Using Disk Utility to repair a disk – Mac OS X

Disc Utility is a great and very useful application for Mac OS X which allows the user to perform a wide variety or simple and complicated tasks on the system related to permissions, minor/major errors and repairing discs. It might seem to be easier and non-complicated for the experienced users but it will create problems and unidentified issues for the beginners and new users. Due to this reason, it really becomes essential to know about definition, applications and appropriate uses of the Disc Utility.

Use of Disc Utility and its location in OS X

Going through different functionalities of the Mac OS X, it would be a lot easier and convenient task to repair or fix issues and errors with the help of Disc Utility. Of course, it can be frequently used in repairing minor errors or system file permissions in the directory structure of disk. You can easily find it on the Applications folder on your hard drive which is nestled within the Utilities section. No doubt, the users and experts can further make use of the Disc Utility from recovery partitions or OS X installation disc.

How to repair disc in OS X with Disc Utility?

In most of the cases, Disc Utility can be frequently used to verify the active startup disc in versions 10.4 or above however; it will certainly fail to repair the desired directory structure in lower versions.

• Start your system with recovery partitions.
• Restart the computer while holding O key when startup sound is heard. In order to boot your system using recovery partitions, just select ‘recovery’ from the menu and it will take some time.
• Disc Utility option selection will greatly vary depending on the Mac OS X system version which are discussed below –
• For 10.2.x – 10.3.x versions, you can Open Disc Utility right from Installer menu.
• For 10.4.x-10.6.x versions, you will have to open Utilities menu to further select Disc Utility.
• For 10.7.x-10.9.x, just get to Disc Utility from OS X utilities menu.
• After Disc Utility gets opened, a new window will be displayed showing all the external or internal memory drives. Just choose the hard disc and it will further show a new window with some options.
• Choose the First Aid tab and firstly, you will have to click on Repair Disc button. You will see the list of problems, if any otherwise; it will display ok message.

If the system does not find any disc, it is symptom of a serious and critical issue. However, clicking on Repair Disc finds any problem of the same kind even on the second scan; you will need advanced utility to repair the disc.

It should be noted here that Disc Utility can also be used to verify or repair system file permissions however; this condition will never require you to startup your system in recovery partition mode. With more advanced drives, you might find S.M.A.R.T. or Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology status in which the discs can report a problem before occurrence of any hard drive failure.