Disk Repair Failure

I have an imac G4 15" Flat Panel 800 MGhz and I have been told that my hard drive went bad so i am about to install a new one. I probably should anyway, the upgrade will be nice. I hope. Anyway, I am trying to learn all I can from this experience so I have another question.
I was getting a grey screen with a folder icon with a flashing question mark on it so I did a disk repair and got this error message "Disk Utility stopped repairing "Untitled 1" because the following error was encountered: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
I then restarted the computer with my OSX Install Disk inserted and held down the shift key and the screen had the following on it:
panic (cpu 0 caller 0X002DFC88): Unable to find driver for this platform: PowerMac4,2".
No debugger configured - dumping debug information
MSR =00001030
Latest stack backtrace for CPU0
Backtrace:
0X00095698 0X00095D98 0X0002683C 0X002DFC88 0X002BF014
0X002BEDDC 0X002BF844 0X002BFEB0 0X000A9814
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (SU =0X00525A00)
PC =0X00000000; MSR =0X0000D030;
DAR =0X00000000; DISIR =0X00000000;
LR =0X00000000; R1 =0X00000000; XCP =0X00000000 (unknown)
Kernal Version:
Darwin Kernal Version 8.3.0: Mon Oct. 3 20:04:04 PDT 2005;
root: XNU- 792.6.22. obj~2/Release_PPC
Panic: We are hanging here...
After this happened I connected a imac G3 to my imac G4 with a Fire Wire Cable hoping to target my files and recover them. Then this message came up:
Inserted a disk containing no volumes that OSX can read.
So what does this mean?
If my Hard Drive is ruined can I recover my files?
I know there are some geniuses out there so I will await your reply.
Thank you
Ovation
imac g4 flat panel Mac OS X (10.4.7)
imac g4 flat panel Mac OS X (10.4.7)
imac g4 flat panel Mac OS X (10.4.7)

First, check your SMART status of the drive with Disk Utility. If SMART is not verified, you should get another drive before you start loosing data.
When I got similar disk and 'underlying task' errors, I re-formatted the drive and that removed the errors.
I backed up my data to an external firewire drive of the same capacity by booting my PB off my Tiger install CD (the 10.3 should work too) with the firewire drive attached.
Select Disk Utility from one of the menus after you booted off the CD. In Disk Utility, select the Restore tab. Drag your internal PB drive into the source field, and drag your FW drive as the dest field. You will want to erase the destination. Just be careful to get the source and dest disks straight! Click restore and your PB HD will be copied over to your external. You might want to boot from your external to make sure it comes up and looks like it would from the internal drive.
Once this is complete, use Disk Utility to erase your internal drive. Verify your disk to make sure all the problems are gone.
Then run Restore again, this time using your external drive as the source, and the internal as the destination. When restore is complete, your PB will be bootable with all your stuff. Plus, you just made a full backup on your external drive!

Similar Messages

Disk utility repair failure

Hello
I have a 1.8Ghz - G5- with OSX10.3.9, and it is sometimes slow when using Iphoto on an external drive, and it sometimes wakes up right away by itself when i use the sleep function ( it will usually go to sleep on the second try when that happens)
I have dissconnected all the peripherals, and I tried to run disk verification , and disc repair. Both stop at 1/3 of the way and i get the message " disk utility has lost its connection with disk management tool and cannot continue"
any suggestion on how to proceed will be appreciated. I can use the computer and it has no symptoms other than being sometimes slow and sometimes needing two try before going to sleep.
The hard drive is about four years old. But, I have a second internal HD which could be used to install a copy of OSX10.3.9

I'm resurrecting this post, which I found after experiencing a similar Disk Utility failure while checking permissions. I followed eww's advice.
In my case the log appeared to point to a problem with 'Flash Player.plugin' which I removed and could then complete repair of permissions from some recent installations.
Replacing the file led to a repeat of the problem when re-running Disk Utility to see what happened.
Am I to assume I need to remove the file every time I check permissions in future or is it worth trying a fresh download?

