DU First Aid on internal user folder drive: Unable to unmount volume for repair

[pullman]

Hello everybody

I think I'm in deep trouble here...

After I did a clean install of 10.11 two weeks ago, my Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) has begun taking a bit long to boot to desktop. The actual loading of the OS (with the progress bar) is quick, but it takes quite a while (minutes) from entering my password until the computer is accessible at the desktop. I have almost nothing set to autostart in Sys Prefs Users.

The boot disk is two SSDs striped on a Sonnet Tempo Pro and the user folder is on a separate HDD.

Because the sluggishness is from the point where I enter the password, I thought there might be a problem with the user folder HDD. I've had my user folder on a separate HDD for the last several OS X iterations without trouble, however during the autumn I needed more space and bought two new 3TB drives (one for the SuperDuper clone of the user folder). These HDDs ran fine under Mavericks.

When I run DU First Aid on the volume that holds the user folder I receive the following error (this doesn't appear if I run First Aid on the HDD itself):

"First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume." The Details section of the dialog box reads:

"Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required
Unable to unmount volume for repair
Operation failed..."

Worryingly, I get the same error if I run First Aid on the volume of the other 3TB drive which holds the SuperDuper clone of the user folder.

I guess both new 3TB drives could be failing at the same time, but it seems a bit unlikely. Does anyone have an idea of what other causes there could be for these errors?

I'd be very grateful for any assistance as this is my main machine. Thanks kindly in advance,

Philip

 

[pullman]

Btw, I've tried booting into safe mode, but that didn't change anything. Also, I've created a test account (with the folder on the striped SSD). That account loads very fast after I enter the password. I'm a bit confused here.

Thanks in advance again

Philip

 

[CoastalOR]

Maybe try downloading and running Etrecheck to get a report of everything that is loading. You can paste the results here if you need help reviewing it.

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I did run that after I posted last night. Unfortunately I am now at work so I don't have access to the info.

I remember there were a few "crashes" listed at the end. Some of them involved the driver for my rather old Wacom Pen and Touch tablet. I am using the latest driver (5.3.6.6 I think), which supposedly works with El Cap but perhaps it isn't fully compatible.

There were also other crashes listed but I don't remember them now unfortunately. So perhaps it's simply a periferals-related problem.

I found out in the meantime that the odd behaviour of DU is simply a bug in El Cap.

Maybe try downloading and running Etrecheck to get a report of everything that is loading. You can paste the results here if you need help reviewing it.

 

[KALLT]

I found out in the meantime that the odd behaviour of DU is simply a bug in El Cap.

That may actually be the cause. El Capitan’s Disk Utility has received a lot of genuine criticism. My suggestion is: download the OS installer of a previous system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite), create a bootable installer with it and boot into it. The installer has a version of Disk Utility of the same system.

 

[Riwam]

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I did run that after I posted last night. Unfortunately I am now at work so I don't have access to the info.

I remember there were a few "crashes" listed at the end. Some of them involved the driver for my rather old Wacom Pen and Touch tablet. I am using the latest driver (5.3.6.6 I think), which supposedly works with El Cap but perhaps it isn't fully compatible.

There were also other crashes listed but I don't remember them now unfortunately. So perhaps it's simply a periferals-related problem.

I found out in the meantime that the odd behaviour of DU is simply a bug in El Cap.

*****
To complete the info of KALTT, I easily found a torrent in the web with a file which installed me the Yosemite Disk Utility in the Utilities folder where the crippled new DU is.
I know that so called serious computer users do not trust torrents as a source of files but the DU I found was obviously made by someone who only wanted to help other mac users.
Ed

 

[KALLT]

*****
To complete the info of KALTT, I easily found a torrent in the web with a file which installed me the Yosemite Disk Utility in the Utilities folder where the crippled new DU is.
I know that so called serious computer users do not trust torrents as a source of files but the DU I found was obviously made by someone who only wanted to help other mac users.
Ed

Note that this is technically a copyright violation in many jurisdictions. Personally, I am also against hacking OS utility software like this, especially something so critical as Disk Utility.

 

[Riwam]

Note that this is technically a copyright violation in many jurisdictions. Personally, I am also against hacking OS utility software like this, especially something so critical as Disk Utility.

******
I am not a lawyer, KALTT, maybe you are one.
However from a purely reasonable point of view why whould Apple take measures against people using an utility made by them for a previous OSX in a newer one?
There is no reverse engeneering or any kind of hack needed for that... as far as I understand.
It simply means continue to use an utility developped by Apple, unchanged in itself, just in a new environement.

I am sure that Apple's lawyers are too busy fighting Samsung "et al." for millions of dollars to pay any attention to such a minor change in El Capitans's use by a number of mac users.
That will certainly not trouble my sleep.
Ed

 

[KALLT]

There is no reverse engeneering or any kind of hack needed for that... as far as I understand.

Yes, there is. It involves a modification to the binary of Disk Utility, which is rarely a good idea in and of itself. The program does not run on El Capitan and that is likely completely intentional. System utilities rely on system frameworks that change between operating system releases. You are basically forcing Disk Utility to disregard the OS dependency check and run anyway. Notwithstanding the copyright issue, doing this for a system utility that you really want to rely on is just stupid and I rather not see this being suggested as a solution to potentially inexperienced users.

