Damaged directory ?

Hello,
I downloaded itunes7 on Tuesday and right afterwards everything went crazy on my computer. All applications started taking like over 5 minutes to start up and I was watching that beach ball spin more than doing any work. So, I ran disk repair and just collecting disk information took almost 20 minutes. It said my volume needed to be repaired. It would not allow me to do it, so I tried from my 10.4 install disk, and it told me that my volume is damaged and needs to be repaired. Tried to repair disk and it said that my directory is too badly damaged, it cannot be repaired with disk utility. sniff..sniff. I tried fsck -fy and it said invalid node structure (4,88) But I have no idea what that means. Can anyone help me!????

Is your OS X Install disc version 10.4.2 or later? That version has an improved version of Disk Utility which may be able to help. If the disc is an earlier version, then if you have access to a different Mac running OS X 10.4.2 or later, you can use FireWire target disk mode to run Disk Utility> Repair Disk from the source disk against the eMac's client disk.
More generally, in case of a damaged disk directory, the preferred utility is DiskWarrior. Be sure to run only hte latest version (3.0.3) or DW against an OS X 10.4 volume.
There's additional information at Handling "overlapped extent allocation" errors reported by Disk Utility or fsck
When you downloaded and installed the iTunes update, was there any power disruption? Outages, brownouts, lights flickering? You msy need to reinstall iTunes 7.0.1 from the Downloads link at the top of the Discussions pages.

Similar Messages

Hard Drive Is Flickering:

I have been podcasting...downloading lots of the free ones... and some of them are a few megabytes but some are 1/2 of a gigabite. This takes up space, and also OS X And OS 9 on the same 10gb hard drive. There is 1.5 gb left.
My 80gb samsung hard drive connected to USB, keeps getting "Device Removal" again, and I opened Disk Utility and it said something like "It is a 1 and it should be 0." and it did not repair it. }=[ It still mounted it, and it has all the files and nothing appears to be damaged or missing, but it kept not-ejecting the hard drive. It began when I transfered a large podcast file onto the external hard drive and Finder hung on the transfer. Finder itself did not freeze up, it was simply not finishing the transfer file. I forced quit Finder and it would not come back up. I went into Terminal and typed
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/./Finder
and it came up. and it froze and then I typed killall finder and closed out of Terminal and re-opened it. Finder launched by itself this time with no problems... but I ran disk utility and my disk is messed up. That's it. I am going to connect the large hard drives to OS 9 only, and to transfer files off of OS X, I will use SD Cards with a USB adapter.
And in a few weeks I will buy fire wire enclosures. I hope very much that the fire wire won't have the same issues that USB has. It is plugged into USB hub now. The hub is self powered...and plugged into its own power strip. I know I shouldn't use USB hubs, but it can be difficult to have the hard drives plugged in, sync-ing an ipod, etc. all at the same time, and it annoying to have to unmount and disconnect routinely. Also...all my mp3s are stored on the external drive...so that is one reason why I had the ipod connected to the imac, and a hub connected to the imac with everything else (keyboard, mouse, and one of the USB enclosures) so I could easily have mp3s on my ipod.
But the only thing I did when it hung was transferring one (very large) podcast from internal hard drive to external hard drive.
Anyways, I have more "Computer Trauma" and do not ever want to connect external hard drives while running OS X. even with fire wire.
Also I am not going to bother moving files off of damaged directory hard drives with USB. I hope Fire Wire will be MUCH faster.
===========
And This Is Where I Am Now:
I connected USB enclosure with the 80gb Samsung directly to an imac with OS 9 booted and I turned on the enclusurer. The volume mounted instantly. Files could be accessed instantly. I also transferred some files on it to see if it would let me or if it would display an error message. It let me put files on it.
But........
Why was it flickering for like 10 minutes???????????????
The light was flickering from green to red a lot.
Is this "Mount Check" ?????????????
I thought Mount Check turned the arrow into a watch and the clock froze until the volume could be mounted. But the volume mounted, nothing froze, but the mouse arrow was slow and choppy for a while. It has stopped flickering. The light on the enclosure is green. What was OS 9 doing?????? Mount Check????? Defragmenting????? Repairing a directory?????? =S
Also.........sometimes when I had it connected it to OS X, OS X was doing something to my hard drive. =S I don't know what, but I wanted to eject the drive and it wouldn't let me!!!!!!! }=S I did not have any applications open such as iTunes, which could have been Using the hard drive. =S
And..... since I have discarded my 120gb maxtor, and the 20gb Western Digital and a 20gb Maxtor got zapped by that Blue And White power mac g3. ... I am using a damaged 80gb seagate.
I connected it. Nothing was on it anymore. But I connected it to OS 9. I erased it, because it said "the disk could not be read". It formatted it as
40gb!!!!!!!!!
And. every time I mount it, It says "...disk could not be read...", and if I select, "Eject"...
It mounts!!!!!!!!! =S
I can store files on it. I am not going to attempt to connect it to OS X. But OS 9 mounts it, even when it is damaged.
I appreciate lots of advice.
What I have:
= 80gb samsung with a 1 that should be a 0.
= 80gb seagate with damage but os 9 formatted it as 40gb and if I select eject on the error message, it mounts it instead.
= 2 imacs. One with a os 9 startup volume, and one with a OS X startup volume. Both with OS 9 drivers. imac g3s.
= 2 USB enclosures. But I am going to get Fire Wire. and some large drives. (should I get SATA, or 2.5 inch... or do these cost more????????? )
= AC adapter USB hubs... 7 port, with LED, and connected to its own power strip. The enclosures also have their own power strips. No, the power strips are not plugged into each other.

