Disk Management Tool error in Disk Utility

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Level 1

37 points

Disk Management Tool error in Disk Utility

There's a growing thread elsewhere from various people who are having the same problem -- but it's wandering into other topics. I'm starting this to refocus. I'm running 10.4.4 on four Macs. Two now have this problem.

When I run Disk Utility and attempt to repair permissions, I get this specific error message: "Disk Utility internal error -- Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility." The repair-permissions will not proceed. I suspect that it fails to get the proper "correct" permissions info for that drive to allow the repair.

Disk Utility protests, but quits when I go through the "...can leave a disk non-operational" warning and choose Quit again. But no step including relaunch, restarts, removal of various apps and plists, so far, gets me past that error message in Disk Utility and into Permissions repair.

There is a complete crash log report in Crash Reporter, by the way. Anyone want the text, and would it help figure out what's happened?

Also, FYI, the path to Disk Management Tool "DiskManagementTool") is /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Resources/DiskManage mentTool

No luck with the suggested deletion of iTunes 6.0.2 or Chess.app and its plist (these and other steps were suggested on MacFixIt at http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060111090035797 the advice is, basically, to delete iTunes 6.0.2 and/or Chess.app and related plist files. As I said, no luck!

Everyone that I talk to says it MUST be the fault of some other disk utility software.

Now, for what it's worth, I've run Disk Warrior -- and, the drive that's having the problem is a recent reinstall from a backup using Carbon Copy Cloner. The original disk is NOT having such a problem, only the hard drive on my iBook after the reinstall. Don't know if that gives any clues (or to how the link gets somehow disengaged between Disk Utility and the Disk Management Tool file / software).

Any thoughts on that? What about replacing the Disk Management Tool file in the Library or forcing some kind of re-link to it? some Unix guru MUST know a fix!

Obviously, the big worry for me is that I can't update my System to 10.4.5 or anything else without repairing permissions first. This IS a big deal. And others are having the same problem. Help?!?

iBook G4 just bought and New 2 GHz dual g5, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Feb 28, 2006 12:26 PM

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Answer 1

Beavis2084

Level 4

2,854 points

Mar 3, 2006 8:41 AM in response to Steve Jolly

Not sure what instructions you followed to solve the issue, but this thread provided instructions that worked for all 3 of my Macs.

Beavis2084

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Answer 2

Dr. Smoke

Level 9

56,586 points

Mar 3, 2006 11:34 AM in response to Steve Jolly

Hi, Steve.

The message

Disk Utility Internal Error Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and re launch Disk Utility.

is not documented in the KB.

The error message indicates that the background process DiskManagementTool has probably crashed and interprocess communication is lost. It indicates there could be file system problems depending on the reason for the crash.

Potential causes include:

1. A corrupted BOM (Bill of Materials) file in a Receipt package.

2. Directory corruption.

3. A corrupted System or application-related file, possibly due to directory corruption or bad sectors on the disk.

Corrrective Action

1. Sometimes, simply quitting and relaunching Disk Utility may resolve the issue.

2. Check your hard drive using Step 1 in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified. Write down any errors reported which cannot be repaired.

3. Check for a corrupted file by running Repair Disk Permissions from Terminal:

(1) Open Terminal, which resides in the Applications > Utilities folder.

(2) At the prompt, type the following command exactly as written:

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

and press return.

(3) Type your Admin password when prompted.

(4) Watch for messages indicating problem files. If problem files are found, e.g. messages are returned such as
can't compute checksum for some file name
then these files may need to be corrupted and could indicate deeper problems with your hard drive, such as bad sectors. I recommend you post the lines concerning problem files from the command issued in step (2) for analysis.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use requires I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Answer 3

Kevin Horn

Level 4

1,836 points

Mar 3, 2006 12:27 PM in response to Steve Jolly

I've noticed that when restoring from a clone sometimes not every file gets transfered over. I would do a search for everywhere there is a preference or cache or some other system file for Disk Utility, then find the same places on the clone and see if there is anything missing on the restore disk that is on the clone.

I had this problem with Quark, several bits of it were lost, including my registration info so it wanted me to register online again. I opened up the clone and simply dragged and dropped all supporting Quark files from my clone back to the restored hard drive and everything was fine. In that case I couldn't see anything missing but replaced all files from the clone and that fixed it.

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Answer 4

Ty Cox

Level 1

55 points

Mar 24, 2006 6:05 AM in response to Steve Jolly

I experienced the same problem last night.

My desktop did not install completely; the Finder's menu bar did not appear and the spinning beach ball appeared. It did this when I re-booted several times. The most popular approach to any OS X problem is to repair permissions, so I pulled out my Panther Install disk and ran Disk Utility. Like you, I got an error message regarding a lost connection with the Disk Management Tool. I tried "Repair Disk" and it quit for the same reason.

Thinking my internal harddrive might be broken, I tried installing Panther on a new LaCie firewire disk. To my surprise, the install failed for the same reason. Meanwhile, I was unable to mount my internal drive any longer.

My next plan of action, is to install Panther on my LaCie drive using another Mac, then reconnect and try booting from it with my sick Mac.

Does anyone know if this could be a firmware issue? I don't know what the firmware's role is; does it impact harddrives? I may try re-installing the firmware to see if it helps.

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Answer 5

Ty Cox

Level 1

55 points

Mar 24, 2006 6:22 PM in response to Ty Cox

My progress thus far...

When I was unable to install Panther on my external LaCie disk, I connected it to another Mac and was able to. I then re-attached the LaCie disk to my sick Mac. I was able to boot from the LaCie disk.

I ran Disk Utility AND Disk Warrior. Neither utility reported anything wrong with the Mac's internal disk from a hardware standpoint. Disk Warrior, however, had to repair some seriously damaged files and replace the directory. Still, I was unable to boot from the Mac's internal disk.

I decided to erase and re-install the OS, but the installation process failed.

Perhaps the harddrive IS bad, but neither utility is able to recognize this. I may replace the disk tommorow and see if I can install the OS on it. If the installation fails, I'll know the problem lies elsewhere.

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Answer 6

Ty Cox

Level 1

55 points

Mar 24, 2006 8:04 PM in response to Ty Cox

Success. But it isn't a harddrive problem. Apparently, it's bad RAM.

I had 638 Mb of RAM (2 x 256 Mb and 1 x 126 Mb). The 126 Mb module was original. The later two I installed; one is Mac Mall RAM, another may be Apple's---I dunno, I bought both some years ago.

Anyway, I removed the two 256 Mb modules and I was able to install the OS on my sick Mac and boot without a problem.

I may re-install each 256 Mb module separately and see if I can determine which one is faulty. As I said, one may be Apple's offering. They look different; one's pins are copper-looking, the other's pins look light gold.

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