Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have attempted to use repair disk in Mavericks for other than the boot desk and receive an error message, "Live file system repair is not supported? What is this message?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
It is likely related to the way Mavericks updates volumes to be bootable with its new EFI partition scheme. Make sure you select the actual partition and NOT the volume or disk as it will likely include this EFI partition and generate this error. "Live file systems" are files curremtly used or protected by the system from being altered.
See the following Apple support docs with more info. (Repair errors, Using Disk Utility for repairs)
Instead of turning off all file sharing in System Preferences: Sharing, simply select the volume, do Get Info (Cmd+I) and uncheck the "Shared folder" box. I was then able to run Repair on the volume that had been reported as "live."
I don't know why Mavericks has to be so tenacious when trying to unmount a shared volume. Is it a feature or a bug?
Christine's solution worked for me. I was able to run disk utility and repair disk. I did not need to stop file sharing - but did unmount any other drives and then restarted holding down the command and r key.
For me the solution was to simply force eject the drive, and then unplug it from USB, and then plug it back in. My drive was a WD.
Question...
I have a 1TB Fusion drive installed inside as operating disc in 2011 iMac running 10.9.3.
When I boot from a USB drive for maintenance...I'm getting the "live file system" error from Disk Utility.
It is running nothing, and sharing is not on, and it is not mourned on the desktop.
Suggestions?
I have this problem occasionally with OS 10.9.5 with external drives with (Mac OS extended (Journaled)) format. The disks are not writable and cannot be verified or repaired. The fix I found is to boot in safe mode (hold down shift at start of power-up) and then run disk utility to repair the disk partitions with a problem. You can then reboot in normal mode and everything should be fine.
Thank you, William. This fixed the issue for me. Right click in the left side of disk utility to unmount your disk, proceed with verify and repair. You shouldn't see the error message anymore. Repairs were then successful and the strange behavior I was seeing from the disk in the finder was resolved as well. Thanks!
Thank you!!! That was so quick and easy and way less complicated that all the other "fixes"
This helped me. Simply ejecting the disk, then saying "force" when prompted. I didn't have to reboot. I was able to see the file system and do the repair from within Disk Utility
Disk Utility Error: What is Live file system repair is not supported?