I appreciate any advice that people have.
It is possible that one of my enclosures has faulty power...something could be loose. An error message occured once while transferring files with OS 9.
I am still going to use OS 9 to move files and organize files that are in external storage because in my experiences, OS 9 is less likely to cause directory damage in the event of some power failure.

What's Wrong with My Computer?

I have a G5 desktop computer, I believe it's referred to as a "Power Mac." My mom purchased it some years ago, I think in late 2005 shortly after this particular model was on the market.
Info is:
Version 10.5.8
Processor 4 x 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory 4.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive 240 GB (127 GB unused/available)
My mother wasn't using this computer for many years, and my 13" Macbook was giving me trouble, so she gave this one to me. It's all been great (she maxed out the memory and hard drive space when she bought it, even though it is outdated and insignificant compared to current models), except for one little thing... Browsing the internet is usually fine when it's only one window, but not always. However, it is almost a guarantee that while trying to operate multiple windows and trying to play a video, Safari will crash. And not just once in awhile. I'm talking about on a daily basis. During regular offline computer use, like Photoshop or iTunes, the computer will sometimes grey over (as if someone put a fairly thick grey film over the entire screen), and tell me I have to restart the computer. So what's wrong with it? I presume it is a physical issue (failing memory, mother board, etc.), but what?

Your computer is not remotely "maxed out" with RAM.
You're describing a G5 Quad like mine (though mine was built in June of 2006), and maxed out means having 16 GB of RAM installed, like mine has.
The Frolick wrote:
…the computer will sometimes grey over (as if someone put a fairly thick grey film over the entire screen), and tell me I have to restart the computer. So what's wrong with it?…
That's called a Kernel Panic, and, yes, it is most often caused by hardware problems, such as bad RAM or mismatched RAM. I can't imagine how you get to 4.5 GB of RAM without exponentially increasing the risk of mismatched RAM.
RAM has to be installed in matched pairs, starting from the center slots and spreading outward: 4*3*2*1*1*2*3*4
On the other hand, my own personal experience has led me to conclude that Safari is a piece of cr@p. It causes problems just being active in the background, causing other applications to fail.
Check your RAM carefully, starting with just one pair of matched RAM sticks in the two center slots, then adding one pair at a time. Check your hard disk with Apple's Disk Utility.
The kernel panics can be caused by a damaged directory too, so if you own Disk Warrior, run it. If you don't own DiskWarrior, at least Repair Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility and use Verify Disk/Repair Disk with it.
I'd also recommend downloading and installing Applejack and run it according to the instructions.
Good luck.
2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D LP SCSI card; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight, Dashboard and Time Machine permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers; 2 X Back-UPS RS 1500 XS units.

