Invalid Node Structure, Mac Not Starting

*THE PROBLEM*
My MacBook does not start. All I see when I press the power button is a gray screen with an apple logo and a spinning wheel.
*WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM*
I changed the input languages settings in international in system preferences to “Devnagari-QWERTY”. Then I typed my name in 'Devnagari' in Textedit and copied it. I created a new folder on desktop and pasted my name copied earlier. It worked. So I went ahead and tried renaming my startup disk (Macintosh Disk) in the same manner. I clicked on its icon, hit enter and command+v. Immediately my mac froze. Noting happened. Even commandoptionesc did not work. After a long time I pressed the power button for 5 sec and tried a restart. Now it won't start.
*SOLUTIONS I TRIED*
1. *Safe Boot (shift while startup):* No result, all I get is a gray screen, an apple logo and a spinning wheel appears after a minute and its stuck there.
2. *Tried Single User mode (command+s):* Computer does not start and is stuck with the following text.
Probe booting in single user .. do not match
disk0s2: 0xe003005 (UNDEFINED)
Load of /sbin/launchd, errno 85, trying /sbin/mach_init
disk0s2: 0xe003005 (UNDEFINED)
Load of /sbin/launchd failed, errno 85
3. *Tried Verbose mode (command+v):* Computer does not start and is stuck with the following text.
disk0s2: 0xe003005 (UNDEFINED)
Load of /sbin/launchd, errno 85, trying /sbin/mach_init
disk0s2: 0xe003005 (UNDEFINED)
Load of /sbin/launchd failed, errno 85
4. *Disk Utility from OS X Install disk:* Tried using repair disk. But it does not work either. All it says is
Verify and Repair disk “Macintosh Disk”
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
“Invalid Node structure”
Volume Check failed
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
1 HFS Volume Checked
1 Volume could not be repaired because of an error.
*5. Reinstalling OS X from install disk:* I tried this as a final resort.
a) The normal install did not work because my startup disk had OS X 10.4.11 and my install disk had 10.4.6, so it gave an error that I have a “newer version installed”.
b) I can not do an archive and install because I have only 4 GB free space and it requires at least 15GB.
c) I do not want to do erase and install because I do not want to loose my data.
*MY MACBOOK*
1. I have a first generation MacBook, Intel Core Duo 1.83 with 512 MB Ram and 60 GB HDD with Mac OS X 10.4.11.
2. S.M.A.R.T status of the disk is verified
3. I can browse my files on the disk if I click on new disk image in Disk Utility from Install Disk.
4. There is no problem in mounting the disk.
LIMITATIONS
1. I am not at my university so I do not have any other external HDD or any other Mac for a “Target Disk Mode” for data backup.
2. All I have is my Mac and 10.4.6 install disk.
3. No broadband so can not download large files.
4. I can not loose my data.
Is there any way of fixing the Mac, given the limitations given above. Something using command line, or anything that will make it work again. How do I fix the invalid node structure. I really do not want to loose my data and I am in transit so I really need my Mac to work.
Any help would be appreciated.

Ambarish:
The article Disk Utility reports "Underlying task reported failure" when repairing a volume gives more information about the issue you are experiencing. The reference in the article to a third party utility is the utility referenced by BGreg, Disk Warrior.
Please do post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

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Invalid Node Structure on SSD

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

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

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?

MacBook pro stuck on start up, invalid node structure, diskos 1/0 error....

Hello.
After downloading steam and a few games my laptop froze, I tried starting it up but it goes no further than the blue start up screen.
I looked at some forms and used '/sbin/fsck -fy' to resolve the problem, but it says invalid node structure, diskos2 1/0 error... I don't hear and unusuial sounds coming from the harddrive. Other people simply replace their hard drives but I need to retrieve some recent important files that I had not backed up,        Is there any possible way of getting back my files or even fixing this problem ? Help please !

You have two options:
Buy Alsoft's Disk Warrior that will repair the problem.
Reformat the hard drive.
Option 1 costs $100.00. Option 2 requires having a current backup you can restore, erasing the hard drive, then reinstalling OS X, and restoring your data from your backup. If you choose Option 2:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

Macbook Leopard 10.5 is not booting up and not even getting Verified Error : Invalid Node Structure

Hey, I am using Macbook Leopard 10.5, Yesterday while i was working it was on low battery i thought to connect it later, but all of a suddent its stopped fucntioning and everything goes blank. I thought it might be a Battery problem, but even after connecting charger for 2-3 hours, its not booting up. Only the Apple screen comes and then it goes shut down automatically.
I even tried to fix it using Apple CD, Disk utility, When i tried to Verify the disk It shows following error :
Disk cannot be repaired or verify.
And details : Invalid Node structure
Volume needs to be repaired error : Filesystem verify or repair failed.
I have very important Data on this disk, so i cannot even erase it.
Suggest me somehting. It have enough space to install new OS but System shows you need erase it.
I have tried to use Apple Hardware test by Holding D key, But its not working.

