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

Similar Messages

Recurring Invalid Node Structure

Hello All,
My Macbook Pro is just 9 months old. It started getting extremely slow and gets hung periodically. Checked the logs. It is showing Disk I/O error. Ran disk utility with the Mac OS installation disk. It shows "Invalid Node Structure".
I then erased all data from hard drive by Zeroing out and reinstalled OS. It starts running fine but only for few days. It gives the same problem again. I tried fcsk utility also from single user mode. it resolves the problem but only for a few days. The problem appears again!!
I thought erasing and reinstalling would resolve the problem unless the hard drive needs to be replaced.Any suggestion would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Sopan

Recurring Invalid Node Structure problems can sometimes be well nigh unrepairable, Sops. They sometimes indicate progressive failure of the drive itself.
I'd be inclined to download the trial copy of "SMART Utility" from http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php and test the drive with it to make sure this isn't essentially a hardware problem with the drive before accepting the 'SMART" status from Disk Utility . SMART Utility provides much more information in a situation like this, and, though it can sometimes be almost too "critical" , in a situation where you have already tried zeroing without success I'd be inclined to believe it.
With the price of drives down where they are today it probably makes sense to simply get the drive replaced if you run into recurring issues of this kind. In your case you are still under hardware warranty anyway. It is very frustrating to spend hours or days sorting out a drive with "Invalid Node Structure" only to find it recurs a couple of weeks later anyway because it has a hardware defect.
Cheers
Rod

IMac Won't boot...Invalid Node Structure

My iMac is just...screwed up. It is a 2008 intel iMac that had worked fine for the last four years until lion. Everytime there was and update or I rebooted, my Mac would freeze at some point of the login. A permission repair or just repair disk would solve the issue an everyone and a while, a restore from backup. Recently my Mac started to slow down to the point it froze for several hours and force quit would never open. I held the button and since then I have been in trouble. The repair permissions had a ton of errors but successfully repaired. But when I repaired the disk, it's hit a couple of errors but ultimately failed right after "Invalid Node Structure" that error has been consistent every time I have attempted a fix and it failed.
I tried restoring from a backup to no avail. Then I wiped the drive and installed Lion (after a convienient 5 hours download) an it booted. I tried using it but it was extremely slow, let it sit over night and came back to it frozen. I had assumed it was slow due to indexing but after 12ish hours this didn't solve the issue. I clicked the apple button and it took a while to finally show up an restarted. Fro
There is wouldn't complete the boot. Froze at the apple logo or white screen with spinning mouse. Left that for several hours and stayed there. Tried repair and same issue. "ivalid node structure" redtating aftet that it just reboots and turns off a little bit after the chime. I have tried everything I could find on different forums without any success. I tried single user mode with the fsck commands and that failed also. I downloaded lion and made a recovery flash drive from another computer. I have since installed several new installations of lion after an erase and repartition. I took it to the apple store and they installed a fresh install of lion and it worked for a day then slowed down and froze. I would like to try everything possible before claiming the hardrive dead. Any other suggestions? (
I forgot to mention I have done PRAM resets in between the events I described as well as the SCM i think reset by unplugging. I have left it unplugged for over 12 hours, also have taken out all peripherals minus keyboard and mouse.

Oh I forgot to add, don't restore from TM or reverse clone, your data might have been messed up, rather cherry pick your good files from backup.
About much would a fix/Harddrive replacement cost?
You might want to get a estimate from Apple, while inside they can clean the filters and run a check.
If it's too much for you, then there are online services
OtherWorld Computing can replace the drive in iMac's
the new 2011's have the certain Apple drive heat for iMac software, not 2009, my mistake.
http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-im acs
you might find a local service, Apple reseller might do it too, save the shipping costs.

