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Disk Utility - Alternatives or Older Version?
- Thread starter DavoteK
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I find the new Disk Utility very difficult to use to partition a drive. I wanted to install Yosemite on a small partition and set it up with some recovery apps like DiskWarrior, but was unable to even launch Yosemite installer in El Capitan. I booted into a Yosemite clone and it also would not let me run the Yosemite install. I had to modify my clone backup script to make the small recovery partition I needed since I will eventually delete the full Yosemite clone backup.
In my search for another option, I did find Stellar Partition Manager $39 (does not indicate compatibility with El Capitan).
Can't believe we need to find a replacement for an app that worked so well for many years.
In my search for another option, I did find Stellar Partition Manager $39 (does not indicate compatibility with El Capitan).
Can't believe we need to find a replacement for an app that worked so well for many years.
Yep the new Disk Utility is just horrible. I had to use internet recovery disk utility to remove a partition form my drive.
I say horrible because I couldn't do something that I've done before with ease, remove a partition. It would just give me an error.
I say horrible because I couldn't do something that I've done before with ease, remove a partition. It would just give me an error.
My preferred solution is to download an older version of OS X and create a bootable install disk with it, then just reboot into the installer whenever you need to make changes. If you have a fairly recent Mac then Internet recovery will also do just fine, but be aware that Apple made changes to the file system and that Disk Utility may not work in all cases. At least Mavericks should support this, I am not sure about Lion or Mountain Lion. Snow Leopard is definitely too old.
Third-party programs are also an option of course, as well as the command-line utility diskutil.
I advise against this. In order to get this older version to run you have to modify the binary to turn off dependency checks. Apple could make changes to the system frameworks that Disk Utility uses and it could cause problems. This is an unnecessary risk.
Third-party programs are also an option of course, as well as the command-line utility diskutil.
I advise against this. In order to get this older version to run you have to modify the binary to turn off dependency checks. Apple could make changes to the system frameworks that Disk Utility uses and it could cause problems. This is an unnecessary risk.
************
I have side by side the Disk Utility of Yosemite (which I use) and the one which came with El Capitan (which I ignore) and had not suffered in 5 weeks time the slightest, smallest, lightest, tiny, microscopic problem.
Whoever follows the advise found in this thread of installing Yosemite's Disk Utility is doing the right thing, takes no risk at all and can ignore all the scaring warnings of awful and terrible disasters luring over his mac ...
Do it, install it and feel absolutely safe.
There are always people fighting any improvement in the user's practical day to day work with all kind of profound arguments they find somewhere in their infinite wisdom
I sleep as quietly as before...
and so will everybody using the previous and far better Disk Utility.Only masochists punish themselves willingly.
Ed
************
I have side by side the Disk Utility of Yosemite (which I use) and the one which came with El Capitan (which I ignore) and had not suffered in 5 weeks time the slightest, smallest, lightest, tiny, microscopic problem.
Whoever follows the advise found in this thread of installing Yosemite's Disk Utility is doing the right thing, takes no risk at all and can ignore all the scaring warnings of awful and terrible disasters luring over his mac ...
Do it, install it and feel absolutely safe.
There are always people fighting any improvement in the user's practical day to day work with all kind of profound arguments they find somewhere in their infinite wisdom
I sleep as quietly as before...
Only masochists punish themselves willingly.
Ed
Let the buyer beware.
Curious... I have moved the Disk Utility from both the Yosemite installer app, and the version of Disk Utility installed in a Yosemite system, and when I try to launch that Yosemite Disk Utility while booted to El Cap, I get:************
I have side by side the Disk Utility of Yosemite (which I use) and the one which came with El Capitan (which I ignore) and had not suffered in 5 weeks time the slightest, smallest, lightest, tiny, microscopic problem.
Whoever follows the advise found in this thread of installing Yosemite's Disk Utility is doing the right thing, takes no risk at all and can ignore all the scaring warnings of awful and terrible disasters luring over his mac ...
Do it, install it and feel absolutely safe.