Error in Disk Repair - PLS HELP

Dear All,
I have posted a message a week ago, about Error in Verifying Permission and Onyx Error -1. Then ~Bee (thanks for the suggestion, really appreciate it) replied and suggested me to try Disk Repair. I tried it this morning and the result was not very promising.
Below are the message:
Verify and Repair disk "Rich's HD"
Checking HPS Plus volumn.
Checking Extends Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
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.
<--end of message-->
I also tried to verify Permission and it ran until 85% and it stopped without any activity until I 'stopped' the verification.
I really hope my HD is not up to something bad. What I have done were only installed CS3 (only installed Photoshop and Illustrator) and it was running fine until recently.
If anyone has any idea or suggestion, please let me know.
Thanks a lot!
Worried,
chityc.

The reason you need to boot from the DVD and run Disk Utility is that an active, mounted disk cannot be repaired.
If you want to save some time (bypassing the need for the DVD) on this and don't mind using single user mode (type a command similar to DOS on a PC) then do the following:
- Restart the Mac and hold down the Command (Apple) and 'S' keys simultaneously. This will put you into what is known as 'Single User Mode' (white text on a black background like DOS).
- At the prompt, type the command fsck -fy and press the 'Return' key.
- This will run through the same check/fix as Disk Utility.
- Repeat if errors are found (you can either retype or press the 'Arrow Up' key of the keyboard to revisit the command.
- If the error is resolved, type the command reboot and then press the 'Return' key. The Mac will reboot into its usual GUI interface.
Note 1: When in Disk Utility, look to the bottom part of the application window for the drive's 'S.M.A.R.T.' status. If it is 'Verified', your hardware is okay.
Note 2: I prefer to install a free app called AppleJack that gives you more functionality (disk check/repair, caches flush, preference checks etc..) in single user mode without needing to know the actual UNIX commands.
- If the error does not resolve (here or with Disk Utility from the DVD), your problem will require either a more powerful tool like DiskWarrior (commercial software) or backing up your present drive, reformatting it and re-installing.

Issues with Hard Drive & Disk Repair

I keep getting the following when I try to verify my hard drive with the Disk Utility:
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
It won't let me go on to repair the disk and I can't find my Install/Restore disc anywhere. Is there a simple step-by-step way of fixing this?
Many Thanks
BH

Ben
Something to try if you can't find your Install disc is a Safe Boot: see Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode and Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?. You should be aware that because of the disk checking, Safe Boot Takes Longer Than Normal Startup.
Safe Boot will run a full disk check, and re-run if it finds anything to repair. If it completes the booting process, it will have repaired your disk.
If your machine halts during Safe Boot, you have something seriously wrong with your disk: Mac OS X 10.4: Computer shuts down during Safe Boot.
If the latter happens, remember this quote from the Disk Utility screen:
• If Disk Utility cannot make repairs, try other disk repair programs or back up your data and erase the volume.One popular Repair Program is DiskWarrior.

Macbook pro will not restart after failed disk repair

This has happened twice in one week.
A routine disk verify was performed and returned errors. I reboot into the recovery drive and run disk utility. To validate the first finding, I run disk verify again. Same failure. Then I run repair disk. Disk repair fails. After this, the system will not boot. Now, even the disk utility 'sees' the main particitian, but it's grayed out. when i go to retore Lion, the main partition is not seen at all.
The kicker is that two different hard drives are involved. The first is a 500 gb Western Digital and the second is a 750 gb seagate. System is a mid-2009 MBP with 8gb ram.
I performed a full system backup this weekend but do not have it with me and will not have access to it until this weekend. Any help out there? Or am I just screwed?

Oh by the way, a mid-2009 MacBook Pro would not have 10.4.6. In fact it might not even have 10.6.4. 10.6.4 didn't get prebundled until June 15, 2010. So where you get 10.4.6 on your signature, that confused people as to what you really have.

Disk Utility Failure?

Hi all!
Before I start, let me first say that I did search for my problem here before posting, however the results I found were not exactly under the same circumstances as my own.
The long and short of it is this: I was running "Disk Utility" from my installation CD (I started up from the CD). While running "Disk Verify" and "Disk Repair," I received the following message just as the progress bar was complete:
"Disk could not be repaired because Disk Utility failed on exit."
According to the utility, it claimed my hard drive only needed "minor" repairs, and obviously my computer is still very usable (lol), but this still freaked me out a little bit.
Is there something I can (or should) be doing to rectify this? My computer isn't horridly slow or buggy, so perhaps I should go on about my business--unless there is a fairly straightforward way of getting everything back to normal.
Thanks ahead of time for your help!

