk Repair is not perfect and may not find or repair all directory issues. A stronger utility may be required to finish the job.
After that Repair Permissions.
No need to report Permissions errors....we all get them.
Think it might have to be returned...
Yes I would return it just cause of the heat issue alone.
Dale

Similar Messages

When I did verify disk, it says "the disk needs to be repaired.." how do I repair it?

When I did verify disk, it says "the disk needs to be repaired.." how do I repair it?

If you verified via Disk Utility then the Repair button is right below the Verify button.
If you verified in some other manner then execute Disk Utility, select the disk, click on Repair.

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely." What do I do now? This is an iMac and I'm running 10.6.8.

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it. See below for how to clone a drive.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
You may be able to backup your data if you have an erased external drive you can use. Before you do the above but after you have opened Disk Utility you can try to clone your drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Now this will only work if the drive is accessible and can be cloned by Disk Utility. Otherwise, you would need to access your drive from another Mac that you can connect via Firewire - Target Disk Mode.

I purchased a Mac book pro in oct 2011, I restarted it after updating and it,s stuck on apple symbol, I hit command R while restarting and clicked on disk utility. It says disk can't be repaired, apple wants $249 to tell me what's wrong. Please help!

I purchased a mac book pro in oct 2011, I restarted it after updating and it,s stuck on apple symbol, I hit command R while restarting and clicked on disk utility. It says disk can't be repaired, apple wants $249 to tell me what's wrong. Please help!

What Apple store told you they wanted $249.00 to tell what is wrong?
If this is a 13" Macbook Pro then that is the cost of the Extended Applecare warranty. As you are outside the 90 days of Free Phone Support then what Apple told you is that to get Phone Support you would either need to pay $45 per phone call or pay $249.00 for the Applecare extended warranty which comes with 3 years Free Phone Support from date of purchase.
Or you can take it to a Apple Genius Bar and have them look at it for Free.
Every Mac comes with 1 year warranty and includes only 90 days of phone support. You can buy the extended Applecare warranty anytime within the first year of ownership, IE until the 1 year warranty runs out.
I suggest you have your computer looked at by either an Apple Authorized Repair Center or Genius Bar and then before the 1 year warranty runs out buying the extended warranty

Disk needs to be repaired using the recovery HD

Hello,
I have received an error when running disk utility that says, "This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD." This issue has popped on a couple of times on my previous MacBooks and maybe once on my current one.
I have followed the suggested protocol (restart + command + r), and I choose disk utilities from the menu at start-up. I have both verified and repaired the disk (my HD), and disk utility says there are no errors; however, when I do a normal restart and run disk utilities again, I get the error message This disk needs to be repaired" again. I have cycled through this process and each time verify and repair disk on the Recovery HD indicates that nothing is wrong while verifying the disk on normal startup results in the same error. I computer has also been laggy.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

computer has also been laggy
When you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Help: Disk Utility: Disks need to be repaired

My MacBook Pro lately has been extremely slow and just constantly thinking and freezing.
I ran the Disk Utility to verify the disk and this is what came up:
"This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the command key and the R key until you see the Apple Logo. When the OS C Utilities Window appears choose disk utility."
So I did this step and went to repair it. But when I said repair disk, it said that the disk seems to be Okay.
Why does it say that? How can I fix my computer, or do I need to go to the Apple Store. Please Help.
Thanks

Looking at your top screenshot:
That appears to be the NETWORK version of Disk Utility.
From this I conclude your Internal Hard Drive was seen as failing, and it would not boot to the Recovery_HD partition on the Internal Hard Drive, and went for the Online/Network version of Recovery_HD (from the Internet) instead.
I think you should take it in for service and expect that they are likely to replace the Hard Drive and give it back to you with a new drive with ONLY Mac OS X (no user files) installed.
AppleCare warranty and SSD:
Like most warranties, AppleCare covers defects in materials and workmanship. They will replace like-with-like, that is: they will give you the same drive or a slightly better one. I suggest you have it fixed and take advantage of whatever they will give you under warranty.
Apple does not sell the 2.5" form factor SATA SSD notebook drives that would just fit into the same space as your internal drive. These are very popular with upgraders, and users find they are somewhat faster, run cooler, and allow the battery to last longer. You can always replace the spinning internal drive later with one more to your liking, and run the old one in an external enclosure for more on-desk storage.
You do not void your warranty by installing an aftermarket drive such as an SSD, but the actual new drive would not be covered under the Apple warranty. (many Vendors warrant the drive separately for at least a year, sometimes longer).

