Dreaded "invalid node structure" dealie

The MB had been running slowly and a lot of applications (particularly web browser) were having a hard time shutting down. I was occasionally required to do a hard restart. That being the case, I ran DU and got the "Invalid node structure" alert, saying the drive could not be repaired. I took it to a "genius" at the local Apple store and he said that such an error is due to a software issue and, as such, not repairable under warranty. "You have to get Disk Warrior or Tech Tool. That should fix it."
Well, I shelled out $100 for DW4 (which I know I should have, anyway) and it didn't fix anything. It said the directory couldn't be replaced due to disk malfunction (or somesuch). So, I figured it must be a bad HD, potentially. I even arranged for a take-in repair.
Well, today I decided to run an fsck in single-user mode, just to see what I could see. It, too showd the invalid node structure, as well as B-tree. It also stalled at the end. I thought, "OK, now I really did it." After a hard reboot, I ran DU again to verify disk. This time, it came up with no errors found, disk does not rquire repair, disk verified, etc.
I guess the question after all that - think I'm in the clear? What could the problem have been?
macbook 1.8GHz - PB G3 (Lombard) 333mHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)
macbook 1.8G - PB G3 (Lombard) 333mHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thanks for the response.
When I got home from work, I ran DW. Unlike prevous attempts, it was able to rebuild and replace the directory. Re-ran Disk Utility once again, to be sure, and it came up as all good. Also, both DW and DU gave an A-OK to S.M.A.R.T. status.
After rebuilding the directory, everything's running much faster and I no longer have to force quit all the time. Seems to be doing its thing.
Fingers crossed ...
macbook 1.8G - PB G3 (Lombard) 333mHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Similar Messages

I got the dreaded "Invalid Node Structure" Error

Hi All,
I entered the Mac world recently with a spanking new Macbook Pro 15". Updated it online to the latest OS 10.6.4 Snow Leopard.
Today I was trying to install some more free application from the Official Mac Software Site. After installing a couple of softwares, I popped in the included recovery Disk and tryed installing xcode from the 'additional software' folder on the disk. But this failed
After this I thought of restarting the mac and try again. However, the **** thing now wouldn't boot anymore. Just stays on the Gray apple screen with the small ring rotating below it for ever.
Then I tried repairing it using the Disk Utility booting form the DVD. On verify Disk, it shows 'Invalid Node Structure'. So I clicked 'Repair Disk', And it just stayed there for ever without any progress. So I stopped it. And after trying the above 3-4 times, I Hard rebooted the system, and this time entered the console mode (Command + s).
Entered the command fsck_hfs -rf /dev/disk0s2 (disk0s2 is what Disk Utility showed me).
The output of this command shows:
** /dev/rdisk0s2
Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.0.2~7).
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus Volume
** Checking extents overflow file
** Checking catalog file
** Rebuilding catalog B-tree
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
And this goes on and on and on.... :((
Now what to do???

Hmmm, yeah that could be the last option, but I can't format the disk right now, 'cause I've some extremely important (not-yet-backed-up) files in it
So I'd like to try out all possible ways to recover the system before even thinking of a format!
BTW, the above fsck_hfs command I ran was by booting from the DVD itself.

Invalid Node Structure errors keep coming back,

Hi people!
about 2 weeks I upgraded my internal HDD on my Mac Book 13" Unibody to a Western Digital Scorpion Blue 640gb... no big deal doing so. I booted up with the OX S 10.6 DVD and partitioned the drive into two and formatted each. I then installed OS X 10.6, then ran the software update. After every thing was complete I plugged in my USB 1TB drive and used Time Machine to create a backup.
After about a week of normal use I woke up one day to have my Mac Book take nearly 10min to boot, and when it did it was barely moving. I booted with the OS X DVD and ran Disk Utility and in reported Invalid Node Structure and I could not repair it. But the errors were only on the partition with OS X on it.
As I didn't have any files on that partition that I needed I did a Restore from Time Machine Backup that was on my USB drive. And all was good again. However this has happen about 3 times in the last 4-5 days. Each time I restore from the Time Machine backup and all is fine.
I thought I had it pinned down to a particular open source app that I was using but I restored the drive again last night and did not use that app this time... and this morning I am getting signs that something is going astray again (slow boot up times and slow shut down times etc). I am going to boot to the DVD and run Disk Utility again... but I am wondering is this software or can this new HDD be a dude? I never had this problem with the factory 160Gb Fujitsu drive that the Mac Book came with - although I never did partition that drive.
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Chris

Hi streamworksaudio;
After you do that if this happens again, I would be really suspicious that drive is on the way out. I would be religious about backups and start checking around for a replacement.
Allan

Kernel panic/invalid node structure; please help retrieving my files!!

