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User profile for user: bravebird
bravebird Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

External HDD Fix Issue

New question while trying to solve the same problem. I currently have the hard drive from my macbook hooked up to my desktop via usb. The macbook hard drive shows up in disk utility but not on the desktop. When I verify and repair I get an "invalid b-tree node size". As a result I have bought diskwarrior to fix this problem. However when I try to open diskwarrior it freezes while scanning for disks. If I open diskwarrior first then attach the hard drive i just get the spinning pinwheel. So, my question is how do I get diskwarrior to recognize my macbook hard drive so that I can fix this "invalid b-tree node size" and recover the data?

iPod touch

Posted on Jul 28, 2013 11:58 AM

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7 replies
User profile for user: The hatter
The hatter
User level: Level 9
60,990 points

Jul 28, 2013 12:10 PM in response to bravebird

Got the data backed up off the drive? nuke it. Don't have the data backed up, use Data Rescue 3 demo, if it sees the drive and files, buy it $99.


If the directory is that far gone contact Alsoft on how to. Been too long since I read the manual and pdf. And one person recently had a complex error with their TimeMachine that it took a lot of work from us and with help from Alsoft but got through.


You do need another drive to revover and copy to. Not just your system and hopefully you have a spare drive not a drive with good data on it.


From within DW you can have it show a preview of old and new files, and you want to stop there and use that to access and copy files you need off the drive. Then it doesn't matter what you do, you will want to do reformat and erase with zeroes or 3-way write erase.


The idea is something is wrong to the point a restore from backup is what you ultimately want to be doing, not just repair it. The repair is only to mount and recover files.


You could also buy a drive sled adapter to use 2.5" drives and try from inside your Mac Pro drive bays but there is a good change your Mac Pro won't even boot.

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User profile for user: bravebird
bravebird Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Jul 28, 2013 12:59 PM in response to The hatter

Sorry, I'm not very computer literate but I'm trying to understand. I do not have the data backed up. This drive has been sitting idle for almost two years ever since I got the grey screen of death on my macbook. The Data Rescue 3 demo gave me a drive failure warning, detecting slow read access. I don't have any other drives laying around. So do I need to get another drive? Would any external drive be good enough? How do I go about copying my macbook drive to this other drive? How do I get DW to show this preview when it keeps freezing when I start it up on my Mac Pro? So is there no way to fix my macbook hard drive with diskwarrior by connecting it to my Mac Pro as an external hard drive? Do I just need to wait till I get the diskwarrior disk in the mail, put the macbook hard drive back in my macbook and boot up off the diskwarrior disk? This all seemed much simpler yesterday while researching it. Thanks for your help and patience.

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User profile for user: The hatter
The hatter
User level: Level 9
60,990 points

Jul 28, 2013 1:50 PM in response to bravebird

Apple just blew off my reply with links to products, drives, and advice :-(


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MXPCIE6G2S2/


http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock


OWC Firewire cases - what case did you buy and using now?

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/add-ons-and-hubs/enclosure-kits


SATA is 5x faster than USB2


Drives to recovery your files to


http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YAHW6I/


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/CalDigit/FASTA6GU3/

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User profile for user: bravebird
bravebird Author
User level: Level 1
5 points

Jul 28, 2013 2:08 PM in response to The hatter

I bought a DYNEX USB 3.0 2.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure, which my hard drive doesn't actually fit in but the connection works.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dynex%26%23153%3B---2.5%26%2334%3B-Serial-ATA-Hard-D rive-Enclosure---Black/5190553.p?id=1218623897772&skuId=5190553


The drive from my macbook is only a 120GB Toshiba.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000P6FQ94


What do you recomend I should do or go get? Or should I just take the drive somewhere and get someone to recover the data? I just feel after spending a non-refundable $100 on DW and being told it's so simple to use and will most likley fix this problem only to encounter all of this I want to see it through to the end myself. I really just don't know what to do next or where to even start at this point.

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User profile for user: The hatter
The hatter
User level: Level 9
60,990 points

Jul 28, 2013 2:35 PM in response to bravebird

500GB WD

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dynex%26%23153%3B---2.5%26%2334%3B-Serial-ATA-Hard-D rive-Enclosure---Black/5190553.p


your link had time limited user id


Not all cases talk to a Mac well, have you used this case elsewhere on Mac or even a PC? there are good tools on PC.


USB3 using the USB2 ports may be / or not / an issue.


Buying a PCIe USB3 card or USB3 + eSATA - if you think you need and will have use for beyond this "project"


Most drives today are 1-2-3TB where you only need 250GB at most.


Alsoft should help you once you email and they have helped folks on weekends (not sure this late Sunday). It is the best of its type: it is a one trick pony and what it does is create a new directory - when it can and usually it can, sometimes taking days on badly corrupt or very large drives.


There is preview, there is option + rebuild that does a deeper file level search for file fragments that is better but not obvous. ie, "RTM" beforehand. Should be separate download if not in the application package download.


Hard drive recovery topic - there is a on going reader discussion that is very informative over on

http://www.macintouch.com that has been going on for 12 yrs now. Disk WArrior, Data Rescue, SMART Utilty and others and how to recovery a drive and files - but it is not in the least bit organized. Just a long thread like a twitter feed.


Never dealt with but one name that I saw:

http://www.thedatarescuecenter.com/

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External HDD Fix Issue

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