Invalid sibling link error

I have a 15" PB which gave an "invalid sibling link error" one month ago and I was not able to even repair it using DiskWarrior. I have Apple Care Protection plan, so I sent it for repairs and the repair guys replaced the motherboard as they suspected it was the reason. On return, I reformatted the HD and installed everything from stratch. Everything was working fine till last Saturday morning, when computer would not boot up. So I checked using Disk Utility from PB DVD, and the dreaded "invalid sibling error" came up again. Since I have a bootable backup of the HD, I formatted the HD and tried to load the system on the HD from the backup copy. But the writing of backup using CCC hung up and I had to quit it. After that I was not able to find the HD using Disk Utility from DVD.
I have sent it for repairs again, but can anyone help me understand the core problem here. Since last time they replaced the motherboard, I think they will replace the HD this time around. Is the logic board, motherboard or the HD that is the root cause of the problem?
Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   100GB HDD, 1.5GB RAM

I had never heard of "invalid sibling link error" until you post, and when I ran a search on it the best explanation I could find is that it is a directory-related problem. See the following (assuming it is correct): http://www.computing.net/mac/wwwboard/forum/2584.html The suggestion there, though, is that DIsk Warrior should be able to fix the problem, and you've already told us that you tried using Disk Warrior on it and it did not work.
Very puzzling. Please post back what happens when you get your PB back from being repaired.
Good luck.
-- JDee

Similar Messages

  • How can I fix an invalid sibling link error message without my original install disk?

    How can I fix an invalid sibling link error message without my original install disk?

    Hi Jeff,
    It's not even likely the Install Disc could fix that, but if you want to try...
    Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
    /sbin/fsck -fy
    Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
    (Space between fsck AND -fy important).
    Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    You must repair the HD, your best bet is likely DiskWarrior.
    BTW, you might enjoy these DiskWarrior review/recommendations...
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9645801&#9645801
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10541019#10541019
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11918925&#11918925
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12684129#12684129
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12744794&#12744794
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12912879#12912879
    Finally, you should run DiskWarrior if your Mac explicitly warns you of a problem with your disk in the form of an error message. Most of these errors are reported by the built-in Disk Utility whether your Mac OS X version is 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard or 10.7 Lion. Here are some of the most common messages:
    Disk Repair: The disk was not repairable by this computer. It is being made available to you with limited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible.
    The underlying task reported failure on exit.
    Invalid node structure.
    Keys out of order.
    Invalid key length.
    Invalid directory item count.
    Invalid extent entry.
    Invalid record count.
    Invalid index key.
    Invalid sibling link.
    http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/details3.html

  • Errors when installing os x 10.4- Invalid sibling link-volume check failed

    I am trying to upgrade my PowerPC G4 from OS x 10.2.8 to 10.4. I bought the Tiger Retail DVD. The install disc boots and runs, but near the end of installation, I get " Error Installing Software- Please try installing again" I opened the disk utility on the installer and tried first aid- which failed.
    "Invalid Sibling Link"
    "Volume check failed"
    Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
    HFS volume checked
    1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
    I tried first aid repeatedly with no luck. I tried the fsck repair suggested in one of the discussion forums "fsck -fy"
    again, "volume check failed"
    I'm looking to buy DiskWarrior as suggested, but am curious about another option I've read about. I found a macosxhints website http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070204093925888
    that suggests running the install disk, clicking on terminal and unmounting the drive that the OS system "lives on". If I do this, will I lose the data already on my computer? The hint does not talk about how to remount the drive.
    I am NOT computer savvy. Would this be getting in over my head? It sounds simple enough, but I don't want to do any irreversible damage. Should I just buy disk warrior, or would the safest bet be to buy an external hard drive and back up everything, then perform an erase an install with Tiger?
    Any help would be MUCH appreciated!!!

    Hi confused- I just fixed my invalid sibling link error on my HD. Stop using your HD!
    It will only get radically worse. I went to http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/ to see which version of Disk Warrior I needed which was 4.1. Then I went to a retail store & bought the CD $99. On the box, it must say 4.0 with 4.1 included + CD rev 42. You must use the CD as the download won't boot up your HD. In the box is a 1-pager of simple instructions. Put disk in CD drive, follow instructions, click rebuild HD, wait 15 minutes. My HD is perfect!!!now. It fixed permissions, rebuilt my directory, fixed my CS3 Adobe applications, fixed corrupted prefs, found & restored ALL files. I lost nothing! Plus made a PDF detailed report. Best $99 i ever spent. Good luck!

