Mac OS X Yosemite - Repair Disk - Will delete files and cracked apps? And force me to update?

[RitaQ]

Hi all!

My Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 has been quitting unexpectedly some apps so I went to disk utility and did a Verify Disc.

A message appeared saying the disc needs repairing and tells me how to do it through Disk Utility.
Not sure if I should just run "Repair Disk", or restart mac and do it through CMD + R, or even through "Disk Permissions". A bit confused on the difference between all these.

But I have some concerns before doing this:
Will this delete any of my files? In any case I'm already starting a Time Machine back up now.
Will this delete any of my apps - including some of my very preciously cracked apps? I don't believe cracked apps will be stored in the Time Machine back up, will they?
And will it force me to install the latest Mac OS update? I've read the updates tend to slow down older devices, which is my case a Mid 2014 Mac 15 inch, so I've been trying not to update it.

Thank you very much for any help!
Rita

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

It is always wise to have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data.

Running disk or permissions repair will not delete any files. However, if the drive is starting to fail due to hardware issues, it could corrupt it and data loss could occur. These actions will not force you to upgrade to a newer version of OS X/macOS. You have control of when updates/upgrades are applied.

Not sure what you mean by cracked apps? If you mean software that was not purchased with legal serialization, that's not something that we condone or support. That said, a standard Time Machine backup will backup everything on your drive.

Newer versions of OS X/macOS can run a bit slower on older Macs. Software compatibility is more of a concern with that. I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 on an iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009), and it runs beautifully.

Hope that helps,

C