Running First Aid on "Data"

[JeffL]

Hi. I would like your advice on how to proceed with the warning "First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume. Click Done to continue"

I was doing my usual monthly maintenance on my iMac 24" M1 today which includes running OnyX, DetectX and VirusBarrier Scanner. I alway run the three in that order. When running OnyX today a message appeared "Data Volume needs to be repaired" and OnyX stopped running. This is the first time I've had a message like this on OnyX and I've been using it once a month for a long time. The OnyX message suggested I put the Mac into OS Recovery (which I assume is Safe Mode) and then select Disk Utility. I did that and a long message appeared on screen. I took a photo of part of the message, the following are the last six lines.

error: Unable to perform deferred repairs without full space verification error: Try running fsck against the entire APFS container instead of a volume
The volume /dev/rdisk35 could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 8.
Restoring the original state found as unmounted.
Mounting unlocked disk
File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

So it couldn't complete the repair. I came out of OS Recovery and back to normal use and ran OnyX again but this time it ran as normal with no warning message. The Mac appears to be working normally. I'm a novice when it comes to sorting out these problems so not quite clear on how to proceed with the suggestions in the message. How should I proceed?
Thanks in advance. JeffL

 

[MacInWin]

The OnyX message suggested I put the Mac into OS Recovery (which I assume is Safe Mode) and then select Disk Utility.

No, Recovery and Safe Mode are different.

Here is how to enter Recovery on that iMac: Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon

Try running DU from Recovery, starting with the hardware level and working down to the Container and finally the Volume.

 

[JeffL]

No, Recovery and Safe Mode are different.

Here is how to enter Recovery on that iMac: Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon

Try running DU from Recovery, starting with the hardware level and working down to the Container and finally the Volume.

Thanks Jake. I did as you said (I think). I selected Macintosh HD volumes and did the First Aid procedure. I then did First Aid on Mackintosh HD (which probably means I did it twice) and then First Aid on Data. All were completed successfully. I then attempted the same on MacOS Base System but a message appeared as per image attached 8003 but as I was already in Recovery I don't understand so I did not run it. Should I run First Aid on the MacOS Base System or have I done enough? Many many thanks for your help. JeffL

 

[MacInWin]

No need to check that Volume, it's checked at boot time by the system itself. Sounds like you are good to go to me!

EDIT: The message sounds more scary than it really is. All that it is saying is that while it's checking that volume, the system may be non-responsive. Basically, you've tied it up in the check process, so it can't do anything else until that finishes. Not a really big deal, just a warning.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Hi. I would like your advice on how to proceed with the warning "First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume. Click Done to continue"

I was doing my usual monthly maintenance on my iMac 24" M1 today which includes running OnyX, DetectX and VirusBarrier Scanner. I alway run the three in that order. When running OnyX today a message appeared "Data Volume needs to be repaired"

Some points that you should know.

First, the FirstAid notice your received means that the low level software that makes your Mac work has some damage. The damage is likely to your Mac's Directory (the database that keeps track of all of your software) or something similar. FirstAid is what is known as the Mac's "disk repair utility." It is a program that tries to repair any damage to your drive's data structures.

VirusBarrier and DetectX both look for malware, and, if they find any, they will clean it out. That's all that they do. OnyX, I know this is a bit difficult to fathom, doesn't really do anything other than to give commands for your Mac's built-in Unix routines to run. OnyX does some nice things, especially when your Mac is having specific problems, but it isn't a different sort of disk repair utility. Or, in other words, when running FirstAid fails, OnyX has no ability to pick up the slack. It isn't a disk repair utility.

Since the advent of the APFS hard drive format (it became ubiquitous with Mac OS 10.14), Apple has stopped disclosing all of the information necessary for third parties to create their own disk repair utilities. That means that formerly practically indispensable third party utilities, like Disk Warrior, stopped working, and that when you start having disk problems, your only recourse is to hope that Apple's included repair software (FirstAid/FSCK) will work for you. There are no other modern disk repair utilities for the Mac.

There are several ways to run various versions of FirstAid or FSCK (Unix's "File System Check"). Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

You can run FirstAid/FSCK via:
- Simply launching and running Disk Utility/FirstAid from within your Utilities folder
- booting into Recovery and then running Disk Utility/FirstAid
- booting into Internet Recovery and then running Disk Utility/FirstAid
- booting into Safe Mode and then booting back into normal mode
- booting into Single User Mode and then running FSCK

See:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
https://web.archive.org/web/20190203193907/https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203176

While each of the above methods are more or less the same thing, in my experience they often offer different levels of effectiveness. The list above is roughly in the order of least success to most success.
But to complicate things, not all of the above methods will work on every Mac model. Personally, I usually try to use Safe Mode first, and that usually fixes things. Safe Mode tends to work on most Macs, it is easy to do, and it offers a high level of efficacy.

 

[JeffL]

Some points that you should know.

First, the FirstAid notice your received means that the low level software that makes your Mac work has some damage. The damage is likely to your Mac's Directory (the database that keeps track of all of your software) or something similar. FirstAid is what is known as the Mac's "disk repair utility." It is a program that tries to repair any damage to your drive's data structures.

VirusBarrier and DetectX both look for malware, and, if they find any, they will clean it out. That's all that they do. OnyX, I know this is a bit difficult to fathom, doesn't really do anything other than to give commands for your Mac's built-in Unix routines to run. OnyX does some nice things, especially when your Mac is having specific problems, but it isn't a different sort of disk repair utility. Or, in other words, when running FirstAid fails, OnyX has no ability to pick up the slack. It isn't a disk repair utility.

Since the advent of the APFS hard drive format (it became ubiquitous with Mac OS 10.14), Apple has stopped disclosing all of the information necessary for third parties to create their own disk repair utilities. That means that formerly practically indispensable third party utilities, like Disk Warrior, stopped working, and that when you start having disk problems, your only recourse is to hope that Apple's included repair software (FirstAid/FSCK) will work for you. There are no other modern disk repair utilities for the Mac.

There are several ways to run various versions of FirstAid or FSCK (Unix's "File System Check"). Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

You can run FirstAid/FSCK via:
- Simply launching and running Disk Utility/FirstAid from within your Utilities folder
- booting into Recovery and then running Disk Utility/FirstAid
- booting into Internet Recovery and then running Disk Utility/FirstAid
- booting into Safe Mode and then booting back into normal mode
- booting into Single User Mode and then running FSCK

See:

If you can't start up from macOS Recovery
Use safe mode on your Mac
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

While each of the above methods are more or less the same thing, in my experience they often offer different levels of effectiveness. The list above is roughly in the order of least success to most success.
But to complicate things, not all of the above methods will work on every Mac model. Personally, I usually try to use Safe Mode first, and that usually fixes things. Safe Mode tends to work on most Macs, it is easy to do, and it offers a high level of efficacy.

Thank you Randy. That's good information to have. Very much appreciated.