Serious Problems. Need Help.

[MaynardJames]

Hi, I am new to Mac OSX and Macs in general. Two months ago I bought my first iMac, Intel Core 2 Duo. Everything was gravy until about three weeks ago when it froze, and upon reboot I had no access to my wireless mouse or keyboard. I could also not access disk utility or the Bluetooth and Mouse/Keyboard preference panes. I rebooted from the install disc and upon repairing the disk I got what seems to be the dreaded "Invalid Sibling Link". I was pretty lost from here, so I simply reinstalled Mac OSX. So, everything is good again, until tonight. OSX freezes, and upon reboot it will not boot at all. I ran the install disc again and again got the Invalid sibling link message. Very frustrating. So right now I am contemplating reinstalling Mac OSX, again. My problem is, why has this happened again? So soon after I just reinstalled OSX? And twice now in the two months I have owned the computer? I thought mac's were supposed to not have issues compared to PC's?

Anyways, I guess the help I need is some advice as to why this is happening? I have been doing some reading, and noticed that there is a way to erase a disk volume, and to write it over with zero's (Zero Out Data). Is this what I should have done the first time? Could it be that the problem still remained after the reinstall, and then manifested itself three weeks later? Or could there possibly be a hardware issue that is causing this to happen, which is why it has happened twice?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

You may have a dodgy hard drive, it's hard to tell remotely !

You can also fix (nearly always !) these problems using DiskWarrior It saves you having to reinstall !

When it freezes is there any thing specific that you are doing ?

What software is running ? Is there any pattern to it ?

Mac's generally don't have many problems, so keep smiling !

If it happens again and you are able to boot into single user mode and run FSCK, I'll post a link to the instructions later tonight...

Print these out , then if your Mac crashes again you can run FSCK and see if it will fix it...if not I would use Disk Warrior first...failing that then reformat.

You can reformat and write over the data that was already there, but I'm not convinced that, that will help. I'll put up some screen grabs later of how to do it !

regards

Ric

 

[MaynardJames]

Thanks for the response.

If I have a dodgy Hard Drive, how do I know? What do I do? The computer is only two months old, so surely Apple should do something if it is shot, no?

I have downloaded Diskwarrior, but that was when the first time I had this problem, so I couldn't burn it using disk utility (as it would not even open). For some reason burning with toast would not result in a bootable disc. All I have right now is a disc with the program on it, but it is not bootable, so its really no help. I do wish I had remembered to burn it when I reinstalled.

When it freeze's all I seem to be running is Safari and Itunes as far as I can remember.

I wish I could believe that, and I want to, but this is just frustrating. Aside from this though, my Mac experience has been great.

I have booted into single user, and run fsck, but it gives me errors. No "file system was modified" it just gives an error.

If I simply reinstall OSX, will that essentially reformat the at the same time. Basically, is the Zero Out Data different from what a Reinstall does. Whats my best course of action? Reformat or Reinstall.

Thanks again.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

when you say you have 'downloaded' DiskWarrior ? Is that from the Prosoft website ? You have to pay extra for the 'Bootable download' because it's so big !

Do you have an external drive ?

Reinstalling the OS does not write 1's and 0's over the data that is already there...to do that you need to boot from the OS install DVD

...then when you get to the Installer screen go up to the menu bar and select disk utility.

1. In Disk Utility, select the disk you want to erase and click Erase.
2. Specify a volume format and name for the disk.
3. Click Security Options and select the option you want to use. Click OK.
4. Click Erase.

This will then 'write' 1's and 0's over all the existing data...then you can do a fresh install !

Best course of action to see if it is hardware or software...reformat using method above..then reinstall the OS !

Then if it happens again take it into the Apple Store without doing anything to it (leave it in the 'crashed/won't boot state)...explain that it has done this x times before and you have wiped the drive etc...they should then have a look at the logs/drive to see if it is a hardware fault.

regards

Ric

 

[MaynardJames]

Okay, thanks. You pretty much answered my questions. What I need to do is a Zero Out Data (will probably do a multiple pass erase) and then reinstall OSX. Before, I simply reinstalled OSX, without reformatting.

If it happens again, I will definitely contact Apple about it.

Thanks so much for your help, it is much much appreciated.

 

[Ric]

No problem,

let us know how you get on !

regards

Ric