  • Sibling Link Errors

    i recently purchased the Mac Pro which i connected through ethernet to my older Power Mac G4 MDD Dual 1GHZ.
    i discovered last week that my Mac Pro reported an error in Disk Utility "Invalid Sibling Link" and that app could not repair the problem. i purchased Disk Warrior 4.0 and installed OS X on another internal drive (i have four connected internally) and successfully repaired the disk. On a lark, i checked the Power Mac G4 and found that it also reported errors which could not be repaired by Disk Utility, but it did not report the "Invalid Sibling Link Error." Disk Warrior failed to repair the disk (and i am waiting for the CD to arrive in the mail to start up from it to try again, reporting that it encountered two overlapped filed on the disk).
    This week i ran Disk Utility to find that again, my Mac Pro reported the "Invalid Sibling Link" error. i have searched the web and have a basic understanding of what the error is, and many people have experienced the problem. It appears that the error could lead to the start up disk failing to mount, etc. However, i have not experienced any problems with my drive that have been noticeable to me.
    My question is what could be causing me to have this repeated error? Does this indicate an actual hard drive failure? Is there a Mac virus that could cause this? Could it be caused by transfering files over the network or through Apple Remote Desktop?
    Any discussion on this would be helpful. Thanks folks.
    MacPro Dual-Core 3 Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   ATi X1900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 5GB RAM, 2.8TB, 20" DEll LCD, 2xViewSonic 17"

    Which drive gets the error out of all installed, and
    where is it located as far as file name etc. I'm
    wondering if it could happen using an application
    like FCP or CS2 running under Rosetta. Might want to
    map it out and try and isolate it that way. I'd also
    look for any hardware issues you can find for that
    model of hard drive e.g. failures, etc. My two
    cents.
    Michael
    It is the Startup Drive that gets the error on my Mac Pro (the preinstalled drive that came with the Mac), and the start up drive on the MDD G4. The MDD G4 had two files that were cross linked (a Civ file and an iTunes Temp file) that i had to manually delete before Disk Warrior could repair the drive. On the Mac Pro i have used Photoshop CS (1?) a little, but not to any large degree, other than that, i have used Apple's Pages, Safari, and Office... but nothing task intensive.
    i ran Apple's Hardware test which appears to check RAM and the Logic Board and both checked out fine. i used both Disk Warrior and Drive Genius, both report that the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive is verified and the drive is working properly.
    i am curious if Apple Remote Desktop could cause the error? i frequently copy files from one computer to the other... but i can't fathom why or how this would be the case. But it has to be something, else why get this error twice in the space of a week?
    i had not considered Tiger Cache Cleaner... i will check that out, but again, i don't know if this will tell me WHAT is going on and WHY it is happening.

  • Invalid sibling link?

    Hi,
    Today my macbook pro started powering down after hanging during the boot process. going to verbose mode, i noticed an "invalid sibling link" error during the drive check, just before the cpu halted. the hardware diagnostics say nothing's wrong with the hardware.
    I tried booting into single user mode, and running fsck_hfs -r, but that gets to the same point and throws an error, and i still cant boot. i cant get an appointment with the apple store until monday, and i have school work to do. what can i do to address this problem?
    oh, and i've tried booting to the install disk but for some reason that doesnt work. the drive spins up and then it goes to the gray apple screen, which hangs and then powers down.
    suggestions?

    +Invalid Sibling Link+ can usually be fixed by the following utility......
    If Disk Utility can't fix it, you'll need a more robust utility for the repair. I would recommend DiskWarrior. It is the best at directory repairs. It rebuilds then actually replaces your old directory. I feel every Mac owner should have a copy. Make sure you get the disk so you can boot up on it to run repairs. You can also install it on another drive and run it from there to repair this one. DW works faster that way.
    I use DW once a month to try and catch errors in my system from getting too far out of hand. It has repaired every little and big issue I have ever had with my three Macs.
    If you have a good backup, hopefully a clone of your system before you had issues, an Erase and Install will also rid you of this issue. But, beware! You will lose everything on the drive with this procedure. Let us know if you need help with that!
    Good Luck! DALE
    p.s. Here's a rewiew of DiskWarrior 4.