Helloi
http://supportdb.alsoft.com:591/FMPro?-db=alsoftsupport&-lay=main&-sortfield=Dat e&-sortorder=descend&Keywords=node&Product=%22%22&-op=lte&Date=%2F%2F&-max=15&-f ormat=AlsoftSupport-qa.html&-script=counter&-token=177&-Skip=0&-find

IMac (March 2009) - Invalid Node Structure problem

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

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

Invalid node structure (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.

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

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.

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.

'Invalid node structure', 'Invalid B-tree node size', Disk Warrior useless

Hi everyone, I am getting sick of this, it's the second time it's happened to me in a relatively short space of time, the first time with an Iomega external 500GB drive, this time with a 1.5TB Western Digital.
I gave the Western Digital drive two partitions, (as I did for the previous Iomega drive), one for doing backups of my MacBooks internal drive, the other for random media, mostly VIDEO_TS folders.
After going away for a couple of weeks, I returned home, plugged in the Western Digital drive via USB, the Internal backup partition showed in Finder, the other did not. Obviously I ran Disk Utility which was only able to show an error report with the usual 'Invalid node structure etc' message.
I tried running Disk Warrior 4.2 (supposedly the version which works with Snow Leopard) from the DVD, (holding down the C key after restart), and..... nothing, just the grey screen and spinning wheel showing, so I gave up on that and installed DW to the Utilities folder. Now it starts up, the corrupt drive showed up, I hit the Rebuild button in DW, things seemed to be happening, but then the Beach Ball appeared and there was a (very) long hang before I decided to Force Quit.
I am assuming that if DW can not fix the drive, it is done for, and may as well be used as a door stop.
I am prepared to buy yet another drive, but can someone please give me an idea about why this has happened to me twice now, and what I can do to prevent it from happening again?

Just erase the partition. Nothing yet suggests the drive is bad. When you got the drive did you prep it correctly? Usually bare drives are pre-formatted for Windows. You might consider doing this:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two and size them as you prefer. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Repeat Steps 4-6 for the other partition. Alternatively, you can start with a single volume. After the zero data erase you can then re-partition the drive.

How can you repair "invalid node structure and invalid b-tree node size"

I have a MacBook Pro 17" and the original install disk is Mac OS 10.4. I have an update 10.6 install CD, but I cannot use it to boot up my computer. My computer had been running on 10.6 when the problem occurred.
It seems my harddrive has crashed. It only boots to apple logo and spins. I have reset the pram. Started up in safe mode with shift pressed down and started up on the start up disk, where I did repair disk and got this "invalid node structure invalid b-tree node size". Then it said repair failed to complete. I tried booting again but it still failed. I thought doing a restore might solve the problem. I have a month old backup with time machine which is on a lacie external drive, but when I try to restore using my original 10.4 install disk, I can only choose the lacie hardrive icon (by dragging) and cannot choose the folder in the backups with the latest backup. When I tried to restore, it says my source is not a valid option. Is this because it is a 10.4 startup disk.
Basically I have two questions: Is there a way to fix my problem without doing a restore and if I have to restore, how do I restore my time machine backup? Will I need to do a reinstall with 10.4 and then update to 10.6?
I really hope to find a way to have my computer back to how it was when it started spinning and if not, at least as it was when I did the latest backup 3 weeks ago.
Please help me!!!
Rebecca

You should be able to boot to the Snow Leopard upgrade disc — you had to do so to install the upgrade in the first place. If you can't boot to it now, either the disc is scratched or dirty or your drive's lens is dirty; for the latter problem, a drive cleaning disc is an inexpensive, frequently-used and often successful remedy, available at any store that sells DVDs.
Because you're running Snow Leopard now, you should repair your hard drive directory using the Snow Leopard version of Disk Utility, not the one on your Tiger installer disc. If you aren't able to do so even after trying to clean your drive, you could buy and use DiskWarrior to rebuiild the damaged HD directory. But DW costs nearly $100, and though it would probably do the trick, that's a bunch of money. You'll have to weigh its cost against the value of the new or changed data on your drive that hasn't been backed up in the last three weeks. If you can get along without that data, then erasing your hard drive and restoring from your last backup is the no-cost, immediate (as opposed to waiting for a DW startup disk to arrive in the mail) solution.

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 ...

Hard disk w/ invalid node structure - Disk Util Repair fails

I have a 15" MacBook Pro that started having problems when software installs were run on it. It came back with out of disk space on volume ("null"). I ran Disk Util after booting off my OS X install disk. I get the following:
Verify and Repair disk "Macintosh HD"
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported a failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
I did a repair disk permissions before executing the Repair Disk so that is all set.
Any guidance here would be helpful. I would rather not reformat the disk and start over if I can help it.

Hi, William.
See the "Disk Utility cannot repair the disk" section of my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Invalid Node Structure, Mac Not Starting

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