Using Disk Utility on your Mac OS X

By Sandy on May 28, 2009 1:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Are you performing regular maintenance on your Mac OS X? My Final Cut Pro Instructor always told me to use the Disk Utility function and Repair Disk Permissions on a weekly basis. So on Sunday evenings before shutting down, I do a Disk Permissions check...why? Basically to save headaches down the road. By performing this little "housekeeping" item periodically, my computer runs more efficiently, and I have less of a chance of my files becoming corrupted.

So what could cause my files to become corrupted? Any power outages, forced restarts, or system crashes can lead to disk directory corruption. Always run Repair Disk after a power outage or before installing any new software to your computer, and as I said, as part of your regular maintenance routine, to identify any hidden directory corruption before it becomes a problem.

Ok, so how do I go about this maintenance? First, you will access the Disk Utility from the Applications folder > Utilities > Disk Utility. Select the name of the Hard Drive on the left side of the window. To check the directory of the disk and attempt repair of any problems found, click the Repair Disk Permissions button. If it finds any problems, it will list them; otherwise it will say "the volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK". If it does find any problems, click Repair Disk Permissions again. If it finds the same problems during the second scan, it means Disk Utility cannot repair the disk and a more advanced utility is required.

Check out this article for more troubleshooting tips in Final Cut Pro.

So next time your computer seems sluggish on start up, or you just want to start a regular maintenance routine, remember to use your Disk Utility Application; after all, that's what it's there for!