# Mac is going nuts; can't repair permissions; what to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065 "2006-01-22T03:37:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/1 "2006-01-22T03:37:22Z")
I’ve been gettin major “pinwheel action” on my iBook G4 running OSX. It’s been freezing up. I repaired permissions not to long ago, but now when I try it starts to do it but then it says, “Disk Utility has lost connection to Disk Management tool. Quit Disk Utility and try again.” That doesn’t seem like a good sign. What is going on, and what should I do? Thanks in advance for your help! ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/2 "2006-01-22T03:52:24Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > I’ve been gettin major “pinwheel action” on my iBook G4 running OSX. It’s been freezing up. > > I repaired permissions not to long ago, but now when I try it starts to do it but then it says, “Disk Utility has lost connection to Disk Management tool. Quit Disk Utility and try again.” > > That doesn’t seem like a good sign. > > What is going on, and what should I do? Thanks in advance for your help! Boot from your install disc and run Disk Utility from there. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/3 "2006-01-22T03:53:58Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > I’ve been gettin major “pinwheel action” on my iBook G4 running OSX. It’s been freezing up. > > I repaired permissions not to long ago, but now when I try it starts to do it but then it says, “Disk Utility has lost connection to Disk Management tool. Quit Disk Utility and try again.” > > That doesn’t seem like a good sign. > > What is going on, and what should I do? Thanks in advance for your help! What OSX are you using? have you up graded fror 10.3.X to 10.4.X? If so are you using the 10.4 disk to repair permissions? If you have any perpherials connected, disconnect them.(That’s according to \* OSX: The Missing Manual\*) Be sure you run DiskFirstAid as well as repairing permissions. That’s all I have. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/4 "2006-01-22T04:55:32Z")
This worked for me: [http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:JcnHaic11WwJ:www.macintouch.com/readerreports/itunes6\_0\_2/topic1991.html+"disk+utility+has+lost+its+connection"&hl=en](http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:JcnHaic11WwJ:www.macintouch.com/readerreports/itunes6_0_2/topic1991.html+%22disk+utility+has+lost+its+connection%22&hl=en) > [@](#): > > Ian Waterston > If you’ve got 10.3.9 or earlier, and downloaded iTunes 6.02 and hit a problem with running Permissions Repair using Disk Utility (and many people have…) then the fix that seems to work …God knows why… is, to quote from the relevant Apple Support Forum… > “Go to HD\>Library\>Receipts and trash all iTunes .pkg files EXCEPT for iTunesX.pkg and iTunesPhoneDriver.pkg” > It’s been a total fix for me. Er… why? Greater minds than mine will doubtless know the answer to that question. What bullshit. After I did that “upgrade” I also lost my internet connection in my house, got it at my office, and had it at my house later. Grrr. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/5 "2006-01-22T04:59:33Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Be sure you run DiskFirstAid as well as repairing permissions. > That’s all I have. What is the difference, and where is the DiskFirstAid app to be found? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/6 "2006-01-22T05:51:53Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > What is the difference, and where is the DiskFirstAid app to be found? DiskFirstAid is an old name. Everything’s in the ‘Disk Utility’ application nowadays. Permissions repair and Disk repair now appear as separate buttons under the ‘First Aid’ tab of ‘Disk Utility’. Disk repair will not run on active the boot partition, so you need to boot off the CD, or another drive or partition to run it on your regular boot disk. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/7 "2006-01-22T16:56:41Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > DiskFirstAid is an old name. Everything’s in the ‘Disk Utility’ application nowadays. Permissions repair and Disk repair now appear as separate buttons under the ‘First Aid’ tab of ‘Disk Utility’. Disk repair will not run on active the boot partition, so you need to boot off the CD, or another drive or partition to run it on your regular boot disk. Right…Old habits die hard, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/8 "2006-01-23T05:34:05Z")
Mac users like to claim that Mac is so stable. Well… Safari crashes pretty regularly, I get a weird striped screen now and then, other applications crash. And my first iBook G4 motherboard died on me after one month of use (replaced under warranty, but what an incredible pain that was). Now this slowing down and freezing without any real explanation. Almost makes me long for a Windows machine. And that’s sad. When are we finally going to get computers that don’t require daily hand-holding? ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/9 "2006-01-23T06:55:29Z")
A lot of people don’t have good things to say about Norton Disk Doctor, but I’ve used it regularly for years and have managed to catch a lot of little problems before they became big problems. You might want to pick up the latest version of Norton Utilities and give it a go. Back up EVERYTHING that you don’t want to lose beforehand, then boot from the Norton CD. The diagnose/repair process may take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours on an OSX system, depending on how much you’ve got on your HD, so make sure you’ve got some time when you won’t be needing your computer for awhile. If something Bad happens, you’ve at least got your data backed up; Utilities also has a Volume Recover feature that may be able to get you back lost files. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/10 "2006-01-23T12:38:21Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > Mac users like to claim that Mac is so stable. Well… Safari crashes pretty regularly, I get a weird striped screen now and then, other applications crash. And my first iBook G4 motherboard died on me after one month of use (replaced under warranty, but what an incredible pain that was). Hmmm… something’s wrong. Nothing ever crashes my Macs. Well, some bad NSF configuration caused a kernel panic a couple of releases ago, but really, the OS is solid. Some websites occassionally crash Safari, but you know what? On Windows an IE crash will often take the whole OS with it (not as much with XP these days, though). And hardware wise, I’ve had my problems, but that happens with every manufacturer – parts are outsourced to the same jobshops, after all. No, the Mac is stable because of the tight integration between the custom hardware and software. That’s a _fact_, and a little Google-foo will be my cite. 🙂 Now, on to your problem: you probably have a bad hard drive. Happened to my poor (now dead) G4 PowerBook, and it exhibited all of the same, nasty symptoms. The laptop drives aren’t SMART drives, and they don’t seem to automatically remap their bad sectors. The I/O system tries and tries and tries to read the bad sector, which is better than a Windows style error message when it only tries once, but not as good because you don’t know what’s going on (yeah, there should be some happy medium). ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/11 "2006-01-23T17:56:18Z")