How do I do this: "This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk?"

"This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk."

Stick the disk in, reboot holding c.
Disk Utility is a menu option about the 2 or 3rd screen in the installer. (don't install OS X!)
Because your booted form the installer disk, you can repair the disk.
Quit and exit the installer and reboot.
If your drive is not repaired, make a note of all what it says, for Apple to use.
Reboot and get your files off to a external drive,
Take the note and your comptuer to Apple for a warranty/Apple care call, they will replace the drive.

Error:The Disk needs to be repaired

Hopefully someone can help guide me. I have been noticing a few more spinning beach balls. Nothing dramatic but as a recent convert to Mac (about 1 year) it has me frustrated. A few months ago they got worse and disk utility said my drive was corrupted. Disk utility could not resolve it and through a suggestion I rebooted from the install disk and it repaired the drive. Now with a routine check of disk utility I received a message like below. So I used disk utility from the start up disk to repair the error successfully. Now, just rechecking two days later, it appears that the error is back. Is this something to worry about? If so, it seems I need a more robust tool to repair the disk. Any suggestions? Anyway to tell which program might be causing this? Thanks in advance for any help offered.
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Performing live verification.
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.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 673026 instead of 673027)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 174521 instead of 174520)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.

Thanks for your response. I finally received my DVD from Disk Warrior in the mail, ran the program and everything seems to be fixed and running more smoothly. Thanks for the tip. Sorry it took a bit to respond back. Thanks again.

Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. When I boot on Recovery and run verify disk, the error doesn't come anymore. Just when I run verify disk on normal mode. Anybody has seen this before?

My Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013) has been freezing out of the blue probably once every two months. I restarted on safe mode, went to Disk Utility, repaired permissions and ran "Verify Disk" and got the following:
Invalid directory item count(It should be 114483 instead of 114484)
File system check exit code is 8.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.
Rebooted on Recovery mode and ran "Verify Disk" but the message didn't appear anymore, thus not letting me to access the "Recovery HD" procedure.
When I restart normally and do the disk verification I get the same error.
Has anybody come to something similar?
Suggestions?

I never ever run a Verify Disk. I simple repair the disk drive and then the user partition(s).
And do one or two Safe Boots.
Also helpful to have two full backups: TimeMachine at least, plus a clone of your system drive and data.
Install or clone the system to an external hard drive, repair that and then boot from it, check that everything works, repair the internal drive.
You need to use Repair to TRIM an SSD.
Lots of problems with Yosemite when updating install a new OS. Always better to backup, erase, install, and then use Setup Assistant to import and restore settings and files.
Probably better to post in the MacBook Pro forum or better yet, in Yosemite forum.

Yosemite won't install on my computer because the disk needs to be repaired. I verify, it indicates repair is needed but then the repair disk button can't be clicked. I tried to start in safe mode but it just froze.

I'm to install Yosemite but it tells me the disk need to be repaired. When I verify the repair disk button remains pale and in-clickable. I'm not sure which version of OS X I'm running but I do know I forgot to back up. Help me o-message board, you're my only hope!

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
First of all, open the Apple menu -> About this Mac, and tell us what OS X version you have.
If it is 10.6.x, you need the Snow Leopard DVD. Insert it, press the C key while your Mac is starting up, choose your language and go to Utilities menu (in the menu bar) -> Disk Utility.
If it is 10.7.x or higher, hold down Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up to boot up in OS X Recovery, and open Disk Utility.
After opening Disk Utility, choose your OS X partition in the sidebar (it is usually named "Macintosh HD") and press "Repair Disk". When it has finished, restart your Mac, make a backup of your files and try upgrading to OS X Yosemite.
The backup will help you in case you decide to go back to the OS X version you are using now. If you cannot make a backup and the disk repair does not work, you will have to format the hard disk.

Error : disk needs to be repaired | macBook Pro 15"

Hello everybody,
when I try to verify my HD from the Disk Utility, it tells I have a problem and I get this message " this disk needs to be repaired using the recovery hd restart your computer..... " as shown in the photo below.
after restarting the computer and choosing Disk Utility, I first choosed to Verify and Repair the "Virtual Whole Disk" it worked well for both and the result was OK and the "Disk Status is : Online"
But the problem is I can't repaire the "OS X Base System", I can only verify. The button "Repaire Disk" is greyed out
Can someone help me solving this problem?
Thanks

Pretty difficult to tell. I'm guessing a serious mess-up in the directory structure and/or partition map. But that's just guesswork.
Can you still successfully boot from the Recovery HD? If so, then you can do the following:
Install or Reinstall OS X from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
      the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
           because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should install the version of OS X that you had installed.

