Disk Utility Failure?

And Yes, Baby Boomer, they are supposedly sending me a disk as well 🙂 It's just going to take a couple of weeks...

LOL Miriam... 🙂

OK well, here's the response I received from Alsoft/Diskwarrior:

"The (2175, 13) error indicates that some problem with your drive occurs
when DiskWarrior attempts to fix the file overlaps. You'll have to re-
run DiskWarrior. When you get the report from DiskWarrior, switch to
the Details view (if not already in that view). Write down the names
and locations of each overlapped file displayed or save the report to
another drive. Then manually delete each overlapped file using the
Finder (if possible) or another file management utility. After this,
rebuild the drive once more with DiskWarrior and see if you can complete
the directory replacement.

After your disk rebuild completes, any deleted files should be replaced
from their original source (i.e. CD, download, backups, etc.) if you
have them. If some of the overlapped files were part of the System, you
will have to reinstall your Mac OS. When doing so, perform an "Archive
& Install", which is available via the "Options" button presented in one
of the installation screens."

Now, here's my question: The files that seem to be overlapped are in an "invisible" directory presumably used by the system--which is something I certainly don't want to touch. And even if I did, I am assuming that I'd have to install OSX BEFORE even thinking about removing these files--since they ARE system files.... know what I mean?

I'm going to follow up with this guy as well... something tells me I am headed for a re-install of OSX (Which Iw as hoping to avoid). If that is the case--I may need to ask you a couple of questions regarding how to do that without a hitch, if that's ok... 🙂

Actually, it does seem pretty straightforward--HOWEVER, this is my one issue:

It looks as though I'm going to have to re-install all the 3rd party software on my machine, because--unless I'm reading it incorrectly--"archive and install" only preserves the applications included with OSX.

I have several software packages (Photoshop, Final Draft, etc) that I may not have discs for (one was alloted to me by a freelance job I had 2 years ago).

I suppose there's no way to "preserve" applications that are comprised of fairly extensive installs such as Photoshop, etc... correct?

It's not the end of the world, as I plan on purchasing items such as Adobe CS3--I was just hoping to wait until I had the budget for it!

Know what? After digging a little in some of the knowledge base articles, I found out that--apparently--third party software applications are left basically "untouched" by an archive and install, which I was unaware of. Long story short, I went ahead and did it, and so far so good. Here's my next question:

To find out if the re-install fixed my initial problems, what would you recommend doing? Running Disk First Aid from my boot disk? Running Disk First Aid from the install disk again? Running DiskWarrior from the external hard drive? I'm just curious 🙂

PS thanks again throughout.

Well, here's the update. I ran "VERIFY DISK" (NOT "REPAIR DISK") in Disk Utility from my startup drive first. Then, I ran it from the install disk. And lastly, for good measure, I ran it AGAIN from my install disk after installing the many OSX software updates that were necessary.

Each time, the process was completed without a hitch, and I received the pleasant green-text message telling me that my drive "appears to be OK." lol

So, long story short, it looks as though the archive and install worked. My only gripe is that I wish I had done that BEFORE spending $99 on DiskWarrior... Even though it's good to know I have DW around now in case I need it, it seems as though this particular problem would have resulted in an archive & install regardless.

Oh well! At least my machine is back to working order--something I am happy about because I will be installing RAM tomorrow.

Are there any last processes I should run and/or advice you might have for me? "REPAIR DISK?" Permissions repairs? Defragmentation? Or just go on about my business? lol

Again, thanks! 🙂

I hear ya, BabyBoomer... I was just saying that--based on another discussion I was reading here in the forums--running A&I for THIS particular problem would have saved me a few bucks. lol.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy I have DW on hand now 🙂 It's very reassuring to know I have it handy when my HD starts barking at me again. lol