If you think the hard drive is going, you might want to download [SMARTReporter](http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232) to double check. It’s free, and has some good reviews. [This reviewer comment in particular](http://versiontracker.com/php/feedback/article.php?story=20050502233739657) should be of interest, given the problems you’ve been having. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/12 "2006-01-24T03:00:16Z")
> [@sunfish](#): > > If you think the hard drive is going, you might want to download [SMARTReporter](http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23232) to double check. It’s free, and has some good reviews. > > [This reviewer comment in particular](http://versiontracker.com/php/feedback/article.php?story=20050502233739657) should be of interest, given the problems you’ve been having. Thanks for this advice! I ran the software and it said my drive is OK. This problem is driving me nuts! ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/13 "2006-01-24T03:55:39Z")
My first step would be to zap PRAM, boot in single-user mode (command-s) and type: fsck -fy This will repair the disk… Then insert your OS X install disk - Tiger, I imagine, right? Hold down D (or is it C? I always get it twisted) to boot from the CD, and you will automatically boot into the OS X installer. If you go to the File menu you’ll see Disk Utility. You should be able to run Disk Utility there. I really advise against using Norton. Since OS X came out, all I’ve heard (and experienced) is bad stuff. Installs weird stuff, hoses your OS, etc. A much better investment is DiskWarrior, which will rebuild your disk directory on your boot disk when you boot from the CD. This often fixes all kinds of weirdness. Another one you might want to look into is TechTool Pro. But try the simpler, free fixes first and see where that gets you. For a great place with Mac heads all around to help you, go to [discussions.apple.com](http://discussions.apple.com) and either search with your symptoms or ask a question. There’s a guy called Dr. Smoke who is really good that has an FAQ somewhere. Be prepared to spit out all of your Mac’s stats - memory, OS, when the problem started, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/14 "2006-01-24T05:10:07Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] My first step would be to zap PRAM, boot in single-user mode (command-s) and type: fsck -fy This will repair the disk… [quote] Thanks. What does “zap PRAM, boot in single-user mode” mean? > [@](#): > > Then insert your OS X install disk - Tiger, I imagine, right? > > Hold down D (or is it C? I always get it twisted) to boot from the CD, and you will automatically boot into the OS X installer. If you go to the File menu you’ll see Disk Utility. You should be able to run Disk Utility there. Hold down shift, isn’t it? In any case, I know how to do this. Thank you. Wow, and I thought Mac was supposed to be a cake-walk. Disillusionment hurts. I thank you very much for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/15 "2006-01-24T06:06:41Z")
It’s C. Shift will start you in safe mode, C lets you choose between startup disks at login. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/16 "2006-01-24T11:55:03Z")
Well…. close. Shift starts without kernel extensions enabled – which is in a vague sort of way a safe-ish mode. C boots from the built-in CD and maybe will scan external CD’s (where CD can be DVD as well). Booting with _option_ allows you to lets you choose between startup disks. As for the Intel Macs, I’m assuming this is the same, but who knows. No, really… who does know? Also, check out your System Profiler to look at your hard drive information – I was certain that iBooks didn’t have SMART-capable drives. After all, if my fancy-shmancy PowerBook didn’t have a SMART drive, why would a lowly iBook? 😉 We wouldn’t want you having misplaced confidence in SMARTreporter. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/17 "2006-01-25T08:05:20Z")
OK, I zapped PRAM (I’m curious as to what this does). Then I had two of the slowest boots of my life. I had to to a hard reset each time. I then noticed that the hard drive was making the same sound over and over. I lifted up the Mac, and the sound changed. Then things seemed to snap into place with lightning speed. Could my hard drive be about to go to shit? Could this be a warning sign? Or could zapping the PRAM have screwed up the two boots? Before I did all that, I had a great 5-6 hours today of Mac use. Then I got another total freeze. Man, this is really frustrating. Your further advice on the above will be much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/18 "2006-01-25T08:11:50Z")
My hard drive is a TOSHIBA MK4025GAS. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/19 "2006-01-25T16:59:57Z")
Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065/20 "2006-01-25T17:38:23Z")
**Aeschines** , being an old Mac user I zap the PRAM whenever it does weird stuff. Turns out it doesn’t do a whole lot: > [@Ohio State Tech Support Dept.](#): > > Zapping PRAM in Mac OS X does not do some of the things zapping PRAM did in Mac OS 9.X or earlier. Monitor and network settings are no longer stored in PRAM, so zapping PRAM will not fix problems with monitors or networks. It will, however, reset the computer’s clock, startup speaker volume, sound volume, recent kernel panic information, and the DVD region code setting. Visit Apple’s web site to learn more about zapping PRAM. The sound, especially, indicates to me that your HD is about to die. I’ve had a number of disk failures over the years, and the times when it actually gave me a warning, that’s exactly what I heard - weirdness louder than usual from the drive. If you’re able to boot it again, transfer important documents to a CD or a jump drive. Applications you likely have the original disks, so don’t worry about that. The next step I would take would be in the direction of a Apple repair center. (Do you have AppleCare?) Did you try to boot in single user mode - command + s - and fsck -yf ? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-is-going-nuts-cant-repair-permissions-what-to-do/341065.md?page=2)