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Disk Utility download

Hello again mac forums, I have a problem (surprise surprise)

Short version: I need a bootable copy of Disk Utility that I can burn to a CD and use. I'm away from home and unwisely didn't bring my OS dvds. I've searched high and low for a place to download it without luck. Where can I get this simple OS X tool to save my mac?


Long Version: My brother's iPod got corrupted. I tried to fix it. I plugged it in and used Onyx to view hidden files. My plan was to pull the music data off the iPod, restore it to factory settings, and then drag the music back on, hence avoiding any music loss. One problem I probably should have seen: Finder came across a corrupt file and promply froze. Restarting normally didn't work, with Finder frozen, so I held the power button. Upon rebooting, it just sat at the grey Apple, no loading bar appearing. I can get it to that firewire mode, but that can't help me.
Blessing and a curse: I have boot camp installed, which is a blessing because I still have some computer access to post this, but it's a curse because when I hold Shift to start the mac safe mode and scan, it detects a working Windows and a non-working Mac OS X, and ignores my Shift-holding, and boots directly to Windows.
What I think went wrong: When I turned hidden files on, it either made everything hidden or everything un-hidden, which one way or another prevents OS X from loading its own startup files.
Now I need Disk Utility (or so I believe) to repair permissions on my drive and get me back to my mac-filled bliss. Which brings me back to the main question: Where can I download it?


Whether you've read the short or the long, I hope you can point me in a good direction, or help me in some way. Waiting until this vacation is over is a very sad option and it would be infinitely better if I could solve this quickly.

Thanks

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 2GB RAM, 80GB HD, 2 GHz

Posted on Aug 19, 2007 8:11 PM

Reply
3 replies

Aug 19, 2007 10:40 PM in response to Jason Beer

Disk Utility is part of OS X. You can't download it. Furthermore you can't 'boot' Disk Utility. You can put Disk Utility on a bootable disk.

Disk Utility won't help you. Nor would repairing permissions. You've lost critical system files that are either lost or damaged. Without those you cannot start OS X. Your recourse is to reinstall OS X for which you need the installer DVDs.

Aug 20, 2007 4:01 AM in response to Kappy

"Disk Utility is part of OS X. You can't download it. Furthermore you can't 'boot' Disk Utility. You can put Disk Utility on a bootable disk."
- It's what I meant

"You've lost critical system files that are either lost or damaged. Without those you cannot start OS X."
- Making them hidden by accident constitutes as lost or damaged? Will I really not be able to just run something to switch the file visibility back?

Aug 20, 2007 11:06 AM in response to Jason Beer

Visibility is irrelevant. The startup error you get means the files are missing or damaged. As I said you're recourse is to reinstall OS X. Repairing the drive or permissions will not solve the problem. However, if you would rather not take my word for it you can try this:

Boot the computer into single-user mode be restarting the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until the computer starts up to a black screen with white type. If it doesn't startup properly in single-user mode then you know that the OS installation is hosed. If it does startup properly then you will have a console prompt. At the prompt enter (press Return after each command:)

+/sbin/fsck -fy+

If the drive is OK you will receive a message indicating the filesystem is OK. If repairs were required you will receive a message indicating the filesystem was modified. In this case re-run the +fsck -fy+ command until you receive a filesystem OK message. If you re-run the command more than 7 times without the OK message, then the filesystem is not repairable.

To restart the computer normally enter:

reboot

Disk Utility download

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