What is File Vault?
HI! when i first got my ibook i saw that file vault protected my files and decided i should use it...Now, im not sure how filevault really operates or how it protects me and my files. Im the only user on my laptop and im a student. So... should i even have filevault enabled at all? Basically i just want to know how filevault works and if i need it on or not. Thanks in Advance!
-Seth
Be aware that FileVault, even though it runs transparently, does eat up extra CPU cycles, and does slow down your computer to a degree. It is up to the individual to determine if they require that much security.
From the Help files:
Mac OS X includes FileVault, which allows you to encrypt the information in your home folder. FileVault creates a separate volume for your home folder and encrypts the contents of it. The data in your home folder is encoded and your information is secure if your computer is lost or stolen. FileVault uses the latest government-approved encryption standard, the Advanced Encryption Standard with 128-bit keys (AES-128).
When you turn on FileVault, you also set up a master password for the computer that you or an administrator can use if you forget your regular login password.
WARNING: If you turn on FileVault and then forget both your login password and your master password, you will not be able to log in to your account and your data will be lost forever.
If the information on your computer is of a sensitive nature, you should consider using FileVault. For example, if you carry all your company's financial data on your PowerBook, losing your PowerBook could allow someone else access to sensitive data that might hurt your business. If you are logged out of your account when your PowerBook is lost, and FileVault is turned on, your information is safe.
Since you home folder is encrypted, some tasks that normally access your home folder may be prevented, for example: backup utilities may see your home folder as one folder that's always changing, and this could slow down your backup. Also, if you're not logged in to your computer, other users will not have access to shared folders in your home folder
Similar Messages
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What is file vault and should i turn it on??
What is file vault and shuld i use it?
It basically is a system that encrypts your hard drive, making it more secure. It basically makes it so if your laptop is stolen and the thief wants to access files, they won't be able to just take out the HD and put it in another computer.
It really is not necessary unless you are working with files that are very confidential. -
What is file vault encryption?
When iOS 10 updated Yosemite today it required me to re-login to iCloud. It asked if I want to use FileVault encryption disk. What is that and why would I want to use it?
FileVault is Whole Disk Encryption.
When your Mac is powered off, the disk cannot be booted without knowing your password, the disk cannot be removed from the Mac and read on another system without your password. The disk cannot be taking into a lab and dissected to read your data without your password. -
What happens if you Time-Machine backup an encrypted file-vault HD?
This is related to my previous post - but deserves special mention for those people who are using time-vault AND Time-Machine.
My question is this: If the backup of my Hard-drive is encrypted, and I then reinstall from backup, what will this situation likely produce?
This is what I have done. I also Archived and installed my Mac prior to installing from my Time-Machine backup.
I now have an error message that displays the following message at the login screen:
"Unable to log into the file-vault account "......." at this time. An error has occurred."
My password IS CORRECT. I have not changed it, and the log in window does accept my password, but it doesn't progress any further than the error message I gave above.
I'm wondering if the encryption process of file-vault is linked directly with the original installation I had of Mac OS-X before I Archived and installed.
Any thoughts/knowledge/Insight?? I want my old Mac back! (I don't recommend using file-vault). Any body else had this problem or can see what is happening to me here?
Thank you
GregI just did a backup, moved a folder with 600mb of images into a different folder, and did another backup. The free space on the backup drive dropped by the size of the folder's contents. The backup copied the files as I watched in System Preferences, and it looked like it was really copying the files to the external drive again. It looks like Time Machine isn't as smart as I hoped in this regard.
Still - I'd think the wasted space is only in the every-hour-for-the-last-24-hours bucket of Time Machine. I'm guessing the every hour backups are like a sliding window, where a backup that's 24 hours old drops out every hour rather than all the hourly backups getting wiped at midnight and starting over.
Regardless, only one version of the moved folder will eventually be stored as the daily backup for that day. I don't have proof, but that's what I think.
So, if you've moved a bunch of folders around or renamed them, the extra copies of the same exact files should drop off within 24 hours.
That's my interpretation, but I'm in no way positive!! The lengthy Ars review didn't offer an answer to this question. -
What to do if you simultaneously run Time Machine and File Vault
Never do what is mentioned in the subject line; even if you decrypt your drive, it does not spread to Time Machine, and so if you ever need to do a system restore, File Vault will forget your password and lock you out of your own system.
Thankfully, I ended up having recourse. The solution is to log in as root and create a disk image from the last Time Machine backup, "latest," and then duplicate that disk image. Having done that, paste the files into the user folder of your choice, recreating the account you have lost.Realistically, your only option is to upgrade to an Intel-based Mac.
