G4 won't boot from startup disk, disk utility can't repair, is all lost?

My G4 will not boot from the startup disk which is my second hard drive a 160GB. That's been my startup disk for the past 3 years. I tried running disk utilities, but get the error message "underlying task reported a failure on exit." "Invalid key length." "Volume check failed." "Disk repair failed."
I've tried loading in safe mode, and fsck (or something like that) nothing has worked. When I did force start by holding down the "x" key, the second hard drive image was on my desktop, but when I clicked it-it did not have any current information or files. Is everything lost? Is there a way to boot this hard drive or save all of my photos and music?
Thanks in advance for the help.

DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

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Startup problem - won't boot from startup disk

I have a MacPro 1,1 with 2 hard disks and 3 volumes. Disk 1 has Tiger and disk 2 has Snow Leopard plus a windows partition for Boot Camp. I am the sole user in both versions of OSX and in both accounts I have the startup disk set to Snow Leopard. Recently when I start the machine it doesn't get past the blank grey screen unless I hold the Option key to show the 3 volumes when I can pick and go.
I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions yet nothing is fixed.
The only thing I've changed recently is to have upgraded my copy of Cinema 4D but I hardly think that can be to blame. Any suggestions?

Yes. As I wrote in my first post I am the only account holder in both my OSX volumes, Tiger and Snow Leopard, and in both I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume. Also, in my Windows XP partition (on the same hard disk as Snow Leopard) I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume in the Boot-Camp control panel. So everything I can think of in every volume on my machine is pointing towards "start in Snow Leopard", only it seems to be having trouble doing that.
As I mentioned before, if I command a restart it works OK, but if the machine is off and I press the button I get the grey screen and I have to power it off with the button then boot with the Option key to see the three volumes.
Disk Utility - Repair Disk run from my installation disk or from my hard disk reports that the disk appears fine. I have repaired permissions from my hard disk to the point that it doesn't report any repair at all.
The MacPro used to start up fine but something has changed, only I have no idea what. I was hoping someone here might be able to tell me it's this or that.

G5 gets grey screen with logo then goes black, won't boot from any disk

Won't boot from any disk, already changed VRAM battery, no success. tried hardware disk once and ran a full scan, said error with Video, but now won't boot at all with any disk. Screen is choppy also(have pic). Thinking video graphics card? Not sure. Need help!

Hi bribiel, and a warm welcome to the forums!
It certainly sounds like the Video card from the little info we have, & that can certainly cause it to fail to bootup.

Ibook g4 won't boot from install disks

Got an ibook g4 1.33 ghz combo drive from original owner w/install disks. I want to reinstall original system but it won't boot from install disk 1. Tried starting holding down c but ignores disk. Holding down option just gives me the HD. Install disk shows up on desktop and opens. Tried disk utility from install disk but it doesn't allow me to erase the hd. Is there anything else I can do? Thanks.

OK, so let us suppose that you have the correct disk, the possibilities are:
• the optical drive is not functioning properly. However, since the disk shows up on the desktop the drive is apparently reading it.
• the disk itself is the issue. It could the wrong disk, but let us assume it is not. It could be damaged so that it is no longer bootable, or it could dirty. I would begin by giving the disk a good buffing and see if that will encourage it to boot the computer.
Good luck.
cornelius

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.

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.

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

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

I Baught A iMac 2010 From Someone it came with lion but for the programs i use i need snow leopard but when trying to install it won't boot from usb or cd what can be the problem i've been at this for over 24 hours if anyone ca help it'd be greatly apprec

I Baught A iMac 2010 From Someone it came with lion but for the programs i use i need snow leopard but when trying to install it won't boot from usb or cd what can be the problem i've been at this for over 24 hours if anyone ca help it'd be greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Downgrade OS X Lion To Snow Leopard [Video How-To]
http://www.cultofmac.com/110614/downgrade-os-x-lion-to-snow-leopard-video-how-to /
How To Downgrade OS X Lion To Snow Leopard: The Complete Tutorial
http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-downgrade-os-x-lion-to-snow-leopard-the-complet e-tutorial/
How To Downgrade from Apple OS X Lion to Snow Leopard
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389334,00.asp

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely

After getting the dreaded gray/blue screen, I tried to run disk repair on the internal disk. I got an error message saying "Disk Utility can't repair this disk and restore your backed-up files. The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely." What do I do now? This is an iMac and I'm running 10.6.8.

