2024-04-19

disk utility

How can I test my hard drive for defects or problems in a Mac?

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Mac systems have an excellent diagnostic utility included in the operating system called Disk Utility. You can find Disk Utility within the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder on the boot drive. You can also find this utility by booting directly to the operating system installation CD/DVD.

1. Go to Disk Utility and click on it.

Disk Utility

2. Choose the drive you wish to test by selecting the drive or partition on the left window pane and then selecting the First Aid tab.

Disk Utility

3. Click Verify Disk to check a drive/partition for errors but not repair them.
4. Click Repair Disk to check a drive/partition for errors and repair any that it finds.
5. Click Verify Disk Permissions to check the permissions on a drive/partition but not repair any errors.
6. Click Repair Disk Permissions to check the permissions on a drive/partition and repair any errors.

Note: You cannot check or repair permissions on a FAT32 (MS-DOS) partition. Only the Mac OS Extended (HPFS+) file system supports permissions.

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Can’t partition a SCSI hard drive with FDISK or Disk Utility?

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SCSI Hard Drive If you are experiencing difficulty creating a partition on a SCSI disk drive, try these basic troubleshooting steps.

  1. Check all cable connections. Test data cable by trying a different cable or try the cable on a known working drive.
  2. Check the jumper settings.
  3. Check termination.
  4. Check the SCSI controller. Test it by trying a known good controller or a known working drive.
  5. Check SCSI controller default settings. Set the controller to asynchronous negotiation and the transfer rate to 10Mbs (or the slowest setting).
  6. Make this offending drive the only SCSI device in the system and re-test.
  7. Run a SCSI ‘low level’ format routine in the SCSI BIOS Setup Utility.
    Note: This will erase all the data on the drive.
  8. Try the drive in a different system.
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Disk Utility’s Repair Disk Permissions feature

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Repair Disk Permissions Learn about Disk Utility’s Repair Disk Permissions feature. This document applies to Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 or later.

Disk Utility lets you verify and repair disk and permissions issues. This document explains one of Disk Utility’s features for Mac OS X disks, Repair Disk Permissions.

How does Disk Utility check file permissions?

Many things you install in Mac OS X are installed from package files (whose filename extension is “.pkg”). Each time something is installed from a package file, a “Bill of Materials” file (whose filename extension is “.bom”) is stored in the package’s receipt file, which is kept in /Library/Receipts/. If you look in the Receipts folder, for example, you should see all kinds of files that end with .pkg, including some that were created when Mac OS X was installed (for example, BaseSystem.pkg). Don’t worry, these files don’t take up much disk space and you shouldn’t put them in the Trash.

Each of those “.bom” files contains a list of the files installed by that package, and the proper permissions for each file.

When you use Disk Utility to verify or repair disk permissions, it reviews each of the .bom files in /Library/Receipts/ and compares its list to the actual permissions on each file listed. If the permissions differ, Disk Utility reports the difference (and corrects them if you use the Repair feature).

Does Disk Utility check permissions on all files?

Files that aren’t installed as part of an Apple-originated installer package are not listed in a receipt and therefore are not checked. For example, if you install an application using a non-Apple installer application, or by copying it from a disk image, network volume, or other disk instead of installing it via Installer, a receipt file isn’t created. This is normal. Some applications are just designed to be installed like that.

Also, certain files whose permissions can be changed during normal usage without affecting their function are intentionally not checked.

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Free Compression, Split and ZIP programs

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HJ-Split (Freeware file splitter for a variety of platforms)
Why split files? Think of a file of 20 Mb, and try to send this to a friend. Using email this does not succeed, it is simply too large, and how to put it onto a floppy? HJSplit will enable you to split the large file into smaller chunks, which can be much more easily sent and stored. Later on these chunks can be re-joined using HJSplit itself or HJJoin.

HJSplit is available for a large number of operating systems:Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP, Linux, Java, OS/2, Windows 3.x, MS DOS, Amiga. For the MAC there is a compatible file joiner available.

Freebyte ZIP
A powerful freeware ZIP program with full Windows user-interface. It can zip and unzip files, create new zip files, directly view and sort zip file contents, make self-extracting archives, password protect and encrypt files, etc. etc. Runs on windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT and XP.

StuffIt
Mac file expander (program to open compressed files) for the MAC platform. Support for various file formats, like BinHex, MacBinary, zip, gzip, uu, tar. Lite version is freeware.

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Free Disk Catalogue Programs

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Catfish
Small, free and automatic disk inventory program for Windows. For people who can’t remember what they put on their ZIP disks, floppies or CD-roms! We use it at Freebyte.

Cathy
A similar program (not only in name) to Catfish. Has searching capabilities based on file name, date and size. Customizable date format. Found files can be opened directly, if they are present. Only contains a small single executable file, meaning that no installation is needed. Runs on Windows.

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