G4 Dual 1.43 Ghtz won't boot and disk utility won't repair it

I can't get the Boot Disk Disk Utility to repair the drive on my old G4 Dual 1.43 and desparately need the Documents file and home folders. Any ideas ?

This isn't going to be easy.
Does disk utility try to repair the drive? If it mounts, you could try the software I list below.
You either goint to have to get an external firewire drive & install some mac os on it. Then run some utilities from this drive or you going to have to get the drive out and mount in an external enclosure & run utilities.
There our commercial places that recover data. They will not be cheap.
I do not know what type of drive you have in the machine. So before buying an empty enclosure check.
Has everything interface:
FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface'
save a little money interface:
FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
This web page lists both external harddrive types. You may need to scroll to the right to see both.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
The latest the hard drive enclosures support the newer serial ata drives. The drive and closure that I list supports only older parallel ata.
Here is an external hd enclosure.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW91UAL1K/
Perhaps Disk Warrior will be of some help:
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
"Data Rescue II is the best data recovery software on the market for recovering files from a problem hard drive. Data Rescue II works when other tools fail. Data Rescue II is also completely safe to use since it does not attempt any risky repairs to the drive while its scanning."
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
-- been accidentally deleted.
-- become unreadable due to media faults.
-- been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1
"TestDisk is a free data recovery utility. It was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing a partition table)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk
"*Hard drive data recovery and warranty implications*
Hard drives that have become non-functional through normal use, and have had data recovery performed on them by DriveSavers or Ontrack Data Recovery can be returned to Apple for warranty service. This includes products covered by the AppleCare Protection Plan. The cost of any data recovery attempts is not covered by the Apple Limited Warranty."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3974?viewlocale=en_US
Entering:
mac data recovery
into Google will list some firms who specialize in recovering data. Data recovery isn't cheap.
Examples:
1) Ontrack Data Recovery is the world leader in data recovery services and data recovery software offering the fastest, most convenient and cost-effective solutions to clients who have experienced data loss.
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/
2) Enter the world of DriveSavers Data Recovery…
    * Data Recovery Tools
    * Data Recovery Process
    * Data Recovery Cleanroom
http://www.drivesavers.com/

Similar Messages

Help! PB G4 won't boot and Disk Utility can't fix it!

I have an insufficiently backed up PowerBook G4 1.67MHz (1GB RAM) that suddenly nosedived last night. I was surfing the Web and OmniWeb froze up. I couldn't force-quit it because the Finder was also locked up. So I held the power button until it shut down. When I restarted it, it got to the grey apple screen and hung there. I booted off the Tiger CD and ran Disk Utility, but it couldn't fix it. Then I tried booting into single-user mode and it also failed. Finally I tried reinstalling the system, but the CD couldn't find the hard drive. Aaargh!
I have a bunch of documents that I really cannot lose, and the most updated versions of them are only on this drive. Anyone know any tricks or third-party utilities that can help? I have another Mac; would Firewire Target Mode or Network booting help?
Some details:
Here's what Disk Utility said:
Invalid volume header (this was written in red)
Checking Catalog file
Keys out of order (in red)
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree (in green)
The volume [name] could not be repaired (in red)
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (in bold red)
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error (in bold red)
Repair attempted on one volume (in bold)
1 volume could not be repaired (in bold red)
Then it popped up a dialog box:
First Aid Failed
Disk Utility stopped repairing [name] because the following error was encountered:
The underlying task reported failure on exit (in bold)
Here's what single-user said:
It all booted normally, then I got these ominous entries in the list:
disk0s3: I/O error.
jnl: dojnlio: strategy err 0x5
jnl: open: could not read 512 bytes for the journal header.
hfs: late jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 8).
nfs_boot: networking is not initialized
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001F2634): nfsbootinit failed with 6
[then there's two backtraces here]
panic: We are hanging here...
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

As Mr Peck advised, DW is your best chance of getting out of this.
The important point of your post is the hard shut down (were you running Classic?) and the mention of Keys Out of Order. Do a search on these boards for Keys Out of Order for a quick education of the problem.
Make sure of the version of DW you use, get the disk and don't download, and make sure of your firmware version.
Joe

How do I repair a damaged dmg that won't mount and Dick Utility can't repair?

