MacOS - Running First Aid on Hard Drive

Issue/Question

  • How do I run Mac's First Aid?
  • How do I see if my Mac Hard Drive works?

Environment

  • Oregon State University
  • MacOS
  • First Aid

Resolution

  1. For Intel-based Macs:
    1. Restart your computer.
    2. Immediately press and hold Command-R to access the built-in recovery functionality. You can release the keys when you see the Apple logo and the progress bar.
  2. For Apple Silicon (M1) Macs:
    1. Turn off the computer.
    2. Hold down the power button until you see the phrase "Loading startup options" appear on the screen.
    3. Select Options > Continue.
    4. You may be prompted to login with an administrator account if there are multiple user accounts on the device.
  3. On the recovery screen, choose Disk Utility.
  4. Select Continue.
  5. From the Disk Utility menu options, under View choose Show All Devices.
  6. Once you have selected your view, from the left hand menu in Disk Utility, choose the volume where you want to run First Aid.
  7. With the device or volume selected, choose First Aid from the options to the upper right of Disk Utility.
  8. Select Run to start First Aid.
  9. You can click the dropdown to "Show Details" if you want to get more information about the process as it runs.
  10. Select Done when First Aid is completed.
  11. Complete steps 6-10 for each volume of the drive as needed.
  12. In the left hand menu, choose the device itself and run First Aid.
  13. When First Aid is completed, you can either return to the Recovery partition via Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility or you can restart the computer via Apple icon > restart.

Assistance

For assistance, contact the Service Desk.

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