Synopsis:
Macintosh OS X: Using the Disk Utility to troubleshoot system software and hard drive trouble.

Solution:
Mac OS X comes with the Disk Utility for diagnosing and repairing common system software and drive problems. Part of this utility is a carryover from OS 9’s Disk First Aid. To launch the utility, open the Hard Drive, browse to Applications, then to Utilities and double click Disk Utility.

To use the OS X version of Disk First Aid, click on the First Aid tab in the Disk Utility. On the left, select the drive that you would like to verify or repair and click on the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen. Note that First Aid cannot verify or repair the startup disk (your hard drive), any write-protected disk (such as the CD-ROM) or a disk with shared files. To run First Aid on your hard drive, insert the OS X install CD into the CD ROM and hold down the C key while you restart the computer. When the computer starts up from the CD, select Open Disk Utility and use First Aid to repair your hard drive.

Disk Utility can also be used to find out information about any drive. Select the Information tab in Disk Utility and choose a drive on the left. The window will display the pertinent information for that disk.

Click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility to format and initialize any disk. This can be used to format a floppy or erase the contents of a CD-RW. To format your Hard Drive, startup from the OS X install CD, run Disk Utility and use Erase to format your hard drive.

Click on the Partition tab to create and modify partitions when formatting a drive. To create partitions on the hard drive, you will need startup from the OS X install CD, run Disk Utility and use Erase and Partition to format and initialize the disk. You will notice a checkbox for “Install Mac OS 9 Disk Drivers.” This options is necessary if you intend to use your computer with any version of the Mac OS other than OS X. Only uncheck this if you plan to use OS X exclusively.