Top 10 feature requests for reliability

As per the Terms of Use:
Post constructive comments and questions. Unless otherwise noted, your Submission should either be a technical support question or a technical support answer. Feedback about new feature requests or product enhancements are welcome too.
My top 10 list:
1) Require enough extra safe guards that users can't accidentally rename their Home folder.
2) Don't let the Finder become unresponsive and beach-balled when dot-mac mounting is occurring.
3) Faster Finder list view updating when sorted by last modified.
4) OS update scripts should perform a hard disk verify before installation. If hard disk does not verify, the user should be told of the risk of proceeding and given directions on how to fix before proceeding.
5) The filesystem should should be able to fix itself with fsck (ala AppleJack) without being booted from install CD/DVD.
6) iPhoto Library folder should have an extra layer of protection to keep users from messing with it via the Finder.
7) Forced shutdown via power key should give OS and filesystem more of a chance for recovery. (Not sure how this would work, but if users are doing this, it should not be so often fatal.)
8) System maintenance scripts should have a method for running (other than cron) for those who don't leave their computer on 24/7.
9) & 10) coming soon ...
What are your feature requests for improved reliability?

5) The filesystem should should be able to fix itself with fsck (ala AppleJack) without being booted from install CD/DVD.
David Pogue explains why this can't be done in his Mac OS X: The Missing Manual He basically says that running fsck without an operating system disc is much akin to "a doctor performing an appendectomy on himself." While a method of doing this is provided, naturally fsck itself is not analyzed because it can't do that. To run fsck without an operating system disc, boot into single user mode, holding command-S at startup. Type /sbin/fsck -fy
followed by return key,
when done type:
/sbin/mount -uw /
followed by return key and when done with that type
exit. This is documented here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Thankfully single user mode provides more safeguards. But they aren't perfect. Fixing the directory is something that should only be done if your data is backed up, and it is obvious you may have a damaged directory. A damaged directory may have the symptoms of a dying hard drive, and it is impossible to tell the difference.
Apple is readying a really good backup system in Time Machine in Leopard. You can read more about it here:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.html
Your best protection for what you are looking for is to learn how to backup your data, as my FAQ* explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

What does Apple HW Test really test about hard drive?

My 2002 FP iMac was recently jolted. The internal hard drive is no longer recognized. Here is what I know:
When I boot with the Apple Hardware Test CD which came with the computer, it does not recognize anything wrong with the hard drive.
When I boot from an external hard drive, I get a dialog with buttons to Initialize, Ignore, or Eject the hard drive.
When I open Disk Utility (external HD boot), it can see the disk, but says it is unformatted.
I also downloaded a trial data recovery program and it could not find anything identifiable on the hard drive.
I don't really know what the Apple Hardware Test program tests with the hard drive, so I don't know how to interpret the information I have.
My questions:
Is there any hope for salvaging anything from the hard drive? (Probably not?)
Is the drive itself likely to be OK if I format and re-install my OS? (Is that what the HW Test is telling me?)
I have not tried to format the drive, because there are a few things I would really like to salvage. I have also not opened it up to examine anything on the inside because I would not know what to look for.
Suggestions for how to proceed will be welcome.

The data on the ill-fated hard drive may be recoverable; could be
there has been damage to the drive or the software on it that lets
the computer read files from the drive.
Some disk utilities such as Disk Warrior could see about trying to
fix the drive; although if physical damages exist, it can't fix that.
The booted OS X Installer's Disk Utility has options in the Installer
menu bar (drop down menu to select other things, when not just
reinstalling) and you could see if OS X's Disk Utility from the booted
Installer disc could give you a status report on the drive in Verify, &
also see what it says about 'Repair drive' when chosen to try a fix.
Sometimes, the OS X's Disk Utility can't fix something, and at that
point, other utilities (retail on DVD) may be able to. Then, the tossup
is, whether or not you want to pay for the utility to fix an old drive, or
put the money into a new one.
Data Recovery software is available as download, so if the old hard
disk drive were removed from the computer and a new drive put in,
later on the failed drive could be investigated through use of software
(such as those which can recover, then you pay to unlock results)
and that is another way to consider addressing the old drive contents.
Some would suggest, if you had Disk Warrior or some other disk utility
that could fix the old drive good enough to try and get data off it, maybe
even a full clone or just the files you need, then you would not need to
get the data recovery software. Of course, that software which runs to
see if you have recoverable files, can do that part for free.
The AHT may see the drive is present, while not recognizing a
failure in its firmware or in its directory, etc. Some kinds of disk
utilities can try to rebuild and replace a damaged directory or
other bits of software on the drive so it can be read again.
Usually, the test for the hard disk drive is Disk Utility on the
OS X Installer; and that gives you the boot version that sees
even a healthy drive as an unmounted and repairable volume
when it is correct and not beyond the limited ability of the utility.
Hopefully something practical comes from all these words...
Good luck & happy computing!

