Disk Utility (Apple)

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Disk utility

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Disk Utility on macOS Sierra
Basic data

developer Apple
operating system macOS
category Disk management program
License Part of macOS (formerly OS X, Mac OS X)
support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/welcome/mac

The Disk Utility - English Disk Utility - is an operating system macOS integrated disk management program . As a utility , it is used to manage data stores such as hard disks , the partition schemes contained on them such as partition tables and the partitions , memory images and software RAID configurations defined therein for the operating system of which it is part. In addition, it integrates the diagnosis and repair of supported file systems . It was introduced in Mac OS X Public Beta (10.0 Beta, 2000) and has been expanded ever since. It was revised with OS X El Capitan (11/10/2015).

development

During the development of Mac OS X (from 1998) existing utilities from the classic Mac OS (1984–2001) as well as those from OPENSTEP (formerly NeXTStep, 1988–1999) or Rhapsody (1997–2000) were taken over and transferred to the new one Operating system ported. It was Disk Copy ( "Disk Copy") of Mac OS 9 (1999) in Mac OS X 10.0 over ( "Cheetah," 2001). Even Disk Utility was already integrated and united the from the classic Mac OS known First Aid ( "First Aid") for repairing the file system with Drive Setup ( "Drive Setup") for partitioning. However, the corresponding individual programs from Mac OS 8 (1997–1999) and 9 (1999–2001) served as a model .

How (in other integrated in the system utilities English Utilities ), the individual programs during the development of Mac OS X ever more logically grouped and revised the graphical user dialogs - including all functions for data storage in Disk Utility , which the official Translation by Apple for the Disk Utility until Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6, 2009) is. For example, Mac OS X Panther (10.3, 2003) had essentially the same disk utility as later versions of Mac OS X, up to and including OS X Yosemite (10.10, 2014). Starting with Mac OS X Lion (10.7, 2011) the hyphen was left out of the translation.

The program was not significantly revised until OS X El Capitan (11/10/2015).

Functions

The hard disk utility graphically depicts the partition and file system functions of the operating system. Accordingly, it can manage different partition tables on different operating system versions (create partitions or change their size) as well as create (format), repair or change their size different file systems. It is the same when dealing with memory dumps.

  • Check and repair partitions ("volumes") (file system, access rights)
  • Partition hard disks, partition scheme selectable between GPT , APM and MBR
  • Format partitions ("Volumes"), file system selectable between APFS , HFS + , FAT ("MS-DOS") and exFAT
  • Add or remove partitions
  • Enlarge or reduce partitions (if the file system is supported)
  • Creating software RAID configurations (using the RAID wizard)
  • Create memory images (e.g. Apple Disk Image )
  • Deactivate ( unmount , unmount the file system ) and activate (mount, mount ) volumes and memory images
  • Creating backup copies ("restore")
  • Copy volumes / images
  • ( Safe ) deletion of individual partitions or the entire data store
  • Display of information, such as the size of the memory, SMART status, hardware address (file name for memory images), mount point, ...

The program thus provides graphical functions that can also be used as terminal programs via u. a. diskutil, hdiutil, newfs, fsckAre available.

Range of functions

Every version of Mac OS X / OS X / macOS brings new features or loses support for obsolete features.