  • Invalid Sibling Link Encountered during Leopard Install

    Help! - I have two Intel 20" iMAC's running Tiger 10.4.10 (1GB mem/250MB HD). I used the Leopard family pack to successfully install Leopard on one computer. However, the Leopard install process has crashed my second computer.
    I left for 45 minutes after starting the 2nd install. When I returned there was a yellow triangle on the screen warning of an installation problem and telling me to click to restart. When I did the Apple logo and spinny circle appeared for a minute and then the computer shut off. I've run disk utility and now get the following message.
    Verify Disk
    Invalid Sibling Link
    The volume Mac HD needs to be repaired
    Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
    1 HFS volume checked
    Volume needs repair
    Mount Point: Not Mounted
    Format: MAC OS Extended (Journaled)
    I have tried disk repair from disk utility and fsck_hfs -f from the terminal window. Neither has helped, I continue to see the invalid sibling link error.
    What can I do other than reformat and clean install. I have data I want to backup first, then I don't mind doing a clean install. Also I would like to deauthorize my iPod.
    Any help is greatly appreciated.
    ~David

    +Invalid Sibling Link+ can usually be fixed by the following utility......
    If Disk Utility can't fix it, you'll need a more robust utility for the repair. I would recommend DiskWarrior. It is the best at directory repairs. It rebuilds then actually replaces your old directory. I feel every Mac owner should have a copy. Make sure you get the disk so you can boot up on it to run repairs. You can also install it on another drive and run it from there to repair this one. DW works faster that way.
    I use DW once a month to try and catch errors in my system from getting too far out of hand. It has repaired every little and big issue I have ever had with my three Macs.
    If you have a good backup, hopefully a clone of your system before you had issues, an Erase and Install will also rid you of this issue. But, beware! You will lose everything on the drive with this procedure. Let us know if you need help with that!
    Good Luck! DALE
    p.s. Here's a rewiew of DiskWarrior 4.

  • Invalid sibling link, what's the CAUSE?

    I bought my MBA on August 2012. I've seen a million threads of people reporting about those invalid sibling link errors. I started having this error last week. I did not exaclty find a fix, but, what I did was installing the OSX inside my external hard drive, booted into it, backed up my files, and finally, I just erased my Macintosh HD(aparently erasing the HD fix the error). After that I just restored my hard drive into my MacHD. To be sure, after completely erasing the Macintosh HD using Disk Utility, I verified my disk, and everything showed to be fine. Until then, everything is ok, got my MBA working as well. 2 days after, I got the same error. So my question is, what is causing this?? I was able to fix it but it came back again why?
    I forgot to mention that I restored all my user setting after everything was done. I copied my <user> folder to the Users folder and created an user with the same name as the folder I just copied. Maybe some broken files came inside it? I don't know.
    I'm erasing my HD again. I hope not have to erase everything again, is there anyway to prevent causing this???

    Your search for a sole underlying cause of directory corruption is not likely to be rewarding, but the solution almost always requires replacing broken hardware.
    ... I was able to fix it but it came back again why?
    No software, including Disk Utility, can permanently repair broken hardware, so your experience is not surprising.
    Confirm that you are not running any third party "optimizing" or "cleanup" software or ill-conceived "anti-virus" utilities. Such junk may be responsible for the problem you cite.
    Contact AppleCare and explain the problem. If you purchased it in August of last year it may be on the cusp of its warranty expiration, so don't wait. If your MBA is no longer covered under AppleCare, consider purchasing a replacement from OWC:
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Air_2012
    It's likely to be much less expensive than having Apple fix it.

  • My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

    My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

    Invalid sibling link may not be fixable by Disk Utility. (Disk Utility is very conservative, and will not attempt repairs that might cause you to lose data.)
    It is an indication of serious Directory damage.
    that leaves
    a) third-party Utilities that will take those risks, or
    b) re-initializing the drive (which deletes all your data) and restoring from another backup source.
    c) "Copying off whatever files you can salvage" has gone by, and you cannot copy anything off a drive that will not mount. You may be able to use "rescue" programs such as prosoft engineering Data Rescue to copy files to another drive, but that sounds a lot better than its reality. You may get many files, but not get ANY filenames.