Hi Miriam!
Well, I used Disk Utility to VERIFY my disk, and here's what I got:
Verifying volume “Dexter”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51706 /usr/share/man/man1/history.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51707 /usr/share/man/man1/hup.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51708 /usr/share/man/man1/if.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51709 /usr/share/man/man1/jobid.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51714 /usr/share/man/man1/limit.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51716 /usr/share/man/man1/log.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51718 /usr/share/man/man1/logout.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51719 /usr/share/man/man1/ls-F.1)
51719 /usr/share/man/man1/ls-F.1
ion (file %@)",1)
51721 /usr/share/man/man1/notify.1
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51722 /usr/share/man/man1/onintr.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51723 /usr/share/man/man1/popd.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51726 /usr/share/man/man1/pushd.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51728 /usr/share/man/man1/readonly.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51729 /usr/share/man/man1/rehash.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file Overlapped extent allocation (file 1730 /usr/share/man/man1/repeat.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51731 /usr/share/man/man1/sched.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51733 /usr/share/man/man1/set.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51734 /usr/share/man/man1/setenv.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51735 /usr/share/man/man1/settc.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51736 /usr/share/man/man1/setty.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file Overlapped extent allocation (file /setvar.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51738 /usr/share/man/man1/shift.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51740 /usr/share/man/man1/source.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51741 /usr/share/man/man1/stop.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51743 /usr/share/man/man1/suspend.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51744 /usr/share/man/man1/switch.1)
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51746 /usr/share/man/man1/telltc.1)
51746 /usr/share/man/man1/telltc.1
pped extent allocation (file %@)",1)
51747 /usr/share/man/man1/then.1
Overlapped extent allocation (file 51749 /usr/share/man/man1/trap.1)
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
.",1)
Dexter
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Hmmm so I'm getting the same error when I verify from my disk! So--you're saying my next step is TechToolPro or Disk Warrior? I just wish they weren't so pricey... I guess something like cocktail, etc isn't going to help something like this... lol
Message was edited by: Doug Dellis

Comp won't boot, disk repair through system CD fails

my power mac froze, and won't boot. i'm running 10.4
no recent changes, downloads, or updates.
safe mode won't work. freezes on grey start up screen.
system CD in drive, won't boot from holding down "c"
held down option and selected CD and finally got to disk utility.
now, when i try to run utility to repair permisisons, i get an error stating "disk utility has lost its connetcion with the disk management tool and cannot continue. please quit and relaunch disk utility"
happens over and over.
when i try to repair disk, i get a red line saying "reserved fields in the catalog record have incorrect date, keys out of order. the volume could not be repaired"
Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)
1 volume could not be repaired
SOOOO.... i'm stuck. can't boot, can't repair, can't do anything. any other possible suggestions before i throw this thing away?
thanks

Yes, Like I said, it sounds like the Drive is dying, but in SU mode you might try...
/sbin/fsck_hfs -f
Or possibly stronger Disk Repair tools...
Your best bet is DiskWarrior, you need the CD/DVD though.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
But others that may work…
Drive Genius…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83

Directory cannot be rebuilt due to Disk hardware failure (-36, 2286 )

Hello everybody,
my macbook was running slower and slower until it became unusable.
I have restarted the macbook with system DVD and run harddisk utilities from the DVD :
- First diagnostic : directory damaged, error on knot, cannot be repaired by this program.
I tried to put the disk in target mode but it was impossible to mount it on the desk.
-Then I tried with DiskWarrior utilities and got the message : Directory cannot be rebuilt due to Disk hardware failure (-36, 2286 )
Does anybody knows what it means ?
If disk has to be changed what brand would be the best suited.
Any advice on this issue will be more than welcome
Best regards from France
Jean Claude

*Many thanks* Templeton Peck for your help.
I am going to replace the disk but all the work of the last four days will be lost, kinf of hard to swallow on a machine bought a little more than a year ago !
Sweet home Chicago ! 41 years ago I heard Menphis Slim sing that tune in "Les trois maillets" a famous St. Germain des prés jazz club in Paris. Souvenirs, souvenirs…
Message was edited by: HotDna

DISK BOOT FAILURE: PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISK....

