How To Check for Disk Errors on Mac Using Disk Utility.
If your Mac is prone to freezing, slowing down, or regular crashes during normal use, it is most likely having file corruption issues. You can verify this by running a First Aid scan using Disk Utility on your Mac. It not only checks for errors on the disk but also automatically fixes them.
Read:Fix File System Errors in Windows 7/8/10 with Check Disk Utility (CHKDSK)
Disk Utility is available from macOS. But if you have problems loading the operating system, you should call it through macOS Recovery. The instructions below will help you check for disk errors using Disk Utility on a Mac.
Read:Generate a System Health Report in Windows 7 to Check for Errors
How To Run Check for Disk Errors in macOS
Let’s assume the problem is minor and you have no problem booting macOS. In this case, you can run a disk error check by opening Disk Utility and using it from within the operating system itself.
Note. Before you start, it’s best to back up your Mac’s contents in case something goes wrong while Disk Utility fixes the disk errors.
1. Open the Mac Launchpad and choose Other> Disk Utility. If you can’t find it, try typing “Disk Utility” into the search bar at the top of the screen.
2. Open the View menu at the top of the Disk Utility window and select Show All Devices. This will make Disk Utility display all volumes and containers in your Mac’s internal storage in the sidebar.
3. Select the last volume on the internal storage — for example, the data volume in the Macintosh HD volume group.
4. Press the button labeled “First Aid”.
5. Select “Run”.
6. Select Continue. Wait while First Aid completes checking and repairing any disk errors on the selected volume. Meanwhile, your Mac will be unresponsive.
7. Select “Finish”.
8. Repeat steps 3-7, selecting and running First Aid on the remaining volumes on the disk. Then focus on each container. Finally, run first aid on the entire drive.
If Disk Utility on your Mac is unable to recover the internal storage, it is best to repeat the procedure in MacOS Recovery.
How To Run Check for Disk Errors in macOS Recovery
If your Mac is unable to boot macOS, this usually indicates a serious internal storage problem. When this happens, you should invoke Disk Utility and check for errors on the disk via MacOS Recovery. You should also use it if you cannot recover the drive from macOS.
macOS Recovery is an advanced recovery environment that is independent of the Mac operating system. However, the login procedure for MacOS Recovery is different for Apple Silicon and Intel Mac.
Enter MacOS Recovery – Apple Silicon Mac
1. Shut down your Mac. If your Mac freezes at startup, press and hold the Power button to force shutdown.
2. Press and hold the Power button until the Loading startup options message appears on the screen.
3. On the Startup Options screen, select Options and click Continue.
4. Select your Mac user account, enter your password and press Enter. MacOS recovery should boot instantly.
5. Select the Disk Utility option and click Continue.
Enter MacOS Recovery – Intel Mac
1. Shut down your Mac. If your Mac is frozen, hold down the power button to force shutdown.
2. Turn on your Mac, but immediately press and hold Command + R until you see the Apple logo. MacOS recovery should boot instantly.
3. When prompted, select a Mac user account and enter its password to continue. Then select the Disk Utility option and click Continue.
Perform First Aid – Apple Silicon and Intel Mac
After downloading Disk Utility in MacOS Recovery on Apple Silicon or Intel Mac, please follow these steps to check the internal storage for disk errors.
1. Open the View menu in Disk Utility and select Show All Devices.
2. Select the last volume under the internal storage.
3. Select First Aid.
4. Select Run.
5. Wait for Disk Utility to finish checking for disk errors and select Finish.
6. Run First Aid repeatedly on different volumes and containers on the disk.
7. Run First Aid on the entire drive.
If Disk Utility detects and fixes disk errors, open the Apple menu and choose Restart to restart your Mac.
What Else Can You Do?
If Disk Utility fails to repair your Mac’s internal storage (or if Disk Repair continues to prevent MacOS from booting), try running an FSCK scan in single user mode (press Command + S at startup and run the / sbin / fsck -fy command). It is a command line tool capable of fixing additional disk related errors.
If that fails, restart Disk Utility in MacOS Recovery and erase the disk (select the Macintosh HD Volume Group and choose Erase). Then exit Disk Utility and use the Reinstall macOS option to reinstall macOS. If you set up Time Machine, you could recover your data after reinstalling. For more information, see our complete guide to using macOS recovery.
How To Check for Disk Errors on Mac Using Disk Utility
How To Check for Disk Errors on Mac Using Disk Utility