Hi everyone, thank you for your time in advance... if anyone has ideas about how to solve it, I appreciate this very much!
OK, here is how it began: while I was working on the airplane using PowerPoint, the gray spinning wheel appeared after which PowerPoint stopped working. I pressed the power button to exit (all applications froze). (So much for trying to get more work done...)
Next, I powered up the computer but it would not boot up, with only gray spinning wheel showing.
Next, tried to boot up while pressing power button and holding shift key. After some time (10 minutes), an error message appears. Researching it on discussion forums, I found that it is called “kernel panic”. Here is beginning of the message:
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x47f5ad): "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed, errno 8\n"@SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.15.3/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:3145
Debugger called: <panic>
[additional information here]
Also, message “You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again” is shown transparently in the middle of the screen over the “panic” message output.
I turned on and off the Power button many times, but I get the same error message.
I also tried Apple Hardware Test but it did not work (it did not generate any messages).
Next, I tried to use the Disk Utility using the Installation Disk that came with the computer. After I clicked “Disk Repair”, here is the log:
Verify and Repair volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Invalid node structure
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
Invalid node structure
[many repeats of “Invalid node structure” ~ about 400 repeats]
Rechecking volume.
Checking Journaled JFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Missing thread record (id=18)
Missing thread record (id=110)
[many instances of “Missing thread record” ~about 200 repeats]
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.
Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk…disk, and restore your back-up files.
At the end, a window presented over the error log stated :
“Disk Utility stopped repairing “Macintosh HD”
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your back-up files.
I need to retrieve my recent files!! Please Help!! Argh!! I promise that I will promptly back up my files now! I did not use Time Machine, and only some of my files are backed up.
From what I read on the discussion forum, I will probably need to erase the disk and then do a fresh installation, but could someone please guide me with regard to how to back up the data / retrieve the files? I may have access to another mac so I’m thinking that the FireWire Target Disk Mode may work. I also have spare external harddrive (formatted for mac) (not partitioned). Also, how do I retrieve the files from the other computer if the FireWire transfer works?
Also, the second step is to do a new installation, but is there any reason why “Archive and Install” using Disk Utility won’t help? I have some additional programs installed (Illustrator, Photoshop) so this means if I do a new installation, I will need to re-install those as well?
I did some investigation, and it looks like this problem is similar to this:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18098343#18098343
But my main issue now is to retrieve the files!
Also, how do I investigate whether this problem is due to a failing hard drive or a natural file system corruption ? (so should I get a new harddrive or do a new install).
http://forums.macnn.com/t/459376/heart-attack-invalid-node-structure
I don’t know what is the OS version; it is Snow Leopard OS X ……. I bought it in September 2009.
I appreciate any help, thank you so much for your time…

Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Step by Step to fix your Mac
Most commonly used backup methods

Failed Time Machine backup... Invalid node structure

My Time Machine gave me a Backup Failed notice this morning. I noticed that my dedicated 1TB disk for backups is not mounting in the finder. I went into Disk Utility and it shows as greyed out. When I click on it and verify, it says I need to repair. So I click repair. I get the message below...
Verifying volume “MacPro Backup”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Invalid node structure
The volume MacPro Backup was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
Verify and Repair volume “MacPro Backup”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Invalid node structure
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
Invalid key length
The volume MacPro Backup could not be repaired.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
What should I do? Any way to salvage some of the backups? Or do I just reformat the drive and go from there?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Power Mac G4 - invalid node structure

