Disk Utility: HD Corrupt, but working!

[mpt-matthew]

Decided to do a verify disk, and it came up with the following message...

Invalid directory item count (1272 not 1274)
Invalid directory item count (39 not 37)
Volume bitmap needs minor repairs for orphaned blocks
Invalid volume free block count (17933196 not 15545569)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired
The disk needs to be repaired using Recovery HD...

I was just today, going to do a full time machine (time capsule) backup, because i rearranged a load of my files (not system ones).
This will take a while. But i think i should backup before repairing the disk??

THe disk appears to be working fine, and i don't think i've done anything to upset it. It's under 1 year old (my last one died), and is from Apple.

What do all these numbers mean? Is this a bad corrupt, or a simple something is out of place corrupt?

 

[John T]

It's a good idea to occasionally verify your HDD and it can happen that something can go awry with the the filing system etc. Just do as Disc Utility recommends and then all should be ok. You may even notice an improvement to operating speed after the repairs.

 

[Fishrrman]

There are some repair tasks that Disk Utility cannot do on the "main" drive while you are booted from that drive.

You have to boot from another source, then launch Disk Utility, then select your main drive, and let it do the repairs.

This is why DU advised you to reboot from the "recovery partition" before repairing the drive.

Here's what to do:
1. Back up your drive if you wish.
2. Reboot. As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the "option" key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN. In a few moments, the startup manager will appear.
3. Select the recovery partition with either the mouse pointer or tab key, then hit "enter" or "return"
4. The Mac will boot from the recovery partition.
5. You want to choose "Disk Utility" from the options there
6. In Disk Utility's window, click one time on your main drive to select it, then click the "repair disk" button
7. Disk Utility will do the repair.
8. I suggest that once the repairs are done, you REPEAT the "repair disk" process once more, just to be sure there are no other errors or repairs.
9. When done, just reboot.

 

[mpt-matthew]

There are some repair tasks that Disk Utility cannot do on the "main" drive while you are booted from that drive.

You have to boot from another source, then launch Disk Utility, then select your main drive, and let it do the repairs.

This is why DU advised you to reboot from the "recovery partition" before repairing the drive.

Ok, waiting for my backup to complete now.
As long as it's not imminent failure.