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it. See below for how to clone a drive.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. 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 the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
You may be able to backup your data if you have an erased external drive you can use. Before you do the above but after you have opened Disk Utility you can try to clone your drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Now this will only work if the drive is accessible and can be cloned by Disk Utility. Otherwise, you would need to access your drive from another Mac that you can connect via Firewire - Target Disk Mode.

Macbook Pro (mid 2012) Disk Utility can't repair HD

I have a friend's MacBook Pro in my possession that is not working and has not been used for about two months. After startup, seeing the loading bar, and getting stuck on the spinning wheel of death, I have taken some steps to try to get a boot into Mac OS X. I've reset the PRAM, tried booting in safe mode, and lastly tried to repair Macintosh HD via Disk Utility in the recovery partition. No luck. I get this message after an attempted repair.. "Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore your backed up file".
This is a similar problem to this discussion thread here:
Disk Utility cannot repair Macintosh HD
However, in this scenario, my friend does not have any Time Machine backups and would like to recover his files.
I know that I can re-format and do a fresh install of OS X...but where does that leave me with file recovery?
Is it possible to retrieve the files at all?
Any help from the community would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks

I have a friend's MacBook Pro in my possession that is not working and has not been used for about two months. After startup, seeing the loading bar, and getting stuck on the spinning wheel of death, I have taken some steps to try to get a boot into Mac OS X. I've reset the PRAM, tried booting in safe mode, and lastly tried to repair Macintosh HD via Disk Utility in the recovery partition. No luck. I get this message after an attempted repair.. "Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore your backed up file".
This is a similar problem to this discussion thread here:
Disk Utility cannot repair Macintosh HD
However, in this scenario, my friend does not have any Time Machine backups and would like to recover his files.
I know that I can re-format and do a fresh install of OS X...but where does that leave me with file recovery?
Is it possible to retrieve the files at all?
Any help from the community would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks

Can I fix a disk with this message?-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.

Can I fix a disk with this message?
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.

Some problems can indeed be fixed this way. But working from Recovery_HD or Disk Warrior DVDs and working in the restricted environment those provide can be difficult. You can literally spend days working on this problem (while your regular work is unavailable) only to discover the old drive is unsalvageable.
There is no way to know up front whether you are facing a major Hardware failure or a minor software glitch, or something in between. Often you are forced to work from the drive you no longer trust. I continue to recommend you do this work from a different, fully functioning Mac OS X booted from a different drive.
If you have had the foresight to (as The hatter often recommends) clone your virgin install onto another drive for use in such situations, you will be able to recover from such problems in record time. If not, my previous recommendations stands:
Buy a new Drive. Or two. Install Mac OS X from scratch on a new drive, and get your Mac running again. Later, you can use the full power of Mac OS X to attempt to rescue your data, if needed. Then Zero the old drive, to see if it can hold data again reliably.
If the old drive eventually provides some needed data, and is salvageable, Merry Christmas.

External Hard Drive Disk Utility Can't Repair the Disk

Hi,
I have a Seagate 1 TB Backup Plus Drive which was working perfectly fine until I plugged it into a USB hub. It detected it while in the hub and I was able to get files off of it, but when I ejected it from the hub and put it back into the USB slot on the computer it was not detected by finder. It shows up in the disk utility and I clicked verify and repair and it says:
Verify and Repair volume “Seagate Backup Plus Drive”
Checking file system
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
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.
Is there any way to get this to work properly again? Or if not is there a way for me to recover my files on the external hard drive?
Thanks
I have a Macbook PRO late 2011 running OS X Mavericks.

Use a more powerful utility such as DiskWarrior, or a product such as those listed here.
(108710)

Disk Utility can't repair this disk

I have been having trouble booting. It started when I connected a router to it. It seemed to eat up the free disk space and I only have 77 MB left or something around that.
Anyway, I tried deleting files with command-s commands, and it worked one time and it freed up 2 GB of space. I restarted the computer and when I tried to start it up, it still got stuck in the gray screen with the whirly thing at the bottom. I checked the space and it was 77MB now.
I decided to boot from the Install Disk (Snow Leopard 10.6.0).
I checked Disk Utility first and verified the disk. It came up with the message:
"Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk .... disk, and restore your backed-up files."
What should I do now?
I have the Mac HD volume on backup already so I don't have to do the back up stage.
Should I erase the disk while I am in Disk Utility?
And format it to Mac OS Extended Journal?
And then install the operating system again?
Thanks.