  • On MacBook air, "/sbin/fsck - fy" gives an error  "Invalid sibling link"k

    MacBook air will not start on powen-on.  Tried Disk Utility, but it can't repair.  Tried "/sbin/fsck -fy"  It gives an error "Invalid sibling link (4, 35776)... and at the end given a Disk full error, and quits by saying that "the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaier"
    Any suggestions on how to fix the issue?

    MacBook air will not start on powen-on.  Tried Disk Utility, but it can't repair.  Tried "/sbin/fsck -fy"  It gives an error "Invalid sibling link (4, 35776)... and at the end given a Disk full error, and quits by saying that "the volume Macintosh HD could not be repaier"
    Any suggestions on how to fix the issue?

  • TS1367 I have MacOS 10.5.8. It is not booting. It stops at the blue screen. I used the disc utility - verify disc. I get the following message - Invalid sibling link. Volume check failed. Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed. Please give a solution a

    I have MacOS 10.5.8. It is not booting. It stops at the blue screen. I used the disc utility - verify disc. I get the following message - Invalid sibling link. Volume check failed. Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed. Please give a solution anybody?

    Many times I tried to simply update from 10.5.8 without any success. It starts and after few minutes ...
    I used many different install disks (I bought ofiicial release from Mac seller), so I think this is not a problem with wrong version or bad install disk. A few days ago I've got back my computer from Apple  technical support and technician told me he had this same problem with system installation

  • Error: Invalid sibling link...what to restore and what not to restore

    I am two weeks from having done a reinstall and partial restore. My system has been locking up again frequently and my Disk Utility shows this error.
    "Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Invalid sibling link
    The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
    Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
    1 HFS volume checked
    Volume needs repair"
    When I did my previous restore, I only had a limited back up to my iMac account available. Just address info, stickies notes, iCal, preferences and Keychain data I think. Because a similar problem is recurring so quickly, my assumption is that I imported the corruption back in to my system.
    First, is this a good assumption? Second, my system is still slighty operational now, so I was wondering what from my new back ups I should restore after a reinstall and what I should leave alone.
    Thoughts?
    Mac Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.10)  

    I am two weeks from having done a reinstall and
    partial restore. My system has been locking up again
    frequently and my Disk Utility shows this error.
    I am thinking that you may have a harddware problem. I'd assume it is the harddrive. Is the machine still under applecare?
    You may want to look into getting an external harddrive. With an external harddrive, you can clone your system and boot off the external harddrive. Cloning software: SuperDuper & carbon copy cloner
    When I did my previous restore, I only had a limited
    back up to my iMac account available. Just address
    info, stickies notes, iCal, preferences and Keychain
    data I think. Because a similar problem is recurring
    so quickly, my assumption is that I imported the
    corruption back in to my system.
    Hard to say. If the backup files were corrupted, this would be a problem. Where you having a problem when you made a copy of the files?
    First, is this a good assumption?
    I haven't resorted that many Mac system, so I forget the terminology.
    Did you do a clean install? That is wipe out the files on the harddrive before restoring? I'd have reformatted the harddrive using disk utility before installing.
    Second, my system
    is still slighty operational now, so I was wondering
    what from my new back ups I should restore after a
    reinstall and what I should leave alone.
    Thoughts?
    Boot in safe mode. Hold down the shift key when powering on the machine. This will run a disk repair program.
    See this article:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393
    Have you tried disk first aid?
    You will need to boot from you installation disk. I have not done this, but here are some hints:
    see this article
    Or from mrtotes article :
    Boot from the OS X Install disk and from the Menu Bar choose Disk Utility. Then run "Repair Disk" and "Repair Disk Permissions" on your hard disk.
    Here the apple article on booting single user mode and using fsck. See the section on Use fsck:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    Perhaps Disk Warrior will be of some help:
    http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