Hi
I have exhausted two full days on the following problem so I would greatly appreciate some help. The problem I am experiencing is that the disk will not boot on its own. I receive the "DISK BOOT FAILURE: PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISK...." error when starting up. I have run chkdsk, i have run Western Digital Diagnostics for Dos (quick test) and no problems come up with the drive. I have also jumpered pins 5 and 6 to force the drive to run at SATA-I speeds. Now here's the curious part: The disk boots up and functions absolutely perfectly IF and ONLY IF, the bios is set to boot from my IDE drive. Now on the IDE drive I have a boot.ini file set up to allow me to boot the SATA drive instead. Using this work around (i.e. boot from IDE, select SATA drive from boot menu) the drive seems to work just fine. However if i change the bios back to boot from the SATA drive (and therefore use its own boot.ini) I receive the error again and the boot will not continue.
Here is my set up:
MSI K8T Neo2-F v2.0 motherboard (with latest BIOS).
Athlon 64 X2 4200+ dual core CPU
1024GB DDR 400 RAM
1 Western Digital 120GB IDE HD running on primary master.
1 Pioneer DVD-108 DVD-RW running on secondary master.
1 Western Digital 250GB (WD2500KS) running on SATA1.
Nividia GeForce 6800 running on AGP.
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI
Originally the system was as above without the new WD2500KS drive. I then bought the new SATA drive and installed windows to it with the intention of clearing windows from the original IDE and making it a storage drive. The above workaround is how I completed installation of Windows XP and installed my other programs, otherwise when rebooting during installation the disk would fail again.
Another issue is that Windows will NOT designate the SATA as drive C. When disconnecting the IDE, the SATA will become "c:" but as soon as the IDE is plugged back in, it immediately claims "c:" again and the SATA becomes "d:". This is ascertained from running the Recovery Console and using 'map' for example. It is important that I get this to "c:" as I have programs which appear to look for files by an absolute path and will not find them on "d:".
I have also tried to 'fixmbr' and this is the only time I have seen any curious message. Using the workaround the disk works fine. But when I tried to 'fixmbr', the system warned that the disk had a non-standard boot record (or something to that effect). But in any case, boot seems fine so long as we're not booting it directly.
Finally, I should confirm that the BIOS is set to run the SATA in IDE mode and not SATA (although as a sanity check I have run it in RAID and the result is the same).
I have no idea at this stage whether the problem lies with the SATA drive or the motherboard. I have sent a copy of this to WD "for further troubleshooting", and am posting a copy here for any advice on the mobo side of things.
Many thanks

Thank you for your reply. You are right, I've just resolved the problem today and discovered that this was the case.
To close the topic and leave advice for anyone else facing similar difficulties I will sum up the progress since the initial post.
Having tried absolutely everything else, I thought "what happens if i make this sata c:?" so I decided to edit the registry and force a drive letter change to ensure that my SATA was "c:". After having done this the SATA for the first time successfully booted to the boot menu! However when loading up into Windows it kept hanging. So next I thought all I need to do is a repair install now, I disconnected the IDE to leave the SATA only and attempted this. Unfortunatley the repair install also kept hanging. The Microsoft support page detailing how to force the drive letter change does warn that doing so can mess everything up unless the problem occurred in some specific circumstances.
So a new install was in order. I hooked up the IDE again and booted from it, backed up all my files to the IDE, and then disconnected it again. Then booted from a Western Digital diagnostics disk and zero filled the SATA - this was more for my own sanity so as not to worry about dodgy MBR's and what not. Then booted from WINXP CD and formatted and reinstalled fresh.
Install was successful.
Hooked up IDE externally to dump back my backed up files. Then deleted the IDE's partition and formatted it. Powered down, connected the IDE internally again - booted from SATA successfully (now on c:)... the IDE was no longer recognised as a "system" disk in Disk Manager, so I gave it a drive letter and hey presto we're business again!! One SATA system disk on drive c: and one IDE storage drive!
SHORT VERSION: If you are adding an SATA drive to an IDE set up, and want the SATA to be your OS disk, unhook all the IDE's first... if the target drive is not in isolation when installing Windows, all kinds of problems can ensue which are very difficult to correct after the install.

Start up problem and Disk Repair failed...

