Disk First Aid
Lua error in Module:Infobox at line 314: malformed pattern (missing ']'). Disk First Aid is a free software utility made by Apple Inc. that is bundled with all computers running Mac OS either as a standalone application (in the case of Mac OS 9 and below) or as part of the Disk Utility (in the case of OS X).[1] This tool verifies and repairs a limited number of directory structure problems on any HFS or HFS Plus hard disk or volume.[2]
Disk First Aid is a very simple tool, with it only being able to detect and repair directory damage[3] and many books are critical of its sometimes inaccurate reporting of errors, and often suggest to run the tool more than once to ensure you are receiving a consistent result.[3][4][5] Disk First Aid is located in Applications:Utilities:Disk First Aid prior to OS X and at /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app (as part of Disk Utility) in OS X.[4] In Mac OS 9 and below, the system provides an option to run Disk First Aid on startup, although it has been reported that it provides little gain and sometimes can amplify a problem.[4]
Situations to use the tool
One source suggests that disk utility should be used when there are:
- Frequent system crashes
- Disappearing files
- Files changing size
- Problems copying files from one place to another.
- Problems saving files.
- Cryptic error messages.[5]
as well is for general maintenance every 6 months.[6]
Analysis
Disk First Aid has built-in capabilities to check for damage to:
- Partition Map,
- Device Driver,
- Boot Blocks,
- Master Directory Block,
- Volume Bitmap,
- Catalog File,
- Extents File,
- Finder Attributes,[4]
- Disk volume,
- Extent B-tree,
- Catalog B-tree,
- Catalog Hierarchy,
- Volume Info,
- and to search for locked volume name.[7]
After analyzing the disk directory, Disk First Aid determines whether it is able to repair any damage that was detected. The utility can commonly only fix problems associated with the catalog/extents files and the volume bitmap.[4] Commonly, the program reports that these is an error, but cannot fix it.[3]
See also
Notes
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