The repair disk utility is asking me to do Command R. Will this erase everything on my machine. I have also been unable to use TIme Machine. So I don't have a backup.
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)
Command -R- in Disk Utility is" Reveal in Finder", not erase, I hope this helps a bit
Command+R is at restart time and restarts into the Recovery HD. This is what DU inside the OS is asking you to do.
No, that command will not erase anything. It just boots into the Recovery HD during a restart while pressing those keys.
Thanks. The message is telling me that - This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility. I don't understand I am in Disk Utility
Yes, but you are in the wrong Disk Utility, you must use the copy in the Recovery Partition, which you get to with cmd-R held at boot time.
So it won't erase my data?
No it won't erase your data if you restart while pressing the Command+R keys.
It was unable to repair, so now it's asking me to reformat but the Time Machine hasn't done any backups. Any advice?
What will happen to the purchase software - I have Turbo Tax / Microsoft Office
Get another disk drive and use either CCC or SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of the disk drive.
Boot from the clone to be sure that it was created properly.
Once you can boot from clone, reformat the internal disk drive and then copy the clone back.
Reboot from internal disk drive.
You need to do a back up somehow either by using Time Machine or a 3rd party software like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!. Or you could copy your data and apps to an external USB drive so you everything to restore back to after reformatting your drive and reinstalling OS X.
If you create the bootable clone, it is all there.
Ok. I am doing a backup to an external usb drive. Will that take of the purchased software? Or do I need to do something to create a bootable clone?
Well I want to thank everybody for their assistance. I was able to back up and now it's not asking me to reformat the disk.
will command R erase everything?