Apple Care gave me wrong instructions on how to create a disc image of my internal HD then erased it. Now I have a .dmg that has the same gigs as the HD but won't mount and Disk Utility can't repair. Tried to recover files with Data Rescue 3 but that isn't going so hot. Any suggestions?
Thank you

The Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico, Spanish is my native tongue. I do not speak English very well, however, I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture perhaps very very different from your own. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.
I guess that it's a moot point to ask if you didn't test the dmg before you erased the drive. Do you have a Time Machine or other type of backup?
If not, it's a hard lesson to learn, but I would guess that unless you are willing to pay for expensive outside data recovery service, all is lost and you are starting over.

Macbook pro won't boot and when I tried to back up the hard drive I got "disk utility can't repair this disk backup as many of your files as possible"

My macbook pro froze and initially would not even recognize the power chord. Now it charges, but will not load up. I opened in in disk utility to try and back it up so that I could take it to apple to have it fixed but I got the message that said "disk utility can't repair this disk backup as many of your files as possible". How do I back up the files???

Nichelle215,
you can try the method described on this Apple page, in the “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility” section. (You can skip step 6, since you already know that your disk is irreparable.) Note, however, that this method is not guaranteed to work. Once you get your disk straightened out, you might consider purchasing an external hard disk for use as a Time Machine backup destination, so that a similar problem in the future won’t wipe out the only copy of your files.

Macbook w/ whole slew of problems...Won't Start Up, Disk Utility Can't Repair Disk, Horizontal Lines on Screen, Etc.

I purchased my Macbook in the summer of 2011 and before it went berserk it was running Mavericks. 3 years later, it's finally seemed to have run its course.
It won't start up normally and it won't start up on safe boot. Attempting to use disk utility to repair the disk only gives me the message: "Disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible." There are also horizontal lines across the start screen (before it inevitably shuts down) and the screen looks very faintly purple-ish/off-colored.
This actually didn't come out of the blue. On Monday, my macbook suddenly froze, went white, and beeped three beeps repeatedly. I restarted it and backed up all my important work files and set up an appointment at the genius bar for Friday once work ended. It remained buggy during this process with the beeps returning an occasionally a blue screen popping up.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space to back up my important photos and by the time I returned on the next day with an external hard drive to store them on, my macbook would no longer turn on.
Is there anything I can do to bring my macbook back to life? Ideally I'd like for it to last one more year before I graduate college. Is it still salvageable, and if so, is it worth salvaging?

I hate to spread gloom, but that computer has serious problems. The only people who can diagnose the problem(s) are technicians. I would take it back to the Apple store for further testing.
Barry

My computer is shutting down before fully booting up. I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files. Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

My computer is shutting down before fully booting up. I am running the disk utilities program and have this message: Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk . . . disk, and restore your backed-up files. Can anyone suggest what I should do next?

So, you can't Install OSX to the external?
Or you can't boot from it when you do?
You're not the only one wondering... I'm reminded of the Goose that laid the Golden Egg story.

HD corrupt, disk utility can't repair it. can't boot.

I have a early 2009 iMac with the latest Mountain Lion update (did the last update two days ago). My HD has two partitions: one for os x and one for windows with bootcamp. I'm curently writing using the windows partition where everything works fine.
Yesterday I started my mac on X. Same gray loading screen but it had a small bar on the bottom. When the bar reached nearly half, the mac shut down. This happens now every time I try to start the mac on X and if I keep pressed ALT to choose which partition to use, the one for X is called "EFI Boot".
I booted in recovery and later using a snow leopard dvd, and I used disk utility. It said "invalid index key" and that the volume needed to be repaired, but disk utility couldn't repair it.
I tried rEFIt to check if there were problems with the partitions: all ok.
I tried the fsck console command: all ok.
Now I'm in the windows partiton and if I navigate through the X partition (I have MacDrive installed) I see that some files are missing. I'm sure they should be there, but they're nowhere to be found.
Of course MacDrive tells me that the volume is damaged, etc...
What can I do?

