total mac-meltdown!

[Domberoosky]

Hello and happy new year!

Unfortunately mine hasn't started too well!! For no reason my G4 Power mac using Mac OSX has totally lost it!

It started when it crashed for no reason ( I was just surfing the web using camino). After a while I got sick of watching the "swirling rainbow" effect on my mouse pointer and held down the power button until it switched off.

But now its broken

It has the flashing question mark that I found mentioned in other posts. I followed the instructions from that post about using the install disk and "disk utility" to repair the disk but it didn't work!

It now calls the hard drive "disk Os 3" which appeared greyed out beneath the "matshika 70GB hard drive".....( or Toshiba mor whatever??) level on the top of the left window of the disk utility display.

In the past the computer always had two names for my hard drive in the disk utilities window for some reason. I always thought this was a bit odd as I never knew which one to select (when repairing permissions for example). I can't remember what it used to call the disk but I know that the first name ( "matshika 70GB" (or whatever it was) is the same but the second name has changed to "Disk Os 3" and is now in greyed out writing instead of black writing.

This seems a bit odd. Anyway when I tried to repair the disk it said:

Repairing Disk for "Disk Os3"
Checking HFS plus volume

Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)

Repair attempted on 1 volume
0 HFS volumes repaired
1 volume could not be repaired.

HELP!!!!! (that last bit was me again!) Needless to say it broke just before I took the sensible step to back up my irreplaceable photo's and video's which are still trapped on there somewhere (oh please God let them still be on there!!)

Hope you can help, thanks for reading,
Dom.

 

[Ric]

Hi there Dom and welcome,

do you have any of these applications Disk Warrior, Tech Tool Pro or Data Rescue ?

Apples Drive Utilty isn't great at fixing these problems. Sorry.

Stop using the Mac anyway, as you could in your effort to fix it do more damge than good.

The best option would be to get a copy of Data Rescue and an external drive and see what it will recover, once it has done this then run Disk Warrior tor repair the drive...if it is repairable. If they are really irreplaceble take it to an Apple store and let them try and recover the files, if you are not sure !

Datarescue ll is excellent and 'should' recover your data...

regards

Ric

 

[Domberoosky]

Thanks Ric,

I will try these options and let you know.

Which is the best (i.e. cheapest) way to get these software programs? Are free downloads available?

 

[bluekatt]

no these applications are only availble for download as demo's

 

[Domberoosky]

Yeah,

I checked the website and its $99 each for datarescue2 and disk warrior! That's far too much money for a home user like me who will (hopefully) not need to use them very often.........makes me wonder- does this sort-of thing happen often? Its never happened to me before.

Also, on the disk warrior website it seems to suggest that it does both rescue and repair. Is their a particular reason that I should use both programs (sorry if thats a silly question)?

Also, will I need a second computer to do this procedure or will these programs work on my "broken" mac? I do not have access to a second mac........I do have a windows XP laptop in the house, is it possible to use this?

So perhaps I'd be better off just paying someone a one-off fee to do it for me? Obviously it depends on the price they quote me but unless you tell me that my hard drive will need recovery and repair quite often I just can't see how its worth it for me to buy $200 of software (not to mention an external hard-drive and possible another mac to perform the repairs!!).

Thanks again!
Dom.

 

[darock]

Also, on the disk warrior website it seems to suggest that it does both rescue and repair. Is their a particular reason that I should use both programs (sorry if thats a silly question)?

Rescue will try to recover lost data & Repair will try to repair your Hard Drive.
I have not used disk warrior yet but many people like it.

Also, will I need a second computer to do this procedure or will these programs work on my "broken" mac?

You should be able to boot from the CD holding down the "Command" + "C" keys

Your Hard Drive may be bad and sometimes just getting a new HD is the best bet.
I hope you have good backups
but disk warrior may repair it
or
maybe reinitializing (erasing) it and restoring back to original will get you back up, but all data will be lost.

 

[Domberoosky]

Quote:
Also, on the disk warrior website it seems to suggest that it does both rescue and repair. Is their a particular reason that I should use both programs (sorry if thats a silly question)?

"Rescue will try to recover lost data & Repair will try to repair your Hard Drive.
I have not used disk warrior yet but many people like it."

Sorry but this isn't what I meant. I wanted to know why I need both "Datarescue 2" AND "Disk Warrior". If "Disk Warrior" claims to do the data retrieval part aswell as the disk repair can't I just use the one program? Is it just that "Disk Warrior" isn't as good as "Datarescue2" at the data retrieval??

On a side note, is it normal for a 2000GBpound ($5000) laptop (2005prices inc. extras) to breakdown after just two years. Half of this time it was boxed and unused??!!

Should I be complaining to apple?

Thanks again for the info, sorry about the moaning.

 

[bluekatt]

think off it as his way whats worth more to you ? your data or 99 to 200 in your pocket ?
you dont have to use both but its advisable data rescure as the name implies wil rescue your data while diskwarrior will dredge up your data and repair any mistake as wel unless its a physical error ( a groove in one of the hd platters )

id go with disk warrior first
you should be able to just boot of your cd rom no problem you dont need another mac or laptop

do get a external hd its always better to be safe then sorry
back up a lot on cd preferbly

no this doesnt happen often just once a while apple's quality control is gettinga bit shoddier but the machines are also gettings maller and smaller and i wont be surprised if heat has anything to do with it these machines run hot
my imac G5 is always warm to the touch and it always hoves internally around 70 C

you may complain to apple but your out of warranty and unless you have apple care i doubt it wil mak emuch difference