Problem when booting - Invalid Node Structure

Hey!
I decided to put my MacBook G4 up to date. So I installed several updates of my software. So far so good. Then I tried to check with Disk Utility wether there were any problems on the file system. I ran "repair Disk Permissions" and some errors where found and corrected. I tried "Verify Disk" and it announced there where some errors namely "Invalid Node Structure". As I couldn't repair the disk as it was the current boot disk I decided to run Disk Utility from a CD. Unfortunately I didn't have my original cd so I asked a friend to use his. He gave me his "MacBook Pro - Mac OS X Install Disc"s (Mac OS X 10.5) and I ran it on my PowerBook G4 (Mac OS X 10.4 installed). It gave the same result like when I ran it from my hard drive. When I tried to repair it, it started and stopped after some seconds (between 20 and 40 seconds) saying it was unable to repair it.
After that the computer does not mount from hard drive (10.4 installed) anymore, only from cd. I tried booting in single user mode and executing /sbin/fsck -fy but I had the same result ("disk0s10: I/O error. Invalid node structure (4, 7698) **Volume check failed.").
I think I can resolve the problem by starting my mac in firewire mode, backing up my data and reinstalling Mac OS X (would a repair from 10.4 Disk Utility work?) but I would be happy if there were any faster / more elegant way to do so as I cant use my install cds for 10.4 right now as I am in an other country for some time.
Any help?

Hi Ja!, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Unfortunately DU & fsck can't fix all that much, your best bet is DiskWarrior, you need the CD though.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
If DW can't fix it, you might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can.
PS. Don't use Leopard Install Disk to work on Tiger Hard disks, it's always messed up my Tiger Disks ehen I did.
Also, not a good idea to even Repair Permissions if there are Disk problems like you have, you don't want to write anything to a disk that has problems, that means even trying to boot off it until you fix it.

Huge problems with my MacBook: Invalid Node Structure and More!

A couple days ago I was browsing the internet, and when I closed Safari, the system froze. I couldn't even force quit out of anything, so I had to shut it off manually. When I tried to turn my computer back on the next day, I couldn't get past the Apple screen. The little wheel would keep spinning, but I could never get anywhere.
Then, I tried to boot from the Leopard DVD to possibly reinstall Leopard, hoping it would work. At first, no drives would show up to install to, but for some reason, they eventually showed up. Problem is, I don't have enough free memory to reinstall Leopard. Furthermore, I've tried to fit it on the space I have, and it says that the install failed, so I can't reinstall Leopard.
I also went to Disk Utility from the DVD and tried to repair the disk. The only option available was to Verify Disk, but when I go there, that fails, and it says "invalid node structure."
I'm not sure what happened to my computer because it seemed to come from nowhere. To sum up, I cannot log in to OS X, or even XP on a separate partition, I can't reinstall Leopard, and I can't repair the disk. I've read about how DiskWarrior might help, but I can't get in to OS X. Does anyone have any idea what happened or what I can do? I haven't backed anything up, so if I'm screwed, then so be it, I guess. Just wondering if anyone has any explanations or suggestions. Thanks.

Interesting how many people have this same issue. A friend of mine has brought me her white Macbook Intel Core 2 with Leopard and it had a folder with a question mark instead of the apple at startup. I was able to boot using the Mac Install DVD and ran Disk Utility. It said something like "Invalid Node Structure" and "Cannot Repair". Unfortunately DiskWarrior will not fix this. I tried it to no avail. I'm resigned to the fact that a new hard drive is necessary.
The HD in there is a Hitachi 120GB.
It also wouldn't let me erase the disk nor partition it. Then, one morning I woke up and it was able to erase! So I erased, then installed Tiger. It seemed to be working fine. So I rebooted from the Leopard drop-in disk and installed Leopard. Then I restarted, and BAM! back to the question mark folder. Now I'm back to where I started. Other threads
I forgot to mention that my friend had photos and music on the HD that she couldn't do without and I was able to recover that data using Data Recover II. First I had to use SuperDuper to clone my own computer onto an external drive so I could use it as a boot drive.
For now the only solution is to buy a new internal hard drive and reinstall the OS. And regularly backup!!
So I guess this issue has not really been solved, but hopefully you have warranty. Unfortunately for my friend, this happened a week after her warranty expired.
Good luck.

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

Invalid Node structure/ computer running slow?