I think my hard drive is failing but would appreciate other's opinions

I had a problem where my system was more frequently getting beach balls of death, freezing, etc. after an upgrade to Snow Leopard. It finally got to the point that it would no longer boot up.
I tried everything I could think of from disk utility to running single user and manually running fsck. Finally, I broke down and got a copy of Diskwarrior. DW was able to rebuilt the directory and I was able to get my data onto my external HD. By the way, DW was not able to replace the damaged directory with the rebuilt one because it indicated there was a disk malfunction (hardware problem not software).
After I took off my data, I used my Leopard install disk to erase the hard drive and then install. However, I did not use the zero out data function, just simple erase. I then reinstalled Leopard.
After the install was complete, it said it would restart, which it did. Unfortunately, once it restarted and went through the welcome screen, it asked to set up. At the point I was setting up my account picture, it just froze again with the beachball of death. I couldn't get it to unlock to did a reset/restart.
Once it came back, after a very long boot time, I ran disk utility and asked it to verify the disk. It then gave an error of invalid index key along with the volume macintosh hd needs to be repaired and Error:Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Oh one last thing, I did let the installation dvd does through its own verification before installation and it reported no problems.
So, my feeling is that it's not a good sign when a fresh clean installation has problems from the start. As a result, I think that my HD is starting to bite the dust and needs to be replaced.
Any other opinions out there? Has anyone had really bad problems with their system where an initial fresh install didn't solve things but it turns out HD was fine?
Don't really want to buy a new HD, but on the other hand don't want to install to a damaged HD and have to go through all this again in a few weeks.
Opinions??
Thanks in advance,
Dan

Checking the RAM is a great idea. I'll give that a try and see what happens.
I've downloaded a SMART utility but the problem with SMART is that most of the time is doesn't detect an actual pending drive failure until the drive is completely dead. Right now, SMART says all is well, but clearly something is wrong.
Update: I completely scrubbed the HD last night, installed Leopard, and installed updates. After the updates were installed, I went to close the finder window that automatically appears on the desktop after installation. Well, as you might guess, instead of closing the window, beachball of death! Only thing I could do was shutdown via power switch.
I'll test the RAM and see what that says. If RAM checks out, it's time to get a new HD. Really miss Newegg over here in these parts!

Error code -50 hard drives won't eject

I am using three G-drives, a 4TB RAID drive, and two 3-TB G-drives. On both my Macbook and iMac I am having problems ejecting them. I get the message
"The disk wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it." even when all the programs on the computer are closed.
I also get error code -50
"The operation cannot be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -50) when I try to create a new folder or move files on 2 of the drives.
At first I thought the problem was my iMac which recently had it's internal drive replaced, but I have been using the hard drives with my Macbook and am getting the same problems so now I think it's a problem with the drives, but since it is happening with all 3 I'm not sure what's up. I ran disk utility and verified the discs and it said everything was ok.
All three drives are used to store video files and FCP 7 media for editing.
I cannot find any information on what could be causing this and would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Usually this is indicative of a damaged directory. However, sometimes it is indicative of a dying hard drive,
or damaged peripheral interface.
Since you say all of your critical data is on the drives, I'd purchase Prosoft Data Rescue and another empty Mac formatted drive you can recover the data to and see if that is successful.
If that is not, follow my directory repair FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
In the future always make sure you have at least two copies of your data at all times as my backup FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

Disk Utility can't repair permissions

For the first time I neglected to repair permissions before security upgrade and now I find I can no longer repair permissions. Everything goes as normal until about 75% done and then it just freezes. I have tried running it from the install CD but it does the same. I used the disk repair and got this error message;
ERROR: The underlying task reported failure on exit (~9972)
1 Volume could not be repaired.
Computer otherwise OK. AHT reported all OK.
Is this the start of an HD failure or some querky software malfunction? Help needed!
G4 867 MDD Mac OS X (10.3.9) Extra 120Gb HD, 1.75Gb SDRAM LG 4163B Superdrive

