Can't Boot with Disk Warrior dvd

"...I made a Disk Warrior disc using UltraIso and popped it into my drive..."

1. Where did you get a copy of DiskWarrior?
2. The disk you made is not bootable.
3. When you booted from your OS installer disk did you run Repair Disk?
4. A bootable disk has to have an OS on it that'll boot your Mac.

Err, so you used a free Windows disk burning utility to make an illegal copy of a Mac program that you likely downloaded from an equally illegal web site and you expect someone to help you?

Buy the software you use!!!

Ultraso (according to their web site) is Windows only software. It is not going to be able to correctly burn a Mac .iso, .cdr image for the Mac OS. The download from Alsoft should have come with instructions to properly burn a disk using OS X's built in Burn utility. If you have it, you should also be able to use Toast.

Apologies, also. We do get a fair number of users here asking how to get (sometimes even admittedly) illegal software to work. Even stolen copies of Apple's software on their own discussions site! When you said you were trying to use Windows software to burn an .iso image, it sounded pretty fishy.

Hello and welcome Mr. KC,
I just want to add that, in order to properly burn that DiskWarrior disc, you can use the Mac Help instructions provided when you enter "Burn" in the Mac Help Search Box.

Simply insert the right kind of disc (CD or DVD) into your media drive, wait until the disc's image appears on the desktop and then drag the DiskWarrior Disk Image into that icon - that will initiate the burning process automatically. But again - check these instructions using the Mac Help Search for "Burn".

Running DiskWarrior takes approx 20 minutes from boot up to completion. I would recommend that you "go by the numbers" - the first operation DW does is to build a new Directory, doing repairs on any corrupt files, icons, etc. along the way. When the new Directory is ready to be applied, you will be asked if you first want to see a comparison (in the Finder) of the old and new directories. If there are any reports in RED text about problems: you should probably check the items mentioned in the initial report for comparisons. I've used DW for about six years and never had a problem, regardless of any differences I've found in the comparison Finder windows.

So - chances are good that you will be OK to go ahead and let DiskWarrior install the new Directory.

Next: I also recommend that, afterward, you then click on the "Files" button which takes you to a new Dialogue where you can "agree" to have DW check and repair files and folders. This adds a few more minutes but does result in a "pristine" Directory with a properly repaired and orderly files system.

After that is complete: just go to the upper left (top of screen) menu and select: "Quit DiskWarrior." Your Mac will (or should) then boot up properly.

If - DW is unable to repair the damage, then you'll very likely be faced with a re-install of the system. My first thought then (and I've never faced that situation) would be to find a way to back up and save my important data. It's possible that your problem is hardware related - a bad drive, bad RAM, or even a crippled motherboard (Heaven forbid!). Hardware problems of that kind are best handled by an Apple authorized service center or Apple Store technician.

Message was edited by: macnoel

"...Office X 2004 does work with Leopard but it would be wise to upgrade Office as the 2008 version is much more compatible with Leopard."

You can put it on a bootable disk or drive and use that to run DW. To boot from a DW disk you need to have Alsoft mail you a copy.

In that case, just wait for the physical disk to arrive from Alsoft.

Mr. KC,
What we are trying to tell you is that the DiskWarrior disc has it's own boot drive and will substitute for your internal system. You CAN boot from the DiskWarrior disc - provided that your Mac's media drive (CD / DVD drive) is working properly.

As for Apple Store "taking your hard drive" - they will not do this and it's only important that you tell them you must have that hard drive given back to you if they do remove it and replace it with a new drive. It could be some problem which they can fix without replacing the drive at all.

Do not assume it's the hard drive that's faulty unless you have direct evidence (which you have not brought up on this thread). Even if it is the hard drive: there are procedures for recovering data from such HDs. You can always come back here and start a new topic for that - or look elsewhere.

Now - I am not familiar enough with the G5 iMacs to give instructions on how to open the CD/DVD drive so you can insert the DW disc. Someone else will have to jump in on this part of the procedure. Just don't give up without trying our suggestions. A lot of people keep older Macs than yours running for years. (Including myself - I have a six year old G4 eMac which is "quite healthy").

I thought that an "Invalid B-tree node" meant that something was wrong with the hd.

It is. Not a physical hardware error, but a fault with the way the data is written. This is the kind of problem that DiskWarrior does well at.

Mr. KC,
1. Getting the download version of DW to repair your internal drive can, to my knowledge, only be accomplished if you can put it on an external - bootable! - hard drive. If you do not already have a bootable (ie, cloned) external drive, then you'd have to get another Mac owner with the same model and System version to create a clone on an external drive which you could then connect to your iMac and run. But that's a whole new topic, I'm just explaining the procedure for what you were thinking of doing.

2. Kurt Lang is absolutely correct: DiskWarrior is the tool you need for invalid B-tree node repair!

...only be accomplished if you can put it on an external - bootable! - hard drive.

Excellent suggestion, macnoel. Don't know why I didn't mention that myself since that's the only way I do it. I never use the CD. I have one external drive set up with a bare minimum install of OS X with every disk and file utility on it. Boot to that and you have access to everything at once; DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, Tech Tool Pro, etc.

Ouch! A double whammy. The data is corrupt and the drive is bad.

Since there's already file directory damage, there's no point in backing up the whole drive with the intent to restore it on a new drive since you'd be restoring corrupt data. About all you can do is copy the files you must have to a flash drive, CD, external hard drive, etc. Then replace the drive and install the OS and your software from scratch. Then restore the saved files.