Diskwarrior to the rescue

1587 Views 17 Replies 6 Participants Last post by MacDoc, Sep 1, 2007

imeldamac

Discussion Starter · Aug 29, 2007

I have no idea what happened, maybe a kernel panic. Last night doing a spotlight search (on intel imac cd) and the screen went blue.

I was able to reboot but after starting Onyx I got the message that the start-up volume needed to be repaired

I ran disk utility from install cd to do a repair disk but it would not complete. Got the following message each time I tried -- "The underlying task reported failure on exit."

I bought and downloaded Diskwarrior on my ibook. I started the imac in target disk mode and ran Diskwarrior. It rebuilt my directories and NO MORE PROBS.

$100 is pricey but well worth it. I had visions of having to do an erase and install.

BTW I was also fully backed up on my external and this lessened the anxiety of this experience.

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Pelao

· #2 · Aug 29, 2007

BTW I was also fully backed up on my external and this lessened the anxiety of this experience.

I bet that's a bit of understatement. Glad it worked out.

G

· #3 · Aug 29, 2007

Backups are always goooood

Diskwarrior works differently than Apples built-in tools. Apple's tools repair things that exist, Diskwarrior builds a replacement from the data on the drive and doesn't even atempt to repair things. Busted B-trees are much easier to replace than repair

jamesB

· #4 · Aug 29, 2007

imeldamac said:
BTW I was also fully backed up on my external and this lessened the anxiety of this experience.

Could you not have restored your system from your "full backup", and saved the $100?

jb.

imeldamac

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 29, 2007

Didn't really think it was wise. The backup was done on Mon but I have been experiencing lots of spinning beach balls for the past few days. I thought that there might be some directory corruption in my backup too.

Deep Blue

· #6 · Aug 30, 2007

I love a happy ending. I thought this thread was another story of hard drive grief, vulture that I am.

MacDoc

· #7 · Aug 30, 2007

Good for you Disc Warrior and Drive Genius are terrific.

Beach balls might be a sign of too full a drive or perhaps a bad block. You might have dealt with the symptom not the cause

Which machine was the problem??

imeldamac

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 30, 2007

MacDoc said:
Good for you Disc Warrior and Drive Genius are terrific.

Beach balls might be a sign of too full a drive or perhaps a bad block. You might have dealt with the symptom not the cause

Which machine was the problem??

It was the imac cd early 2006 and the hard drive is only at about 120 gb (half full) -- so I don't think it is a too full drive issue. How would I check for a bad block?

Thanks MacDoc

MacDoc

· #9 · Aug 30, 2007

Hmm not likely then - you have to have Drive Genius or similar for bad block scanning - I'd try the clone off and back.

Macfury

· #10 · Aug 30, 2007

MacDoc: I'm still having trouble with a large 50 GB chunk of inaccessible files that I can't eliminate either through viewing with Tinker Tool--or anything else. I've tried to migrate my data to another drive, but it always takes the 50 GBs with it. Will Disk Warrior do anything to help locate this, or will it just treat it like "wanted" data?

MacDoc

· #11 · Aug 31, 2007

It's likely entangled files - they are Hydra style monsters and Disc Warrior should deal with them but it can take days.
Best bet is do and archive and install and delete the old system file - see if that is successful.

This can be a dangerous state and I would clone FIRST then work from the booted clone.

It COULD be a corrupted log but 50 gigs is a bear.

That's no easy beast to correct given the size. Have you turned on Invisibles to see the files in question?

Macfury

· #12 · Aug 31, 2007

Doc: I used SuperDuper as per your recommendation to duplicate my existing HD from a G4 to a G5. Once there, I eliminated the old account on the G5 and enabled "delete all files" with it. The old account was a nekkid version of Panther with no additional files. After completing the transfers and deletions, the HD was 50 GBs fuller than it should be. The 50 GB is invisible and can't be seen when all files are made visible. I have tried TinkerTool and also Disk Inventory X, which won't image the files responsible. In each case, the total space used on the HD exceeds the sum total of all files on the HD--even when all are made visible--by 50 GB.

MacDoc

· #13 · Aug 31, 2007

As long as the external clone is is working and bootable.

Erase the internal drive.

Install a fresh Tiger on it

Use migration manager to bring the files over.

imeldamac

Discussion Starter · #14 · Aug 31, 2007

MacDoc

turns out that I am still having problems. I've done the verify disk in onyx a few times and all seems well.

But ever since I used diskwarrior to rebuild I am having a strange problem. My desktop is screwed up so that I can't move folders or files by dragging and dropping. If I try to move something on the desktop it just returns to it's original postion.

I also cannot use view in Finder to clean up, arrange my desktop. The view drop down menu is greyed out.

here is a screenshot
http://www.ehmac.ca/attachment.php?attachmentid=3625&stc=1&d=1188592815

I have run Onyx, repaired permissions, restarted.

Any ideas?

thanks!!!

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jamesB

· #15 · Aug 31, 2007

In Finder try the following...
Apple menu - view - Show view options
unselect "snap to grid"

BTW, without an open Finder Window on the desktop, those options are normally grayed-out.

jb.

MacDoc

· #16 · Aug 31, 2007

Likely what JB suggested.

Also Desktops are dangerous places to store work.
Use Aliases and your sidebar or dock.

imeldamac

Discussion Starter · #17 · Sep 1, 2007

Thanks MacDoc and James B!

And yes, my desktop is a mess at the moment.

MacDoc

· #18 · Sep 1, 2007

So is mine

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