I recently did an update on firefox and an update on adobe flash. Right after I did those updates, I turned off my computer and couldn't restart!!!
First time I tried to boot, I got to the apple icon with wheels around it. But it just set there like that for several minutes. So I forced it to shot down.
After that, every time I tried to restart I came to a grey screen with a small folder appeared in the center and a flashing question mark...
I then followed instructions in this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417
It failed to safe boot and disk repair.
I received the following message while doing the disk repair:
"First Aid failed. Disk Utility stopped repairing disk3 because the following error was encountered. The underlying task reported failure on exit."
"Repairing disk for disk3
checking HFS Plus Volume
Catalog file entry not found for extent
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"
Can this G5 still survive without changing a HD? Could you please help on this issue? Many many many many thanks!!!

If it's just data corruption, erasing the drive will fix the issue. If it's a physical problem with the drive, then no; you will have to replace the drive.
The next thing to try is starting up from your Mac OS X installation disc (for the currently installed system release); insert disc and restart while holding down the C key.
When you get to the first Installer screen, go up to the menu bar and select to run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. In the sidebar, select the internal drive; select the drive and not the volume indented under the drive. Go to the Erase tab. Name the volume +Macintosh HD+ and set the format type to +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+. Then erase, which will re-partition and reformat the drive. This will obviously erase any existing data on the drive.
If the drive is physically OK, this process should complete in less than one minute. If it does, quit Disk Utility to go back to Installer. Run a standard installation on the blank drive.
If the erase process errors out or stalls, you probably have a faulty hard drive.
If the erase process completes successfully, but the subsequent Mac OS X installation stalls (or takes forever) or fails with error, please post back.

Disk Insertion Failure

Please help...
My friends Gen3 ipod is sick
I plug it into her powerbook G4 and get a "Disk Insertion" error that states the disk is not readable by this computer. So I select Initialize. The Disk utility appears and I select first aid and verify disk and get this error
Underlying task reported failure on exit
1hfs volume checked- volume needs repair
Then I repair disk and get ”first aid failed”
Underlying task reported failure on exit
1hfs volume checked- 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
What Can I do next? Oh it has a 18.5gb capacity but only 12.1 is available and there are 0 songs...
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

The first step would be to use whatever tools might be available from Seagate to determine if the drive is having a hardware problem. If it's not a hardware problem, then, it's likely time to bring out the heavy duty disk repair utilities that are available for the Mac OS. I've had good luck in the past with Disk Warrior (www.alsoft.com) and Tech Tool Pro (www.micromat.com).

Disk write failure

when i go to update the song on my ipod it does 2 or 3 then says disk write failure disk could not be read or written to
does anyone know whats going on

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301267
When you sync your iPod with iTunes, iTunes may display an error message that reads:
"Attempting to copy to the disk <iPod name> failed. The disk could not be read from or written to."
When you update or restore your iPod, you may see this error:
"Firmware update failure. Disk write error."
These errors can happen with any iPod.
These errors can occur anytime iTunes can't read information from or write information to the iPod. Here are some things that can cause this.
Outdated operating system software
Make sure you have the latest updates for your operating system, which may include improvements for device connections. For example, many USB and FireWire improvements have been included in Windows Service Packs.
Computer needs updates
Make sure you have the latest updates available for your specific computer model (or components for home-built PCs). These are usually available for download on the support website for the maker of the PC (or component). Many USB updates are listed as "Intel chipset" or just "chipset" updates on PC manufacturer's support and download websites.
Software interference
Some software can interfere with iTunes, making it unable to write files to your iPod. For example, antivirus software that scans all files on connected disks can cause one of these errors. Think about what software you have installed, and try disabling any add-ons that might be interfering with iTunes. Check your suspected software's documentation or contact the software maker if you need assistance with disabling the application.
Damaged files
If one of your music files or photos is damaged, iTunes may display one of these errors when transferring that file to the iPod. If you identify a file that is causing the error, try deleting that file and reimporting it from a backup file or from the original source. You may be able to repair files by repairing the disk (see the solutions in the next section).
Damaged disk structure
These errors can also appear if the format of your computer's hard drive or your iPod disk is damaged.
Windows users, search the Help system in Windows for chkdsk to get more information on checking and repairing the disk structure.
To repair an iPod disk—Restore the iPod or iPod shuffle using the latest version of iPod Updater. Warning: Be sure to back up your data before restoring an iPod. The restore process cannot be undone. All of your songs and files will be deleted.
Corrupt iPod photo Cache
If you're getting the error when transferring photos to an iPod photo, try deleting the iPod photo Cache and then starting the photo sync again.
Lost connection
Make sure that the connections from your computer to the iPod are snug and do not wiggle or come loose during transfers. For example, if you use the wrong size dock for your iPod, it can put strain on the connectors and cause a bad connection.
Hardware failure or non-compliant hardware can cause these errors. This could be an issue with iPod hardware or with the cable or dock you're using, but more often it's an issue with the USB or FireWire card or interface in your computer. Some USB and FireWire interfaces just don't work very well. If you isolate the issue to the USB or FireWire interface in your computer, you may want to try a different port, get the computer serviced, or replace the card or interface with a better one.

