Submission details
System: file system errors
If the system partition has some file system errors, this can't be corrected while the system is running.
There are two options:
* boot from mac os dvd and use the disk utility
* boot into safe mode and use a command line utility
This is no acceptable (for linux guys maybe ...)
If you vote negative, please give some feedback? I have the strange feeling that someone is waiting and votes - as soon as I posted a new suggestion - just for fun??
A nice way would be to check the disk integrity each nth boot and show a graphical gui for the file system check (there are errors, do you want to correct: yes/no).
Another way would be to boot a graphical into safe mode (like on windows) and show the disk utility with one difference: the repair option should be availabe.
Low
Medium
Not fixed
Discussion (4 comments)
Why is a graphical "scandisk" (if you know the old dos scandisk form win95) not an alternative?
I must admin, I'd prefer a real "safe mode" like on windows, where you get the whole gui, but the system loads only the needed drivers. In this mode there is no graphics acceleration, no sound, and so on. This very limited mode allows the user to run some maintainance procedures like disk repair, partitioning, and so on.
A simple reboot leaves the "save mode".
When you don't feel comfortable with my suggestions, why you don't say what you don't like or even make a suggestions yourself?
Honestly mojo, nobody would do that - only people who know how. I just recently learned Windows could do that, and I wouldn't know what to clean up or how. I find the concept of the disc pretty good, being more obvious (this is to install the OS, and to repair it - keep it!). Nice, clean and simple.
When you say 'nobody would do that' you must just be referring to yourself. Plenty of people use Windows Safe Mode and Scandisk regularly to correct hard drive corruption. Windows performs a hidden background boot scan every time the computer crashes, so it's been there all along even if you only recently discovered it. OS X Safe Mode (accessed by holding the Shift key upon boot) is virtually useless by comparison, and all the more advanced repair tools are only available using Single User Mode which is a pain to use unless you're a terminal junkie.
The concept of a boot DVD is great until you find yourself in a hotel room halfway around the world with a presentation at 7am tomorrow morning, the computer isn't working properly and you don't have the DVD with you.
It's pretty sad that I actually know some business executives who travel with a case full of fix-it CDs for their Mac laptop, basically assuming something will go wrong during their trip. Unfortunately OS X isn't quite as stable as people would like to believe, so they do actually have to use the repair CDs every few months while travelling. Mac OS 9 provided Disk First Aid which could (in later versions) repair minor boot volume damage which was great especially for laptop users with no floppy or CD drive, and Norton Utilites could repair most file system errors without starting up from another drive. Nothing comparable exists for OS X.
polycat33 wrote on November 12, 2008, 6:39am
I agree that having to boot from the DVD or from an external volume isn't convenient for fixing disk errors, but I don't really feel you've provided an alternative... maybe it's an annoyance, but if there is no other way, there's nothing to be done. So, I can't vote for this unless I'm convinced there IS another way.