  • Invalid Sibling Link & Catalogue Errors

    Alright. First the MBP: It's got 10.4.7 installed on a 72gb partition with WinXP SP2 (running MacDrive) filling up the rest of the 100gb. I left the MBP on last night to download a couple files and nothing seemed worng with it. I shut it down and took it to work where I used Windows all day without a problem. I shut it down again and brought it home. Left it to boot into OSX and when I came back I was looking at a bunch of Unix command line speak. Lots of 'file not founds' and the three big scary ones: A couple about checksum errors (mach should be 1, found 0; mach.sys should be 147 found 47) and one invalid sibling link.
    I booted from the install disc and ran Disk Utility's Verify and Repair. Both crapped out early citing the three scary errors and an internal error that prevented it from completing. I immediately tried backing up my OSX Partition to an external. That went swimmingly until the end when it simply said, "An error has occurred Error -3087" (don't quote me on these exact error messages, I'm now doing this from memory. read on and you'll see why)
    I booted into single user mode and attempted to fsck the problem away (following the suggestion from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214) but that too met the same fate as Disk Utility, failing on the Catalogue check.
    Now, really frightening things are happening. I boot it up into Verbose mode to see what's happening and it simply repeats "SATA PROBLEM Completing a zero block transfer." ad inifinitum.
    The weirdest thing about this whole thing is that Windows still boots and operates flawlessly. With MacDrive I can still look at all my OSX files too. Opened up a couple movies and mp3 which worked fine.
    Helps me please!

    Shaun,
    You have suffered a major disk error. This doesn't mean that your HD is "fried," only that the file system on that one volume (the one with OS X) is damaged. It happens.
    Since you can boot into Windows and access that volume using Macdrive, I recommend you use that facilty to make a backup of your HOME folder on the OS X partition by copying it, preferably to an external drive.
    Based on the fact that this is a new machine, you might have a bad block on the HD. This is common with new HDs, in my experience. If a format (erase) of the OS X volume and a reinstall doesn't work the first time, you might need to consider "zeroing" the entire drive. Yes, including the Windows volume. By choosing the drive (or "device," as it's called) in Disk Utility, then "zeroing" the drive, Disk Utility will "map out" any bad blocks that are on the drive, thereby helping to prevent further disk errors. Many of us like to do this with any computer, right out of the box. It avoids having to go through what you now must.
    If you need instructions on doing any of this, just ask.
    Scott

  • Time Machine Backup on External Drive Invalid sibling link

    I've used time machine to backup macbook air for several months.  From Feb 2011 without any problems until about 2 months ago.  I started to get the message that backups could not be started.
    I realized that the disk would not mount right away.  And after about 10 minutes or more I would get the message that my disk could not be mounted.  The error said my data could be backed up and I should do it right away.
    Okay, so I try to copy my backup files using finder and get an error saying I don't have permissions to copy data.
    My research indicates my hard drive is failing, which is unfortunate, since I bought it within the last year :-(
    Okay, so now I am trying to get my months worth of backups off the drive and this is proving to be quite difficult...actually, impossible.
    Here are my latest attempts at resolving my issue:
    1.  Ran Repair Disk - reusts:
              error:  Could not repair disk and something about backing up my data and reformating the disk
    2.  Ran fsck_hfs -f command in terminal
         The system indicated it was executing the command and about 2 or 3 minutes, I think the command prompt appeared.  No other message
    3. Run repair disk again - My results:
         Checking catalog file.
         INvalid sibling link
         rebuilding catalog B-Tree
         The volume My Passport could not be repaired
         Volume repair complete
         Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required
         Error:  Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore your backed up files
    4.  Created a new partition on another external drive and did a restore in Disk Utility from the broken drive to the new partition on the other drive.  Took a few hours.  Unfortunately, I just created the same problem on that partition (invalid sibling link)
    Any other ideas on how I can rescue my backup data from the My Passport drive? I can see it in finder but I can't copy it do my other drive!
    Research on forums and other sites have mentioned cloning the drive using "dd" command.  Is this the same as the disk utility restore?
    Is there some way I can change the permissions of the disk/partitition/files to enable me to copy the data to the new external drive?
    Here is what the system looks like:  Mac HD is my mac mini; My book is the WD 1TB external drive usb connected;  My Passport is the broken external drive with the time machine backups that I can't get access to.
    unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -ale
    total 8
    drwxrwxrwt@  5 root    admin   170 Dec  4 09:40 .
    0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit
    drwxr-xr-x  29 root    wheel  1054 Dec  3 18:17 ..
    lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    admin     1 Dec  3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
    drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj  staff   578 Dec  3 20:46 My Book
    drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj  staff   544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
    unknown3c07544bc705:Volumes oshunj$ ls -Orbitlake /Volumes
    total 4
         2 drwxr-xr-x@ 14 oshunj  staff  -       544 Oct 16 19:32 My Passport
    335990 lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    admin  -         1 Dec  3 18:10 Macintosh HD -> /
         2 drwxr-xr-x  29 root    wheel  -      1054 Dec  3 18:17 ..
         2 drwxr-xr-x@ 15 oshunj  staff  -       578 Dec  3 20:46 My Book
    10710 drwxrwxrwt@  5 root    admin  hidden  170 Dec  4 09:40 .
    0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit

