Command + R / Disc Utility

[Denton Florian]

17" MacBook Pro
10.9.5
Ran Disc Utility
Prompt said the drive has issues and to restart holding down Command + R until the Apple logo appears, then select Disc Utility.
The computer restarts but just goes to a normal desktop. I also tried restarting holding down the Option key. Same thing. How do I run Repair Disc on this drive?

Do I need to reboot using another drive? If so, how do I do that?

 

[honestone]

Denton,

I am using Yosemite, but the process is the same with Mavericks.

I just re-started my Mac Mini into Recovery Mode by holding down the Command and R keys at start up, and I kept holding down those keys until the Apple Logo appeared. I still held down those keys until the subsequent boot process moved (slowly) along for a few seconds. After releasing the keys, the boot process continued, and I eventually got a screen that, via the Recovery Partition, had four choices on it, including running Disk Utility.

If for some reason the Recovery Partition is missing from your internal drive, than this method will not work. To verify whether it is there or not, launch Disk Utility. For example, when I do that, it shows 4 partitions on my internal drive: EFI (Greyed out), Macintosh SSD HD (has the OS and all my applications, documents, etc.), Recovery HD (Greyed out, and is the Recovery partition), and eDrive (Greyed out, and is the small partition made by TechTool Pro, and it allows me to run all of TechTool Pro's tools on my internal drive. Very, very handy).

If it's not there, there is an easy way to re-create it, with another tool. But, let's first see what Disk Utility tells you.

 

[Denton Florian]

Thanks for the reply. No, I don't see any particians when I launch Disk Utility. (Do you know how to change my real name to a username here on Mac-Help?)

 

[honestone]

Thanks for the reply. No, I don't see any patricians when I launch Disk Utility. (Do you know how to change my real name to a username here on Mac-Help?)

Denton,

OK, now I'm confused. You say "I don't see any patricians (assume you mean partitions) when I launch Disk Utility". You should at least be able to see the partition that contains the OS, all your applications, etc. You should definitely see the Volume name of your internal drive (and under it, the name of the (visible) partition that contains the OS, all your applications, etc.). I suspect something is turned off in Disk Utility.

Try this. Launch Disk Utility. From the Debug Menu at the top of the screen, select (turn on) "Show Every Partition". That change should take effect immediately, and you should then see the EFI and Recovery Partitions.

 

[Denton Florian]

Sorry, spell check changed "partitions" to "patricians" for some reason and I corrected it, but that must have been after you responded. Yes, I do see the name of the drive and visible partition containing the OS, etc. But that's it.
I looked for the "Debug Menu" anyway in Disk Utility but don't see it anywhere.

 

[honestone]

The Debug menu is at the top of the Disk Utility Screen. The titles on the top line are, from left to right:

Disk Utility File Edit Images Window Debug Help

This link shows the choices under the Debug menu:

http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/Enable-Disk-Utilitys-Debug-Menu.htm

 

[Denton Florian]

I've got everything except Debug. Could my Disk Utility just be an older version?

 

[honestone]

I've got everything except Debug. Could my Disk Utility just be an older version?

That is bizarre! You are running OS 10.9.5, the latest (and last version) of Mavericks.

I guess the Debug menu has been disabled for your situation. But, all is not lost. Via the link I provided in my prior post (http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/Enable-Disk-Utilitys-Debug-Menu.htm), it showed a way to enable the Debug menu. Here are the steps from that link:

1. Quit Disk Utility if it is open.
   
2. Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities.
   
3. Enter the following command at the Terminal prompt:
   defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
   
   
4. Press enter or return.
   
5. Close Terminal.

The next time you launch Disk Utility, the Debug menu will be available.

So, just follow those steps using that terminal command (do a copy and paste), and after quitting Terminal, re-launch Disk Utility, and the Debug menu will be there. You can then turn on the "Show Every Partition" option.

 

[Denton Florian]

OK, Debug is now up. "Show Every Partition" reveals the drive itself (by name), EFI (grayed out), Recovery HD (grayed out), and "500.11 GB Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02 Media"

 

[honestone]

OK, so you have the Recovery HD partition. The only thing I can suggest is that when you start up your Mac, hold down the Command + R keys as soon as you hear the "bong", and then continue to hold them down until the start up process is at least half way along (it will be somewhat slow, so just be patient).

If you have a bootable backup on your external drive, that is the other way you can get at Disk Utility. That is, launching your Mac from that bootable backup on that external drive will get you access to Disk Utility there. The two backup programs that can create bootable backups are SuperDuper! (there is a "free" version of it, and I use it. In fact, I rely on it! Works like a charm!), and Carbon Copy Cloner. No matter which of those you need, you will need to create a partition on your external drive for the backup.

In any event, try Command+R again, but be patient with it.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Do you know how to change my real name to a username here on Mac-Help?

Click on Inbox in the upper right hand menu & select Start A New Conversation. Type Ian into the Participants field. Ian is the site Admin so he is the person to ask.

 

[Denton Florian]

Click on Inbox in the upper right hand menu & select Start A New Conversation. Type Ian into the Participants field. Ian is the site Admin so he is the person to ask.

Thanks!

 

[Denton Florian]

OK, so you have the Recovery HD partition. The only thing I can suggest is that when you start up your Mac, hold down the Command + R keys as soon as you hear the "bong", and then continue to hold them down until the start up process is at least half way along (it will be somewhat slow, so just be patient).

If you have a bootable backup on your external drive, that is the other way you can get at Disk Utility. That is, launching your Mac from that bootable backup on that external drive will get you access to Disk Utility there. The two backup programs that can create bootable backups are SuperDuper! (there is a "free" version of it, and I use it. In fact, I rely on it! Works like a charm!), and Carbon Copy Cloner. No matter which of those you need, you will need to create a partition on your external drive for the backup.

In any event, try Command+R again, but be patient with it.

One think I figured out is that the "Command + R" doesn't work if you're using an external keyboard. When I used the laptop's keyboard it worked fine. Thanks again for the help!

 

[honestone]

One think I figured out is that the "Command + R" doesn't work if you're using an external keyboard. When I used the laptop's keyboard it worked fine. Thanks again for the help!

Wonder if that's true only for laptops? Of course, for my Mac Mini, I need an external keyboard, and it works.

Just hope your laptop keyboard never dies!