I am hoping someone can help me. I have a Power Mac G4 - 933....we had a power outage and the Mac would not turn on...the power light lit up when pressed but the computer wouldn't boot...I reset the PRAM and all was good...except a file I had was corrupted and couldn't be opened....after that, a month later, another power outage. This time I had more trouble as resetting the PRAM didn';t work...I reset the logic board (taking out the battery for 30 minutes then replacing) and that didn't work either...I tried several combinations of the above to no avail...I finally took out the battery for over and hour, powered up the computer without the battery and it started...so the battery was corrupted. I replaced the battery (correct one of 3.6 volts) and the computer fired right up. I ran disk utilities to see if all was okay. Checking preferences was fine but when I tried to verify, Disk Utilities came up with the message that it could not complete verifying and that it found "Invalid node structure" and that it could not repair the disk. I then tried fsck to repair and to no avail...fsck gave me several messages depending on the repair options I tried including one that included that the problem was in "memory 4, 23412"....it said it could also not repair due to "os/10 i/o error" and the second run I took at it with a different method told me there was a problem with "DIMM 2/J23 memory"...Apple's website says that if I get an uprepairable message from disk utility that I should back-up, erase and do a clean install...but with these messages indicating the problem is in the memory, since the battery runs the memory, could it be in there instead? ...of important note, I do not have the original install disk...the operating system running it is Tiger 10.4.11...I don't have the orignal disk and I have an empty 10.5 Leopard disk box with no idea where the disk is...I have snow leopard, but that cannot be installed on the G4....after running the last fsck attempt, the computer shut down and is back to only having the power light lit when pressed but no computer booting...where should I start/what do I do? I am hoping you all have good suggestions for me because some of my files were bnot backed up (I know...don't judge) and I got them onto a flashdrive right before the computer went down again, but I have no idea if they took,...further, I love this old dinosaur...

Hi, only thing I've seen repair that is DiskWarrior, you'd need an older version...
http://supportdb.alsoft.com:591/FMPro?-db=alsoftsupport&-lay=main&-max=15&-forma t=AlsoftSupport-qa.html&-script=counter&-token=177&-Skip=96&-find
But it does sound like you have some bad RAM, but have you blown the dust out yet & tried reseating the RAM?

Invalid node structure

I have a Hitachi 500GB Go usb disk and its throwing Invalid node structure errors. I tried ripping an image from this disk, after about an hour or so of data copied (approx 100GB in the dmg) it will just close out and delete the .dmg, no errors, no nothing!
Disk warrior and Disk Utility fail to repair the disk/directory.
What's next for low-level access to this disk without having to buy expensive recovery software?
Also, it happens on both mine and my client's MacBook Pros'

Self-resolved:
Fixed by booting into bootcamp Windows 7 (ironic right?) It seems to ignore this HFS error...
Just so you know, the Windows app Recuva + Bootcamp will in fact give you a last-ditch chance to recover your data from a corrupted HFS disk like this one.

Invalid Node Structure on Time Capsule.

Hi,
I was using my time capsule (7 months old) as a temporary network drive (Until I get a new network drive) for my iTunes library. And, no, currently this is my only computer without a time machine backup. One day last week, I was listening to some music and I tried to add a video to my library. It locked up and my time capsule stopped responding. Upon restart of the device, the drive wouldn't show up int he finder.
After a call to apple support (who were most gracious even though it was out of warranty), I still couldn't mount that partition. I had about 500gb of stuff on the drive (including my 300gb iTunes library) and was eager to retrieve it. I resorted to removing the drive from the time capsule and put it in a USB case. I plugged it into my mac and low and behold the drive showed up in the finder and disk utility.... except the partition with my data.
From what I understand disk1s3 is the standard partition for the data on a time capsule. It shows up in disk utility, but fails to mount and is grayed out. When I try and repair it, I get an error stating "invalid node structure".
After searching the internet for days, I found a site that had some terminal commands that should fix it, but it didn't.
I even tried diskwarrior and after DVD boot, even it wouldn't see that partition. The other two on the disk are fine and dandy.
Now, I'm stuck with a $300 brick and no data.
I don't have the money to do a professional data recovery.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian

You have exhausted all the options you can at user level.. basically if the tools like disk warrior cannot recover it, then it has to go to professional disk recovery people.. who use different methods. And may still not get back data in the form you want it.
This is precisely why we tell everyone do not use TC for network storage. It is not suitable.

Invalid node structure macbook 10.6.8

Im new to Macs and have absolutely no clue what to do im not worried about losing anything on it i just don't know how to fix and i don't have the disks i bought it used

You are going to need to get the disks, as the 'invalid node structure' error means you need to erase your hard drive and reinstall everything. Try talking to the person you purchased it from (they should have given the disk to you with the computer) but if you can't get it from them, contact Apple, they should be able to get you a copy of the original disks. There may be a small charge. If you can't get copies of the original disks, you will want to get a Snow Leopard install DVD which Apple sells through the online store - http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Best of luck.

