Repair HD without Installation DVDs??

philipbphilipb
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi,



I would like to repair my harddrive, but I'm out of the country currently and will be for the next 6 months. When I go to Disk Utility, I am able to verify/repair the HD permissions, but I'm not able to do a full verify/repair, since I can't boot my HD from a seperate source (i.e. the Install Disks).



Is there any way to do a full repair without the original start disks? I read somewhere that you can clone your HD and boot from the clone - is that possible, and is that the best method for me to do a full repair? Is there better way? Any suggestions or ideas would be a great help!! Thanks!!



Philip

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    geek-on-a-leashgeek-on-a-leash Posts: 3member
    Unfortunately for you Philip there is no possible way for you to do a full repair, always keep in mind that it is much better to boot from disk when doing repairs ( permissions , directoy repairs) , so better have someone from home who can send you the disc through package.. Goodluck! have a nice trip! :smoke:
  • Reply 2 of 6
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Sure. As long as you can boot from another volume, you can repair it. So if you have a spare hard drive, just use Disk Utiity's Restore feature to clone one to the other.



    It might be cheaper to buy the utility Disk Warrior and boot from that disk. Disk Warrior is a better repair app anyway. That's the way to go if you are sure that it needs repair, as you will have to get Disk Warrior anyway if Disk Utility can't fix it.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    mrtotesmrtotes Posts: 760member
    http://applejack.sourceforge.net/



    AppleJack will repair a disk without any other volumes or discs being required.



    An invaluable install on laptops when you are travelling light.



    How safe is it? Dunno. I've run it (although it didn't do any repairs) with no ill effects but I haven't tried it over long periods or on damaged disks. http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/..._feedback.html
  • Reply 4 of 6
    philipbphilipb Posts: 4member
    Thanks for all the help so far.



    Could I also just target the computer that needs repairs via a Firewire Target Disk mode, and run either Disk Warrior or Disk Utility on the broken machine like that? Would that work? Thanks!



    Philip
  • Reply 5 of 6
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    I've never tried it, but it's worth a shot. Theoretically it should work...
  • Reply 6 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,431moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Geek-on-a-Leash View Post


    Unfortunately for you Philip there is no possible way for you to do a full repair



    You can boot into single user mode holding command-s and then just type:



    fsck -f



    and hit return. This does what Disk Utility does when it repairs a volume. I always use single user mode when repairing people's machines.



    When it's done, type reboot and hit return.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Geek-on-a-Leash View Post


    always keep in mind that it is much better to boot from disk when doing repairs ( permissions , directoy repairs)



    Directory repairs yeah but seemingly permissions are better done from the internal disk because if it's from a DVD, it takes permissions from the DVD, which may have an older version of the OS.
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