Disk Utility is the name of a utility created by Apple Computer for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X. These tasks include:

• the creation of disk images;
• mounting, unmounting, and ejecting disks (including both hard disks, removable media and disk images);
• enabling or disabling journaling;
• verifying a disk's integrity, and repairing it if the disk is damaged;
• verifying and repairing permissions;
• disk erasing, formatting and partitioning;
• creating, destroying, and repairing RAID sets;
• restoring;
• burning disk images to CD or DVD;
• checking the S.M.A.R.T status of a hard disk.

Disk Utility functions may also be accessed from the Mac OS X command line with the command: diskutil.

Disk Utility was updated with Mac OS X v10.3. Prior to Mac OS X 10.3, the functionality of Disk Utility was spread across two applications: Disk Copy and Disk Utility. Disk Copy was used for creating and mounting disk image files, and Disk Utility was used for formatting, partitioning, verifying and repairing file structures.

In versions of the Mac OS prior to Mac OS X, similar functionality to the verification features of Disk Utility could be found in the Disk First Aid application. Another application called Drive Setup was used for drive formatting and partitioning, and the application Disk Copy was used for working with disk images.

Mac OS X

Utility Disco | Disk Utility