"The Underlying Task Reported Failure On Exit" ???

It may be a failing harddrive.
Consider getting DiskWarrior and using it.
If computer is under warranty, bring it in for repair.

Hi

I had exactly the same error/nightmare last week. After trying to start with the OSX disck and run the “Disk Util” to Repair Permissions, the error was "The Underlying Task Reported Failure On Exit"(same as you). On my 1st attempt to install the OS X by choosing the option to keep all previous system settings it worked and I was very happy with that. After working for a couple of hours with my recovered system, all looked normal. Than I decided to shutdown my machine and take a break. When trying to start it again, the situation got worst and I could not even install the OS X again.
My Mac Pro is 5 months old and after 1 week fighting to solve this issue and trying all Apple suggestions, like basic troubleshooting starting in single user mode, using the fsck commands, using Disk Util, DiskWarrior($111.90 USD wasted) among others and no joy at all. When ever I tried to Repair Permissions the same error came up "The Underlying Task Reported Failure On Exit". The only Apple suggestion that worked for me so far was loosing all my applications, settings and some documents, erasing the hard disk and reinstalling OS X.
Off course, now I do not trust my Apple system and I’m trying to understand what happen and what can I do to prevent this from happening again.
There was no physical damage on my hard disk, therefore my Apple warranty is totally unuseful here. I ran several tools to check the HD and they all report “your HD looks fine”. Even before erasing HD and reinstalling OS X, all the tools reported the same.

Here is the list of the tools I tried without success:
Disk Util(OS included)
Applejack(free)
Stellar Phoenix(free)
MacCleanse(free)
EmptyTrash(free)
DiskWarrior($111.90 USD)

Hope you re luckier than me, and please I someone know a way to prevent this please let us know.
Thanks & regards

Hsrego,

I had the same problem as you, I was able to fix it installing the latest combo update (10.5.5). Good Luck, hope this helps...

Usually an "The Underlying Task Reported Failure On Exit" error while running disk utility means a corrupt directory on the drive. Your best bet would be [DiskWarrior|http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html] or [TechTool Pro|http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid =48].
Steve

I'm going around posting because I ran into a similar issue and it turned out that the HD drive's permissions had been changed by my tech support guy to remove read-write-exec from Others. Manually chmod'ing o+x allowed me to run Repair Disk Permissions correctly and resolve the problem.

Do you do this in the "Get info" dialogue for the hard drive? What should the permissions be normally set at?

Thanks