How to use Disc utility on the master drive

When I want to verify my master drive, I get this error message from the Disc Utility: 'This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.'

I am using mac os x lion and do not have an installation disc. When I try to restart and holding down the option key or start in safe mode by holding down the shift key, nothing happens and my login screen appears as during normal startup.

When I read about mac os x shortcut keys on apple.com, the following is mentioned: 'Press the key or key combination until the expected function occurs/appears (for example, hold Option during startup until Startup Manager appears, or Shift until "Safe Boot" appears). Tip: If a startup function doesn't work and you use a third-party keyboard, connect an Apple keyboard and try again.'

I have the original keyboard that followed when I bought my Mac Pro in 2009.

Please help me fix my drive...

do you not have any discs that came with the mac, if you do then put that in get it to read the cd and get into disk utility that way.

I am no expert so take this with a grain of salt. I think you have to have the machine shut down. Then hold down the option key as you press the power on button and keep holding it down until the recover screen appears. Lion should then have an option for the recovery partition.

Member Bob_Stan gave you the correct info. When you installed Lion it created a small recovery partition on your hard drive which is hidden by default. On startup or reboot, if you hold down the OPTION key, both your MacIntosh HD and the Recovery partition will be shown. Just move the arrow to the Recovery partition and press enter. It'll take a few minutes to boot.

After it boots to the Recovery partition, you'll see a selection of options to choose from. Choose Disk Utility.

You can also boot the machine with your older Snow Leopard DVD and run Disk Utility from there if you wish.

I can not find my old Leopard install DVD and when I hold down the option key (the one labeled 'alt'), nothing happens when I restart my machine.

Searching the web, I found a post stating you should press down the command button. This do not work either...

This is frustrating. I just want to be able to fix my master drive.

jactor said:

I can not find my old Leopard install DVD and when I hold down the option key (the one labeled 'alt'), nothing happens when I restart my machine.

Searching the web, I found a post stating you should press down the command button. This do not work either...

This is frustrating. I just want to be able to fix my master drive.

Click to expand...

If you hold the option key, hold it until you see 2 or more Hard Drive icons show up on the screen. This could take a while so be patient.

Also, you can restart and hold Command+R to get into Lion's recovery disk for access to Disk Utility.

Basically 2 ways to do the same thing.

This is just what I have done.... I am patient when I press down the keys. For instance: during restarts, I hold down the buttons when the machine is shutting down and I do not release them before I get the normal sign in window (not an image showing 2 or more hard drives...)...

Please... suggestions... anyone...

My mac prefrences, Mac Pro (early 2008):
Processor 2 x 2,8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 4 GB 800 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511)

If you installed Lion, you would be able to boot into recovery mode using Command+R. So, there's something you're not doing correctly. Don't press the keyboard keys until after the screen goes black. Give it a chance to shut down before you're holding the keys down. I have done this myself just to test it out and it works perfectly.

Try Command+R.

I am sorry... I must be stupid..... it does not work... I have tried restarting a number of times, pressing down command-R just before, during and right after the start up sound of the computer or when the screen turns from black to grey (before the apple logo on the startup screen)...

... i am going crazy...

i am using a standard USB apple keyboard (not a bluetooth)...

Read this from Apple on how to restore Lion using Internet Lion Recovery. It is precisely for someone in your situation.

I remembered one more thing I read somewhere...

Go into the Mac App Store and look at your purchases. Hold Option (alt) and click on the link next to the Lion icon. It will take you to Lion's page in the store but it will now say "Install" instead of "Installed". If memory serves, you can just re-install right there.

In the future, be sure to keep regular backups just for such occasions.

I do not see how this helps me.

I have a Lion OS installation that works. I also have backups of my device. But when I run 'verify disk' on the Disk Utility, it says that I need to repair my disk. In order to do that I need to boot from a different disk, so I want to create this disk...

I have a secondary disk on my Mac Pro and also an extra firewire disk that I can use to do this. Please help me create this boot disk.

I have a secondary disk on my Mac Pro and also an extra firewire disk that I can use to do this. Please help me create this boot disk.

Click to expand...

You can't create the boot disk until you re-download Lion. The first time you installed Lion was when the boot disk should have been created, however, that must be accomplished before installing since the installer removes itself when done. After downloading it again, create the boot disk.

Also, you should reinstall Lion on your machine. Something is not right if you can't access the recovery partition.

Ok... I will reinstall Lion... But not that easy. This is the messge it says: A newer version of this app is already installed on this computer. If you want to replace it with this version, move the existing app to the trash.

This messages is a pop up menu and the only choice is 'Ok'. So I am back where I started.

More suggestions?

Isn't there any suggestions?

Anyone who know how I can contact some apple support regarding this? I bought Lion on its release day...

If you can't get into the recovery partition, then there's something far more broken with your Mac.

Take it into an Apple Store. They can either tell you what's wrong or show you how to correctly get into the Recovery Partition.

Since it's already been explained many times in this thread, it may be easier to had someone in person actually show you to find out if something else is really wrong.