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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Disk Utility Just Vanished, Can That Happen?

Disk Utility Just Vanished, Can That Happen?
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pendragon
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May 17, 2005, 03:39 PM
 
After installing 10.4.1 on one drive, I rebooted to a different drive (10.3.8 on the same machine) so that I could easily run DiskWarrior on the drive I just updated to 10.4.1.

I was getting ready to run DW, when I noticed that Disk Utilities was gone-- it simply had vanished. A search for it was to no avail.

It seems incongruous (to me) that somehow I had deleted the Disk Utility and it seems equally bizarre that installing 10.4.1 on one drive could in any way affect something on a different drive (but on the same machine).

What I did to fix things was to copy Disk Utilities from an entirely different machine (one running 10.3.9) and dropped that in the Utilities Folder (of the 10.3.8 drive). Prepared for the worst, I clicked away.

Numerous fixes transpired, I mean dozens, but a subsequent run of my "new" Disk Utility was normal. I then Safe Booted, fsck'd, and ran DiskWarrior against the 10.3.8 drive. All reports indicated no problems and it appears everything is as it was. The new Disk Utility works fine, or so it seems.

But has anyone ever heard of Disk Utility just disappearing and what, if any, consequences, can I anticipate from copying a 10.3.9 Disk Utility from one machine and using it on a 10.3.8 drive in a different machine?

Confusion reigns...
Harv
27" i7 iMac (10.10.3), iPhone 5 (iOS 8.3)
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
     
piracy
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May 17, 2005, 04:36 PM
 
Who knows what happened, but there is absolutely no problem running a 10.3.9 version of Disk Utility against a 10.3.8 drive, or vice versa. In fact, almost any version of any HFS+ utility can be used against any HFS+ disk.

The only new, notable exception is using pre-10.4 disk utilities of any kind (including Disk Utility) with 10.4.x volumes. The short story: don't do it. But you can use Disk Utility from, say, 10.3.0 just fine on a 10.3.9 volume...they don't have to be the same version. The only new thing with 10.4 is the addition of HFS+ extended attributes for metadata (xattr). These could be interpreted by non-10.4-aware utilities as filesystem damage.

As for what happened to Disk Utility, I'd say it was filesystem corruption, based on your subsequent description of numerous fixes. None of the Mac OS X 10.3.x updaters should touch any volume other than the boot volume, and iTunes 2.0 installer cracks aside, it's not possible for them to even do anything with a non-boot volume, much less take one thing from utilities and delete it. I'd just chalk it up to a fluke and forget about it.
     
pendragon  (op)
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May 17, 2005, 04:53 PM
 
Thanks for a most through, easily understood, and prompt reply. It is truly appreciated.
Harv
27" i7 iMac (10.10.3), iPhone 5 (iOS 8.3)
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
     
pendragon  (op)
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May 17, 2005, 05:59 PM
 
Having thought about this a bit more, I think I now know what happened:

When I recently updated DiskWarrior to v3.0.3, I moved the old DW to the trash and then installed the new/updated DW.

But instead of moving the old DW as intended, I trashed the item that was adjacent to it (Disk Utility).

All things considered, I would rather be guilty of Operator Error than having a hosed system.

Oh, the shame.
Harv
27" i7 iMac (10.10.3), iPhone 5 (iOS 8.3)
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
     
piracy
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May 17, 2005, 07:42 PM
 
Sometimes PEBKAC explains it.

(Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)

     
   
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