    ***Update to ask question***
    I would love to setup my new mini like my MBA.  Is there anything wrong with restoring my entire drive, I think it starts at /User/ level, to my mini????
      You know you never know when you will need the backups.  This makes me angry especially since I can see the files but can't repair the disk.
    OTOH, I attempted something I just now read about, option-click on time machine icon. Funny thing, I selected other disk and my passport (original broken drive) popped up with time machine backups on it.
    I, quite timidly, selected the disk, opened the time machine and traversed my broken drive with backups from feb.
    hmmm.  I then, selected some random pdf file to restore and behold, It was restored to my mac mini right before my eyes.
    I'm confused.  But I think I will go with your suggestion and just put the drive away in a closet somewhere and hope to never really need it.  It is quite interesting though that I am unable to repair this disk but I can restore files from it....Odd, I tell you, odd....
    Thanks

  • Start-Up: Folder with gray question mark / Disk Utility: Invalid Sibling Link

    Yesterday, I was working on my computer and it froze up. My only option was to reboot by holding down the power key. When the computer restarted, the screen was all grey with a folder in the middle of the screen with a question mark.
    I tried the following:
    1) Boot up computer while holding down the "Option" key. - Didn't work.
    2) Boot up the computer while holding down the "Shift" key. - Didn't work.
    Since the first two options didn't work I inserted the original system install disk and booted up while holding down the "C" key. I selected "English" as the language and then opened "Disk Utilities." I pressed "Repair disk" within First Aid. The message I am getting is as follows:
    "First Aid failed. Disk Utility stopped repairing "Macintosh HD" because the following error was encountered: Filesystem verify or repair failed."
    The details screen shows the following:
    "Verify and repair volume "Macintosh HD"
    Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Invalid sibling link.
    Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
    The volume could not be repaired.
    Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed."
    I ran the "Repair disk" function about 6 times but it was not successful.
    I was then going to try to do an "Archive and Install" from the original system disk but when I go to do that no destination options appear at the "Select Destination: Where do you want to install Mac OS X?"
    I have not backed up my data very recently (and a lot of what I have stored on this computer is work - I am a freelance designer) so I would like to do something that at least allows me to transfer my data off of my hard drive before reformatting or anything like that. Of course, if there is a less intrusive fix that can leave my hard drive in tact, that would be ideal.
    Any advice? Tips? Solutions? I have a MacBook Pro, 15" that I purchased 3 years ago (my 3 year Apple Care plan just expired about a month ago).     

    You are in a tough situation.  The disk appears unusable according to Disk Utility.  As was suggested you may (only may) be able to salvage it with Disk Warrior (not sure about Data Rescue).  DW can sometimes recover a drive that DU can't.  But nothing else can be suggested. 
    If you can get that disk recovered then back it up ASAP, wipe the disk, reinitialize it, and verify it.  But I'm the paranoid type, and with the kind of errors you show for that disk, I am not sure I would ever trust it again.  At most I would relegate it to a scratch disk.
    Note, if it is a drive that you bought, most drives have a 3 to 5 year warrantee period, so you could get it replaced by the manufacturer if it is within that warrantee period.