What files are missing?
Might try this...
Just recently I ran into a problem when I tried to Verify my hard disk and when it tried to verify the catalog, it responded "Invalid sibling link." Repair Disk didn't work. I searched the web and Apple's site, and couldn't find anything useful except to buy DiskWarrior or reformat the drive. Knowing that OS X is built on Unix gave me a few clues on how to proceed. The solution is pretty simple:
    1.    Boot off the OS X CD (reboot, hold C while booting).
    2.    The installer will load up, go to Utilities in the menu and run Terminal.
    3.    Type df and look for the drive that has your Mac system mounted---you'll have to unmount this. On my MacBook Pro, it was /dev/disk0s2.
    4.    Type umount /dev/disk0s2, replacing disk0s2 with whatever disk your OS lives on.
    5.    Type fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2. If you umounted the wrong thing, it will complain that you can't repair a mounted drive. Go back and umount the right thing and repeat this step.
Just for fun, you might want to run another fsck_hfs on your disk (use the -f option because your drive is probably journaled). Hope this helps someone so they don't buy a program that's going to do pretty much what we did with fsck_hfs, and so they don't waste time searching for an answer to no avail. By the way, TechTool Deluxe (3.1.1) didn't find the Catalog problem for some reason (you'll have this on a CD if you have AppleCare), which is why I resorted to fsck.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070204093925888

Upgraded to 10.5.6 and Disk Utility won't repair?

I upgraded to 10.5.6 and ran Disk Utility and got the report below. Should I be concerned about it?:
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/setregion" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner " has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Printers/IOMs/LPRIOM.plugin/Contents/MacOS/LPRIOMHelper" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
Permissions differ on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x .
Permissions repair complete

No. TM backups are not usable to downgrade to an earlier version of OS X. Archive and Install is the proper method.
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Macbook Pro not booting after update. ''Disk Utility can't repair disk''. Help needed!

I have recently updated my macbook pro as I had some pending software updates. I left it to do the job over night and the next day I noticed it was not letting me sign in to my account session as usual.
I restarted the computer and ever since then when I boot it, it just shows the apple grey screen with a bar that loads to about a 3rd and then it turns off again. I have contacted apple but they were unable to help me with this.
So far I have tried to:
1. Re-install OS X 10.8 - but it says the disk is locked or OS X cannot be installed on Recovery HD.
2. Verify and Repair the disk and I errors but it cannot fix them. Some are:
               'invalid leaf count''
               ''missing thread record''
               ''incorrect number of file hard links''
               ''overlapped extent allocation''
          and it finally says ''the volume Macintosh HD cannot be repaired'' Error: ''Disk Utility can't repair this disk.. disk, and restore your backed up files.
I would like to know a way to back up my files so that i can completely restore the disk without any data loss as I havent backed up for a while!
If anyone has any solution to this issue it would be much appreciated!

I just ran the Disk Utility, and cannot very disk. It gives me an error message;
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
and when I run the repair, this is the message:
The volume GERRARD could not be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
Repair attempted on 1 volume
1 volume could not be repaired
Prior to running Disk Utility, I have already tried DiskWarrior, and could not repair my disk. Anyway I can fix this problem??? Formatting the disk would be my last option (though I am unsure if it will fix the problem). Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Meanwhile, I will continue to back up my file, and delete unused data and try to run it again.
Thank you all very much for any input.
Cheers,
Matt

Macintosh HD won't boot, but disk utility says "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK." How do I repair the hard drive?