There is no way to use iCloud on a Mac running anything lower than OS X 10.7.2 - not even Snow Leopard.
You can access iCloud.com through a web browser on your current computer, but you'd need a Mac running 10.7.2 to move to iCloud and it wouldn't sync anyway... -
What are the differences between file vault and legacy file vault?
what are the differences between file vault and legacy file vault?
Legacy is an encrypted disk image of your Home folder, FileVault2 is whole disk encryption
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What can I use to lock a partition. File Vault? Anything else
Hi guys
Need some help on some security issues, maybe I can get some help from you.
First off, I really do want to lock a certain partition. They have certain files that no one in my household can see, period.
I have a login password and a screensaver password but maybe if I forget to have them prompt someone, they might see the partition.
Any ideas on how to lock this partition. This partition is a scratch disk therefore I don't want the security measure to affect my performance issues.
I basically just want a feature like this;
When I want to access the partition, it asks for a password, I enter it then it lets my through. I can use the files and when i'm finished I log out of the partition and it's locked. Just like my operating system, but in this case, it's a partition. Maybe even a feature that if i'm inactiv for 20 mins or so, it automatically put on the password.
Would file Vault be appropiate, I heard it had performace issues.FileVault encrypts your Home folder, but not much else.
You would probably be better off with a secure disk image - search for it in DiskUtility's Help
Secure Disk images reside on the volume as an encrypted file. They can only be mounted (allowing access to the files/folders inside) after providing a password. When you're done using it, 'Eject' it and it is unmounted and locked. -
You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount "...
I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
11. Hit Enter
12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
13. Hit Enter again
14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
22. Click OK
23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really!I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
11. Hit Enter
12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
13. Hit Enter again
14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
22. Click OK
23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really! -
How can I repair a File Vault sparsebundle?
Apple has directions for repairing a File Vault sparseimage under 10.3-10.4 here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2631
I couldn't find anything more up-to-date, so I followed those directions but using the different permissions setup in 10.5. Everything seemed to work fine up until it came time to mount the sparsebundle. It wouldn't mount. I could drag the sparsebundle into Disk Utility, but when trying to "Repair" or "Verify" I get this error message:
Unable to attach “testserver.sparsebundle”. (Operation not supported on socket)
\[DUDiskController viewablePartitions\] expecting DUDisk, but got nil
As I was typing this post, I figured out what to do. Being an Admin doesn't cut it; you have to be root. I did not find it listed online, so I'm jotting it here; do this instead of what Apple says:
1. Disconnect from the network (turn off AirPort, unplug Ethernet) because we're about to temporarily log in as root, which could leave us exposed.
2. To enable the root user, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility. Unlock the icon with your admin password, then choose "Edit menu > Enable Root User". If this is the first time, enter a password for the root user, or if you have forgotten your root password, choose "Edit menu > Change Root Password".
3. Log in as root: Log out of the current account, then in the blank login screen, enter "root" as the username along with your root password. Or, if you have fast user switching enabled, make sure you are logged out of the FileVault in question, then pick "Login Window..." from the user menu. If you aren't allowed to type in a user name, open System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options, then disable "Automatic Login" and by "Display login window as" pick "Name and password".
4. Mount the sparsebundle: From the Finder's "Go" menu, pick "Go to folder..." and enter "/Users/". Drill down to the sparsebundle inside your FileVault account, and double-click it to mount it. When asked for your keychain password, cancel. Then you will be asked for your FileVault account's password. For security, make sure the "Store this password in my keychain" checkbox is NOT checked. Enter your FileVault password. The sparsebundle should mount.
5. Repair normally from Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility. The sparsebundle should appear as both a disk and a volume in the left pane of the Disk Utility. When done, quit, eject the sparsebundle and log out of the root account.
6. IMPORTANT: Log back in to a normal administrator account, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility, unlock it if necessary, then pick "Edit menu > Disable Root User". Lock the utility and quit.
7. If you disconnected from the network in step 1, it's okay to reconnect now.
From a security standpoint, it's best to leave the root user disabled. Most of the time, an admin user can get temporary root privileges; this just happens to be an exception.Figured it out and shared solution.
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HELPDeleted user account with file vault on to free disk space, to no avail
My saga is a long one. Quick telling: I am the administrator on my eMac, and was locked out of my desktop last spring when the disk became overly full. File vault was turned on, and I was told by my computer repair folks that since the desktop was encrypted, it could not be accessed. A sad situation, since I had not backed up the disk, and had years of family photos that were lost, not to mention iTunes, Quicken, and more.
