how to do disk utility repair on mac

Full Answer

How do you repair a hard disk on a Mac?

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility

• Open Disk Utility. In general, you can just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. ...
• Select your disk in Disk Utility. Choose View > Show All Devices (if available) from the menu bar or toolbar in Disk Utility. ...
• Repair volumes, then containers, then disks. ...

How to access disk utility on Mac OS?

• Determine whether you're using a Mac with Apple silicon, then follow the appropriate steps: Apple silicon : Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button ...
• You may be asked to select a user you know the password for. ...
• From the utilities window in macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility and click Continue.

How to clone a Mac drive with Disk Utility?

• Select the new drive volume in the sidebar then click the Restore button or choose Edit > Restore. This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy.
• Click the 'Restore from' drop down menu, then choose the volume you want to clone the data from.
• Click Restore. ...

How to make a Mac OS X recovery disk?

Option 1- Create a Recovery USB Drive using Recovery Disk Assistant

• Download the “ Recovery Disk Assistant ” from Apple’s website.
• Open Recovery Disk Assistant and accept the license agreement.
• Select the USB drive, you want to create recovery system on. ...
• Type the administrator’s password to confirm changes to the drive.

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How do you use the repair disk on a Mac?

For each disk that you're repairing, start by selecting the last volume on that disk, then click the First Aid button or tab. In this example, the last volume on the disk is Macintosh HD - Data. Click Run to begin checking the selected volume for errors. If there is no Run button, click the Repair Disk button instead.

How do I run a recovery repair on a Mac?

How to Repair a Mac Boot Disk with Disk Utility in Mac OS XReboot the Mac and hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery, or hold down OPTION.Select “Recovery HD” at the boot menu.At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select “Disk Utility”Select the boot volume or partition from the left menu and click on the “Repair” tab.More items...•

How do I repair my Mac without Disk Utility?

Steps to repair Mac external hard drive by using single-user mode are as follows:Start or restart your Mac then promptly press and hold Command + S keys.Release the keys once you see white text. ... On the prompt, type fsck_hfs –y /dev/disk4s1 and hit Return.Check the message provided by the fsck command.More items...•

Does repair disk delete files Mac?

It has no effect except on the drive it is repairing. Repairing only affects the directory and filesystem. If a directory is corrupted and repaired then it's possible a file or two may be lost on the drive in question. But Disk Utility does not delete files except when you erase a drive.

Can you open a hard drive and fix it?

An external hard drive is just a regular internal hard drive in an external case. You can open the case and take out the drive, and from here you can connect it to a computer in a number of different ways. Or you can find a replacement case and install the hard drive so you again have a functioning external hard drive.

What does Command r do on a Mac at startup?

Command (⌘)-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery system. Or use Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. macOS Recovery installs different versions of macOS, depending on the key combination you use.

How do I reinstall my Mac startup disk?

Restart your Mac, and press Command + R, while it's restarting. Select Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities menu. Once Disk Utility has loaded, choose the disk you wish to repair - the default name for your system partition is generally "Macintosh HD", and choose 'Repair Disk'.

How do I fix a corrupted external hard drive without formatting Mac?

How to Recover Files From an External Hard Drive Without FormattingDownload and install Disk Drill. ... Ensure your drive is plugged into the computer. ... When the scan has finished, click Review found items.Scan the recoverable data for any items you want to recover. ... Specify where you want to recover the files.More items...•

How do I boot into recovery mode?

Press and hold down the Volume Down button and keep holding it, then press and hold the Power button as well for a few seconds, and let go when you see the Android mascot on its back on screen.Use the Volume Down button to cycle through the options until you find Recovery mode and press the Power button to load it.More items...•

What is the recovery key on a Mac?

A recovery key is a randomly generated 28-character code that you can use to help reset your password or regain access to your Apple ID. While it's not required, using a recovery key improves the security of your account by putting you in control of resetting your password.

Does recovery mode on Mac delete everything?

No, Recovery Mode does not delete everything on Mac – at least by itself. It is just a state or mode that lets users access special tools, but it does not do anything by itself. However, there are certain tools that can delete data on your Mac, namely: Time Machine.

Why won't my Mac go into recovery mode?

The reasons why your macbook pro won't boot into recovery mode are varied and not singular. The most common ones include : Running an old version of Mac like Snow Leopard or older that does not have a recovery partition. Damaged or defective keyboard.

How to repair a disk on Mac?

To check and repair a disk, you need to run First Aid on each volume and container on the storage device in turn, then run it on the storage device itself. If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back up your data and replace the disk—you can’t repair it. Open Disk Utility for me. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show ...

What to do if Disk Utility can't repair your disk?

If Disk Utility can’t repair your disk, or you receive a report that the First Aid process failed, try to repair the disk or partition again. If that doesn’t work, back up as much of your data as possible, reformat the disk, reinstall macOS, then restore your backed-up data.

Can disk utility fix a disk?

Disk Utility can’t detect or repair all problems that a disk may have. To check and repair a disk, you need to run First Aid on each volume and container on ...

What to do if disk doesn't show up on Mac?