Hi everyone,
I recently dropped my even a couple of drops of diet coke near the DVD drive of my MacBook (2009).
Turned it off immediately and turned it upside down for a bit. Tune it back on and it worked fine. However, the second time I turned it on it wouldn't go past the login screen. Turned it off as then on again, and started up fine. Ran a disc diagnostic and it gave me the invalid node structure message. From there it started to run slow so I shut it off again. Haven't turned it on since. I'm thinking of taking it in to a shop since I don't want to mess with it anymore.
Is there any easy fix to this? If my hard drive is messed up, can I recover my data? I've never backed up (I know, I know..) so needless to say I'm a little stressed.
Thanks!

That does sound stressful. Sorry to hear you have had these problems.
The good news is that you can probably get your data back. Follow the steps in this document to remove the hard drive from your MacBook. Put the hard drive in an enclosure - you can get these for about $10-15. Connect the hard drive to another Mac and see if it shows up on the desktop. If it does, extract the data.
After that, take the whole thing in to a shop to have them see if they can correct the liquid damage. This may or may not work.
Best of luck.

Invalid node structure error when verifying hard disk, please help

My 27" Mid 2011 iMac is having hard disk issues. I attempted to repair the disk but received an error that said the disk cannot be repaired and needs to be re-formatted. I have all my files backed up to an external hard drive so I erased and formatted the disk. After reformatting, I ran the verify disk function and got the message saying the HD appears to working properly. I reload OSX Lion and within a day, my computer freezes up and acts as if something is wrong. When I run the verify disk, I get the Invalid Node Structure error multiple times and then the message saying the disk cannot be repaired and I need to reformat the drive. I have completed this process several times and have had no luck. I have looked at a few forums with people who have had somewhat similar problems but am still unsure. I have seen people recommend programs like Disk Warrior to repair issues the hard disk utility cannot but I don't want to spend $100 dollars on this program if my hard disk is damaged and needs to be replaced. Any suggestions? Thank you

Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.
Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional — ask if you need guidance.

Startup partition dies in the middle of booting, Invalid node structure?

Hi! In the last few weeks, possibly since I last upgraded Lion and Safari, my iMac has been performing very badly. It's been sluggish, Safari and Finder repeatedly freezing and crashing/rebooting. Last night it escalated, and I launched Disk Utility to repair permissions. Ten hours later and no problems found. Not ten minutes later, the FInder crashes badly and I have to force a shutdown. When restarting, I get the grey progress bar, but it only reaches about 10%, then the hard drive whirrs and clicks a few times, and the computer shuts off. This happens every time I try to restart.
So instead, I boot into the recovery partition, and launch Disk Utility from there. Repair disk says the boot partition has an invalid node structure and I have to backup and reinstall. Now, I do have a Time Machine backup (a few days old since I don't have my Drobo on all the time due to the noise it makes), but since it's 800 GB of data I'm a bit reluctant to commit to that, hoping there is a simpler/faster solution. I'll see if I can try Disk Warrior. Or do you think I'd be better off to just nuke the entire drive and start from scratch?
The strange thing is that I have a Bootcamp partition with Windows 7, which works fine and actually can browse the files on the Lion partition. What does that mean? Can I use that to my advantage? If I do restore from Time Machine, will that affect my Bootcamp partition?

Disk Warrior confirmed that there were problems, but couldn't repair the node structure, possibly because of bad blocks. Support at the local Mac store (we don't have Apple stores here) said I should just try reinstalling the system, so that's what I did. It didn't work the first time, but then I reformatted the partition and since then everything has worked allright. I have now restored everything from the TM backup (which took about a day). I'm now guessing that the whirring was not actually some mechanical problem with the drive, but on the other hand DW wasn't too happy about the drive, so maybe I still have to replace it? I'm using it now and it seems better than before, but I won't do any serious work on this computer until I have a new TM backup in place.
(On that note, is it possible to "link" the restored system to the old TM backup that it was restored from? Or do I have to start over with a completely new TM backup, losing all the versioning of the old backup?)
UPDATE: Just ran Disk Utility, which now reported an erroneous block count in a file. Crossing my fingers hoping it's nothing critical adn that DU can repair it ...