I have a MacBook that needs its internal hard drive's Macintosh HD partition repaired, as the boot screen freezes on startup. I am running a separate, working mac OS from an external hard drive in order to run disk utility and repair the MacBook's internal OS. The issue is, it has dismounted the internal Macintosh HD partition, and won't remount. And in addition to that, the Verify Disk option returns with, "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK." I've run Verify Disk and Repair Disk a few times, all with that same result. And the internal OS still won't boot.
I have attempted to make a disk image of the internal Macintosh HD partition and save it to my external hard drive so I can wipe the internal hard drive clean and restore the image, but I receive errors when trying to create the disk image, and when trying to erase the hard drive (I know, I should try to erase the hard drive when I haven't made an image. When I tried to erase the hard drive, the image wasn't done and I thought it was. I got an error for erase, and I got an error for making the disk image) I have tried making a disk image multiple times and haven't been able to create one.
There is also a boot camp partition on the internal hard drive which is of no importance as to whether it stays or is erased.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

Powerbook won't boot past apple screen, disk utility can't repair

Last night I applied the most recent software updates, I don't remember exactly what they were but there was a Java update, a security update, a quicktime update and an itunes update. after the required restart, my powerbook g4 won't boot past the apple icon screen.
I can't boot it into safe mode or single user mode.
I can start it up in target disk mode and transfer a handful of files/directories at a time before it hangs.
When I try to run the repair in Disk Utility against the target disk, it gets about halfway before the following:
Verify and Repair disk “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
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
the disk doesn't make any grinding or anything, just a few clicks when it tries to boot but nothing bad sounding.
Is my computer hosed? Is it worth bringing it to the genius bar?

Hi, Pat. How much time did you give DW to complete its work? Locating the data it needs to rebuild your directory can take a while — that's the step at which DW far outperforms other utilities. It digs deeper and tries harder than anything else, and that can take a long time. The longest successful DW "fix" I've seen reported here in the seven and a half years I've been participating in Apple Discussions was *14 days* of continuous work to find the necessary data and reconstruct a hard drive directory from it. That was after all other disk utilities had been tried and had failed; it was the user's last hope to save data that hadn't been backed up anywhere. If you haven't allowed DW at least a few hours to accomplish its task, give it another chance. And don't try to use the computer for anything at all while DW is working.

Powerbook Won't boot - And disk permissions won't repair

My powerbook G4 won't boot normally or in safe mode but will load up using the leopard disk to instilation page. Once there the folowing issues become aparrent;
1. Not enough space to archive and install
2. Disk persmssions can't be verified or repared (the disk can be both verified and repaired and appears normal)Have waited overnight for this to complete and it hasn't.
3. Whilst it connects to networks it doesn't appear on them to allow data to be removed to make space
4. Attemting to use disk utility restore function to copy the hard disk onto a external hard drive fails (bar about 1/8 of the way across predictions stat at 1hr58 and reach 6 hours when the powerbook starts making a lot of noise nad the external hard drive activity appears to halt)
Any ideas on how to resolve this?

Might be worth a shot trying to transfer in TDM, once booted from the install disk:
_http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583_
Good Luck,
Joe

Lost boot drive, Disk Util on boot CD sees but won't mount

1. My boot drive stopped booting (running Tiger)
2. Booted to 10.2 install disc, Disc Util found "keys out of order" problem, couldn't fix.
3. On extra HD, installed 10.2, boots fine
4. Now, following master/slave jumper directions on
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=111769, I can't get the boot drive to act as a slave. ID conflict?
5. The goal is to try Norton Utilities (I have version 7, hope that's late enough) to repair the keys problem or at least recover data from the drive to the new boot drive, so I need them both up simultaneously
6. What am I missing here?
thanks

Apple (MIcroMat etc) warn to never use an older
version of any disk utility, including Apple's, on a
newer system. There is a TIL if you look for it.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301269
Hatter, thanks for that. I was explaining the forward compatibility thing to my wife last night. My hope HAD been to use Norton to recover files, but after what was posted above I'm glad it didn't boot!
The other is that some systems won't boot OS X from
slave drives, probably more so with 10.2 (can you say
"beta?").
Actually, I'm not trying to boot from a slave, instead I'm trying to get to the OLD Tiger boot drive (Keys out of order) AS a slave now. Can't get a jumper setting combo to work, no matter whose documentation I use. New, 10.2 boot drive is a Maxtor 90000 model, old boot (new slave) is Quantum Fireball EX.
you should be using your Tiger DVD; and you shouldn't
be using NUM 7 or 8 on Tiger. The first thing to try
is always fsck or a clone of the current/latest
system.
Um, if I had a Tiger DVD that would be great. If I had a DVD drive, even better! I'm having to scrounge here.
I don't think B&W will support Cable Select. I would
invest in a SATA/ATA controller for 2nd drive (and
better I/O).
See above on scrounging. I've been aware of the controller issue since the B/W rev 1, they came out the first time I worked at Apple. Which reminds me, I was an assassin there, had one of the best First Call Resolution numbers. Now, three, four years later, with a computer that has run flawlessly all that time, I've forgotten more than I ever knew!
Thanks.
David

