How long should First Aid take?

[eN0ch]

I have an external HDD (4TB G-Drive) 2 or 3 years old. I use it mainly for TM backups, and also for archiving some stuff. DriveDx rates it as "Average 52.1%". It seems to function just fine. But I've become aware recently that there's a user ID mismatch between my current system (and more recent backups) and my previous system (and earlier backups). 501 now; 502 previously. No idea whether that's relevant to this question??

Anyway to the immediate point: I can't recall if I've ever tried running First Aid on this drive. But on several attempts recently it's been a failure. It gets stuck on "checking catalogue file" for quite a while (half hour maybe?). Then it goes to "checking multi-linked files" and that's where it really hangs. I could leave it overnight and it's still at that point in the morning. So then I force quit and give up. I've tried it through CleanMyMac X, and in Disk Utility itself both from my boot system and from Recovery. Same result every time.

From a bit of research I get the impression this shouldn't be how it is. Can anyone advise please. Thanks.

 

[MacCheetah3]

I could leave it overnight and it's still at that point in the morning.

That seems unreasonable.

I have not run First Aid on a drive in quite a while and do not recall paying close attention to duration. However, because it should not be a hindrance, I decided to run a test.

Drive: 2 TB HDD via USB 3.0
Time Machine Partition: 1.5 TB (Journaled HFS+)
Free Space: ~338 GB
Duration:
Within one minute the process reached “Checking catalog file"
Within 20 minutes the process reached “Checking multi-linked files"
Within 35 minutes the process reached “Checking catalog hierarchy"
Within 55 minutes the process reached “Checking extended attributes file"
Within one hour the process reached “Checking multi-linked directories"
Within one hour and 55 minutes the process completed “Operation successful"

* A Volume Optimization via TechTool Pro has been performed on the partition not long ago. Although, I am uncertain if it made any performance/efficiency difference.

Can anyone advise please. Thanks.

Does the drive enclosure have a drive access indicator? If so, I would allow First Aid to continue as long as the LED is flashing. The process could indeed be requiring an extremely long time to complete.

Another idea would be to perhaps try running fsck_hfs with the -fn or -fEn flags
** Admittedly, I have never tried with those flags

fsck_hfs(8) [osx man page]

The fsck_hfs utility verifies and repairs standard HFS and HFS+ file systems. The first form of fsck_hfs quickly checks the specified file systems to determine whether they were cleanly unmounted. The second form of fsck_hfs preen

www.unix.com

 

[eN0ch]

Thanks. On the last bit - the options for fsck seem to be very limited and unclear for M1 systems. There is no single user mode, for instance. I've had a go at a few fsck commands in Terminal in Recovery. Didn't yield anything useful, and I'm really not even sure it worked. (Caveat: I'm fairly nooby where command line is concerned ...)

 

[pmiles]

Why are you running First Aid on the drive in the first place? Typically it is done when there is a known issue with the drive, not when it is functioning normally.

CleanMyMac X is a very risky application to have on your computer. The application exists to placate ex-Windows users who are used to micro-managing their systems for errors. Mac computers do not require this sort of micro-management and in some cases doing so actually degrades your system performance.

The G-drives can get flakey over time. Especially in a dual boot situation. Talking the old mechanical hard drives here. I found that the interface between the drives and the computer would be first to show signs of issues. Failing to mount for example. Windows would correct the mount issues if mounted under Windows. I eventually got rid of all the G-drives because they all behaved this way in time. Don't know if it was an OS induced issue (as in later OSes didn't play well with the drives) or what.

Now I only use a NAS setup and haven't had to deal with G-drive issues ever again. Back in the day, G-drives were fine... as in they were as modern as the computer connected to it. They don't seem to do as well with older hardware running later OSes... that's when they seemed to become unreliable... under MacOSes that is, Windows they were fine.

 

[solouki]

Hi eN0ch,

... just another data point. First Aid can easily take over a day to complete on an HDD, depending on the speed of the drive, the speed of the interface, the amount of space utilized on the drive, and the number of errors found on the disk that needed to be repaired.

Personally, I've had an "fsck" on a RAIDed HDD drive take 4 days to complete.

Solouki

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd "wipe clean" the tm portion of the drive, and start over with a completely "fresh" tm backup.

Or... better yet... switch to CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

OP wrote:
"there's a user ID mismatch between my current system (and more recent backups) and my previous system (and earlier backups). 501 now; 502 previously. No idea whether that's relevant to this question??"

I'll guess that it could be "relevant".
Sounds like the user ID's got messed up due to the way you "migrated" from an older Mac (or changed accounts).
ID 501 is normally the "primary" user account -- the "first one" that gets created on a new Mac when the new owner initially "sets it up".
If you ran the initial setup and created a new account BEFORE you migrated accounts from an older Mac, the "migrated account" could end up in the user ID "502" spot.

 

[MacCheetah3]

I'd "wipe clean" the tm portion of the drive, and start over with a completely "fresh" tm backup.

I think, it’s good to do occasionally. In fact, I might do a clean backup again when my TM partition is full.

 

[eN0ch]

Thanks everyone. Interesting. And perplexing. And slightly alarming 😰. But I think I'll live. Guess I might consider the clean backup approach

 

[eN0ch]

Why are you running First Aid on the drive in the first place?

Although the drive seems fine most of the time, I've had some permissions oddities and DriveDx's "average" rating seemed to suggest some investigation might be in order. (DriveDx is a new acquisition).

 

[pritcharddesign]

I have an external HDD (4TB G-Drive) 2 or 3 years old. I use it mainly for TM backups, and also for archiving some stuff. DriveDx rates it as "Average 52.1%". It seems to function just fine. But I've become aware recently that there's a user ID mismatch between my current system (and more recent backups) and my previous system (and earlier backups). 501 now; 502 previously. No idea whether that's relevant to this question??

Anyway to the immediate point: I can't recall if I've ever tried running First Aid on this drive. But on several attempts recently it's been a failure. It gets stuck on "checking catalogue file" for quite a while (half hour maybe?). Then it goes to "checking multi-linked files" and that's where it really hangs. I could leave it overnight and it's still at that point in the morning. So then I force quit and give up. I've tried it through CleanMyMac X, and in Disk Utility itself both from my boot system and from Recovery. Same result every time.

From a bit of research I get the impression this shouldn't be how it is. Can anyone advise please. Thanks.

What is "TM"?

 

[kitKAC]

What is "TM"?

Time Machine

 

[pritcharddesign]

Thank you

 

[cadec]

just to add to the convo: I have had numerous (at least 3) hard drives fail using 8TB (2x4TB) G-Drive USB enclosure (RAID set to use for storage only and backups, not RAID). it is a piece of crap and they never responded to numerous requests & PLEAS for tech support, for warranty coverage/repairs. they are a piece of crap (yes that includes Western Digital) since they also never responded or attempted to make good on G-Drive warranties. HATE THEM BOTH WITH A PASSION. Will NEVER purchase g-drive or western digital ever gain.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Now I only use a NAS setup and haven't had to deal with G-drive issues ever again.

Curious. What NAS hardware are you using? I'm currently trying to decide between Synology and Qnap.