PB won't startup, Disk Utility won't recognize my HD (help).

So my Powerbook won't startup, goes to grey scren with sign saying I need to restart. I have a 1.2m PB 12" with 1gig ram. It's been slowing down for a week or so, and I can't trace the problem to some new installation or device. I've tried reseting PRAM, removing my extra RAM card, and used disk utility to verify & repair permissions & disk. No luck yet.
First of all, Disk Utility only recognizes the "55.9 gb Toshiba HD", and doesn't really recognize the "Macintosh HD" which is listed in grey, which seems strange (ie, bad). After Verify & Repair Disk, it lists these problems: "Invalid sibiling link, missing thread record - id=115279, invalid directory item count (should be 0 instead of 1), could NOT repair 1 volume."
So then I tried to reinstall Panther, but the installer doesn't list (doesn't recognize) any HD's into which it may install. This also seems strange (ie, very bad).
I have been unable to startup holding X, Shift, spacebar, or by reseting PRAM. I've recently backed-up my stuff, so I'm ready to wipe it all clean. But I'm running out of options, and I am in desperate need of good advice from wise Applers. Thanks in advance... -K

I had the same problem with my G3 Pismo last month; the hard drive wouldn't mount and wasn't recognized by disc utility. Luckily I had a "backup" OS on an external drive along with Disc Warrior, which would boot the Pismo.
What I was able to do was run DiscWarrior on the Pismo drive - which took about two days to complete - and build a replacement directory. Once that was done, and before I asked DiscWarrior to write the new directory, I mounted the replacement so I could pull most of the user data off of it. When that was done, I went ahead and asked DiscWarrior to try to write the replacement directory - which it refused to do as the drive's hardware had failed.

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Hi Thomas,
there are several out there. Probably the one with the highest reputation is Roxio's Toast Titanium. But you could also try Fast DVD Copy or DVD2oneX2.
If this answered your question please consider granting some stars: Why reward points?

Desktop or Disk Utility won't show External Hard Drives

The Desktop or Disk Utility won't show 2 of my old external hard drives and so they are currently unsusable. My computer however recognise other external drives.
320GB Western Digital MyBook Premium model number: WD3200D032-000
500 GB Western Digital MyBook Premium model number: WD5000E032
I have same issues both of these external drives.
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No they haven't worked on this computer before. I using them on my old MacBook Pro (a computer which is no longer working) which ran Snow Leopard.
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Cheers

Disk Utility won't start up in 10.5.3

I have been unable to open up my Disk Utility at all. I was able to do so earlier, perhaps with 10.5.0 while I was mounting my external hard drive. Now, I cannot mount the hard drive, and therefore cannot use Time Machine all because DIsk Utility won't open. I've diagnosed my hardware with "Disk 1" and found no problem. And, I've reinstalled the operating system. Any ideas?

Chris:
I just had the same issue on my son's MacBook. As long as you have a wired keyboard, the following will work.
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 the "s" key for single-user mode.
4. Type mount -uw / (then press the Return Key) wait for next line to appear with # root/
(there is a space between t and - and another space between w and /)
5. Then Type "passwd" (without quotation marks then press the Return Key)
6. Enter new password (this will be for the root user account) (watch your fingers when you type because it doesn't show what you are typing, then hit the Return Key after you type it.
It will prompt you to retype the new password again, so retype it again and then hit the Return Key) wait for next line to appear...
7. Then Type "reboot" (without the quotes and hit the Return Key)
after the computer restarts and comes up with the login window....
8. Login with any of your usernames just to get the desktop up.
9. After desktop comes up choose System Preferences, then choose accounts. Unlock if you have to and using the username: root ..... and the password you just setup in the single user mode You now should be able to make users including your existing user account an admin.
After you log back in under your real account, it is advisable to deactivate the root user account. To do this,
1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
2. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.
3. Open Directory Utility.
4. Click the lock in the Directory Utility window if you need to unlock the utility.
5. Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
6. Choose Disable Root User from the Edit menu.
Hope this helps.
David

Disk Utility won't resize a partition

Disk Utility won't resize (eliminate smaller partition from a 2-partitioned internal) Hard Drive. This is the message I get:
"Partition failed
Partition failed with the error:
Filesystem resize support required, such as HFS+ with Journaling enabled."
Help files offer no information on this error. I followed the Help instructions to do this operation, but the resize doesn't work. The older, smaller partition shows up in Disk Utility but is dimmed out. It will activate at highlight, but is not recognized on the desktop.
Any suggestions as to how to fix this problem?

