Problems repairing Main Hard Drive using TechTool and DiskWarrior

Question

Hello to all,
I have what appears to at first have been a minor problem, which has blossomed into a major debacle.
My troubled machine is a "QuickSilver" Dual 880KHz processor G4 with 1.5 GB RAM and OS10.4.3. It started showing problems with browsers not linking to the correct locations, and general slowness of any operation. Upon later power-up, the machine would not boot at all. The problem indicated was at the UNIX level where login was failing for many of the modules (best explanation I can give right now).
I then put the machine into target mode, and hooked up a laptop (also on OS10.4.3) to see if the main disk was accessible. It did appear on the screen, and allowed me to see all of the files and directories properly.
Now, at this point I SHOULD have made a copy of the entire disk to the laptop, but did not consider such necessary, as I had been told a backup had been made a week earlier. Likewise, I SHOULD have then considered an archive/install from the OS10.4.0 disks.
But NOOOOOOO.
I instead thought I would simply use the TechTool Deluxe disk (that I received from Apple when the laptop was purchased). I booted the desktop from this disk, and per its recommendation, let it perform a repair. It ran for several hours, indicating it was fixing my problem.
I then tried to reboot the desktop again. This time, all I got was the dark rectangle that says in multiple languages, "You need to restart your computer." After several tries, it did not get any better.
I then placed the machine back into target mode, so I could see what, if anything might have changed. Now, even though the desktop displays the firewire symbol, the laptop will not mount it. When I ran Apple Disk Utility, and try to perform a Verify, I get "Invalid B-tree node size. The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired." OUCH. Whatever I did, made it all much worse!
At this point I also was informed the backup of the drive could not be used (for reasons I won't get into). I could have screamed, as before I could have copied the contents to the laptop. Now, such may no longer be possible!
I then went a purchased DiskWarrier V3.0.2. I updated it to version 3.0.3 (per the instructions on the website). I then went and rebooted the wounded desktop from the V3.0.3 disk, and then tried to run a repair. I got this response;
"The directory of the disk "Macintosh HD" cannot be rebuilt. The disk was not modified. The original directory is too severely damaged. It appears another disk utility has erased critical directory information. (3004, 2176)."
(Micromat, take note of the above!)
At this point, I decided doing what might be intuitively obvious (such as an archive/install from the OS10.4.0 disks) should not be attempted until I GET SOME REAL HELP. Ergo, this posting.
Anybody got any recommendations?
Dual 800Khz G4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   1.5 GB RAM
Dual 800Khz G4   Mac OS X (10.4.2)   1.5 GB RAM

Answer 1

And what happens if you run a Repair instead of just
Verify? The latest version of Disk Utility, included
with 10.4.3 on your laptop, is your best defense for
these problems before using third party tools!
Believe me, I understand your point.
Please keep in mind I thought a utility provided by the Apple Protection Plan was a smart thing to use. (And it was purchased after Tiger was released.)
I later learned that DiskWarrior is supposed to be superior that anything else. Ergo, I went to the store to purchase a copy.
DiskWarrior checked to see what version of the OS was installed, and told me to perform an update (since it saw something the developers were not familiar with at final release). This kind of check is very responsible, and should be in all such software!
I do not think I made that bad of an ignorant decision.