HT204435: Mac OS X: About file system journaling

Learn about Mac OS X: About file system journaling
[GoldenDrake]

Q: How can I disable journaling in El Capitan?

In OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), "Disable Journaling" does not appear under "File" in Disk Utility, even when pressing Option. Running "sudo diskutil disableJournal" in Terminal doesn't work either. When, or how, can this capability be restored for El Capitan users?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Oct 31, 2015 3:39 PM

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Q: How can I disable journaling in El Capitan?

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  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 1:20 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:20 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Thank You all for your help i just double checked over the diskutil list and i chose the wrong identifier disk0s2 and my drive identifier was disk1 and now my hard drive is not journaled.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Nov 18, 2015 1:30 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 8 (49,752 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 1:30 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Once again, stop typing in what you did and what came back and instead copy and paste it from the terminal. You don't have to take a screen shot. Just select the text, copy, and paste into a reply.

    If you really used disk0s2, that is an odd reply as that is what you would have gotten from using just disk0.

    Volume disk0s2 is the startup volume which cannot be disabled, at least while booted that drive. I don't know if it is possible at all.

    Given that the volume is CoreStorage, it also may not be possible to disable. I'm trying to determine that, now.

    do you no how to reenable disable journaling with the disk utility app.

    There isn't a way in the current Disk Utility.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Nov 18, 2015 1:32 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 8 (49,752 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 1:32 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

     

    Thank You all for your help i just double checked over the diskutil list and i chose the wrong identifier disk0s2 and my drive identifier was disk1 and now my hard drive is not journaled.

    Then that answers both of my questions.

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 1:34 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:34 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Yes I know how to enable journal command In disk utility app and terminal.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Nov 18, 2015 1:42 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:42 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

    Thank You all for your help i just double checked over the diskutil list and i chose the wrong identifier disk0s2 and my drive identifier was disk1 and now my hard drive is not journaled.

    FWIW, I think you got the error message when using /dev/disk0s2 because your startup disk is set up using Core Storage (a way of creating virtual disks from one or more physical ones). Because of that, the physical disk "Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2" does not contain a file system, just like the error message said. The virtual disk "Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           +498.9 GB   disk1" does, which is why using "disk1" as the identifier works.

     

    Confusing, is it not?

     

    (Edited for typos)

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 1:55 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 1:55 PM in response to R C-R

    Yeah I found it a bit confusing.

    Hopefully they implement the file + option to disable and enable journaling in the disk utility app.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Nov 18, 2015 2:10 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 2:10 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

    Hopefully they implement the file + option to disable and enable journaling in the disk utility app.

    They probably won't, since a journaled file system is resistant to data loss caused by system problems. You should not disable journaling on an HFS+ file system unless absolutely necessary.

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 2:13 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 2:13 PM in response to R C-R

    I Only do temporarily to scan my computer for viruses with product called fixmestick. Enable when done scanning.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E Nov 18, 2015 2:25 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 8 (49,752 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 18, 2015 2:25 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

     

    I Only do temporarily to scan my computer for viruses with product called fixmestick. Enable when done scanning.

    Perhaps you should ask them to make a product that doesn't require you to alter your system in order to work?

     

    Does it ever really find anything that needs to be cleaned?

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 2:33 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 2:33 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Hasn't found anything yet.

    for the fixmestick that the only way for the usb fixmestick program to scan Mac computer.

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Nov 18, 2015 3:05 PM in response to Andrew9813
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 3:05 PM in response to Andrew9813

    Andrew9813 wrote:

    I Only do temporarily to scan my computer for viruses with product called fixmestick. Enable when done scanning.

    From http://support.fixmestick.com/hc/en-us/articles/203456925-How-to-disable-and-re- enable-filesystem-journaling-on-Mac you do not need to disable journaling to scan them, just to "clean" them. Also note the following from that support article:

    On the newest Mac OS X El Capitan, the option to disable journaling is unavailable. You will still be to run a scan on El Capitan, but you won't be able to clean your Mac. We are sorry about this and our engineers are currently working on a solution.

    So more to the point, why even consider using a product like that when the maker tells you it can't "clean" a Mac running El Capitan?

     

    To begin with, El Capitan has robust anti-malware capabilities built into it, including the new System Integrity Protection feature (SIP, for short), which make it very unlikely any malware could find its way onto your Mac or do any damage to it (unless you do something foolish like installing software from untrusted sources). Beyond that, there is some danger that booting your Mac from what is in effect a third party operating system that may not be designed for SIP compatibility could compromise that if it could "clean" the Mac.

  • by Andrew9813,

    Andrew9813 Andrew9813 Nov 18, 2015 3:13 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2015 3:13 PM in response to R C-R

    I Found that same article about El Capitan. I may not use the product anymore since you said about SIP and I use trusted sources.

    Thank You for your help today.

  • by el0n_mu$k,

    el0n_mu$k el0n_mu$k Dec 27, 2015 6:30 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 27, 2015 6:30 AM in response to Barney-15E

    Does it ever really find anything that needs to be cleaned?

    Fixmestick found three files in /library/Mail/.../Messages/:

     

    1. Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Updatre.eii
    2. Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Updatre.eii
    3. HEUR:Trojan.Win32.Generic

     

    If fixmestick is still unable to clean user library, i will fix it manually. Hopefully it works. Are you sure that these files don't have an impact on my mac?

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Dec 27, 2015 6:39 AM in response to el0n_mu$k
    Level 6 (19,272 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 27, 2015 6:39 AM in response to el0n_mu$k

    The "Win32" identification says it is a Windows trojan.

  • by glenn.randall09,

    glenn.randall09 glenn.randall09 Jan 18, 2016 1:50 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 18, 2016 1:50 PM in response to [GoldenDrake]

    Reformat the disk using diskutil

    diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ Name /dev/disk4

    If you want it journaled, use JHFS+ instead.

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