OSX operating system integrity check

Hi fellow Mac users! I didn't know where to post this so maybe someone can help.

I've slowly been converting from PC to Mac. The Mac is awesome and powerful when you know how to use it. I have a few laptops and recently had an issue with one, I restarted it and got a circle with a slash. After an extensive search on how to resolve, I discovered that a safe boot did the trick! Macs are mysterious to me in that I don't know why or how it was fixed. But what if it didn't? In Windows there is something that can check the OS system file integrity (sfc scannow). I want something like that for my Macs. I have found 'file' and 'HD' integrity checks, but I need OS level.

Why must Macs be so mysterious? I want to know more about the OS and be able to tell if I'm going to have/currently having issues. Is there anything out there that I can use to do what I want? I can buy it, I don't care. This system is so cool, I want it ridiculously solid and for me, that means being able to perform OS integrity checks.

Thanks everyone!
-=R

hard drive repair is not quite what you want, but is the "baseline" of Mac hard drive and OS health.
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

I have to admit I'm surprised by your question about Macs being mysterious, because the Windows sfc command is a method of "hiding" details from the user.

If you have to continue using Safe Boot, then you haven't fixed anything. Safe Boot is a way to start the Mac using far less of the hardware drivers than are normally loaded. You need to figure out which hardware section of the motherboard is faulty (or which software is corrupted).

rafperez said:

Why must Macs be so mysterious?

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Mac's aren't "mysterious"...they're just different from Windows computers. With change comes a learning curve.

Take all your years of Windows computer experience...and give yourself that much time to get familiar with Macintosh computers...then make an evaluation.

- Nick

Thanks for the reply gsahli.

So you're saying that if I'm experiencing a start up issue (as one example) I should do a disk check first as it's the baseline, then perform a software check. So how do I do a software check or find a corruption?

Perhaps the mystery for me is that I find all disk related checks/troubleshooting solutions and no OS solutions. Do Macs not break at the OS level? Maybe I am asking for too much since I am not as experienced with Macs as I am with Windows. Do you recommend any good books or sites that I may comb through?

pigoo3,

Understood. I'd say I'm the average Windows admin and think I can pick up a Mac and do what is needed, I just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Look at Console and Activity Monitor (utilities) for clues about software issues.

Hi I am also interested in this sort of OS-level repair.
For example I have an iMac desktop where a faulty RAM module caused filesystem corruption. After the corruption was resolved with fsck_hfs the machine boots but Finder won't start. It gives a lot of diagnostic details but if this were a Windows equivalent the sfc option would be an easy first step

You do not give a lot of information like iMac model and what version of OS X you are running. Have you tried restarting and holding down the COMMAND + R keys to run disk repair?

Lisa

no1, welcome to the forum. You've posted at the end of a three, almost four year old thread. It may have been better to start a new thread.

That said, what iMac do you have, what version OS X? About the only maintenance tool you might need for OS X is Onyx, which you can get at www.titanium.free.fr website. Get the version that matches your version of OS X. If Finder won't start, you may need to reinstall the OS because Finder is tightly integrated to the rest of the OS.

lclev said:

You do not give a lot of information like iMac model and what version of OS X you are running. Have you tried restarting and holding down the COMMAND + R keys to run disk repair?

Click to expand...

I have an iMac 27" Mid 2011/A1312 with OS X 10.11.1, I did a disk/permissions repair but that did not resolve the issue.

If Finder won't start, you may need to reinstall the OS

Click to expand...

I was eventually able to resolve the issue by re-installing OS X

DiskWarrior

MacInWin said:

About the only maintenance tool you might need for OS X is Onyx, which you can get at www.titanium.free.fr website. Get the version that matches your version of OS X. If Finder won't start, you may need to reinstall the OS because Finder is tightly integrated to the rest of the OS.

Click to expand...

Onyx is good for a lot of things, but I would add Alsoft's DiskWarrior to the list. Whenever I've been having serious issues with my Mac's that Disk Utility or Onyx haven't managed to fix, DiskWarrior has always managed to get me out of a pinch. I consider it an essential tool that should always be at hand - highly recommended.

Steer clear of MacKeeper and MacPaw CleanMyMac apps - they do pretty much the same things as Onyx at inflated prices. I also tried MacPaw Gemini2 after reading a glowing review somewhere, and although it certainly looks good, it is an overly simplistic and really dangerous piece of software. A duplicate checker that suggests deleting originals based on the existence of aliase's carrying the same name does a lot more harm than good. If you want to run a duplicate checker, then you have to make sure you use one that performs more "background checks" on each file - preferably by using a checksum, like Duplicate Detective does, just to err on the side of caution.

Also do not use antivirus software. I know, you will find that hard to swallow coming from the Windows background. There are no Mac OS X viruses out in the wild, and Malwarebytes for Mac willdeal with the handful of malware threats that exist. AV software is a real resource hog and can slow down your machine an for what purpose? Checking for Windows executrable virus threats which cannot operate on the Unix based OS X.

This is a revived thread from a few years back. Had I seen the OP, I would have recommended TechTool Pro. But since it's so old now, I won't.