@pullman: Another option is to use the command-line utility diskutil. You can verify and repair disks/volumes with it too (‘diskX’ should be replaced with the identifier of the volume/disk, which you can find under Info in DU):

diskutil verifyvolume /dev/diskX
diskutil verifydisk /dev/diskX
diskutil repairvolume /dev/diskX
diskutil repairdisk /dev/diskX

 

[JohnDS]

You might try to see if Disk Warrior will repair the drive: http://www.alsoft.com

 

[Riwam]

I do not agree with your opinion KALLT that is it "stupid" to use the previous DU in El Capitan and I am not alone in deploring the way it was crippled.
I know as you do that the command line still has possibilities taken away from the present DU but users were not asked if they wanted to give them up in DU and just leave them in the command line.

After all every software is made to assist and bring results to their users and not for its own sake or for simple enjoyment of the programmers.

In other threads you will find countless users who regretted the crippled present DU and found that the "stupid" one was the Apple developping team who took the decision to cripple it.

Regarding reverse enginnering, it is a fellony if it causes financial or moral damage to the copyright owners of the software involved AFAIK.

You will find different threads in this forum related to ways and tools allowing to use newer versions of OSX in still nicely working old mac computers which unfortunately are not able to do it natively because of wrong decisions Apple took in the past and made them in this way obsolete.
Apple is no exception to the rule that everyone can make errors.

There are much more enginnering changes involved in those tools than there might be in simply using the DU of Yosemite or of Mavericks in El Capitan.

Since all those developers do their work for free and without any intention to infringe the copyrights of Apple (or any other company) in order to make money on behalf of the original software creators through their work, they can safely publish their results in this forum and they actually do it!

Not everything not intended by Apple (or any other computer company) is in its nature illegal, must be strictly avoided by the computer users and should be punished by the law.
What many people (including Apple's decision makers) lack is the simple and basic common sense, which seems to be much less "common" than the word implies.

Now I believe that I have made as far as possible my case clear and see no sense to argue any longer with you.
That was it as far as I am concerned.
Ed

 

[KALLT]

I do not agree with your opinion KALLT that is it "stupid" to use the previous DU in El Capitan and I am not alone in deploring the way it was crippled.
I know as you do that the command line still has possibilities taken away from the present DU but users were not asked if they wanted to give them up in DU and just leave them in the command line.

After all every software is made to assist and bring results to their users and not for its own sake or for simple enjoyment of the programmers.

In other threads you will find countless users who regretted the crippled present DU and found that the "stupid" one was the Apple developping team who took the decision to cripple it.

Regarding reverse enginnering, it is a fellony if it causes financial or moral damage to the copyright owners of the software involved AFAIK.

You will find different threads in this forum related to ways and tools allowing to use newer versions of OSX in still nicely working old mac computers which unfortunately are not able to do it natively because of wrong decisions Apple took in the past and made them in this way obsolete.
Apple is no exception to the rule that everyone can make errors.

There are much more enginnering changes involved in those tools than there might be in simply using the DU of Yosemite or of Mavericks in El Capitan.

Since all those developers do their work for free and without any intention to infringe the copyrights of Apple (or any other company) in order to make money on behalf of the original software creators through their work, they can safely publish their results in this forum and they actually do it!

Not everything not intended by Apple (or any other computer company) is in its nature illegal, must be strictly avoided by the computer users and should be punished by the law.
What many people (including Apple's decision makers) lack is the simple and basic common sense, which seems to be much less "common" than the word implies.

Now I believe that I have made as far as possible my case clear and see no sense to argue any longer with you.
That was it as far as I am concerned.
Ed

This is a lot of unrelated rambling, so I only reiterate what I said: (1) The new Disk Utility has disturbing problems. Full stop. If it does not work for you then you should use something else, either diskutil, an older version of Disk Utility or a third-party tool of which there are plenty. (2) Modifying a binary and turning off its dependency checks is stupid and almost never a good idea, regardless for which reason you want to do this. It is the worst thing you could opt for considering the alternatives and it is far from common sense to use hacked software for something as crucial as disk formatting, partitioning and maintenance. (3) Distributing and copying copyright-protected software without a licence is a copyright violation. Your views on this are beyond naive. This has nothing to do with your right to modify, decompile or reverse-engineer binaries.

Do what you want, but you have made absolutely no good case for using this hacked version of DU. I am as annoyed by the new Disk Utility as everyone else, but that does not mean that we need to throw reasonable computing practices overboard, just because you think you need to fix Apple’s mistakes yourself.

 

[Riwam]

This is a lot of unrelated rambling, so I only reiterate what I said: (1) The new Disk Utility has disturbing problems. Full stop. If it does not work for you then you should use something else, either diskutil, an older version of Disk Utility or a third-party tool of which there are plenty. (2) Modifying a binary and turning off its dependency checks is stupid and almost never a good idea, regardless for which reason you want to do this. It is the worst thing you could opt for considering the alternatives and it is far from common sense to use hacked software for something as crucial as disk formatting, partitioning and maintenance. (3) Distributing and copying copyright-protected software without a licence is a copyright violation. Your views on this are beyond naive. This has nothing to do with your right to modify, decompile or reverse-engineer binaries.

Do what you want, but you have made absolutely no good case for using this hacked version of DU. I am as annoyed by the new Disk Utility as everyone else, but that does not mean that we need to throw reasonable computing practices overboard, just because you think you need to fix Apple’s mistakes yourself.

******
"It takes all kind of people to make a world"
A famous sentence always true.
So it takes people like KALTT to continue useless discussions doing nothing either to help the thread starter to solve his problems nor instruct the thread reader deserving to learn new and interesting things..
Go on forever if you want...but without me....
Ed