Disk read error, and Disk Utility won't open

Have a PowerMac G4 dual 800mhz, with two hard drives. Mac OS X 10.3.9 is installed on HD1. I use HD2 for miscellaneous files.
Using the Azureus bittorrent client, I'm getting "Error: Disk read error - Input/output error, read fails" in the Status column when trying to download something to HD2.
However, I'm able to upload files from HD2 for other users, and I'm also able to play video files that are stored on HD2 without problem.
The real issue is that when I went to see if I could fix anything by opening Disk Utility, it won't open. It goes into an immediate state of Not Responding. It won't listen to me when I tell it to Force Quit... I have to wait a long time, or restart the computer, to get it to stop showing up in the dock.
Any advice would be appreciated.

To repair a startup volume you must do the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
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Stuck at "starting login window" and Disk Utility won't fix it...

I downloaded some security updates, and since restarting my computer as required, I have never been able to start it up since. It gets stuck on the "starting login window" screen, with the little blue bar still shimmering and mouse still moving, but just won't ever load the login screen, even after hours.
I've seen a few other people have had this problem, and tried to follow some of the recommendations, with no joy. I tried several times to repair the disk permissions with Disk Utility, but it has an internal error saying it lost the connection to the disk manager, or something similar.... when I try to repair the disk, it fails saying something about "overlapped extent allocations" and an "invalid node structure".
I can start up in single-user mode, and doing a fsck had the same result.
What can I do??? Some people suggested an Archive and Install manoeuvre, but I'm scared of losing all my files! Will it erase them all? Do I have to back up all my files before doing this? How can I back them up if my computer won't start?
I know almost nothing about computers - all I know I have found in the past few days searching through these discussion boards trying to find an answer! I have an important essay due on Monday which is stuck in my computer, so I'm a little scared!
I'm using Mac OS X Panther or something.... not sure how to find out exactly which one, as my computer won't start!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
iBook G4

Hi, you have some serious directory damage there, and it was probably there before the updates. An Archive and Install would not be recommended. If you did that you would likely have more problems then you have right now.
If it were me I'd run Diskwarrior and Tech Tool Pro on it. DW for the invalid node structure and Tech Tool Pro for the Overlapped Extent Allocation. But you probably would have to buy both of them, and there's no guarantee either one will fix it.
Apple doc.#25770, talking about Overlap..... says the easiest way to fix it is to Erase and Install. If you are running 10.3.9 and had access to a retail Tiger disk, you could try booting up on it and running Disk Utility. Tigers DU has the ability to fix Overlap.... sometimes, Panther's does'nt.
This is the best way to Erase and Install. First backup all your important stuff, if you can, as the following will erase everything on your drive; it will be unrecoverable. Put your install disk in your Mac and Restart while holding down the C key. In Tiger, When you get to the install screen, don't click install and go to the title bar at the top of the screen and click on Utilities (in earlier OS's click on the installer menu).
Click on Disk Utility and choose the hard drive you want your OS on. Then click on the Erase tab. In Tiger, click on the Security Options button near the bottom (it's similiar for Panther and Jaguar).
Once in there choose Zero Out Data (write zero's in earlier versions). This will map out any bad blocks on your drive and bring it back to almost new condition (providing there's nothing wrong mechanically with it, bad bearings, defective or damaged surface, etc.).
Once this is done, go back to the install screen and begin the "Erase and Install" installation. This will put a factory fresh system on a clean hard drive.
Cheers!
DALE

G4 Dual 1.43 Ghtz won't boot and disk utility won't repair it

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