Disk Repair Problem

I tried doing a disk repair on my start up disk (booting from the Tiger Install DVD, using Disk Utilities). I keep getting an error that Disk Repair can't repair my disk due to an Exit error. Of course it does not tell me what the error is. The same occurs when I just do a Disk Verify. Disk utility runs and gets right to the end when I get the same error - Disk verify quits telling me it can't verify due to an error on exit. BTW, I have not noticed any problems using the disk. Also, I did repair permissions.
Any ideas on this on??
Sky.....

DS - thanks for the info. I do have Techtool Pro 4 but when I tried to create an e-drive on my second drive, it crapped out about 1/2 way though the install. I will probably get Disk Warrior first and give that a shot. I believe the problem may be in the B-Tree. I don't think it is a hard drive (hardware) issue but one with the directory. The drive is not really giving me any problems at this point. It was just weird when I did a verify.
Thanks again for the info.
Sky.....

Similar Messages

Disk repair and Apple Hardware Test says HD has no problem but grey screen still persists on MBP

5 days ago while on vacation, my MBP just froze with the grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear.
I performed all that was instructed on the following discussions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
except Archive and Install installation of MAC OS X and Erase and Install MAC OS X since I was able to save my files in my husband's MBP via Firewire Target Disk Mode. At this point, I am still apprehensive in erasing my files and installing again the MAC OS X.
When I did the Disk Repair under the Disk utilities, it says that my Mac Os X is ok. (It also said ok when I did the fsck -fy when I till did not have my CD when I was on vacation)
I also tried the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) to further l test the hardware of my MBP and performed an extended checking and after an hour, its says that my HD has no problem.
Yet, after all these, when I restart my computer, it still has the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel!
Can anyone tell me what else can I do??? Appreciate any help!

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Leopard and Snow ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it. I use DiskWarrior for that instead.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on PPC Macs but are on some Intel Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs, on the main drive, or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive.
That's why I like clones better then Time Machine. You can just bootup on them and use your Mac.
On the DiskWarrior thing, I use DW once a month to try and catch errors in my system from getting too far out of hand. It has repaired every little and big issue I have ever had with my three Macs.
And I have had times when Disk Utility's Disk Repair says everything's fine but my system was still having issues. Disk Utility, in my experience, cannot be totally relied on to find and report all issues. It just isn't robust enough.
I run DiskWarrior, it does find errors, repairs them and I'm back in business. I swear by it!
DALE

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 utility/repair problem - can't verify disk

i am trying to run disk utility to clean up my hard drive. i was able to verify and repair permissions without a problem. i have run into 2 problems with disk repair:
1 - i can't complete the verify disk portion. i get this error message, "Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit." the next line in the box reads, "1 HFS volume checked - Volume needs repair." this leads to the next problem ...
2 - the repair disk button is nonoperable (doesn't light up) so there is nothing to push for the repair.
i could use any help you can offer. screen shots are available upon request.
thanks,
j

Hi Dr,g
The startup drive can only be repaired from another drive. You cannot repair the boot drive from your HD (which is your boot drive). You have to boot from the install disk.
To do this: Insert the Install Disk 1 into the drive and then select Restart; when you hear the chime hold down C key until the apple logo appears.
This will take you to the installation software, but you do not want to install.
Select your language, then go up to the top menu bar to Utilities and navigate to the Disk Utilities application.
Select the start up drive, then follow the instructions in the First Aid pane where you can click on Repair Disk.
If it finds errors, repeat the process until it reports no errors.
After these repairs, quit the application, and restart normally.
Once restarted normally run Repair Permissions. from the Disk Utility application found on your hard drive in Application/Utilities.
regards roam

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?

Need disk repair help fast!

