Your Mac has start showing signs of fuss . Perhaps you oftentimes get errors when render to open up or salvage files . You suspect a job with the hard drive . Before affright hardening in , you desire to launch Apple ’s Disk Utility and selectRepair Diskfrom the First Aid tab key . Hopefully , that will remedy the situation . One trouble though : Repair Disk is blur and you ca n’t select it . Why ? Because OS X can not try haunt on an combat-ready inauguration drive . you may still utilize Repair Permissions , which may facilitate in sure situation . But let ’s take it does n’t .
So what do you do instead ? That depends on what Macs you own , how you have set them up , and what other precautions you may have occupy prior to the start of the trouble .
First thing first , if you do n’t have a late backup , make one now . But be heedful . At this point , you do n’t require to overwrite an live backup — lest you interchange valid data with corrupted information . Instead , back up to a disjoined thrust . When you ’re done backing up , here are the things to try out . you may examine each method until you rule one that exploit :
Boot from the startup drive’s Recovery HD partition
The startup parkway of Macs format with OS X 10.7 ( Lion ) or 10.8 ( Mountain Lion ) typically have a hidden partitioning design just for moments like this . This 650 MB sectionalization is calledRecovery HD . Boot your Mac from Recovery HD by holding down Command - R at startup ( or by choosing it from within Startup Manager , which you get at by carry down pick at startup ) .
If you are able to boot from Recovery HD , Disk Utility will be one of its four main options . OpenDisk Utilityand locate the name of your inauguration driving force . You should now be able to selectRepair Diskfor that thrust . From Recovery HD , you could also browse the Web for troubleshooting info using Safari as well as erase your startup drive and restore its contents from a Time Machine backing .
If you are unable to bring up Recovery HD via either of these methods , it entail there is no Recovery HD partition on your drive or your thrust is too damage to permit successful booting from the partition . In either showcase , it ’s prison term to move on to the next fix attempts .
Boot from your emergency drive
If you previously created an emergency drive ( see“Mac troubleshooting : Be prepared for tough - cause failure ” ) , now is the clip to employ it . Restart while holding down the Option samara . From the screen that appear , choose the exigency drive . Once booted , things should process almost identically to commence up from the Recovery HD partition . LaunchDisk Utility , choose your startup drive in the list , and selectRepair Disk .
Run from a cloned startup drive
If youcreated a clone of your startup private road , you may boot from the clone and run Disk Utility from there . To do so , restart while hold down the Option key . From the screen that appears , take the clone drive . When startup is all over , you ’ll incur Disk Utility in the /Applications / Utilities leaflet , just as it is on your original drive .
You may be wondering : “ Does my clone movement let in a Recovery HD partition ? Could I start up from that sectionalisation instead ? ” Maybe . If you used Shirt Pocket ’s $ 28SuperDuperto make a knockoff , the clone will probably not have the Recovery HD partition . If you used Bombich Software ’s $ 40Carbon Copy Cloner , it should . However , if you are using a cloned drive , I would n’t chafe with its Recovery HD partition in any fount . Instead , rush from the drive directly , as I just identify .
Try Safe Boot
To perform a Safe Boot , resume your Mac while holding down the Shift key . concord to Apple , a Safe Boot “ pull a directory check of the inauguration mass . ” This is fundamentally the same matter as escape First Aid ’s Repair Disk . A downside of this method is that you get no feedback as to whether or not the repair come after . Still , if your problems go away after doing a Safe Boot ( and restart again normally ) , you could assume that success was likely .
Access your Mac via Target Disk Mode
If you have two or more Macs , you may be able to connect one Mac to the other usingTarget Disk Mode . To do this , you ’ll need a cable that can connect the two Macs . For Macs with FireWire ports , that means an appropriate FireWire cable television . For Macs with Thunderbolt ports , you ’ll want a Thunderbolt cable . If one Mac has FireWire and the other has Thunderbolt , you ’ll take a Thunderbolt to FireWire adaptor .
Once connected , kicking from the 2d ( properly work ) Mac and put the problem Mac in Target mode ( by holding down the T key at startup ) . The Target Mac should now appear as an external parkway to the startup Mac . you could now essay to reanimate it via Disk Utility .
Boot from Internet Recovery Mode
cyberspace Recovery modeuses a combination of code store in your Mac ’s firmware and a net - boot look-alike hive away on Apple ’s host to boot your Mac .
To get into Internet Recovery mode , hold down the Command - choice - R keys at startup . RunDisk Utilityfrom there .
I would employ this method only if you ca n’t reboot from the stock Recovery HD division . This is because Internet Recovery style requires that you download the call for software before it kicks into action . depend on the speed of your Internet connection , this can take anywhere from about 5 minutes to more than 30 second . Also , mention that Internet Recoverywill not form with older Mac modeling .
Start up in Single User mode
you may do a disc repair try by starting up in Single User mode ( holding down Command - S at inauguration ) and running Unix’sfsckcommand . This method acting should almost never be necessary . However , if you find yourself with no other selection , an Apple support articledetails precisely what to do .
You’ve run Repair Disk. Now what?
You ’ve finally found at least one way to essay a disk repair with Disk Utility ’s First Aid or its eq . Congratulations . Now what ? That depends on the outcome of your try :
Your disc is OK : If First Aid reports “ the bulk look to be o.k. , ” it ’s time to look elsewhere for the cause of your problem . at last , in a worst - case scenario , a fix could demand reformatting your thrust , reinstalling a tonic transcript of OS X , and restore your data from a backup . For details on how to do this , see“Should you do a ‘ clean install ’ of Lion?”The advice still apply for Mountain Lion .
Your disk has a problem but First assistance touch on it : If First assistance reports a problem and is able to repair it , that ’s the potential oddment of the report . Conventional wisdom says to selectRepair Diska second metre before quitting Disk Utility , just to be certain that no further repairs are needed . After that , reboot from the repaired drive and hope that all is all right now .
Your disk has a problem that First Aid can not repair : If First Aid finds a trouble but can not recompense it , you’re able to judge a third - party resort public utility company , such as Alsoft ’s $ 100DiskWarrior , which is even compatible with Apple ’s newfangled Fusion drive . Otherwise , reformatting the drive may help . It ’s deserving a endeavor . ( Even if this work on , be cognizant that your drive is likely go on borrowed time . If you ca n’t re-create your files off the ride , it may be metre to look intorecovery alternative . )
Software utility and reformatting can not fix a strong-arm problem with the driving force . If your parkway is making unusual clicking disturbance , it ’s almost certain you have a hardware problem . Assumingyou’ve indorse up your datum , and give how cheap drives are these days , I would replace a drive before wasting too much time trying to resurrect it . If you ca n’t replace the drive yourself ( which is probable with late Mac models , almost all of which Apple has made hard to pry clear ) , it ’s time for a trip to anApple Storeor Apple - authorized service provider .
