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OldDutch · 04-28-2012, 08:51 AM

Hello,

So my neighbor dropped off her Mac Laptop to me a few days ago. She was complaining that it was very slow to boot, and she couldn't open her iPhoto app.

Sure enough it takes about 10 minutes on boot to become usable, and all programs take forever to load. So I ran "Disk Utility" which came back with errors and said I had to reboot using my install Disk and run disk utility from the boot disk.

So this is the issue, she doesn't have this disk. So I managed to hunt down a Snow Leopard Retail DVD (She is on 10.6.8), and used that on boot. Doesn't work, as on boot from the DVD it crashes and says I need to restart.

Online, I read that you need to use the exact DVD that came with your Mac, or this type of crash can occur.

All I am looking for is a way to boot into Disk Utility, run it, and reboot. Why is this so hard? I also read booting into safe mode will run Disk Utility and fix, however I held the shift key on boot, it loaded safe mode, but I am not sure if that actually ran disk utility?

Does anyone have experience in this, or know of a way I can fix the disk without the original DVD? It is a Mac from 2009 so there is no recovery drive.

04-28-2012, 08:51 AM	#1
OldDutch #1 Goaltender Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: North of the River, South of the Bluff Exp:	Repair Mac Hard Drive Hello, So my neighbor dropped off her Mac Laptop to me a few days ago. She was complaining that it was very slow to boot, and she couldn't open her iPhoto app. Sure enough it takes about 10 minutes on boot to become usable, and all programs take forever to load. So I ran "Disk Utility" which came back with errors and said I had to reboot using my install Disk and run disk utility from the boot disk. So this is the issue, she doesn't have this disk. So I managed to hunt down a Snow Leopard Retail DVD (She is on 10.6.8), and used that on boot. Doesn't work, as on boot from the DVD it crashes and says I need to restart. Online, I read that you need to use the exact DVD that came with your Mac, or this type of crash can occur. All I am looking for is a way to boot into Disk Utility, run it, and reboot. Why is this so hard? I also read booting into safe mode will run Disk Utility and fix, however I held the shift key on boot, it loaded safe mode, but I am not sure if that actually ran disk utility? Does anyone have experience in this, or know of a way I can fix the disk without the original DVD? It is a Mac from 2009 so there is no recovery drive.