This disk needs to be repaired:

I have just checked my hard drive and got this message:
Disk Utility has stopped verifying "Macintosh HD"
This disk needs to be repaired. Startup your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disk), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.
I don't have the disk as I am in a remote part of Ireland miles from both my disk and an Apple store.
Now, my question is, if I update to 10.7 or later via the App Store - I'm currently using 10.6.8 - will I not need to use the OS X disk?

You can not install OS X in system without a properly verified and repaired disk.
Wait until you can get hold of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard disc to do the Disk Repair.

"Error: disk needs to be repaired.. "

When I run disk utility I got the message "Error disk needs to be repaired.." In addition i got the errors:
Incorrect number of file hard links
Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks
Invalid volume free block count
When I restart and after command R, I run the Disk utility but then it shows no errors, what is the problem then?. Thanks

Try removing these one at a time:
     /Home/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/
     /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist and com.apple.iPhoto.LSSharedFileList.plist
     /Home/Pictures/iPhoto Library
Place one at a time into the Trash but do not Empty the Trash. Try to open and use iPhoto. If iPhoto works then the item you put in the Trash is the cause of the problem. If the problem turns out to be iPhoto Library, then you will need to look to a third-party utility that can fix the library.
To find the invisible library folder:
Exposing the /Home/Library/ Folder
Pick one of the following methods:
A. This method will make the folder visible permanently. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
Press RETURN.
B. Click on the Desktop, press the OPTION (⌥) button, select Library from the Finder's Go menu.
C. Select Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Paste the following in the path field:
~/Library
Press the Go button.

Disk needs to be repaired, but I don't have the OS X installation disc.

My MacBook Pro has been slow and crashing so I verified the HD. "Disc utility stopped verifying Macintosh HD. This disk needs to be repaired". I don't have the OS X (snow leopard) disc here, I don't have any friends with Macs nearby, and I'm not near an Apple store. Is there anything I can do? I will be able to get the disk tomorrow, but I need to finish a project today.
Also, if it makes any difference, before this Pages stopped working and I couldn't get it going even after Community help, then I tried to download OS X mountain Lion and couldn't get it to complete the upload, but I couldn't find a reason why even after checking the community board's answers to other people.
Thanks for any help.

Downloading Mt Lion will only cause more problems, because a lot of present software (and hardware drivers for printers, scanners etc) you might have will not work with it.
You will not be able to get a disk today, the disk you need is only available from Apple by calling them on the phone.
You have to find out your exact Mac model, like MacBook Pro 3,1 for instance, because the free MacTracker will tell you something very important, the version of OS X that came with the machine.
You see Intel Mac's that came originally with 10.6.2 or earleir can use the 10.6.3 white retail disk (sans the free iLife) which is easy and cheaper to get. Even Amazon will carry that if your in a rush and willing to pay more.
Mac's that came with 10.6.3+ need machine specific versions that can take longer to get from Apple, could cost more and include the free iLife suite.
If your machine came with 10.5, then the 10.6.3 white retail disks will do and you can extract iLife from the 10.5 disks with Pacifist from CharelsSoft in case it comes to a reinstall.
To boot from the 10.6 disk, hold c or option key down.
However if your computer can't be repaired via the disk, you might have to backup, erase and install 10.6 again.
I have published a HUGE amount of User Tips here to do just about any software repair on Mac's
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

I want to upgrade to mavericks but my disk needs to be repaired but i have the wrong disk

i want to upgrade to mavericks but my disk needs to be repaired with a disk. so i did a disk utility verify and it told me i needed to repair it with another disk.
but my mac was preinstalled with snowleopard and the disk that came with it is mac 10.5 so when i tried to do a start up with the disk it just freezes the moment i click on the start up disk. (did this by trying holding down option/alt button since holding down the C button just locks my screen to the gray screen)
and 'repair disk' is greyed out. and i read somewhere that you can't boot with a disk that is lower than what the mac is.
what can i do?
in case anyone asks for my model:
it is a macbook pro early 2011 model with preinstalled snowleopard

You need to boot using the 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD that you bought from the Apple Store.
If your machine had 10.5 when you got it then in order to upgrade to 10.6.8 you must have purchased 10.6. If you've lost that DVD you can buy it again from the Apple Store.

Two HDDs saying 'disk needs to be repaired' at same time / external drive.

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