Invalid Node Structure

Hi Phi3nD;

The invalid node structure error either requires a strong disk utility such as DiskWarrior or a reformat.

Remember if opt for the reformat that will remove all data from the disk so backup any data you consider valuable.

Allan

Hi Phi3nD;

Never having had the need to messy around with Boot Camp I am not able to help you there. You might find more help if you repost this question over in the Boot Camp forum.

Allan

I am also getting this problem; however, I haven't used Boot Camp (instead I use VirtualBox). I am running 10.5.5 and I started noticing things going wrong when I went to log in to my computer after a lock by the screensaver. I typed in my login information correctly, but nothing. Luckily I had another admin account so I could regain my session. However, I was getting frustrated that my password wasn't working and couldn't change it. So I tried resetting it from the Install DVD and tried to log back in, but nothing.

At this point I restarted the computer to the Install DVD and tried resetting the password once again. Since I was there I decided to run disk utility to Repair the Disk. After a few seconds it failed scanning and reported the invalid node structure and then unmounted the drive. Ever since then I can't boot up into anything other than the Install DVD.

I've tried Target Disk Mode to another computer, but it will never mount the drive (it will mount the Optical Drive if there's something in it). So I can't do any kind of backing up.

It's been recommended to try TechTools (which I have) and DiskWarrior; however, I can't get the computer to boot to the TechTools Firewire (yes, it's formatted for intel) even if I try holding Option to specifically boot to it. I am able to get it to run on another computer, do target disk mode, and TechTools will see the drive, but can't mount it. All this takes a very long time to go into.

I think the best solution is going to be to try running something off the optical drive of the computer that's having the problem. Whether it's a Linux Live CD or DiskWarrior. However, I'm not sure if Linux can even read HFS+

Does anyone know of anything else other than DiskWarrior that can read HFS+ from a CD/DVD so I can backup the data?

Note: I've played with Disk Utility just a little bit and when I click on New Image and select the drive that's having problems it can see all the data fine although all grayed out. As long as I don't click on Verify/Repair Disk the drive will stay mounted. This leads me to believe this is totally repairable software-wise, I just need to find what will work. I'm wishing that Disk Warrior could be trialware so I could see if it can fix what I need it to. Thoughts?

I am getting the same error, although I run Max OS X 10.4.11. When I run the disk utility I get:

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

I do not have my install DVDs at hand, so I have tried doing a live verification using the terminal (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417) and got the same result.

The other alternative I see is starting in safe mode and trying to repair it from there. The issue I have is since I do not have the install DVD with me if something goes wrong I may not be able to boot my computer.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

A partitioned drive is seen by the computer as if there are two hard drives. As long as you are careful to specify the Mac drive, your BootCamp partition will not be disturbed. However, to be completely safe, backing up your BootCamp installation would be prudent. There's a nifty program called WinClone that will do this for you, saving it as a disk image that can be saved to a Mac drive and then restored later. I recommend it.

Hi All,

Still trying to fix this problem but no luck so far. Seems that there is no quick and easy fix.

What is very strange is that my MacBook Pro works fine (or at least it seems to still do so), I can shut it down and turn it on anytime, I can reboot it, surf the internet, use office documents, etc.

I am still trying to figure out is if I have a ticking bomb here and how long will my MacBook Pro will continue working with this issue without giving any further problems. Maybe it is not even advisable that I continue using it while it is not repaired.

Happy new year to all

An invalid node structure is a disk catalog error - it isn't going to go away. It isn't going to get better. It will probably get worse. At some point valuable data, application files, or OS files will not be found by the system. You'll probably begin to see corrupt data files, or programs will stop launching or crash, or the computer will begin locking up. In short, this is a serious problem that must be fixed.

DiskWarrior can often repair the damage but not always. Sometimes the only solution is erase and reinstall. One of my tech students was in a similar situation to yours last year and she appeared to have solved her problem with a second hard drive and a copy of SuperDuper! She used SuperDuper! to clone the computer's drive to the external drive. A number of files (those involving the invalid node(s)) were not copied but weren't vital. The clone was bootable, the programs worked, and she cloned the external back to the internal.

