Disk Utility disk repair fails

[Slrman]

I'm running OSX 10.4.11 on a 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz with 1.25 GB of RAM and an 80 GB HD.

When I run the disk Utility to Verify Disk, it ends with the message, "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." This happens if I run the Disk Utility from the hard drive, from the OSX installation disk or from an external hard drive.

The Repair Drive button is always grayed out no matter where I am running the disk Utility from, too.

So far, I haven't had any other unusual things with the operation, but I'm concerned that this could be an early warning of problems to come.

Has anyone else had this problem or have a clue?

I have cloned the entire hard drive onto an external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. I know PPC systems won't boot from a USB drive, but I was considering booting from the install disk, re-formatting the drive from there and then re-installing from the external by running CCC from there. I hope someone will have a direct solution to repairing the drive without doing all of that.

I'll appreciate any clues I get for certain!

 

[jabbott]

I'm running OSX 10.4.11 on a 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz with 1.25 GB of RAM and an 80 GB HD.

When I run the disk Utility to Verify Disk, it ends with the message, "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." This happens if I run the Disk Utility from the hard drive, from the OSX installation disk or from an external hard drive.

The Repair Drive button is always grayed out no matter where I am running the disk Utility from, too.

So far, I haven't had any other unusual things with the operation, but I'm concerned that this could be an early warning of problems to come.

Has anyone else had this problem or have a clue?

I have cloned the entire hard drive onto an external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. I know PPC systems won't boot from a USB drive, but I was considering booting from the install disk, re-formatting the drive from there and then re-installing from the external by running CCC from there. I hope someone will have a direct solution to repairing the drive without doing all of that.

I'll appreciate any clues I get for certain!

Try opening up Terminal (under Applications/Utilities) and typing "mount".

Then look for what disk is mounted as / (it should be the first line of output after "/dev/"). On my system it is "disk0s2". Then type:

sudo /sbin/fsck_hfs -f /dev/[disk]

where [disk] is the disk that is mounted as / on your system.

You may want to try this booting up from a Mac OS X install disc as well, which will give you the option of repairing what is broken.

If you find that fsck_hfs doesn't work, then you should try an alternate solution such as Disk Warrior or Drive Genius.

Another thing to check is the "S.M.A.R.T. Status" on Disk Utility. Make sure that says "Verified". If it says "Failing" in red, then you need to replace your hard drive. Here is a guide you can use.

Good luck with the repair! I went through a similar issue many years back with a 15" PowerBook, and ended up swapping out the hard drive for a much larger one that was 7200 RPM. It was a great upgrade considering the original was much smaller and slower.

 

[Slrman]

Problem solved

Jabbot, thanks for the feedback. But just before I got the email about your post, I had one of those brilliant flashes of inspiration that reveals to you just how stupid you were before.

I realized that I did not boot from the install disk but simply inserted it and ran disk utilities from there. Obviously, this is not the same thing at all. Nor is running DU from an external drive as you have still booted from the drive you are trying to repair. That's why "Repair was always grayed out in Disk Utilities. You cannot make repairs on your boot disk. Duh!

I rebooted from the install disk and then was able to do the repair no problem. BTW, getting "Info" from Disk Utility also gives you the SMART status. Mine was "Verified", so no problem.

Thanks again for the feedback and I hope this may help someone else with the same brain fade I had.

 

[jabbott]

Jabbot, thanks for the feedback. But just before I got the email about your post, I had one of those brilliant flashes of inspiration that reveals to you just how stupid you were before.

I realized that I did not boot from the install disk but simply inserted it and ran disk utilities from there. Obviously, this is not the same thing at all. Nor is running DU from an external drive as you have still booted from the drive you are trying to repair. That's why "Repair was always grayed out in Disk Utilities. You cannot make repairs on your boot disk. Duh!

I rebooted from the install disk and then was able to do the repair no problem. BTW, getting "Info" from Disk Utility also gives you the SMART status. Mine was "Verified", so no problem.

Thanks again for the feedback and I hope this may help someone else with the same brain fade I had.

No problem. Sometimes it takes asking a large audience something before you realize that you already knew the answer.