Disk repair failed / should I reformat my drive / how to format and restore

I have a MacBook Pro late 2011 model and upgraded to Yosemite. The performance on my MB is ok, but just out of curiousity I ran a disk verify, and was told I needed to reboot, hold down CMD / R and run disk repair. I did so and the repair failed. I was promoted to backup and reformat/restore.
Now, I do backup everything using time machine (not sure though if Parallels image is backed up). I do not however have any install disks for Mac OS.
My questions:
1. Should I even bother reformatting my HD?
2. How do I go about formatting the HD and then re-installing the OS and all of my apps, particularly given that I have no DVD
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you

If you have extra external HDD, make clone backup with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, then,
1) boot from external clone backup drive.
2) reformat internal HDD.
3) restore from clone backup drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!.

Disk repair and startup\dvd drive issues

i'm running 10.6 on a 2ghz macpro - disk repair has found problems on the startup disk. i know i need to boot from another disc to repair the system drive, but i'm having problems doing so.
the dvd drive won't startup from either my original installation discs (tiger) nor my snow leopard dvd. restarting and pressing 'C' does nothing, then the tray opens and the mac starts from my HD.
I have a superduper backup on an internal drive, i can start from this but disk utility won't allow the repair of the main HD, saying it can't unmount it. I'm sure i've done yhis before by creating a temporary admin account and running dick utility from there, but even this isn't working this time.

First, under no circumstances should you try to use a Tiger install disk to repair problems on a Snow Leopard system. You need to use a Snow Leopard disk.
Second, make sure that you are using the disk that you used to install SL on the Mac Pro. It must be a disk that has a system newer or equal to the one that shipped with your machine. If your machine originally shipped with Tiger, but is currently running Snow Leopard, then any retail Snow Leopard disk should be able to boot the machine.
If the machine won't boot from a legit disk that it should be able to boot from, then either the disk itself is damaged or you have a hardware problem. Or, very rarely (I've only ever heard one first-hand report of such a thing), you could have such a severely-corrupted hard drive that it actually prevents you from booting from anything.
Are you able to load DVDs in your machine at all? What happens if you put in the SL disk when the machine is booted from another drive? Are you able to boot into [Apple Hardware Test|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509]? If so, run the extended tests.
I'm not sure why you'd be unable to repair the drive when booted from a backup on a different internal drive. Does that backup drive have the same version of the OS? Are you running Disk Utility from the backup drive or from the drive you're trying to repair?
You could try booting into single-user mode (hold down command-s at startup), then type "fsck -fy" at the command line. When fsck is done, run it again. Continue until either no problems are found or until you're reasonably sure it'll never manage to fix them all.
You could also try getting a copy of [DiskWarrior|http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html] or [TechTool Pro|http://www.micromat.com>, which can fix some things that Disk Utility can't.

Trying to do Disk Repair but get beeping.

I need to do a Disk Repair through the Disk Utility function off my Snow Leopard Installation disc. However, once my Macbook Pro restarts, it won't take me to the OSX installation window. Instead, I remain stuck at the startup grey Apple screen, and get 3 beeps repeatedly. These beeps have only happened when I try to open the Installation disc. It has never happened to me when I turn on my computer normally without the installation disc.
I've also noticed that my laptop will randomly freeze sometimes with a spinning cursor when I barely even have an internet window open, no other applications running. I don't know if this problem is related to the issue above.
This is a 2011 model. Don't know if these specs will help at all (total tech newb here).
Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

1) 3 long tones, 3 short tones, 3 long tones = Firmware restoration from CD in process.
2) 3 successive tones, a 5-second pause, 3 successive tones = RAM does not pass data integrity check
Which one?

Disk Repair Failure

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