"Seems that there is no quick and easy fix."
Actually, there are several. You will need either your system install DVDs that originally came with your computer, DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro or Drive Genius.

Hi Jose Olvera;

I would say that you are extremely lucky to be running so well with a serious problem. IMHO there is no question that it will get worse if not fixed, the only question is when your system will come tumbling down like a house of cards.

As long as it is running well you should backup everything. A clone to an external disk would be a good thing to do. You could then check the external for the invalid node error. If is not there then booting from the clone followed by reformatting the the internal disk and then clone back just might solve your problem.

Allan

Hi,

I went directly to the option of erasing and installing.

I erased everything and afterwards checked the disk. The result was good: no damage to the disk, the disk appears to have no problems. Then I installed Leopard and some of the programs I was using.

I have checked the disk again and found no problem, although I suspect that the problem was caused by Microsoft Office for MAC 2004, as I had been having some problems with it, had to uninstall it and install it again, and then started having problems with updating it, which lead to checking the disk and finding out that there was a problem.

Now I have most of the software installed, but ran again into the same issue with Office (issues with powerpoint). I hope this does not leads to another major problem.

Thanks for all the help.

Jose

I suspect the invalid node structure error occurs when a program or the Finder crashes while a disk update is in progress and any program could cause it. What issue(s) have you had with PP?

The issue I have with PP (version 2004) is that it crashes when opening presentations that include sound.

Every time I receive a presentation that includes sound and double click on it, PP launches, the first slide appears and then I get the usual spinning beach ball. At first I thought that the audio was loading, and left it for a few minutes without going past that. Then I checked on the Force Quit menu and it said that PP was not responding. I force quit PP and did it all over again, with the same result. Then I opened another presentation to see if the issue was with the presentation itself, but got the same result. I tried with a few more presentations and always the same happened.

Tried repairing permissions and did not help.

I went through forums and help and the best solution was to uninstall and reinstall. I did it but then started having other types of problems with PP and the other office applications, being the last one that I could not update office. Then I repaired permissions once again, and verified the disk, which then gave me the invalid node structure error.

Another possibility is that I have an external HD with music, photos, and other files. This HD usually worked fine, but some times when trying to open a big file, or when searching for an iTunes song or changing songs, it crashed and I had to remove it without ejecting in order to be able to use the finder again. This also happened when I had the HD connected and put the MAC to sleep, then started the MAC again but the disk would not start, and finder would crash. The disk seemed to be spinning, but it was not working. Also in this case I had to disconnect the disk without ejecting.

The external HD is not damaged and usually works well. Now that I have upgraded to Leopard I am thinking of importing all the files from the external HD to the MAC HD and then just back everything up with time machine. I want to avoid running into the same problems.

By the way, I reinstalled office and PP worked ok for a total of 10 minutes and then started crashing again. I am also aware of other bugs in word and excel that at some point may start kicking in, so I am thinking of deleting office and going for OpenOffice. Any other ideas will be more than welcome.

Thanks for the help

Jose

When you say sounds do you mean just the built in animation sounds like laser while bullet text is crawling in or do you mean voice-overs, music, etc? Let me know so I can do a bit of testing. Don't have tons of time but I have access to PCs and several different versions of Office as well as Macs with Office 2004 and 2008. Come to think of it, I also have access to students who need projects...

In general, the files I receive are whatever.pps Usually are presentations with music embedded. Mostly are for leisure or personal use.

What is annoying is that I open these presentations without a problem in my work's PC which runs Office 2003 I think. My wife is also able to open the same presentations in her PC. I had no problems with my former iBook G4. This problem started after a few months of running Office in my MacBook Pro.

The strange thing is that I could open a few of these presentations without a problem and then it starts crashing. I went into microsoft.com/mac and searched for a fix. I found some fixes and tried all of them, without any luck, being the last alternative to "nuke" office and reinstall.

A couple of years ago a friend of mail ringed me to ask me if I had ever had this problem with PP. After a couple of days he told me that he sorted it out, but I don't remember how he fixed it.

Please let me know if you need any further information that may be useful for you / your students.

Thanks for your help!