  • URGENT!!!!- INTEL MAC "INVALID SIBLING DISK" error when run disk utility

    I am very upset, I ran my verify disk permissions, everything fine, repair disk permissions, everything fine, do t periodically just to mae sure all my stuff is in order,,,, then I decided to run te VERIFY DISK, because do not do it as much and want to mae sure my macbook pro is running fine, and I get:
    Verifying volume “minimal minimal”
    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Invalid sibling link
    The volume minimal minimal needs to be repaired.
    Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
    1 HFS volume checked
    Volume needs repair
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ***?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there is no way of repairing the disk, and when I search for possible solutons it says I need to run it from the original osx installer disk, and even when it does not necessarily repir this error. besides the fact that the original cd is in atlanta and I am currently in barcelona, some say that I would need to reformat my drive and either way this might not solve the problem. I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH IMPORTANT INFORMATION on my macbook pro to reformat, and i do not have the money to buy an external hardrive, I A VERY UPSET, A BRAND NEW COMPUTER, LESS THAN TWO MONTHS OLD, AND ALREADY I HAVE THESE KIND OF PROBLEMS WITH IT, WHERE IS MY SUPPORT?! please tell me, what do i do? I expect a decent, viable slution to the problem. I need my computer ad the information in it, I work from it and also use it to produce music. why would I have this kind of problem, when I search for answers, everything relates to external hardrives, ..... this is my internal hard drive that I am talking about--- WHAT DO I DO?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The available Apple centers in Spain are:
    ADEMAC
    C Castelló, 109
    28006 Madrid
    Tel 91 562 11 00
    BANANA COMPUTER
    C Leon and Castillo, 88
    The 35004 Palms of Great Canary
    Tel: 928 24 28 28
    Fax: 928 24 82 31
    BANANA COMPUTER
    General boulevard Franco, 141
    38001. - Santa Cruz de Tenerife
    Tlf.: 922882126
    Fax.: 922206782
    BENOTAC
    C Doctor Castelo, 35
    28009 Madrid
    Tel 91 308 43 63
    BENOTAC
    C Babel Nº1, the Premises
    29006 Malaga
    Tel: 952 04 09 55
    Fax: 952 04 13 58
    BILBOMICRO
    Stolen c of Amezaga, nº 7 low
    48008 Bilbao (Biscay)
    Tel 94 423 02 13
    BILBOMICRO
    C Abendaño, 52
    01008 Vitoria
    Tel 945 28 41 33
    BUS Solutions
    C Cabrales, 100
    33201 Gijón - Asturias
    Tel: 985 35 90 85
    CTA Serveis
    C Consell de Cent, 382
    08009 Barcelona
    Tel 93 24 40 350
    GOLDENMAC
    C Bolt, 48
    29007 Malaga
    Tel 952 42 97 12
    GOLDENMAC
    Avda. White Carrero, 2
    41011 Seville
    Tel 95 427 12 13
    K-TUIN
    C Luis You live 8
    50006 Zaragoza
    Tel 976 56 72 27
    K-TUIN
    C Hernandez Lazaro 14
    46015 Valencia
    Tel 96 385 36 74
    K-TUIN
    C Muntaner 537 - 541
    08022 Barcelona
    Tel 93 418 02 03
    K-TUIN
    C Orense, 52
    28020 Madrid
    Tel 91 55 56 798
    K-TUIN
    C Aureliano Valle, 4
    48010 Bilbao
    Tel 94 410 07 77
    Microgestio, LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY.
    C Valencia, 87-89
    08029 Barcelona
    Tel 93 454 63 63
    Rossellimac.
    C Painter Lopez Mosque, 12
    18002 Granada
    Tel 95 829 13 24
    SICOS
    Pza of Good Shepherd 6
    20005 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
    Tel 94 344 12 79
    Valles Tecnologic, S.A.
    Plza. Of the Unio, 3 the Premises 1º
    08190 Sant Cugat of Valleys (Barcelona)
    Tel 93 590 80 60
    Perhaps, since you are under warranty, they may have a boot disk to attempt to run disk utility and see if the problem can be repaired before resorting to reformatting. Disk error may occur because of a number of issues (installed software, crashes, shutdowns, physical movement of the drive while disks spinning, etc.)
    In addition you may want to boot in the single user mode to access the FSCK command as follows: The following is from the Apple support site
    Mac OS X: How to Start up in Single-User or Verbose Mode
    You may use a key combination when starting up the computer to enter single-user mode or verbose mode, either of which can be used for troubleshooting and in software development. This document applies to Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server versions 10.0 and later.
    Steps to Enter Single-User or Verbose Mode
    1. Shut down the computer if it is on.
    2. Press the power button to start the computer.
    3. Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and one of the following:
    the "s" key for single-user mode.
    the "v" key for verbose mode.
    4. To exit single-user mode type: reboot
    5. Press Return.
    You have successfully entered single-user or verbose mode when you see white text appear on the screen.
    Then you may try to repair as follows using the FSCK
    fsck is a command-line utility that may be able to verify and repair a disk. If you can successfully start up in Safe Mode or use Disk Utility while started up from a disc, you don't need to use fsck. However, here are some situations in which fsck may be necessary.
    Your Mac OS X disc isn't available.
    Your optical drive isn't available.
    You can't start with a Safe Boot.