WTFKK is "Invalid node structure"???

I had Mac OS X 10.7.4 and a weird problem that i did mention in this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4110520?start=0&tstart=0. I did erased Macintosh HD with Zero Out Data option and try to reinstall Lion, but failed all the time. So i decided to reinstall Snow Leopard with DVD come with my 2011 based-iMac. It failed for some first times, but finally it successful installed.
I guess that the problem was gone, but no. When i try to update to 10.6.8 to upgrade to Lion again, it failed. Try again, again and again, finally it succeeded, but the update for iTunes still failed, whatever, i don't care about that any more. I inserted Applications Install DVD to install iLife, and O...M...G, failed, failed, failed. But finally, it succeeded too. And now i'm going to reinstall Lion on my iMac, failed, failed,failed, and so crazy, it finally succeeded. I logged in, doing some update, oh god, failed. I took a look at Disk Utility, "Invalid node structure", ooohhhh mannn, this make me so hate iMac and Mac OS. So i shuted it down and go out for a while. When i came back, it's bulllshittt, the startup with long gray bar again, and suddenly shut down. I'm gonna unplug it and throw it out of my house!! I reinstall everything again like what i did, and now i'm writing these with Snow Leopard 10.6.8, and maybe the daamn "Invalid node structure" still waiting for me anytime!!!

You might want to check the health of your drive with the free demo of SMART Utility. That is, if you can get it booted.
http://www.volitans-software.com/smart_utility.php
Did you ever run Disk Utility Repair Disk?
For memtest:
To test the memory, get memtest and run it in single user mode, where it will test as much memory as possible, more than with the OS loaded.
You can get memtest + directions from the link below. However, ignore running it from Terminal. Instead, boot into SU Mode, Cmd-s at the startup chime. (Best to startup from a full shutdown.)
At the prompt, simply type /usr/bin/memtest all 3 -L (From this link It will be installed in /usr/bin/) Then hit return. This will run three loops of memtest and create a log in Console in Utilties.
If you want to run memtest longer, which may be advisable, since RAM errors can be very elusive, just remove the "all 3" which will give you /usr/bin/memtest -L and hit return. It will keep testing until you quit it.
If you want to quit the test, just hit control-c
When finished, you can just type in "reboot" and hit return.
http://osxdaily.com/2011/05/03/memtest-mac-ram-test/
Direct link for the download.
http://cdn.command-tab.com/2008/memtest_422.zip

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. 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

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.

I have an error of invalid node structure

I have an error of invalid node structure. Can I save my data from my hard drive? Is it even fixable?

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

Recurring "Invalid Node Structure error"

Hello all,
Starting a new thread with this one....
Have done 5 complete re-partitions, clean SL installs and back ups from TM in the last four days. DU disk checks out fine after re-install, DU comes up clean.
After a few hours, the hanging beach ball returns, I run DU and get the "Invalid Node Structure" error message.
This in on the iMac that is 42 days out of Apple care......
Ran techTool after the last install, and it comes up clean....
What's the soultion? Nuke the drive and get a new on on my dime?
I've repartitioned, zeroed out the data and sit here with a naked drive, I really don't want to spend another day loading it up if it's shot....
The TM files and drive I'm backing up from check out fine.
Thanks,
Mark

Took 3+ hours. Came up clean. I have not restored from TM yet. Did the SL updates ect.
Repaired permissions, ran DU it comes up clean.
I will do some net surfing tonight (that's all I did this morning) still without loading the back up data, and we'll see if I get the beachball of death.
I will run another surface scan when I hit the hay, and see what it says in the morning.
If that is clean, I will restore the back up data, and run the surface scan again.
One step at a time until I can recreate (or not) the failure mode.
Tedious, but I have to get to the bottom of this. I don't want to load any of the TM back up on to the Mac Air until I'm sure it's not a software issue.
Mark

IMac (March 2009) - Invalid Node Structure problem

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