Fix Unable to Repair Mac SSD using Recovery’s First Aid Utility

“When I tried to run First Aid on the SSD drive, it prompted an error stating that

"First Aid found corruption that needs to be repaired. To repair the startup volume, run First Aid from Recovery."

So I restarted my computer by holding Cmd-R options to enter Recovery mode. When I got into Recovery Mode, I opened Disk Utility and then selected the SSD drive to run First Aid. But, I got the same error message as above. Can you please help me to fix this issue?”

Well! This has been a quite common issue now, Mac users trying to run First aid from recovery mode to fix corrupt SSD, USB drive, or external drive not showing up on Mac. So, here is an article to help you fix unable to run First Aid Disk Utility in recovery mode.

First Aid is functionality available under Mac Disk Utility. This Disk First Aid utility validates and repairs errors and logical problems associated with external drives like SSD not working properly, Mac system having startup issues, issues pertaining to the file system like APFS, HFS, and HFS+, etc.

Run First Aid in Recovery Mode using Command Line-

If you have failed to run First Aid in Recovery Mode, then use the Command Terminal to fix unable to repair Mac SSD from first aid recovery :

• To verify your SSD drive, enter the command- diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk0
• Then, enter diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk0 command to repair your SSD drive.
• After executing these commands, go back to Disk Utility and proceed to repair your SSD drive.
• Now, you can run First Aid from recovery without getting any error.

Note: It is always suggested to backup data from SSD before running First Aid Disk Utility. As one wrong command might cost you a huge amount of data loss from your external disk.

How to Run First Aid from Recovery to Repair Disk Errors?

1. Select Restart in the Apple menu.
2. Soon after your Mac restarts, hold the Command and R keys until the Apple logo shows up.
3. Select the Disk Utility option and click Continue.
4. Now, choose the disk or volume you want to repair on the left menu.
5. Click on First Aid
6. Click Run

This way, you can run First Aid from recovery to repair your disk successfully. In case it reports error messages like Disk Utility can’t repair your disk or The underlying task reported failure, try to run First Aid Disk Utility Repair again.

Remember if you have run First Aid from recovery to fix SSD drive or any external hard drive, Disk Utility function verifies partition table to perform additional authentication and then examines each volume individually to fix issues. If you run First Aid from recovery directly on a volume, then the utility program only verifies the content pertaining to that volume without performing any additional checks.

How to Mac SSD When First Aid Utility Fails?

Disk Utility is restricted to fix only minor issues related to a drive. In case you failed to fix SSD using the First Aid recovery even after implementing the above method, this is due to severe corruption, which can be resolved by formatting the external drive. 

Before this, it is recommended to back up the important files from your SSD. In case your drive is inaccessible or you cannot backup data from it, use Remo Mac Data Recovery software.

Remo Recover Mac is a prominent software to recover lost/ deleted data from inaccessible, corrupted, formatted, or reformatted external disks on macOS. It also allows users to recover selected files of their choice. This option is helpful in prioritizing selected file recovery from corrupted and formatted external drives based on its importance, as it avoids recovering files that are unnecessary, corrupt, or harmful to the device. Download now!!!

Remo Mac Data Recovery software helps you recover data from MacBook Air SSD, MacBook Pro SSD, and other Mac-based devices. It also supports recovery from all the latest versions of macOS, like Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, etc., in just a few clicks.