    Tip: If you use a Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) formatted volume, such as with Mac OS X 10.3 or later, you probably won't need to use fsck. If you do use it for any reason, please be aware that benign error messages can appear.
    If you're not sure how your volume is formatted and you can't start up from your Mac OS X volume to find out, type the following command in a command-line interface and then press Return: diskutil info /
    If you see "File System: Journaled HFS+" returned, you have a Journaled volume.
    To use fsck, you must run it from the command line. Unlike using your mouse to open an application to do something, you'll need to type a text command at the prompt (#) to tell fsck what to do. The Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities) and single-user mode are two examples of command-line interfaces in which you can type such commands. To use fsck:
    Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line.
    Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
    At the command-line prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy
    Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found:
    ** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK
    If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:
    *** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***
    Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
    When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.
    Your computer should start up normally and allow you to log in.
    About live verification in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later
    In Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, you can verify your Mac OS X volume while started from it. This is known as live verification, and can be used in three different ways.
    Option 1: Verify your disk using Disk Utility while started from the startup disk. To find out how to do this, see this article. Please note that live verification does not involve any disk repair, so if verification finds something that should be repaired, start up from your Mac OS X Install disc and use Disk Utility as described above in "Try Disk Utility."
    Option 2 (advanced): Use the command line and the command-line utility, diskutil.
    Start up your computer and log in as an administrator.
    Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
    At the prompt, type the following command and then press Return:
    diskutil verify /
    Note: Don't use this method to check non-startup volumes.
    You should see messages such as the following during the disk check:
    Could not unmount disk for verification, attempting live verify
    Started verify/repair on volume disk0s3 Macintosh HD
    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
    Checking multi-linked files.
    Checking Catalog hierarchy.
    Checking Extended Attributes file.
    Checking volume bitmap.
    Checking volume information.
    The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.
    Mounting Disk
    Verify/repair finished on volume disk0s3 Macintosh HD
    Option 3 (advanced): Use the command line and the fsck_hfs -l command.
    Start up your computer and log in as an administrator.
    Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
    At the prompt, type the following command and then press Return to determine your filesytem ID:
    df -hl
    Look for some lines of text that look like this:
    Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
    /dev/disk0s3 37G 20G 17G 55% /
    /dev/disk0s5 37G 37G 641M 98% /Volumes/Storage
    Make a note of the first "disk" name that appears after /dev/, such as "disk0s3." This is your filesystem ID for your startup volume.
    At the prompt, type the following command and then press Return:
    df -hl
    Then type the following command, where "disk0s3" is your filesystem ID you noted in step 4, then press Return:
    sudo fsck_hfs -l /dev/disk0s3
    When prompted, enter your admin password, then press Return to begin the verification.
    You should see messages like these during the disk check:
    ** /dev/rdisk0s3 (NO WRITE)
    ** Root file system
    ** Checking HFS Plus volume.
    ** Checking Extents Overflow file.
    ** Checking Catalog file.
    ** Checking multi-linked files.
    ** Checking Catalog hierarchy.
    ** Checking Extended Attributes file.
    ** Checking volume bitmap.
    ** Checking volume information.
    ** The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.
    Additional Information
    If you're interested in UNIX-style command-line syntax, here's a look at how a couple of flags used in our instruction can influence fsck:
    The -y flag: Tells fsck that you want to answer "yes" to all questions about fixing, repairing, or salvaging information. This is the optimal approach, as answering "no" to any question causes fsck to stop. You cannot determine that all necessary repairs have been made until fsck completes and gives its final report.
    The -f flag: Forces fsck to check "clean" filesystems when preening.
    Macbook Pro 17" 7200 HD 1GB Powerbook G4 (15 inch FW 800)   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  
    Macbook Pro 17" 7200 HD 1GB Powerbook G4 (15 inch FW 800)   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  
    Macbook Pro 17" 7200 HD 1GB Powerbook G4 (15 inch FW 800)   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Maybe you are looking for