Since then I bought a back-up disk, and saved a copy of that desktop, just in case.
My computer is overly full again, and today I decided to delete my old user account in order to free space. Of the 160G in this computer, 80% was associated with that user (that is, me). I deleted account via the System Preferences window and its Accounts window.
I emptied the trash, and 'got info' on my hard drive, only to see that nothing had disappeared, memory-wise! I am still nearly full--only having 2G available, rather than the 130 or more that I had hoped to free up.m I restarted too.
I went to Apple Support to find that one should turn off File Vault before deleting a user account. Unfortunately, this is impossible for me, since I can not/could not access the user account to turn it off.
SO here is my question: is there a way to delete the files of a user account that had file vault turned on, but that is inaccessible? There is no deleted user file in my User folder, by the way.
I am not suer what to do. Any help is appreciated.Thanks for your insights.
The Tech Tool report happened after AppleJack, and never showed up before that. Restarting again just now, it showed up again.
I had not emptied the trash, but did now, and the 'get info' on my hard drive still shows that I have used nearly all of my 160 GB.
Re Disk Warrior: I do have it and just ran it. I emptied trash again and checked to see available disk space: I have 2.47 GB, so the problem still exists.
Here is the disk warrior report for the first part of its tests:
DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Hildegarde." The new directory is
ready to replace the original directory.
There is not enough contiguous free space for a fail-safe replacement of the directory. It is highly recommended that
you create 204 MB of contiguous free space before replacing the original directory.
All file and folder data was easily located.
Comparison of the original and replacement directories indicates that there will be changes to the number, the
contents and/or the attributes of the files and folders. It is recommended that you preview the replacement
directory and examine the items listed below. All files and folders were compared and a total of 14,627,488
comparison tests were performed.
• Errors, if any, in the directory structure such as tree depth, header node, map nodes, node size, node counts, node
links, indexes and more have been repaired.
• 1 folder had a directory entry with an incorrect custom icon flag that was repaired.
Disk Information:
Files: 552,652
Folders: 131,014
Free Space: 2.47 GB
Format: Mac OS Extended
Block Size: 4 K
Disk Sectors: 321,410,736
Media: HDT722516DLAT80
Time: 11/28/08 6:54:19 PM
DiskWarrior Version: 4.1 -
Recovery Partition mandatory for File Vault and unencrypted TM Backup?
I recently had to setup my Macbook Pro from scratch meaning erasing the whole disk and start from there.
The update to Lion took already place a while ago and I had File Vault active. After making a last backup using
TM I erased the disk and all partitions including Recovery partition and used the Leopard system DVD to boot
the machine.
From there I used the restore function to restore my TM backup to the MacBook. However, as the drive was
not partioned and not formated, I had to do this manually. Apparently, the recovery process via TM does not include
that. After system recovery, I booted from the Macbook and all apps and configuration seemed ok.
I was a little surprised to see that I was able to do this recovery without being asked for ID and password of the user's File Vault access
or the File Vault recovery key. All I needed was the TM ID and password (which is different from the owners ID and password)
I am not sure if this is supposed to work like this but I looks rather easy to gain access to application an data of another user if that
is all it takes?
Now booting Lion again, I checked File Vault and noticed it was disabled although it was enabled for quite a while and long time
before I took the latest backup. I could not turn it on, after providing a recovery key and asking me wether I wanted to write it down
or safe it with Apple which I declined I wanted to reboot the notebook to start encryption but stopped saying my partition or volume
would not support File Vault. This was GUID and MacOS Extended Journal partition and volume which to my knowledge would
certainly support File Vault. In fact this is basically what I had before when File Vault was turned on and running.
I called Apple support a few times. The second agent told me that it does not work because there is not recovery partition on my
system but there was when I took the latest backup and I do have other means to get the recovery screen. Anyway it seems that
File Vault required a local Recovery partition and I was wondering if anyone can tell me why this dependency exist. If I write down the
recovery key, why would I need it to be stored on my disk as well?
Also, if anyone has an idea if there is a way of creating a local recovery partition without having to go through the lenghty process of installing
Leopard then upgrade to Lion and install all the apps and configure the OS again, would be great? I assume when I am back on Lion and use the TM
backup for recovery, I probably end up with having the Recovery partition deleted and start from scratch again.
I am a little concerned about the fact that it seems so easy to gain access to a protected backup and that the TM restore process does not include
restoring partition and volumes as well. Who knows how many other dependencies exist and users have to reinstall their system again after recovery.