My internal CD drive broke so I bought an external one. Problem is that the computer is in need of serious Norton repair and when using the Sony external CD/DVD drive to run the Norton disk the computer does not recognize the hard drive so I can't repair anything. In other words, I put in the Norton cd and it shows up just fine on the desktop but when Norton opens up and I am supposed to choose a disk to repair nothing shows up to choose from. Nothing at all, just a big blank space. The external drive works because I've burned from it although when I try to burn directly from, say iTunes, it goes to the origional disk drive which is broken so I have to use the toast light program to burn. Maybe there is someway I can make my external drive the default one? It is taking forever to load each program and I'm feeling doom with the way the computer has been acting lately and I really can't afford to be without it as I run my business from it. thanks
imac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
imac Mac OS X (10.2.x)
imac Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Hi again, Donna,
Happy to hear you got rid of Norton!
You say your Mac has not panicked since you got rid of Norton, right? If so, you may have already fixed the kernel panic problem. I have not had a single kernel panic since I uninstalled Norton years ago.
If you do experience another kernel panic, the advice about kernel panics that you got from mrtotes is about the best that most Mac users can do for themselves. As explained in those suggestions, kernel panics are often hardware related. Be sure to disconnect all external devices that are not absolutely necessary when checking for and attempting to solve kernel panics.
You should not need to take your Mac to an Apple Service Technician for kernel panics if you can fix it yourself with the advice you have already been given.
<hr width="85%">
Next issue: You mention that your Mac runs slow (the beach ball spins for a long time.)
If you multiple applications running, close all but one and see if the problem goes away. If so, you may just be working your Mac too hard. Run fewer apps at a time.
If you have any external devices, including your external CD/DVD drive, connected, unhook them all and check to see if the beach ball goes away. If so, one or more of your devices may be the source of the problem. You can find which by reconnecting only one at a time and then checking to find whether the beach ball comes back. If no one device causes the beach-ball to reappear, try connecting two at once to see if any of your external devices might be conflicting with each other.
Your Mac may need basic Mac OS X maintenance. You have already done a Safe Boot, (and perhaps a disk repair), so try a permissions repair next.
Unless you have set the slider for your computer to "Never" sleep in System Preferences > Energy Saver > Sleep, you should also force background maintenance tasks as explained in
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107388
The article lists several equally effective ways you can do this, I personally use MacJanitor, which is free and very simple to use.
FileVault slows disk operation and adds processor tasks to your Mac. If you have enabled FileVault, turn it off (turning FileVault off can take a while) to see if your beach-ball problem goes away.
One other thing that can cause slow (beach-ball) operation is that your startup disk may be too full. Check free (Available) space with Finder > File > Get Info. If you do not have at least 10 GB of free space, try Increasing available space on your hard disk.
For more comprehensive suggestions on OS X Maintenance, see Gulliver's
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=122021
Let us know how it goes.
Jim
Mac OS X (10.4.9) G5 DP 1.8

Disk repair utility & printer issue

I will admit right now that until last night, have never touched an iMac but I have a friend that due to health issues, needs a hand. Can I ask a couple of questions of this forum?
1: She has an external Lacie H/D that is making wierd noises after being knocked over. Her backup software says to run the Disk Repair Utility. I haven't the slightest idea where to find this Disk Repair Utility, nor if I can run it on an external drive.
2: Her printer, mac book and iMac were recently moved from one location to another home. I need her printer connected wirelessly to both computers. I was able to get her Macbook connected but I am having issues with iMac. Can I uninstall her printer and reinstall? Not even sure how to do that basic process so advice would be appreciated.

Disk Utility should be able to check the LaCie - whether it will be able to complete any repairs that may be needed will become obvious when it's attempted. Disk Utility is normally in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
Regarding the printer, yes you can uninstall it in System Preferences>Printers & Scanners (or similar wording depending on version of OS X). The +/- buttons add/remove printers.
If you still have problems, post back.

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!

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.

Disk Repair help

Hi I am getting a message in disk repair that says "This drive has a hardware problem that can't be repaired. Back up as much as possible and replace disk.
See an Apple Dealer.
It is Media S.M.A.R.T status failing (whatever that means)
Does this mean my hard drive is fried?
Thanks all help much appreciated.

Hi WZZZ
I went out and bought a new iMac. Time Capsule had worked perfectly, so all is wonderful again. I had tried to
back up with another external hard drive before the crash, but it didn't work, so I am glad the TC did it's job.
I am going to get a new hard drive put in the old iMac (it's 6.5 years old). I just upgraded the OS to Snow Leopard
from Tiger, and increased the memory, so if it works for a while as the grandkids computer I will be happy.
I just wanted to thank you for your quick answer. It really helped me to make some decisions.

Unable to access disk repair option on OSX Install CD

I tried to do a disk repair from the Install CD - I opened Disk Utility from the Installer menu, clicked on the Mac Harddrive in the left hand column and clicked on First Aid.
While the Repair Permissions was accessible, the Disk Repair option was greyed out.
I did not see any option to choose language during this process.
Can someone please help?
Thanks

That IS the version for some iBook G4s anyway, not certain which one you have though. Did this come from Apple with those Disks?
I don't understand why the Language never showed, or why it "thinks" the Hard Drive is in use, which is what causes that grayed out thing.
Does it Verify from the DVD?
Do you have an Open Firmware Password set perchance?
Tough without the Install disc, but some things to try...
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Tough without the Tiger Disk problems, but try fsck...
To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
1. Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line. Hold CMD+s keys down at bootup. Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
2. At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
(SPACE between fsck AND -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
4. When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

I just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

i just restarted my mac then suddenly when it boots,disk utility came and says different option like repair disk, get help, reinstall OSX and I tried to click disk repair but it says that I am um able to repair the disk

