Macintosh OS X Disk Utility: “The underlying task reported failure on exit”

March 21, 2007 at 9:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized

My old PowerBook (G4, Tiger 10.4.9) started running very slowly after I installed the last set of Software Updates. I attempted to do a Verify with Disk Utility, after which I was going to run a repair. Upon running Disk Utility’s “Verify” function, I got the following error: “The underlying task reported failure on exit” and the “Repair” button was still disabled.

After poking around on the Apple Support site, I found a knowledge base article describing how to perform ‘fsck’ by booting into Single User mode. Here’s the drill. And, don’t use this method unless you absolutely need to; if Disk Utility is available and will perform the functions you need to, go that route. It took a bit longer to find this than I thought it would; hopefully it will help someone else out there get their Mac back up and running.

1. Reboot in Single User Mode
   a. Shut down your Macintosh.
   b. Restart your Macintosh by pressing the on/off button. Immediately depress and hold the Apple key + the ’s’ key.
2. Your computer will boot into Single User Mode. If you’re not used to this, it will be a black screen with white text. It looks nothing like OS X.
   a. As the computer boots, it will spout out some information about its startup sequence.
   b. When it has completed booting, you will be left with a command-line prompt that should look like this:localhost:/ root#
   
   At that prompt, type:
   
   /sbin/fsck - fy
3. The above command will start the File System Check.
4. When it is complete, you will get a response. If you get a response that includes “***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****” repeat the fsck command until fsck tells you that all is well. The all is well message will look something like this: ** The volume [name of volume] appears to be OK

   As soon as you get the above message, reboot by typing this at the command prompt:
   reboot
   

That did it for me - I was back up to full speed again. This article on the Apple Support site would be the place to start.

Share This

Comments