Intel based Macs use a different partition scheme called GPL or GUID rather than what PowerPC used, APL.
You could try reformatting, or get a new system, and run BootCamp and Windows even.
Even if you've used Macs for years, there is always a place on my book shelf for this one, David Pogue's "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual (Leopard Edition)"
http://books.slashdot.org/books/08/02/27/1551206.shtml

Disk Utility won't partition ext. drive

Hi everyone,
I would like to split my external MyBook Pro drive in two so I can keep Time machine B/ups separate, but Disk utility keeps informing me that there is not enough space! I only want approx 80gb of the remaining 105gb. Where am I going wrong. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Are you willing to erase the contents on the external hard drive? Disk utility won't subdivide existing space, you have to do the entire drive at once. However, there are utilities (I believe they are purchase/commercial only) that will sub partition an existing disk partition.

10.4.11 Installed -Safari Crashes, Disk Utility Won't Open

Installed 10.4.11 yesterday via software update on our 2.0GHz Core Duo Macbook Pro.
After installing Safari crashes seconds after opening (it freezes then crashes) and then I downloaded the 10.4.11 update from Apples website (using firefox) but Disk Utility won't open it. If I try and launch disk utility myself it just bounces in the dock once and closes. Please help!

Same here - two identical iBook G4's, both updated to 10.4.11 - one is fine and everything works, the other one has the following problems: safari crashes 100% of the time, USB devices are failing to be recognised (mouse, storage key etc).
Looking in /var/log/system there is an error message saying a previous version of a kernel module is already loaded (cant get to the original error message text sorry!).
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Out come the Leopard install disks, and iBook quite happily boots from there and is right now doing a clean install from them (like I said nothing precious on there and thats why I cant get to the original error message...).
I've seen lots of posts about folks struggling to boot from the original install disks recently - wondering if patch 11 did something to knock the OSX version number on the machine greater than the version on the shipped G4 install disks??
And there is something very odd about patch 11 that seems to have hit this iBook and not my other one - they both installed fine, they have identical software apps on them and they are both the same spec.
Can't help more than this - but given I've seen these issues raised in several places worth adding to the thread.

HT1379 I had to restart by resetting the NVRAM/PRAM. Now I have a window showing OS X Utilities. My options are restore from Time Machine Backup (which I could do), Disk Utility to repair or erase, get help online or reinstall OS X. What should I do?

I had to restart by resetting the NVRAM/PRAM. Now I have a window showing OS X Utilities. My options are restore from Time Machine Backup (which I could do), Disk Utility to repair or erase, get help online or reinstall OS X. What should I do? The problem began when I tried to restart my computer and the only thing I saw was the grey screen, Apple logo, and the timer; the computer wouldn't restart from there.

I searched through trouble shooting options on the Apple Support page and was able to make it this far.

Disk Utility Does not recognize Seagate 3T USB Drive

I recently purchased a Seagate 3T SATA drive and installed it in an external enclosure with a USB connection. The drive appear to spin up but Disk Utility under OS 10.9.4. Am I missing something or are drives this big not supported by Apple's Disk Utility in Mavericks?

Call Seagate help - as you may have run a reconfiguration for Mac.
Or - it could be a firmware issue.
Anyway if you are in the return period and can't get it working - return it.

Disk Utility won't repair the disk. Now the computer won't startup.

Had been having a few problems with my G5 iMac so I restarted with the Leopard disk and attempted a repair with disk utility. The repair came to a halt with a message indicating that the repair couldn't continue. After that, the repair buttons were no longer highlighted, only the verify buttons were highlighted. I attempted to restart the computer from the internal drive, but now it only gets to the point of the Apple logo appearing and then it shuts down. I even attempted to reinstall Leopard, but the only option that is highlighted would erase all data from the drive. I ran a hardware test and it showed no problems. I have tried Disk Warrior and Drive Genius 2. The computer will boot from the disks, but repairs cannot be made. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I don't know if this will change the ultimate prognosis, but when I use Disk Utility in an attempt to repair the disk, I get the following message:
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.

IMac won't launch, disk utility says I cannot repair my Macintosh HD, back up files, reformat the disk and restore backed up files. How do I do all that? Help!

iMac won't start up, disk utility tried to repair disk it shows "keys out of order" error message in red and advises me to back up files, reformat disk and restore backed up files. I have no idea how to back up and restore etc... Help! Please!

Get an external drive of sufficient capacity to hold everything on your internal drive.
Partition and format the external drive.
Drive Partition and Format
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 one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply 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 Security 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.
Clone your internal drive to the external drive.
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
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.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Boot from the external drive.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
      "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the external disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Reformat the internal drive and install OS X.
Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
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/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks 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.
Open Startup Disk preferences and set the internal drive as the startup volume, then click on the Restart button.
Restore your data from your external drive backup.