It sounds like your hard drive either has a software problem that Disk Utility cannot fix or that the HD has failed (mechanically).
Your Mac may have booted either to your recovery partition or to internet recovery in an attempt to repair the drive- I can't tell from your post.
I'll assume that it was the recovery partition.
Try to boot into internet recovery (hold down option command R at restart), and see if you can repair your HD with Disk Utility. You should also repair permissions while you're there.
If that doesn't work, try to boot into single user mode (restart, hold down ⌘S until you see a black screen with white text) and repair your hard drive. Here's a reference with directions: Repair Your Hard Disk in Single User Mode | Everything Macintosh
If that doesn't work you have a few options:
If your mac originally came with installation disks, you can try to boot from the installation disk and then see if you can repair the HD.
There is a small chance that Techtool Pro 7 will be able to repair your HD if Disk Utility can't.
If none of that works then your HD has probably failed and will need to be replaced, which is not too difficult to do yourself if you can use a screwdriver.

Cant start up on my Macbook pro. All I get is a grey spinning wheel. Tried all the Startup key combinations and nothing works. I reset the NVRAM and nothing. I booted with start up disk , ran disk repair and all is ok. Tried to re-install OS but when I ge

Can not start up on my Macbook pro. All I get is a grey spinning wheel. Tried all the Startup key combinations and nothing works. I reset the NVRAM and nothing. I booted with start up disk , ran disk repair and all is ok. Tried to re-install OS but when I get to designating drive its blank. When I go to startup disk there is a "?" mark. When I restart under startup disk search for a drive it still comes up with nothing. Before I got the grey spinning wheel I had a locked screen. Could not move curser or click on anything. Finally just shut down. Thank you in advance for any help!

Shouldn't still have a 'beachballing'... if the drive is being found and the system is trying to boot from it but is having problems, I would suggest looking over ds store's user tip - Step by step to fix your Mac.
It's likely either something corrupt in your system files or a failing hard drive. But follow ds's steps until you find the cause of the problem.
Good luck,
Clinton

Directory Damage, what can be used for Disk Repair and Virus Detection?

Hi,
My eMac is acting up. Yesterday I started getting these messages that I needed to restart my computer (message was in a brown box window with an icon of a start up button in background).
I did the disk repair using Start up CD and it came back with "invalid key......." or something like that, and when I tried to repair it, it tried to repair the B-Tree's but then said it could not repair the problem.
I have Diskwarrior 3.03 Build 39, on a CD and on my FW Ext HD, which has a clone of my Mac HD.
Diskwarrior could not produce a graph of Mac HD because the directory was damaged. When I did a rebuild it hung on step 9 comparing directories, said there was 7 million + tests. ( I let it hang on step 9 for 15 hrs. to see if maybe it was just taking a long time due to corrupt directory). I finally clicked on Skip and got to the report page. I could do a preview, but the replace button is greyed out. When I was comparing the sizes of each folder, in both preview and original, I got a can not calculate error message on a few of them. The size of Mac HD in preview compared to the one in Original was different by 4 gbs. A week ago I repaired the Mac HD and did a Diskwarrior directory repair on all my HD's.
Before I do any reformatting of HD or other drastic measures, I was wondering what is safe to use for disk repair and virus detection. I know there is Norton System Works 3.0, Norton AntiVirus and TechTool, are these the only ones? Are these safe to use? Are there any other programs that can repair directory damage?
Thank you in advance,
Deb
eMac 2005 1.42GHz Combo Drive 256MB Tiger 10.4 75GB Mac OS X (10.4) Western Digital (WD) 160GB FW Ext & WD 320gb Media FW Ext, Creative Speakers

The long-standing rule of thimb has been that if Disk Warrior can't repair a mungled disk directory, then you're looking at reformatting or replacing the hard drive. Since this is a week-old hard drive, I'd suspect the replacement hard drive is itself bad. It might save you grief in the long run to contact the vendor who sold you the drive and inquire about their warrenty. You might want to first run the file system check utility fsck as described in Using Disk Utility and fsck
Directory repair and antivirus protection are different critters. Norton AV is mostly safe (if you don't mind it's track record of false positives) and is used by the IT department at the lab where I work. Norton SystemWorks, AKA Disk Doctor Kervorkian, is most assuredly NOT safe. For every poster reporting something nice about it, you'll find at least 2 dozen cursing it. It has a known track record of detecting problems no other utility finds and of "repairing" drives such that nothing can then read or repair the drive short of low-level reformatting (and occasionally even that fails).
Tech Tool Pro 4 has a good reputation, as does Drive Genius. Tiger OS X 10.4.2 and later include a version of Disk Utility that can for the first time also make effective B-tree and keys out of order and overlapped extent repairs. Still, my personal gut feeling is that if Disk Warrior is choking on the hard drive, you're looking at reformatring while zeros the drive (zeroing should detect and map out bad physical secotrs).
You can also refer to Disk First Aid: What to do when it finds an error and to Handling "overlapped extent allocation" errors reported by Disk Utility or fsck

Disk Repair Problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for