If my HD has developed a bad sector then surely a clone will not work?
My best guess is that the cloning would fail when it tried to access the data that's referenced in the bad directory node. I've had similar problems when trying to copy files when there were directory problems. You may not have a bad sector per se, but certainly the directory record is damaged in such a way that Disk Utility can't reconstruct the record.
If I moved all my APPS folder to another HD and then did a Zero and format on this one could I then still use the APPS folder with a new install by repairing permissions?
You have to remember that apps store files in other locations - particularly in the /Library, /System/Library/ and /Users/username/Library directories. While you can copy the Applications directory to another drive, you're liable to miss supporting files the apps are going to look for. Since there's no real way to determine what the damaged directory is referencing, you'd be chancing something's going to get missed and leave you with apps that won't run. The only way I've ever been able to find what directory erorrs were pointing to was to copy files to another drive one chunk at a time until I found the offending directory and then narrow down the search by copying files individually. Given the nature of OS X to store files in directories that are otherwise hidden from the user, this can be a complicated and tedious process.
Since Disk Utility running from the install disk can't repair the damaged directoy record, I'd go to the Disk Warrior repair strategy next.
-Douggo

After security update my hard drive will not show

G4 Tower - Mac OS X - 733mhz.. After a security update 2 days ago i can not get my computer to boot. It comes up to the gray apple screen and just sits there. I put the install dvd in and went to disk utilities, but the hard drive does not show up at all. I tried to boot the computer in target mode from my laptop. It goes into target mode, but the drive never shows up on the screen. I put disk warrior in the laptop and launched it, and it seen the drive as a firewire drive, but the only option was to rebuild. I have a lot of info on the drive, and am hoping that I do not have to go to that extreme. Please help...

the only option was to rebuild. I have a lot of info on the drive, and am hoping that I do not have to go to that extreme. Please help...
I think you are misunderstanding what disk Warrior will do, and how it does its magic. Disk Warrior is a wonderful, powerful, tool and works well for many people. When it suggests a ReBuild, it is saying your drive is recognized and intact enough to attempt to construct a new (proposed) Directory.
It will scavenge all the information it can find from every possible source (including the existing Directory) and build a new (proposed) Directory of all your recoverable files. If the damage is not severe, nearly all your files will be included in the new (proposed) Directory.
It then lists the differences between the new (proposed) Directory files compared to the old (existing) Directory files, and invites you to look at them side-by-side, if you like. ONLY if you approve, will it replace your old damaged Directory with the new (proposed) one. If you choose not to replace your old Directory, it just quits and nothing is changed on your Drive.

Hard Drive Dead?

I'm not a Mac user so please bear with me. I am helpdesk for a business and I am have issues with our G5. About a month ago our user went to sign on and when it came up the the spinning rainbow and all that appeared was the question mark on the bar in the upper right corner. So after trying and trying to get that account to work, I gave up and created her a new account and copied over her files. This made me think that the sector that stores the startup for that account was now bad.
Now today she started up the computer and it was doing the flashing question mark thing at the start up. During startup the hard drive clicks and beeps anywhere from 17 - 20 times and then stops and gets the question mark. I looked around on Apples support site and did the rest of the PRAM and then tried to do the repair part in the disk utillity of the installer. Well it sees the hard drive but it sees it as 0 bytes and doesn't let me click anything. So I then tried the hardware utillity. I ran the extended test and since I can't just test the hard drive it came up with this error code on the Mobo section "2 FAN/4/8:DRIVE BAY". Can someone answer me what this error is so I can get rid of it and hopefully run the hard drive tests?
Thanks
David PS - I don't know what version of OS X is installed?