There are always people fighting any improvement in the user's practical day to day work with all kind of profound arguments they find somewhere in their infinite wisdom
I sleep as quietly as before...
Only masochists punish themselves willingly.
Ed
Is there some trick that you do to actually get the Yosemite version of Disk Utility to run when booted to El Cap?
Let the user ignore people like this Kallt trying to scare others.
Be afraid of true dangers not of invented ones by someone who "knows better".
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*****
I have simply found in the web several weeks ago the Disk Utility of Yosemite as a .dmg installer and that file gave no problem to install at all.
If the one who post that file in the web adapted it in some way I truly don't know.
I only know that in my utilities folder I have the DU of El Capitan which I ignore and the one I use of Yosemite.
Ed
Let the user ignore people like this Kallt trying to scare others.
Be afraid of true dangers not of invented ones by someone who "knows better".
No need to take this sort of thing personal. I am a big proponent of safe computing practices and will advise people to stick to those, especially since I don’t know the level of competence of others here. You can come up with as many anecdotes as you like, but it does not change the fact that modifying binaries directly carries potential risks that the user should know about, so that they can make an informed decision.
That is the whole point, you can’t do this without modifying the Yosemite version. Apple hardcoded the dependency requirements into the binary file located in the .app bundle and El Capitan will refuse to load it as a result. That is where the hacked version comes in, it is a modified binary that results in El Capitan ignoring the dependency. You have to look for it, someone posted a link in a related thread.
Ah, OK, I thought I had seen something about that, but thought I would try it after having a couple of updates to El Cap.
I'm not going to look for the hacked version. I can always just boot into Yosemite (or something older).
My main need is making multiple, odd-sized partitions, and find it impossible on the El Cap DU.
There is a trick, the one I used can be found here, a Google search search turns up other methods also, all with the same end result.
Using the link I point to above, I followed the "Manual method" as I wanted to leave the El-Cap version untouched.
I have also manually modified Yosemite's version of Disk Utility (ver. 13), to work on 10.11 as found here :
https://justus.berlin/2015/10/restore-old-disk-utility-in-os-x-el-capitan/
I have used this modified version pretty extensively to re-partition, restore, and clone disks and partitions all the way from 10.6.8 to 10.11.3, and have not had one single problem so far.
That is not to say that in the future some functions of ver. 13 may become depreciated, and no longer work on volumes created with the latest (ver. 15) Disk Utility or later, but for now it works very well.
Just my own experiences, and $.02 though, YMMV.
- Jay
https://justus.berlin/2015/10/restore-old-disk-utility-in-os-x-el-capitan/
I have used this modified version pretty extensively to re-partition, restore, and clone disks and partitions all the way from 10.6.8 to 10.11.3, and have not had one single problem so far.
That is not to say that in the future some functions of ver. 13 may become depreciated, and no longer work on volumes created with the latest (ver. 15) Disk Utility or later, but for now it works very well.
Just my own experiences, and $.02 though, YMMV.
- Jay
You are without any doubt right that at some point the Disk Utility trick won't work anymore, but for now it should be fairly safe. I still don't get why some people prefer to use the old clunky ugly DS when the new one is so much better, but hey — everyone needs to pick their own poison
I'm wondering if the iPartition app from Coriolis system would work for you? A bit expensive at $49.95 but supposedly works with El Capitan.
I still don't get why some people prefer to use the old clunky ugly DS when the new one is so much better, but hey — everyone needs to pick their own poison
It’s half-arsed. I like the direction they took with the redesign, but there are so many completely unnecessary problems in it. That neither window nor sidebar can be resized (even though the latter shows a respective mouse pointer for this) is really sloppy work and goes squarely against what they are doing elsewhere. That’s basic stuff, in fact Cocoa windows and sidebars do this by default, so they must have intentionally turned this off, at least attempted.
The pie-chart-like partitioner is also problematic, for instance:
I could not reach the left knob because the label would come in between. I had to change the values manually and then then third-last partition was also resized, even though I did not want that.