Disk Utility

A macOS application for managing, formatting, partitioning, and repairing disk drives and volumes. Available in both macOS and macOS Recovery.

What to Know

Disk Utility is the primary tool for diagnosing and repairing file system corruption, verifying disk health, erasing drives securely, and creating or modifying partition schemes. When Macs won’t boot, run slowly due to disk errors, or fail to install software, Disk Utility’s First Aid feature can detect and repair file system damage that would otherwise require professional data recovery or device replacement. It also enables secure data destruction when repurposing or retiring devices, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

Common Scenarios

Enterprise IT: IT teams use Disk Utility to diagnose Macs with boot failures or file system corruption, running First Aid to repair directory damage before resorting to full OS reinstalls. It’s also used to securely erase drives on decommissioned Macs to ensure sensitive corporate data isn’t recoverable.

MSP: MSPs run Disk Utility First Aid remotely or on-site when clients report slow Macs or “disk full” errors that persist after freeing space. The tool helps determine if disk replacement is needed or if file system repair will resolve the issue, avoiding unnecessary hardware costs.

Education: School IT staff use Disk Utility at the beginning and end of each school year to erase and repartition shared student Macs, ensuring clean deployments and secure removal of previous student data. First Aid is also run on lab Macs exhibiting slow performance to repair file system damage from improper shutdowns.

In Addigy

While Disk Utility must be run locally or via Recovery Mode, Addigy admins can use Remote Desktop to guide users through launching Disk Utility and running First Aid. Addigy can also deploy scripts that run command-line equivalents (diskutil) to check disk health and report S.M.A.R.T. status, helping IT proactively identify drives likely to fail before users experience data loss.