Might want to start with Apple's Mac 101 Help:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
It can help walk you (and us) through what steps...
#1 boot into Open Firmware and Reset NVRAM
#2 boot to your Apple Hardware Test disk using OPTION key and run tests
#3 run Memtest 4 from Single User Mode
MacIntouch: Bad RAM
#4 clone your boot drive system and apps and backup data
#5 Tiger is now out on DVD with 10.4.6 - updated and easier to upgrade
#6 boot into Single User Mode
run
Best done after ANY freeze or hard restart
#6 install Applejack gets run in Single User Mode
Using Applejack
#7 MacFixit: Repairing Permissions
General Troubleshooting permissions
#8 Repairing Drives
#9
#10 Backup!
I would invest in Tiger 10.4.6 DVD. Even if it is not the version being used. It can repair your G5 better.
Get two new drives. One as a backup could be FW800, and would also have room for an emergency system, as well as just the working system, and a 3rd partition as data backup large enough to hold your existing drive.
adding an account when the drive had problems may have been a temporary fix and left a dirty filesystem. First step always being to run 'fsck' to check the disk first before even doing a normal startup.
The "?" flashing question mark means that nvram has 'lost' the path to the boot drive or the boot drive is not ready, or damaged directory or boot blocks. Not sure how it got to be in the upper right corner of the bar though... ???
Preferences (.plist files) may be corrupt.
Cache files and folders are often the first place that problems arise and start and easy to remove after running 'fsck' and running APPLEJACK (3rd party) that was installed previously.
Temperature Monitor can help keep you informed of the internal thermal sensors and temperatures. If the fan is not working, if a drive bay is getting too warm/hot then, well, heat kills or shortens the life of disks and memory and computers.
I think you will need to have the G5 in for service though to have someone who knows G5 and is certified (you still have AppleCare, right?) look at it.
So for the last month it has basically been running probably on borrowed time or thin ice.

External HDD: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

Hi,
I have an external drive with important data on it (there is a backup, but there is also some non-backuped data as well...). I cannot access the external drive because I receive a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" message connecting it. I was wondering, if you have some advice on how to get my data back?
I have a WD Elements 2 TB (about 2 months old), I am using is with an iMac, latest Snow Leopard. The drive used to work all fine. Now, I receive a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" every time I connect it. Same thing happens if connected to my MacBook Pro.
What happened?: I was copying files to the external drive. I the middle of it, I received a message complaining I that assumedly ejected the drive by pulling the USB cable out instead of properly ejecting it software-side (I did not do this). The drive symbol was gone. Now, I plug the drive out an reconnected it. The drive symbol showed up again. I continued copying files on the drive, but after some 30 seconds, I received the same error message again. One more time, I disconnected and reconnected the drive - this time to another USB port. The drive showed up, but I was not able to copy files on it (I am using muCommander, it just kept showing 0kb progress). I restarted the Mac. Since then I am getting the "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." The drive symbol does not show up anymore.
I was googling the problem: in one forum there was a suggestion to click "initialize drive" and than to "repair" in DiscUtility. I clicked initialize drive and the drive is shown in DiscUtility, but "repair" and "verify" are greyed out. I read more posts on it, one posts suggested NOT to click initialize because that means format in Mac OS language (btw: ***, why is it not called format).
That is the situation at the moment. What is the best - if there is - way to get my data back? DiscWarrior?
I very much appreciate your advice!
Daniel

"Initializing" a drive has been normal computer terminology for decades. "Formatting" generally referred to the high-level preparation also called "erasing." None of this is "Mac OS language."
Disk Warrior will not likely fix the problem you have. DW can repair a damaged directory, but your error suggests an even worse problem of directory corruption. I suggest you try using DW if you have it. Visit the Alsoft site to determine the limitations and usage of the version you have. It may not be able to boot your computer depending upon what version of DW you have and how new your computer is.
If you have no success with DW then see the following:
Basics of File Recovery
Files in Trash
If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.
If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

G5 Quad hard drive may be dead - what should I do?

Yesterday my Quad froze up. I rebooted and got a screen full of code. I stepped back and a ran Hardware Test. It didn't find a problem. The local Genius Bar notices a 'clicking' sound and suggested that the hard drive may have failed.
My question: What are my options to retrieve the data [lots and lots of deadline-driven client work] before handing off my drive for a replacement? Suggestions please.
G5 Quad/G3 tower/iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

A damaged directory can sound like the click of a dying drive.
If you can't get it off now and your usual backup software (CCC, SuperDuper, SynchronizePro) won't then try Data Rescue II (free demo, otherwise $99).
The best is to run Disk Warrior WEEKLY. Not when a drive is failing/failed. Intech Speedtools is also useful. But first is to always have TWO backup sets as MINIMUM.
Once you backup files you don't have backed up already or would be easy enough to replace, a full ERASE w/ ZERO-ALL OPTION can restore most 99% of drives unless it "nose-dived" into a platter and is physically shot. Which is rare.
If there is a bad block zero all usually works. Sometimes it takes 7-way write erase.
Of course drives are really inexpensive and $70 for 300GB or $120+ for 500GB. So really are almost disposable if there is a problem.
Some data recovery services costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. Start by buying three drives, some Firewire cases, and start doing daily and weekly backups.
DiscJockey is the only tool I know that can do a sector copy and doesn't require that the drive work inside a computer, and costs about $250.

