[luap82]

OSX and all applications have been running extremely slow the past several weeks, and more so the past few days. When I run Disk First Aid, it gives me:

---
The volume Macintosh HD (my startup drive) needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
---

The Repair Disk option is grayed out, though -- is this because it's the startup disk and I need to start up from the OS DVD?
I've only got about 50GB of 230GB used, so I can't figure out why things are running so slowly. Any help is greatly appreciated.

2GB iMac G5, 10.4.11, 1GB RAM

[Cold Warrior]

if your boot volume is damaged, it can result in system slowness and other problems.

Boot from the OS DVD and run Disk Utility from it (it's selectable from the disc's menu bar).

[luap82]

That's what I figured. To make sure, I shouldn't lose any data doing this, correct?

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by luap82 

That's what I figured. To make sure, I shouldn't lose any data doing this, correct?

Not necessarily. You might lose data during the attempt to repair the disk. It might even completely hose your volume. If you do not yet have a complete backup, now is the time to make one. Time Machine is your friend.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

Time Machine is your friend.

He's on 10.4.11. No Time Machine.


Another cause for slowness can be mechanical failure of the hard drive. If the drive hardware is failing, reads can become excruciatingly slow and the disk will eventually lose data irrecoverably.

Whatever you do, BACK UP NOW.