Apple disk utility repair disk permissions

[vga]

Hello
I often clean my internal HD with a safe boot /repair disk permissions. I wanted to also perform this on my external PT HD's.
Risk in this? Anyone Has anyone out there done this?
Thanks

[Dism]

Originally Posted by vga

Hello
I often clean my internal HD with a safe boot /repair disk permissions. I wanted to also perform this on my external PT HD's.
Risk in this? Anyone Has anyone out there done this?
Thanks

I do it often, too. Though, repair permissions typically isn't necessary (or available?) for external drives. I find repairing permissions can also clear up a few gremlins from time to time, especially relating to MIDI. I find MIDI permissions tend to get messed up when swapping/installing new devices on a regular basis. My PT instructor in school also preached how often RDP can fix problems, and that it is a good default troubleshooter when mysterious problems arise.

[kittonian]

Permission repairing is only available for the drive in which the OS is installed. For your other drive maintenance, the best way to accomplish this task is to take a spare drive and drag all files from the drive you wish to repair over to that spare drive. Then, go into disk utility and format/erase the drive you wish to repair. Then copy back all of the files from that spare drive and all will be well.

Rinse, repeat for all other drives you wish to repair, but format the spare drive each time so it's perfectly clean.

[TimNielsen]

Not a bad idea to 'repair' your external drives with Disk Utility from time to time too, it can sometimes catch a problem that would get worse if you ignored it.

Also, Disk Warrior is your friend, and I would never not have it around. I run it every month or so anyway, and it often finds some little directory error and fixes it.

[drenkrom]

+1 for DiskWarrior. Anyone running a Mac in a mildly-serious manner should definitely have it. It cures problems that leave Disk Utility in the dark, finds some Disk Utility doesn't and also does the basic things like file attribute tests and SMART.

Some utilities also let you test your startup drive and repair permissions without having to boot from the Mac OS DVD or safe boot. I have Onyx for this (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english/apps.html), but others exist as well. You'll have to boot away from the drive for any repairs, though.

Repairing drives by formatting them is overkill. Any error this would solve (non-hardware related) will most probably be cured by DiskWarrior. It has helped me save some seriously fubar Macs and has never, ever failed to salvage a physically-fit drive for me.

There is very little risk in drive maintenance operations, but it is still there. Backups!

IHTH

[BDWillis]

Another thumbs-up for Disk Warrior!!

I've used it for years... DW cured drives that were spitting out white noise or incorrect audio files (i.e. guitar playing back out of the kick channel, despite proper waveform on screen, etc.), as well as making Mezzo back-up software work right (that never lasted very long, though... inside humor, I know)

Seriously, I wouldn't consider running a PT rig without Disk Warrior AND an uninterruptible power supply.

Warmest Regards,
Brian

[vga]

Thanks for all the suggestions
when i ran repair d per yesterday the external drives were available/mounted in the directory which made me think that they could be used with disk utility
after reading your answers i will seek the warrior!
thanks

[Dism]

Originally Posted by vga

Thanks for all the suggestions
when i ran repair d per yesterday the external drives were available/mounted in the directory which made me think that they could be used with disk utility
after reading your answers i will seek the warrior!
thanks

All disks and images should show up in Disk Utility... but only the system drive will have Permission Repair available.

[Mark Wheaton]

any drive that is connected and is not the boot drive can be repaired by Disk Utility. Disk Warrior too, only repairs non system drives. Boot from Disk Warrior or create a bootable drive with disk warrior on it to repair your main boot drive. Since OSX I have had to use these items much less, although from time to time it doesn't hurt. If you get drive related errors, most likely it is a mechanical/surface drive issue and is best repaired by replacing the drive. The process of moving files to a spare drive, erasing and replacing files is somewhat dangerous and very time consuming. (that is if you have terrabyte drives)

This is not the same as repair permissions, which only happens to the boot drive and is really only for the system files itself. Any other permissions issues, such as locked out folders on a non system drive, should be repaired manually properly using the Get Info permissions window. I believe the best options for Pro Tools is to have all except the boot drive set to Ignore Permissions. I would be happy to hear other experiences or comments on my own way of dealing with these things. The most important thing is to always backup anything you do not want to lose.