Disk read error, and Disk Utility won't open

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

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

Hello
I am having problem with my Titanium powerbook. Since it was refurbished I have only been using it for internet browsing and email and I don't know why it suddenly started freezing. After a couple of freezes it stopped starting up. I don't know why, as I wasn't doing anything unusual. I have run a few checks and don't know how to proceed. Please help.
This is what I have done so far:
1. Tried to start up in Safemode. Made the startup sound but then went dead.
2. I tried Single User Mode and did fsck -fy and the results were:
** /dev/rdisk0s10
** Root file system
** Checking HFS Plus volume
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking catalogue file
Invalid key length
(4, 135)
** volume check failed
localhost:/ root# Firewire (OHCI) Apple ID 18 built-in: no valid self IDs for more than 2 minutes after bus reset.
3. No problems were detected by the Hardware Test disk.
But the powerbook still won't start up properly. I can't get past the blue screen with the 'thinking' (rotating) circle icon (pinwheel?).
4. When I try to access the computer using a firewire cable the hard disk doesn't appear on the host computer.
5. I tried Disk repair Utility from startup using a disk but got the same result as with fsck -fy.
Any ideas?

Hi, Can't. Your hard drive's directory is damaged in a way that exceeds the limited repair capabilities of Disk Utility or fsck. DiskWarrior can fix "invalid key length" errors, as this short FAQ explains. If you have DiskWarrior, use it to make the repair. If you don't, you can either buy DW, or reformat the hard drive with Disk Utility and start over. Note that reformatting the drive will erase everything on it, so if there's any important, un-backed-up data on it that you can't afford to lose, buying DW will be the better option for you.
Message was edited by: eww

Dmg files won't mount, Disk Utility/Toast won't launch?

Hi folks,
I've just joined your fine community in search of help with my problem that I see on Google pops up on boards frequently... but no suggestions have helped me yet...
In a nutshell, if I download any dmg file, eg. Apple updaters, they won't open - the error dialogue is something like "failed to open, no mountable file system". This seems to be an underlying general error, as I also can't launch disk applications like Disk Utility and Toast. They just bounce in the dock and then quit.
I have:
- rerun the 10.4.4 combo installer
- done /sbin/fsck -yf at startup - all reported ok
- booted from and run Disk Warrior - all reported ok
- booted from and run Techtool Pro - all reported ok
- switched to another user account.
And the problem with dmg and Disk Utility/Toast persists! In all other respects, the Powerbook G3 (576mb/80gb) is running fine (apparently).
Hope someone can help
B
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I just went thru a simular problem. A couple of things to try.
Boot of your install disk and ignor the install window and open disk utility from the menu at the top. you are running off the o/s on the disk an not the hard drive. You can repair permissions and the Hard drive because you are now working off a different filesystem.
If that doesn't work do a rinstall from the install disk but when you get to the window that has an "options" button select it (you may have to) and instead of doing a full install. Uncheck all boxes. This way it does not reinstall fonts etc.
You will not lose any files or programs or have to reinstall them. You might have to reinstall devices that have special drivers like printers that came with an install disk etc.
You will revert back to the origional ver like 10.4.1. just go to apple update and let it do its thing.
Good luck

Disk Utility - Won't Repair Flash/Thumb Drive

So my Mac froze for some reason, while my Kingston thumb/flash drive was in. I tried to eject it, but I could only force eject (which it said may cause issues). After that, whenever I put the thumb drive in, it said something like the drive won't work and I had to copy the files to my desktop. When I go into disk utility and click repair disk, it says this: "Disk Utility stopped repairing “UNTITLED 1”: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
I can't erase the thumbdrive, because it says I need a source, which I don't know what that means.
Can anybody help? The files are useless now as I have transferred them to a CD, so I'm fine with erasing the whole thing. And yes, I know I can get a new on at any store for cheap, but I'd like to know if this can be repaired. Thanks.

You haven't mentioned how the thumb drive was formatted to begin with; is it GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended (Journalled), or is it FAT 32 with MBR partition map?
If it's the latter, DU can't repair it, but should be able to format it. However, the forced ejection may have damaged the file system to prevent that.
If it's FAT32, re-format it on a PC and try again on the Mac.
If it's Mac formatted, you could try erasing and reformatting on another Mac (or as Hackintosh says, from the DVD), but if that doesn't work, try the PC route; reformat to FAT32 on a PC (if the PC will recognise it - thay don't always), then go back to the Mac, repartition and format.
If that fails, it's recycling fodder.

PB won't startup, Disk Utility won't recognize my HD (help).

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