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Is my HD toast? Verify or Repair Disk Permissions grayed out

Hello,


I am not asking for forgiveness but I struck my computer in a fit of anger and now I'm reaping what I've sown. Machine will boot up from startup disk(Mac OS X v 10.4 Tiger) but when I try to run First Aid under Disk Utility the the Verify and Repair Disk Permissions are grayed out for my hard drive. I had taken it it apart to check for damage and took out hard drive at that time, but didn't see anything obviously fubar'd. Is there anything else I can try? I'm happy at this point to save my data from the hard drive and walk away.


Cheers,


Seth

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Jul 9, 2011 1:26 PM

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5 replies

Jul 9, 2011 1:30 PM in response to sethfromdenver

If you boot from your Tiger installer disc and run Disk Utility from the installer's Utilities menu, does the hard drive appear in DU's sidebar list? If it does then try this:


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions


Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.


If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

If the disk is not reparable, then you have to reformat:


Drive Preparation


1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.


2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Jul 9, 2011 2:24 PM in response to sethfromdenver

That doesn't mean the drive has failed. It means the drive does not support SMART. If the drive mounts then see:


General File Recovery


If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.


The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.


Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

Is my HD toast? Verify or Repair Disk Permissions grayed out

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