Invalid node structure and Boot Camp 1.1.2

I downloaded Boot Camp 1.1.2 and during the installation of Mac Drivers I kept getting dialog boxes that the software i'm installing did not pass Windows Logo testing- I just ignored it.
After that Windows XP didn't recognise my keyboard, airport, ...
I prepared a new instalation with Boot Camp Assistant and i had an error message when the disk partition was processing.
I run Disk Utility from my Mac OS X install disk DVD and I got the following:
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Please give me some help to repair my disk and to understand what happened.
MacBook Pro 2 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

If you are unable to repair the drive you will need to repartition and reformat the drive.
I recommend a cloned backup to an external FW drive. You can use this procedure:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.
You will only have to reinstall your third-party applications. All standard OS X applications will be reinstalled except for bundled applications such as iMovie, iDVD, Garageband, etc. These can be reinstalled using the Bundled Applications installer on the OS X Installer Disc.
If you make a cloned backup all your data will be on the backup. You can restore it afterwards by copying the folders to their respective locations on the startup volume.

Invalid node structure. Free solution!

Invalid node structure. Free solution! Jan 2007.
Disk problem on an Intel Core Duo Macbook with 1.25 gig RAM and updated to OS X Tiger 10.4.8
Background.
About a month ago I ran into a problem with expose behaving oddly and after posting a question on this forum, the very helpful Dr Smoke advised me to clear my caches and to run 'repair disk.' from the installation CD. (This because I reported that a couple of times I had to do a hard reset.) I got expose fixed but discovered that my disk had serious errors in the directory structure, reported as "invalid node structure," and which Disk Utility could not repair. The laptop was running perfectly but several people posted advice that I should not leave this problem unattended to. Reporting this crisis again on the forum I was advised to buy Disk Warrior for a whopping $100 for what might be a once in a lifetime problem -or else I should back up my data and re-install everything. And I thought the Mac was more stable!! Up to 6 months ago I was a Windows user who often had such problems with the FAT but I was always able to cure them with Checkdisk or Scandisk. In fact MS Windows repaired it automatically after a hard reset. I feel that it is most unfair for Apple to not provide an effective utility to correct this kind of disk corruption. They bundle wonderful programs like iPhoto and iWeb but leave you in the lurch with a fundamental disk problem. With help again from Dr Smoke, I made my firewire disk bootable for Intel Macbooks (must be partitioned with the "GUID" option selected) and searched the forums for a way to get going again without forking out $100. I wouldn't mind if it was a program that did other useful jobs like on-the-fly partitioning but it was going to be an overkill for me. Learning a little from each of several other posts (sorry I didn't record the links) I put together the following solution which is easy to execute and the time consuming elements can be left to run at night or when away from the computer. You may see possible short cuts as you read through to make it even simpler, but here is my full story! Actually I was travelling around Eastern Europe and couldn't easily get disk Warrior or Tech Tools sent to me. I needed to find a solution from reading advice and downloading disk utilities off the Web.
I have a 40 gig ext. disk, mounted in a "hotdrive" enclosure which is useable either as firewire or USB 2. http://www.byteccusa.com.
My Bacbook disk is 60 gig but only 25 gig was in use.
My Macbook was up todate with every part of OS X including the firmware. except for Garage band which I do not use.
Step 1a. I downloaded 2 free disk cloning programs - Carbon Copy Clone and SuperDuper. I preferred the latter. Step 1b I read about Migration Assistant - part of OS X Tiger.
Step 2. I partitioned the Firewire disk in two (32 and 8 gig) for future convenience, and zeroed the disk after Dr Smoke's advice.
Step 3. I installed the basic OS X package onto my 8 gig "Firewire 2" using only Install (DVD) disk 1 which takes up less than 5 gig. (In Setup one chooses to not install the additional programs - iPhoto etc.) I checked that I could boot from it and that it was healthy by running "verify disk" when booted from the internal hdd.
Step 4. While booted from my internal HD, I cloned Firewire 2 onto Firewire 1 (32 gig) I verified the disk (no problems) then booted from it and assured myself that I had a fully working copy of OS X.
Step 5. I booted from firewire 1 and used Migration Assistant to import EVERYTHING - files, programs, the lot, from my internal HDD with the node structure problem. My firewire disk was now 25 gig the same as my internal HD. It had now two users, both shown as administrators. I booted to my newly-imported user ID - the original one that was on my internal HDD. The only problem reported by Migration Assistant was that Missing Synch for Palm might need to be re-installed which would not be surprising given what it does. Later when all was done, I discovered that the migrated programs had been placed in a folder on my desktop so I opened it and moved them all into the 'normal' Applications folder created by my new basic install. (Some programs don't like running from anywhere other than the Applications folder.)
Step 6. I worked from Firewire disk 1 for a day, trying out every program and it was working normally. One thing I noticed was that iTunes seemed to import as the original tiger 10.4.6 version so I needed to install the update to 7.02 which I had kept in my download folder. I tried to install the OS X update to 10.4.8 but a dialog informed me that I could not do that on this (external) disk. I don't know why, but later on I updated to 10.4.8 overnight using Mac Update.
Step 7. Make sure all your data has been backed up somewhere, and that there is nothing of value on your internal disk. Take a deep breath, and wipe it!! I did this using Disk Utility (from Firewire 1) and took the chance to partition my HD into 32, 18 and 6 gig. I chose GUID partitioning and zeroed the disk. No going back!
Step 8. I booted into Firewire 2 and installed SuperDuper. Then, from Firewire 2, I cloned Firewire 1 onto my internal HD 1 partition of 32 gig. SuperDuper does not call it cloning but rather 'copying all files.' It booted and works fine (as of Jan 10). Then I verified the disk when booted from one of the firewire partitions and all was well. Phew!
I ran sofware Update and it offered to update Java, OS X for Intel, Garageband and Quicktime.
So my node structure is cured and my internal hdd is partitioned without spending a penny and without having to re-install my programs one by one.
Note: There may be a few things to re-install or some prefs to reset but in general this method worked well. I mentioned having ro re-update iTunes.I also had to reset the Quicksilver prefs, and maybe I will yet come across something needing to tweaked again. (QS is a free launcher.) Oh yes, FireFox did not run well so I re-installed it.
I share this in appreciation for the help of Dr Smoke and others who answered my questions and for those whose posts were helpful to read, and for the benefit of others who may find them selves in the same predicament as me. And, oh yes, the trouble was not enough to cause me to go back to that other OS! Louis J
macbook Intel 13" Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2 Ghz model with 1.25 gig RAM

