"Invalid record count" Disk Utility Error

[benxamin]

iMac G4, Tiger 10.4.9 512RAM, 80GB HD.
This is not a boot question! This system is fine, however the external hard drive failed. (Power outage, maybe? I kept music on it, to preserve the iMac for work. Now, the songs aren't preserved! Apple's policy, regardless of reciepts, is "Sorry about your luck.")

Maxtor ATA 30GB (originally shipped with the iMac) in (Best Buy's house-brand) Dynex enclosure connected directly to the iMac with USB 2.0 cable. I tried Disk Utility, but it was unable to even verify the disk! Here are the errors I got from the "Verify Disk":

Verifying volume “disk1s3”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid record count
Invalid record count
Catalog file entry not found for extent
The volume needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair​

Well then, next are the errors I got from the "Repair Disk":

Verify and Repair disk “disk1s3”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Invalid record count
Invalid record count
Catalog file entry not found for extent
Volume check failed.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error​

I googled for the error messages and found that you can try to "fsck" or "fsck_hfs" in the Terminal before coughing up the $99 for Disk Warrior. My first attempt, based on the Apple documentation was with fsck_hfs. After exhausting the options, I get the most detailed info from the -d (debug), -f (force check), and -y (repair) flags:

99-78:~ user$ /sbin/fsck_hfs -fdy /dev/disk1s3
** /dev/rdisk1s3
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid forward link (0x02FF0004)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid backward link (0x00007200)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid node kind (-4)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid node height (254)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid record count (0x8E88)
Invalid record count
(4, 370)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid forward link (0x02FF0004)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid backward link (0x00007200)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid node kind (-4)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid node height (254)
hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid record count (0x8E88)
Invalid record count
(4, 370)
Catalog file entry not found for extent
(4, 0)
** Volume check failed.
volume check failed with error 7
volume type is pure HFS+
primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
alternate VHB is at block 116969182 0x6f8cede
sector size = 512 0x200
VolumeObject flags = 0x07
total sectors for volume = 116969184 0x6f8cee0
total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00

So then I tried simply fsck with the -d flag.

99-78:~ user$ /sbin/fsck -d /dev/disk1s3
** /dev/rdisk1s3
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG

LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SUPERBLOCKS? [yn] y

SEARCH FOR ALTERNATE SUPER-BLOCK FAILED. YOU MUST USE THE
-b OPTION TO FSCK TO SPECIFY THE LOCATION OF AN ALTERNATE
SUPER-BLOCK TO SUPPLY NEEDED INFORMATION; SEE fsck(8).

Now what to do?? Find the Apple Developer's page for fsck(8). Basically, the -b flag lists an alternative superblock. Great! Let's try the recommended "32."

99-78:~ amy$ /sbin/fsck -b 32 /dev/disk1s3
Alternate super block location: 32
** /dev/rdisk1s3
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG

Dude! I can't get a break! Well, I found that you can run newfs command with the -N flag, which will output the set-up without actually creating the new filesystem.

99-78:~ amy$ /sbin/newfs -N /dev/disk1s3
Warning: Block size and bytes per inode restrict cylinders per group to 5.
Warning: 4416 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated
disk1s3: 116969184 sectors in 14335 cylinders of 255 tracks, 32 sectors
57113.9MB in 2867 cyl groups (5 c/g, 19.92MB/g, 4960 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
32, 40864, 81696, 122528, 163360, 204192, 245024, 285856,
326688, 367520, 408352, 449184, 490016, 530848, 571680, 612512,
...
116526112, 116566944, 116607776, 116648608, 116689440, 116730272, 116771104, 116811936,
116852768, 116893600, 116934432,

I checked the ones listed here simply because I don't have the time to check all 4,000+ of them. Needless to say, you're still reading. I'm still writing because the HD is toast.

As a last ditch effort, I am trying to copy the first 512 blocks to a new disk image on the desktop and see if I can get anything to mount.

99-78:~ user$ dd bs=512 if=/dev/disk1s3 of=~/Desktop/recover.dmg conv=noerror,sync​

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Have you tried running Disk Utility from the OS X Install CD/DVD?

Do you have access to DiskWarrior?

C

 

[benxamin]

I haven't tried running it on the Disk Utility from the CD. I used the current version from the computer, which set me off on this *nix journey. I don't currently have access to Disk Warrior.

I quit the Terminal dd command about five minutes ago. I need another Hard Drive to copy all the bits to. My computer is full of work. Or, I suppose I should backup the computer HD, then upload it to a server. Dump 40GB off the computer and then try to use the Terminal dd command over the weekend. There's still no guarantee it will mount.

 

[Gasman99]

I had an identical error to the one originally posted, with the exception of this line:

Catalog file entry not found for extent

I tried unsuccessfully to repair it using Disk Utility from the OS X CD. Disk Warrior fixed the problem at the first attempt. It was an expensive solution but it recovered a great deal of priceless data so all in all it was worth it. Thanks for the suggestion, which enabled me to lose only one night's sleep. It could have been worse.

 

[nancy-johnson]

‘Disk Utility’ is capable of handling all Mac OS X system issues, but at times when the severe corruption occurs this utility fails to work and quits prompting some error message which illustrates the situations. In your case the error message that you have got occurs when the file system journaling is turned on and user run FSCK utility. If such situation occurs then just ignore the error message and move forward. But if the data becomes inaccessible then file system might have gone corrupted, so run the FSCK command after booting the Mac and use Mac OS X startup disc mirror of your hard drive by attaching it to the other computer. You can also use the available updated backup as restoring it will certainly resolve the issue.

But if nothing works then use Mac Data Recoverysoftware and recover your data in seconds.

All the best!