A dying hard drive and a damaged directory can have identical symptoms. Given those exceptions visit these sections to find the type of repair you need to perform:Ĥ. You can't repair permissions while booted from CD, except in Mac OS X 10.4 or later. You must boot off a CD, or connect the drive via target disk mode that you wish to repair the directory of.ģ. You can't repair the directory (Repair Disk function of Disk Utility) of the current boot drive.

Issues which require software based repair frequently appear to have the same symptoms as a dying hard drive.Ģ. You MUST backup your data prior to repairing anything. Important exception notes many people forget:ġ. * Special note for Disk Warrior users at bottom of FAQ * This FAQ has been written as it is a frequently answered question how to repair your disk directory. If you need technical support for issues after reading this FAQ, please visit my Tech Support page, where I offer fee based support.

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Mac disk utility repair permissions