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Problem with FS Block then mounting....

Ok, I think I'm screwed but hoping someone can help.

On my father's Mac Mini: After downloading a software and being asked to restart, the computer kind of froze (desktop icons disappeared but did not shut off) I turned it off using the power button then restarted after about 30 seconds later. a folder appeared with a flashing question mark! NOT good. I turned it off again and on holding down the CMD + S; hoping that doing the fsck thingy would help but all I got was a long error ending with the words "error reading fs block # ..." every minute it would say this giving me different #'s. Then I went to my computer and googled the problem and saw other peoples post but with not much help. I followed some peoples recommendations ( holding ALT + CMD + P + R.... holding down SHIFT until apple logo for safe boot, then restarting... ) Nothing worked. Then inserted an install OS 10.4 disk (His computer actually had OS 10.5, but I don't have this disk) and tried fixing w/ disk utility. It gave me the error "invalid sibling link" Went and googled THIS phrase and found someones tip on using Terminal and unmounting it and using the "fsck_hsf -r /dev/disk0s..." (whatever number terminal showed your volume was in) Did this and it didn't work. and to make matters worse... (if they weren't worse already) the idiot didn't say anything about MOUNTING the volume and this idiot (ME) didn't think logically and just quit Terminal without mounting it so now - yes, you guessed correctly, my volume is unmounted without a way to mount it again. Disk utility now shows this as a file icon NOT a HD icon. When I click startup I see only the external, the DVD and network (I'M SCREWED!)

I first tried starting up with the external and it looked like it was going to load but got stuck at "loading local disks"

Sigh

Then I inserted my bootable Mac Repair CD that has DISK WARRIOR, TECH TOOL PRO and other good software and it also got stuck at the same spot. I left it to have dinner and about 1/2 hour later was happy to see that it fully loaded eventually. Right now I'm using the Disk Utility (Here, it has the HD icon NOT the file icon - Is that good? ) MANY, MANY ERRORS showing - a lot of ORPHANED INDIRECT NODES and - in red - RESERVED FIELDS IN THE CATALOG RECORD HAVE INCORRECT DATA. But it failed. I got:
"The underlying task reported failure in exit (-9972)
0HFS volumes repaired
1 Volume could not be repaired.

I'm screwed, right?
Won't even be able to save files now because of the stupid mounting thin, right?

(please tell me I'm wrong)

Any Miracle workers here? DaddyPaycheck, you've always been able to come up with brilliant idea for me!

Thanks guys,

Rebecca

PowerMac G5 - Single Core 1.8Mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.11), apple extended USB keyboard

Posted on Mar 5, 2011 5:51 PM

Reply
3 replies

Mar 6, 2011 9:14 AM in response to rebknell

Yikes!

When Disk Utility can't repair something (exit on failure), you want to use either Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro. Since you have both of those on your Mac repair CD, have you tried either one? If they can't salvage it, you can try erasing the hard drive with Disk Utility (do a secure erase writing zero's to it, which resets the bad block table).

It's possible that the drive was on it's way out (startup folder w/question mark) and you tried to save it ... if it was on it's way out, you didn't make matters worst, even though it may seem like it to you. The ultimate solution may be a new hard drive. You didn't say which model mini your Dad has ... if it's 3-5 years old, hard drive failure wouldn't be unheard of.

Mar 6, 2011 9:43 AM in response to BGreg

Hi BGreg,

Yeah, after the Utility I tried DW but it said it was too damaged to rebuild. Didn't bother with Tech Tool Pro. Right now I'm using Data Rescue X to see If I can save any files but it's taking FOREVER! I chose thorough scan. (Left it over night working and only a 1/3 of the way done) Never used this before - will it show me all the files at the end and I can save them onto the external? is it supposed to take this long? (the HD was under 100GB is size) I'm just happy it recognized the HD and it's scanning it.

It's an older Mac Mini. Can't remember exactly the specs - I believe it's a Mac mini 1.25-1.42GHz, I put the maximum RAM inside (1 GB) and I forget how much HD space he had - definitely under 100GB)

Problem with FS Block then mounting....

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