Disk Utility First Aid in Catalina

[Rod]

Well that was a bit worrying. I was curious about First Aid in Disk Utility and how it would work with the two volumes in one structure which has caused a bit of conversation on these forums so I decided to give it a try.
The resulting message is as you see below and it is the same no matter which volume you choose Macintosh HD or Macintosh HD - Data.



The first thing you notice other than the slightly worrying wording in the dialogue box, "this may last several minutes or hours" is that the desktop goes black, or a very dark grey, you are immediately aware that this is different from First Aid in any other macOS I have used.

Fortunately the process completed successfully as hoped in a minute or thereabouts with no problems found.

 

[IWT]

Well, Rod, you are obviously correct that the appearance and warning are completely different from previous Operating Systems. Below is what you see with macOS Mojave:



I can only offer some guesses.

Firstly, it has always surprised me that one could carry out First Aid (FA) on a Drive currently in use - as implied in my screenshot. No mention of suspending all use during the process in my case. When needed, I've always carried out First Aid (FA) from within Recovery Mode or from a USB Installer. It never occurred to me that FA was possible from "within" the Drive. Could that not explain the new warning???

Second guess: maybe, only maybe, using FA on either HD or HD - Data actually suspends activity on both, as it would be difficult to use one without the other. And from that guess, maybe FA is applied to both HDs irrespective of which HD you choose???

Ian

 

[Rod]

I think you've got it nailed Ian. Suspending activity may also mean a better analysis of the system is being carried out.


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[Slydude]

I wonder if the screen going dark is a dark mode issue. I've run First Aid several times during the beta period and haven't encountered that behavior, I don't normally use Dark Mode.

 

[krs]

Well, Rod, you are obviously correct that the appearance and warning are completely different from previous Operating Systems. Below is what you see with macOS Mojave:

View attachment 30472

I can only offer some guesses.

Firstly, it has always surprised me that one could carry out First Aid (FA) on a Drive currently in use - as implied in my screenshot. No mention of suspending all use during the process in my case. When needed, I've always carried out First Aid (FA) from within Recovery Mode or from a USB Installer. It never occurred to me that FA was possible from "within" the Drive. Could that not explain the new warning???

Second guess: maybe, only maybe, using FA on either HD or HD - Data actually suspends activity on both, as it would be difficult to use one without the other. And from that guess, maybe FA is applied to both HDs irrespective of which HD you choose???

Ian

I seem to remember that on the very old OSs, like SnowLeopard, the message that came up when one ran First Aid on the drive in use was that not everything could be checked and that, while First Aid was in progress, the Mac might not be very responsive - or words to that effect.
I usually run FA on my main drive from the backup since I felt that might pick up any issues that otherwise could be missed.

 

[Rod]

Yes, me too, however I was interested to see if there were changes related to the volume structure and that may apply to running from Recovery as well. As for the screen going dark, perhaps it's more the absence of a desktop image. My guess is that this happens in light mode as well. Easily tested though. The previous version used to unmount Macintosh HD but not so dramatically and the possibility of it taking hours may just be a more accurate description of what to expect and not a change in behaviour.


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