I was following the recovery instruction of Apple but perhaps someone knows a better way to do this?Just an update, I went ahead and installed Lion again over the existing TM restored installation using the Lion Update file and at least File Vault is working. Interestingly, I still do not have a Recover partition so obviously something new for Apple Support to learn.
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How do I restore partial backup of File Vault protected files?
Here's what happened.
Used TM on an external drive not big enough to do a full backup of my internal drive (with File Vault protected home folder), so I excluded everything but my Documents and Photos folders. I saw TM working, I could browse through old backups in TM and locate files. I know the home directory won't copy when you are logged in and FV turned on, and I never had the TM drive attached when I was logged off, but I didn't backup my home folder, just files inside it and like I said, I was able to view the files in TM.......before my internal drive died.
So now I got my laptop running again and can't restore from TM because I didn't have a full backup. And while I can open TM now and scroll back to previous backup dates, there's nothing in my old users directory except some Acrobat user data junk. I've looked at the directories in Finder and don't see any of the sparse bundle (?) files I've seen in other posts.
6000 photos. Gone.
Hundreds of dollars of iTunes downloads. Gone.
Please tell me there's a way to recover this. I don't care as much about the music, that's replaceable, but I really want to get those photos back. Is it possible? Was TM tricking me into thinking my photos were backed up when they weren't? I have to be missing something; I need help from anyone that can. It doesn't seem right to show me the files in TM if they really hadn't been backed up.stephenberk wrote:
I never logged out, only restarted after Software Update.
As I noted, TM only backs up a FV User folder after you log out, giving you a notice that a backup is about to start. If you never logged out and have never seen this notice then you have no backup of your FV folder.
The data may still be available on your HD and can be recovered with software and/or commercial data-recovery businesses, but being encrypted makes it much more difficult.
When I scrolled back through my backups, I could browse the Photos and Documents. I prevented TM from backing up Library and Public and couldn't browse those. Where are those partial backups? I feel beyond misled by Apple. How could I have seen (and still see the dates in TM the backups were done) all those things if it hadn't actually backed it up? I could have easily copied my files manually onto the firewire drive (as I was doing before I started using TM). But then I had to delete those backups to run TM on it. Unbelievable. This almost seems criminal. -
I cannot log in to a MAC 10.5.8 and File Vault was NOT turned on.
Dear Mac Experts:
I know that there are many pages of information about using, remembering and managing passwords. I have read most of them.I know the passwords and File Vault was not on. I am working at someone's home on their computer and running their business. The computer is running MAC 10.5.8 and I don't know if it can be updated. The computer had an Admin account and no user accounts. I tried to change this so the compuer would be secure but my client did not want to. When I left yesterday the computer was fine. When I came in today there were a number of apps hanging. I forced quit Firefox and some other apps and logged out an shut down the computer. When I tried to log into the Admin Account which is the main user account I got the error messages below:
Your FileVault-protected home folder did not open and needs to be repaired.
click ok to repair the folder and continue logging in.
I clicked ok
then I got a new error message:
You are unable to log in to the user account "x" at this time because and error occured.
Clicked OK
File Vault was not turned on at anytime that I know of in the last couple of months. I luckily had a guest user set up and logged in as guest. In order to create another Admin account I had to use the password for the initial Admin main user account which unlocked the preferences pane and allowed me to create a new Admin Account.
Checked that FileVault was turned off.
After reading all of your comments and suggestions for the last 2 hours my head is spinning.
I don't know unix or type commands. I don't know where the install discs are.
As the new Admin I went into the keychain files and tried to verify and repair the original Admin's info.
Here is what I got:
Verification started
Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/suero
Checked login keychain
Error: login keychain not found
Unable to get info for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, reason: No such file or directory
Checked password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Unable to verify password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)
Unable to read settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)
Checked default keychain
Problems were found; you should choose the Repair option to fix them
Verification failed
Repair started
Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/suero
Checked login keychain
Error: login keychain not found
Warning: some problems were not fixed
Repair failed
The machine is backed up onto a lacie external hard drive every hour.
In addition, while I was poking around I found the following:
com.apple.kerberos.kdc certificate
not trusted
com.apple.systemdefault certificate
not trusted
Could there be some malware at work? What can I do to get her files, home directory and everything back?
Thank you in advance for your patience with an old OS and a MAC user who does't feel comfortable mucking around under the hood.
Tracy
Message was edited by: TracyCVHi Tracy,
I don't suspect Malware yet, Id guess Disk corruption or failing Hard Drive with Files not found.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, 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 at top of the screen. (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. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). 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.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward. -
Can't enable File Vault 2 in Lion on Mac Pro
Going insane trying to get file vault 2 enabled on my mac pro.
