My MacBook Pro (Lion Mountain) works perfectly. No evidence of problem.
However, in a routine check, Disc Utility claims: "The start up disk is damaged, no repair is possible, it must be reformatted."
Assertion confirmed by TechTool Pro and Disk Warrior.
Should we care?
What is the best approach?
Thank you.
MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Have you tried to rebuild the directory using DiskWarrior?
If it can not you may need to reformat the hard drive.
I actually tried it with DiskWarrior and Tech Tool Pro.
If it is really necessary to reformat, I would like to know the simple approach to restore the entire contents of my disk. I guess a restore from a recent backup would not change anything.
If DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro are both unable to repair the problem, then you have a very serious issue. You may not be seeing any evidence of problems, but you could have important data files becoming corrupt as you read this.
First order of business should be to back up your data ASAP. When you're done, back it up again on a different drive. (Two separate backups is the absolute minimum, in my opinion.) Once that is done, hold down command-R at startup, erase the hard drive with Disk Utility and then reinstall the system. Then restore your personal data and reinstall any apps.
If this fails, your hard drive may be dying and will need to be replaced.
What do you mean by "data ASAP" ?
Back up your data as soon as possible.
Sorry! My English vocabulary is rather poor.
In addition, I note that only the system partition is damaged. All my data are contained on two other partitions that are tested ok.
Would it be sufficient to erase the system partition?
And is that Time Machine could be useful?
Would it be sufficient to erase the system partition?
It should be, but it's always possible that the overlying partition map has become damaged, in which case only a repartition will fix it.
BTW, why do you have multiple partitions? Are you running Windows in Boot Camp and have a partition that you share between the Windows and Mac systems? If so, that's okay, but note that partitioning without a very good reason (like that one) isn't a good idea.
So I resign myself to reformat my drive and reinstall everything.
Fortunately, I should not risk losing data as they are synchronized on three computers and stored on multiple external drives.
BTW, you talk about a controversial issue. I always thought it best to partition disks. I usually limited to 250 GB partitions, which, in my opinion, make it easier for maintenance and identifying problems.
Moreover, I do not see the disadvantages. I may be wrong.
Thank you very much for your advice.
The main disadvantage to partitioning the system drive is that it artifically constrains the system and data to smaller arbitrarily-sized volumes. If the system volume is too small, it will impact performance, while every byte of free space on the system volume is space you can't use for data storage. In addition to that, there's really no benefit... partitions do not make it easier to maintain or troubleshoot your computer. If anything, they make that more difficult, not easier.
My boot disk is it really damaged?