function scope Operating system version comment
Burn from Panther (10.3), 2003, to Yosemite (10.10), 2014 Creation of ISO images and "on-the-fly" burning if a CD / DVD writer is available. This feature was removed with OS X El Capitan (11/10/2015). There are other ways to burn on macOS, however.
First aid from Public Beta (10.0 Beta), 2000 Check or repair volume (file system); Check or repair access rights.
Delete safely from 10.2.3 "Jaguar," 2002, to Yosemite (10.10), 2014 As of Mac OS X Lion (10.7, 2011), the option for overwriting 35 times is no longer available. From OS X El Capitan (10.11, 2015) the function is completely missing. However diskutil secureErase, the function can still be used via the terminal and by calling up .
Partition APM from Public Beta (10.0 Beta), 2000 The Apple Partition Map (APM) was introduced in 1987 for the Macintosh and the classic Mac OS. On PowerPC-based Macs, the Open Firmware requires such a partition table to start an operating system. Intel-based Macs can also start from it, if only unofficially.
MBR Partitions (“volumes”) with a master boot record were supported by Mac OS X from the start for data exchange with PCs. On Intel Macs, macOS can also be started from this, but only via the CSM and only unofficially.
GPT from 10.4.2 "Tiger", 2005 With the change to the Intel x86 architecture, there was a change from Open Firmware to EFI . This firmware starts from GPT partitions, although Apple deviates from the standard and the Mac EFI loads the macOS bootloader directly. From this version of Mac OS X, PowerPC-based Macs (sold until mid-2006) can use data storage devices with GUID partition tables (GPT) to exchange data, but cannot start from them.
Add partitions from Leopard (10.5), 2007 Only from this version of Mac OS X is it possible to use Disk Utility to add or enlarge partitions to an existing partition table without endangering existing partitions. Up to Mac OS X Tiger (10.4, 2005), the size of the partition table that was specified when it was created could not be subsequently changed without completely deleting existing partitions (volumes).
Change partition sizes from Leopard (10.5), 2007 From Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Tiger, 2006) it was already possible to reduce GUID partitions with the HFS + file system using the Boot Camp Assistant (back then as a public beta version) and a terminal command diskutil resizeVolume. From Mac OS X Leopard (10.5, 2007) it was finally also possible to enlarge or reduce individual partitions (volumes) in the disk utility.
RAID from Panther (10.3), 2003, to Yosemite (10.10), 2014; from Sierra (10.12), 2016 The Disk Utility includes a wizard to create a software RAID configuration. This function was only missing under OS X El Capitan (11/10/2015), which resulted in RAID partitions being displayed incoherently.
Restore from Panther (10.3), 2003 Integration of the functions of the single program up to Mac OS X 10.2 (“Jaguar,” 2002) as well as under classic Mac OS separately as Disk Copy - “Drive copy ”.
Fusion Drive from 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion), 2013 A special partition is used for Fusion Drive , which the hard disk service program must be aware of, otherwise data may be lost.

criticism

The disk utility, as it existed from Mac OS X Panther (10.3, 2003) to OS X Mavericks (10.9, 2013), received positive reviews across the board.

The version revised with OS X El Capitan (10.11, 2015), however, was heavily criticized because of the removed functions. Above all, the lack of software RAID support bothered users. However, since macOS Sierra (12/10/2016) this function has been included again.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William C. Ray, John Ray: Mac OS X Panther Applications and Utilities. Disk utility. In: Mac OS X Panther Unleashed, 3rd Edition. Pearson Education, Informit, April 9, 2004, accessed April 27, 2017 .
  2. ↑ twistedmac.com
  3. ↑ Burn CD / DVD with Mac OS. In: Good to Know - Help for Mac Beginners. MacEinsteiger.de, 2010, accessed April 27, 2017 .
  4. ↑ JK: Burning ISO images under OS X 10.11 El Capitan. JKdigital, December 3, 2015, accessed April 27, 2017 .
  5. ↑ maceinsteiger.de
  6. ↑ James Pond: OSX Tips: Using Disk Utility. 1. Format, Erase, or Reformat a Drive. In: Apple OSX and Time Machine Tips. James Pond, April 20, 2013, accessed April 27, 2017 .
  7. ↑ blackbagtech.com
  8. ↑ a b Christoph Pfisterer: Myths and Facts About Intel Macs. The rEFIt Project, December 9, 2006, accessed on April 28, 2017 : “Mac OS X boots and runs just fine from disks using MBR partitioning, or even APM (Apple Partition Map, used on PowerPC Macs). However, the Mac OS X Installer will refuse to put a fresh copy of Mac OS X on a disk that's not using GPT. "
  9. ↑ LEM Staff: iMac (Early 2008). In: Low End Mac. Cobweb Publishing, April 28, 2008, accessed on May 6, 2017 (English): "PowerPC Macs running any version of the Mac OS prior to 10.4.2 cannot mount GPT volumes."
  10. ↑ Tom Nelson: Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes. Lifewire, March 13, 2017, accessed on May 6, 2017 (English): “That changed with the release of OS X Leopard (10.5) which included a few notable features, specifically, the ability to add, delete, and resize hard drive partitions without first erasing the hard drive. This new ability to modify how a drive is partitioned without the need to reformat the drive is one of the best features of Disk Utility and is still present in the app to this day. "
  11. ↑ Kirk McElhearn: Resize partitions on-the-fly. In: Macworld. IDG Communications, Inc., February 6, 2007, accessed May 6, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Paul Horowitz: Resize Partition in Mac OS X with Disk Utility. OSXDaily.com, November 20, 2009, accessed on May 6, 2017 (English): "This has been possible from Mac OS X Leopard onward ..."
  13. ↑ macworld.com
  14. ↑ William Gallagher, Mike Würthele: Editorial: Apple's new Disk Utility nearly slain by the feature thief. The only people affected are the ones who use it. MacNN, November 4, 2015, accessed April 27, 2017 .