It's an older octocore mac pro (2x2.8 GHz Xenon) with 10 GB RAM. I have a 2 tb startup disk, another 2tb disk, and a pair of 1.5TB disks that form a mirrored RAID.
i tried enabling file vault on one of the startup disks and it would enable then restart, and i would get to the login screen after the restart and the keyboard would be frozen (usb) and so would the mouse. i started going nuts and tried to boot into recovery mode but i would hold down my keys and would be greeted with (after the initial grey startup screen) a white screen for a second, and then it would just boot up normally.
ok...
repaired permissions and verified disk, said it needed repair. coudln't figure out how to get it fixed because the stupid computer won't boot in recovery mode. made a recovery usb disk and it still wouldn't boot in recovery mode even with the stick.
started it as a targeted disk and ran disk util from my laptop. coudln't repair it, siad the disk was corrupted and needed to be formatted.
SO.
formatted the OTHER startup disk, extended/journaled, and installed lion on it cleanly using my usb installer. figured i'd turn on file vault on the brand new untouched install and then run migration assistant.
guess what: when i restarted it, i still got the login screen without the ability to use the mouse or keyboard.
pushed the power button, turned it back on, and it ignored all my attempts to get into recovery mode and continued to boot up normally.
what's going on?!!? pulling my hair out...!! any thoguhts are much appreciated!It seems your hard disk is damaged from time to time this give tremandous problems even before booted as the Mac wants to read stuff he can't...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790 -
Recovery HD partition disappears when I install Mavericks. File Vault 2 can't be turned on.
Hi folks,
I've run into this issue and repeated internet searches don't turn up anyone else having the same problem.
Until a couple of days ago, I've had the most recent version of Mountain Lion installed with File Vault 2 turned on. Everything has been fine.
I did a clean install of Mavericks, and everything went fine with the install. During the post-install set up, I get a window saying that I used to have FV2 turned on, and that to do so again requires me turning it on in System Preferences. So I try to do that, but then I get a message saying that "some disk formats do not support the recovery partion that needs to be created...".
So I look (using both diskutil list and enabling the debug menu in Disk Utility) and see that the Recovery HD is gone. I don't know how to recreate it and don't understand the command line partitioning well enough to try it, so I try again with Mavericks, doing it the long way:
I do a clean install of Lion.
Boot up into Lion, and verify that the Recovery HD partition was created. It was.
Boot up from the Mavericks bootable USB I made, erase just the main partition I intend to install Mavericks on (again, I see Recovery HD exists).
Install Mavericks.
Boot up from the internal HD Mavericks, get the same note about turning on FV2 manually, and try to do so.
It fails again. I use diskutil and Disk Utility with the debug menu, and sure enough Recovery HD is gone and I cannot turn on FV2.
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I feel like this would be a more widely discussed issue if this were a pure Mavericks issue. But Apple is not giving us a lot of support for doing clean installs (all instructions I find are on tech nerd blogs), so I'm lost about where to begin.
Thanks for your help.
It is Thu Oct 24 08:32:28 MDT 2013.
< Thu 8:32am ~ > diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Tesla 499.2 GB disk0s2FWIW, I did a clean install of Mavericks with a bootable USB drive, which I created following the instructions in this link:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/10/22/perform-clean-install-os-x-mavericks/
The short method did not work. I succeeded with the longer method.
Mavericks installed without a hitch, after which I spent hours customizing settings, clean installing applications and restoring data from my prior Mountain Lion backup. No problems at all, just very time consuming.
However, I could not activate "Find my Mac" because the installer had not created a a Recovery HD. I trawled the forums and was discouraged by the apparent complexity of creating one.
This is what I did, which worked perfectly and required very little attention. It is almost automatic, fail proof and done in under an hour (with a fast internet connection to download Mavericks at just over 5GB).
1.- Back up the system. Better still, clone your system to an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner.
2.- Download Mavericks from the App Store.
3.- It will warn you that you already have 10.9 installed. Download anyway.
4.- When it finishes downloading you'll get a window prompting you to install. Confirm.
5.- Enter your user password when prompted.
6.- Go for a walk. In about 45 min your system will have restarted Mavericks and all your settings, applications and data will be there.
7.- Check that you now have a Recovery HD by restarting the system, holding the Option key down when you hear the startup gong. You'll (hopefully) see the system HD and the Recovery HD (10.9).
Hope this will help someone.
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