To answer your questions, first, some other options...
If you fill your disk up that far, you are going to have problems. Don't ever do this, 10% is a bare minimum, you may need even more, depending on the size of your disc.
I have seen before where a disc repair utility couldn't perform its function simply because there was not enough slack space available on the drive. While I have never seen this with disc utility, it is possible that the disc is repairable as-is, if you could just free up a couple more gigs of space first.
Secondly, you could also try Disk Warrior, or to a lesser extent, Techtool Pro, or even iDefrag. I have personally never had Techtool Pro fix anything that Disk Utility or Disk Warrior couldn't fix, so I hesitate to even mention it, but I have had Disk Warrior and iDefrag clear up problems that Disk Utility either couldn't detect, or couldn't fix.
If you are still in dire straits, you should re-partition the drive using disk utility. This is the safest route, then go from there.
good luck!
-a

Disk Utility can't repair Macintosh HD. What should I do?

Here is a "quick" synopsis of what has happened thus far:
About one month ago, my computer started getting very sluggish (ie, it would take forever to startup, would always freeze after sleep, etc.) I lived with it for about two weeks, since it would always run quickly after waiting ~30 minutes after starting/waking up. Eventually, this grew old. I browsed the internet and did multiple suggested fixes (reset PRAM, run Disk Utility, ran in Safe Boot Mode, etc.). Nothing seemed to work. I opted to zero out the harddrive and reinstall Mountain Lion after making a backup. That was about two weeks ago.
Everything worked fine, up until yesterday. Once again, things started getting slow. I decided to shut down my computer for the night and would check it in the morning. When I turned it on this morning, it wouldn't startup correctly. I could login, etc., but it was frozen and I couldn't open any applications without getting the spinning beach ball. I waited about an hour, but it was still slow/loading. I shut the computer down and booted it in Verbose Mode. I ran the various commands to check the conditions of my disk, but when I ran the "fsck -fy" command, I got an "I/O Error." I then tried rebooting my Mac, but it would get to the gray screen with the apple logo and the spinning wheel, and then the progress bar would appear. Before the progress bar did anything, it would shut itself down.
I then started the computer up and directly went to OS X Utilities. I went into Disk Utility and tried to check permissions and repair the disk. Only this time, Macintosh HD was grayed out and seemed to be unmounted. I couldn't get it to mount. I went into the Apple Store to have them run their own diagnostics. However, the apple store employee was unable to get the test working, so that was basically a bust. At this point, the computer still didn't turn on.
I got home and, just for kicks, held the "N" key while booting up my computer. For whatever reason, my computer started up (though it took a long time and there was a progress bar). Now, I made another backup of my disk and am wondering what to do. I ran Disk Utility again to repair my disk, but it says that Macintosh HD is not able to be repaired. When I checked permissions, there were tons of Input/Output Errors. Based on my research, it would appear that I have two solutions.
I can either purchase DiskWarrior and use that to try and solve my problem, or I could just get a new hard drive (and I would upgrade to a SSD or SSHD). DW is about $50 if I just download it, and the hard drive would cost me $150 or so. Since I don't know exactly what is wrong with the disk, I don't know if DW would be able to fix it. That being said, if the hard drive isn't the problem, there would be no reason for me to purchase a new one. I guess I would just like some advice, as to what you would do. I apologize for the long post.
TL;DR: Disk Utility can't repair Macintosh HD. Should I get DiskWarrior or a new harddrive?
Thanks in advanced!

Most importantly, youve already backed up all the data. All else is cake.
A new HD would cost you only $20 more than disk warrior,....theres no reason to repair a worthless crippled HD, .....new HD 1TB is $70.
Once you back up all the data on a failing HD, further diagnosis has no meaning,....not anymore.
Grab a 1TB or 750GB Toshiba/Hitachi (both used by Apple inside their Macbook Pro nonRetina,...both are made by Hitachi) 5400RPM SATA HD.
Forget the repair,.......repair only serves to bring a HD to a point of BACKUP.....since youve already done that, its now just wall art or trashbin fodder.
These are the same HD used by Apple in their Macbooks
http://www.amazon.com/MQ01ABD-2-5-Internal-Hard-Drive/dp/B0077CV2RO/ref=sr_1_1?i e=UTF8&qid=1376281905&sr=8-1&keywords=toshiba+1tb+2.5%22
In the future ALWAYS remember to have 2 backups for everything. 2 backups is 1, and 1 is none.
That way when something crashes (and they all do).....its no worries.

G4 won't boot from startup disk, disk utility can't repair, is all lost?

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