Invalid Node Structure is not a hardware failure, it never was (you may still have a hardware failure, but the Invalid Node error is not indicative of this problem.
Still, Disk utility will certainly fail to fix it, and DiskWarrior will probably fail too.
But don't despair. Try this, and don't give up till you've tried it at least three times.
First, get the name of the partition of the failing volume.   You can get it most easily by finding your disk in Disk Utility, selecting your partition (not the drive) and type cmd-i.    Look for "Disk Identifier" right at the top.
Then, open up Terminal, and type this:
sudo /sbin/fsck_hfs -yprd /dev/disk5s2
substituting your disk identifier for the one already here.   Keep the "/dev/" part.   Enter your password, and wait. It may take a while. I have had this fail several times before finally working so its important to keep trying.   It's faster than a reformat!!!
If the afflicted disk is your startup disk, you will need to do this in recovery mode: restart the computer, hold down option, and wait for the disk options to appear.   Select that, then proceed to Disk Utility and then Terminal as described above.
Good luck, and always keep a backup!
chris watts

IMac (March 2009) - Invalid Node Structure problem

Hi All
I was using my iMac as normal yesterday, when suddenly the system ground to a halt (something I never seen since using OS X). As I had work to do, after about an hour, I restarted, expecting it to be an app misbehaving or something straight forward, but on restart the same thing happened almost straight away.
So, I restarted again, only for the iMac to get stuck on the blue screen which follows the grey 'cog' screen. After looking through these discussions, and some other Mac forums, I booted from the installer disk, tried to run Disk Utility, which found issues and couldn't repair the disk.
I then tried Safe-User mode and fsck, which reported the aforementioned Invalid Node Structure problem. After checking a few more forums, I thought I would try to Erase the disk and reinstall Mac OS. I restored from my Time Machine backup, and finally got it to start, but the system moved at a snail's pace, and wouldn't open any apps or files.
I've tried again with fsck, and also fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2 but all I get is the same error message:
disk0s2: I/O error.
Invalid Node Structure
(4, 38403)
** Volume check failed.
/dev/rdisk0s2 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8
So, does anyone know if there is anything I can do to save the iMac? Or does it need a new HD? It is my primary work computer, so I really need to get it back, and after buying it in the UK, am now in France for 6 weeks, so it's difficult for me to take it to an Apple specialist.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance,
Daniel

