I have the disk utility icon in the dock and when I click on it, nothing happens. If I right click and then click on Show in Finder, nothing happens. It used to work just fine but it's been screwed up for a long time now. The thread about Disk Repair has prompted me to ask again for ideas on how to resurrect it.

I have an older G4 desktop with 10.5.8 on it.

Thanks

Is it under Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities? If not, reinstall the OS to get it back. Or, find it in Spotlight.

As Lars says, but I would have expected if DU isn't in the normal Utilities folder, it should have a superimposed ? on the icon in the Dock.

If DU is in the the Utilities folder and works, remove the icon in the Dock, and click-hold-drag the DU icon onto the Dock if you want it there - which IMHO is a good place to have it handy. ;)

I can find Utilities in Applications but Disk Utility is not there. Something is messed up somewhere.

Try a spotlight search for "disk utility"

Maybe you accidentally dragged your utility folder somewhere else?

I looked there and it doesnt show up... :mad:

Actually stoplight aka spotlight won't find it it's bn moved somewhere that it doesn't search.

Use "Easy Find" or "Find Any File" to search the hole drive or volume instead.

FWIW this is one of the reasons I strongly recommend against using an admin level account for day to day use.

From a Standard account, any attempt to move or trash an app that was installed from the admin account will require you to enter the admin name and password. Very simple and cheap insurance to prevent this kind of miscue.

Funkynassau, if you really can't find Disk Utility on your hard drives, or backup - and you DO have a backup don't you, just copy it from your backup.

If not there, download the "Max OS X COMBO Update" from Apple's software download site and when opened you have two choices:
1 - mount the Update and double click the .pkg to run and let it do all it's 'updates' , and do NOT run or have any apps running when you do so.

2 - download Pacifist.app and then use it to "open" the "update" pkg and then select Disk Utility in the Utilities folder and "extract" it to your boot drive.

For your 10.5.8 Mac, you'll need Disk Utility Version 11.1, which is in the 10.5.8 update pkg.

Option 3, I guess, if you want to bypass either of the above options is to just use your 10.5.x Install disk, boot from it and run Disk Utility from the "Utilities" menu that will show after you click the first few options and the first continue button.

Thanks pm-r for giving me some options.