IPHOTO crash, pictures lost

Just recently iPhoto crashed and I've lost all of my pictures that I downloaded. I've tried to locate them through backdoor means but with no avail. iPhoto is a relatively new program to me so I need all the help I can get.
Titanium PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 867 MHz PowerPC G4, 1 MB L3 cache

Hi, Catiepie. Since you were in the middle of re-importing your photos when you posted, we don't know whether or not that resolved your problem. If it didn't, you may now be a bit worse off than you were before, depending on exactly how you went about it. Let us know the outcome.
When your computer hangs and you force it to restart, it doesn't have a chance to do its normal directory housekeeping chores before shutting down, and the result is often a damaged directory that doesn't properly reflect changes you made before the forced restart. That's one possible explanation for the corruption and apparent disappearance of your iPhoto Library. A more likely explanation, given your additional questions, is that you had been mucking about in your iPhoto Library folder in the Finder, trying to arrange things in there more understandably. If that's the case, your library was corrupt even before the system hang and forced restart, and its corruption was entirely the result of your meddling with the organization that iPhoto imposes on its library, and expects to find in place the next time you open the application. You must stay out of your iPhoto Library folder at all times, leaving everything inside it exactly as iPhoto has arranged it. Simply renaming a file in there is enough to prevent iPhoto from opening the library at all. Use the options within iPhoto for all alterations of the contents of its library.
If you have trouble locating photos in your iPhoto Library when you're working in other apps, open iPhoto and export copies of the photos in question to the desktop. Then quit iPhoto. The pix will then be right where you can easily put your hands on them, and you won't have to go rummaging through the iPhoto Library folder after them.

I am having trouble copying files from disk to disk, help.

I have a Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5 running Tiger 10.4.3. I am having a problem copying files since I installed Tiger. I am trying to copy from drive "LaCie d2 195 GB", this is a Firewire 800 external drive, to drive "250GB HD", this is an internal drive. The folder that I am having trouble with this morning has 16 PhotoShop files inside of it, it is 768.5 MB. I get this message:
The finder canot comlete the opperation because some data in "Black Valve 3.psd" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)
I tried to open the file in PhotoShop and it would not open, I had to force quit PhotoShop twice to make PhotoShop to close. I opened a copy of the same file with PhotoShop, that was in another folder on drive "250GB HD" and replaced the file on drive "LaCie d2 195 GB". I opened the newly saved file from drive "LaCie d2 195 GB" with PhotoShop with no problem.
To test the time needed I coppied the same folder from "250GB HD" to my startup drive in 48 seconds. Next I copied the folder a second time from "LaCie d2 195 GB" to the "250GB HD", it took 10 minutes and 54 seconds.
My question is do you think the drive is bad or might I reformat "LaCie d2 195 GB" and make it work better?

Error code -36 is an i/o error. That usually means that the computer is having a problem reading or writing the file you're working with, which in turn usually means that the drive has a problem. A sudden slowdown of the magnitude you meantion usually means a severely damaged directory or physical damage to the disk. I'd run a disk fixer such as Disk Utility or Disk Warrior on the slow drive. If it reports problems which can't be fixed, which I suspect it will, I'd back everything up. I just had a LaCie 250GB drive die on me with similar problems (i/o errors, very slow access) and returned it under the warranty.

Format a mac through pc?

can i format my mackbook HD through a laptop with vista?
i want to reformat the internal HD on my macbook how do i do this also how do i connect them up?
disk utility doesnt work its the windows partition on my macbook that wont deleat can i connect the macbook to the vista laptop and do it through that?
please help??

A severe damaged directory on a hard drive can prevent booting from CD and DVD or any other boot drive.
If you are willing to reformat the entire drive, then yes, go ahead and format it with Vista (it has quick or full, ability to check for bad sectors and map those out, too).
Then boot from your Mac Install DVD and reinstall.
All of which, is reason for having one or two cloned backups of each volume and your system so you can avoid redoing and just do a restore.
First thing I even do is to backup the boot drive so I have one for repairs or restore the system - then keep another that I keep current, always having the original image if need be to fall back to.

Damaged directory ?

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