As the last user stated, Disk Warrior maybe able to correct it, however if you search the net, you will see there are more than one user with this problem. I had the same problem, however, my machine is out of warranty, It started like you are saying, I RAN disk warrior which corrected the problem long enough to boot the system. In a matter of 10 minutes or so, the system started pausing (apps hung, but in a matter of seconds recovered). I was checking the disk with fsck_hfs and fsck while booted from a USB drive with a maintenance install of 10.5.6. After running fsck the 5th time with different options suggested from the internet, I rebooted with my disk warrior DVD only to find the drive NOT mounted, Drive utility see's it (even can attempt to run disk repair, but it locks up the system when trying this). Disk Warrior doesn't even see the disk to run a directory repair, although in the "check s.m.a.r.t status it sees it as a sata device, and SAYS ITS NORMAL).
Since my iMac was out of warranty, I followed the online instructions to replace the hard drive (not too difficult) and everything is fine now.
The old drive still wont mount, but another utility I bought (data rescue II) has been able to quick scan it and access all the data, even though it wont clear a fsck fsck_hfs or disk warrior, anyways, get it back while you can, IT IS THE hard drive itself, and lots of other iMac users online with the same issue (can you say WHY is my iMac SOOO HOT on the apple in the back (right where the drive is and not sufficient cooling in my opinion, but hey, some people might want to lay their computers face down and fry eggs on the it or something... ))
-SD

Invalid Node Structure on SSD

so i got a vertex 2, 120gb ssd drive a couple of weeks ago, but suddenly my computer crashes hard, my cpu turns out 89c (about 180F) in temp and "quickload D" uses up most of the cpu power. i force quit everything and DMG files just get some error i cant remember now. so i try restart right. but i just get the apple logo and some gray bar at the bottom that goes maybe 10% of the way and then it just shuts off. tried to boot a couple of times but nothing.
so then i boot from the snow leopard disc and run diskutl. and find "Invalid Node Structure" thats not reparable when verifying the disk. so now i have to reinstall. because i haven't come around to getting a system backup yet.
this goes without a hitch and the macbook is just fine now. no invalid node when running verification.
after scouring through OCZs forums i find this to be a reoccurring theme, but mostly on the vertex(1), and that not letting the computer go into hibernation will/might solve this.
so my long winded question is this. anybody else have this happen to them? have you fixed it? and what kind of SSD do you have?

Is your computer still under warranty? If so you might want to bring it to a genius bar. http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Invalid node structure (4, 3980)

I just tried to install 10.4.6 on my imac 17inch falt panel. ( os from mac store , black disk )
First I ran "remember" to check the memory -all ok .
Then I ran the hardware check that came with the computer- all ok .
Then started an erase and install, choosing to install only the basic os ( no languages etc )
Every thing went smoothly, finnished installing and waited for 30 seconds for it to auto restart.
And it didn't restart .
So I started up in single user mode and ran /sbin/fsck -fy
then I get the message
disk0s3: I/O error.
Invalid node structure
(4, 3980)
**volume check failed.
so there you have it . Any ideas of what happened ?
Any Ideas of what I should do now .
Did I just fry it ?
thanks o-s-s-i

Thankyou for the reply.
and Thankyou for the link, I had never seen that before .
I'm sure it will come in use again some day .
Well, after doing what you said to do, things have improved a lot .
I ran "aht" and every thing was fine.
I don't have DW so I zero-ed out the data and reinstalled tiger.
So now for the first time I can see the beginning of tiger.
I can see the welcome words dance over the screen in 10 languages
and then it asks me to register , then as soon as I type the first letter of my name
it goes "boing" and welcomes me in 10 languages again.
So a vast improvment on - invalid node structure (4, 3980).
But still not in yet .
Maybe I'll zero again and install one more time .
Thanks again.

Invalid node structure, files are visible in single mode

I did something stupid today. First i ran my mac until there was no disk space, resulted in failing booting up. Went into single mode and did a mount command and deleted some big files. And now the disk check is failing and still not able to boot ios. All the files showes up in single mode, but not sure how to proceed. When running fsck it gives invalid node structure error. Marry x-mas :) any ideas?

You might try using Disk Warrior to fix the error, but Disk Utility cannot. Short of DW you will need to repartition and reformat your hard drive unless the Recovery HD partition is still usable. If it is then you can do the following:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

Dreaded "invalid node structure" dealie

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