What to do if the disk you are trying to repair doesn’t show up in the Disk Utility on Mac. If you cannot see the disk you want to repair of your Mac in the left panel of the Disk Utility interface, then turn off the computer, disconnect all peripheral devices and try again.

What does it mean when a Mac is labeled as a chip?

If you see an entry labeled “Chip” with the chip model written next to it, this means your Mac is with an Apple Silicon processing unit. If, instead of “Chip”, there’s a “Processor” entry followed by the name of the processor, then this means that the computer is equipped with an Intel CPU.

What is Disk Utility First Aid?

Disk Utility comes pre-installed on every Mac, and offers a way to manage and repair the various disks you might use: startup disks, storage volumes, and even external drives. You can use Disk Utility to partition, restore, or format different disks.

How to repair disk on your Mac with Disk Utility

At its essence, Mac disk repair is as simple as opening the Disk Utility application, selecting a disk, and running First Aid. But before you jump in, there are a few other steps you need to take to protect yourself from data loss.

If all else feels, seek a physical repair

It’s entirely possible that you’re experiencing problems with your Mac because of a physical problem with its disk. This might be the result of liquid damage or a hard knock, but disks can also stop working as they age over time.

Let macOS manage space between multiple volumes

With Apple File System (APFS), the file system introduced in macOS 10.13, you can easily add and delete volumes on your storage devices. APFS-formatted volumes automatically grow and shrink—you never have to repartition a storage device again.

Keep your external storage devices secure

When you get a new flash drive or other storage device, format it as APFS and encrypt it with a password to protect its contents.

Give your disk a checkup

If you’re having problems with a disk, Disk Utility can check the disk and repair problems it detects.

How to open disk utility?

Way 1: Open Disk Utility via Spotlight Search. Press Command+Space on your keyboard or click the Spotlight icon in the upper-right corner of the top menu bar to open Spotlight search. Type Disk Utility into the search box. Double-click Disk Utility - Utilities from the search results to open it.

What is disk utility?

Disk Utility is a hard disk management tool that comes with your Mac operating system. It can be used for disk partition and disk volume-related tasks on your Mac computer.

How to erase a Mac?

Select the drive or partition you want to wipe. Click the Erase button on the top menu. Click Security Option and then select a security level to overwrite the data on the drive. The Fastest option is not a secure choice because a Mac data recovery program can recover these erased files.

How to add APFS to Mac?

If you want to add a new APFS volume, you can just select the system disk, click Edit > Add APFS from the menu bar, and then set up the volume according to your requirements.

How to manage partitions on Mac?

To manage a specific partition on your Mac, you need to click the parent drive and then select the targeted partition from its subdirectory. Then, you can resize, create, rename, delete, and reformat that partition. Tip: Many of the operations in this interface are destructive for the data.

What to do if First Aid fails to repair disk?

If First Aid fails to repair your disk, you can try it again. If the issue persists, you should first back up the data on that disk if possible and then reformat the disk. After that, you can restore the data from the backup.

Can you partition a Mac with Time Machine?

So you’d better back up your Mac with Time Machine beforehand. However, if you want to partition your system disk, you will need to do the job in Recovery Mode. But there is an exception: APFS volumes. APFS is a new file system on Mac. It is the default file system on the solid-state drive (SSD) since macOS High Sierra.

Part 2. How to Use Disk Utility?

Now that we know that a disk utility is vital in making sure that Mac is running smoothly, there are also a lot of potential problems that can arise and cause a stir. There are a lot of reasons where you can use disk utility on Mac.

Part 3. How to Repair Disk on Mac using Disk Utility?

Just like we mentioned above, there are a lot of things your disk utility on Mac can do. For example, if the disk has problems and it is no longer letting you do anything on your device, you can scan and diagnose to understand the issue.

Part 4. How to Optimize and Boost Disk on Mac?

In order to keep your disk healthy and well-performing, always ensure that you have a clean drive instead of a full disk. You can set a maintenance schedule to regularly clean up the drive or better yet use iMyMac PowerMyMac.

Part 5. Conclusion

We have finally learned about what disk utility on Mac does, how to use it, and even how to repair disks using disk utility.

How to get into single user mode on Mac?

Step 1. Restart your Mac.#N#As soon as you hear the startup sound, press and hold both the command key and S key, which will boot your system into single-user mode.

Why is it important to back up files?

It’s very important to back up your files because formatting and reformatting your hard disk or other storage device will delete all the data stored on it. The backup tool you can use is Time Machine. It is built to Mac operating systems since Leopard and makes it easy to back up and restoring files on Mac. If you haven’t used Time Machine before, before backing up, you need to set it up first.

What to do if Disk Utility can't repair a disk?

However, it can’t fix everything. So the first thing you should do if Disk Utility can’t repair a disk is to back it up. That way, if it fails, you won’t lose your data. CleanMyMac X has a number of tools that can keep your disk running smoothly and reduce the chance of problems occurring.

How to boot Mac in recovery mode?

To boot in Recovery Mode, restart your Mac and hold down Command-R. Go to Applications > Utilities and double-click Disk Utility to launch it. In the top left corner of the window, click View and choose View all devices. In the sidebar, select a disk or volume. Click First Aid. Press Run then Continue .