iMac G3

you can try typing "mac boot" or maybe its "mac-boot" at that open firmware prompt. That's the command to force it to boot from the hard drive. But I rather suspect that won't work here.

“mac-boot” returned the message: “DEFAULT CATCH!, code=300 at [symbol]SRR0: ff80a0e0 [symbol]SRR1: 0000b030”



When you boot from the CD, does the hard drive show up on the desktop? Can disk first aid (in the utilities folder on the install CD) find and check the disk? DOes it report any errors?

you can try typing "mac boot" or maybe its "mac-boot"
at that open firmware prompt. That's the command to
force it to boot from the hard drive. But I rather
suspect that won't work here.

“mac-boot” returned the message: “DEFAULT CATCH!, code=300 at [symbol]SRR0: ff80a0e0 [symbol]SRR1: 0000b030”

(I can’t make out the [symbol] in front of the SRR0 and SRR1.)

When you boot from the CD, does the hard drive show
up on the desktop? Can disk first aid (in the
utilities folder on the install CD) find and check
the disk? DOes it report any errors?

Yes, the HD shows up.

I ran DFA numerous times. The 1st time it reported: “Volume Bit Map needs minor repair, 4,546,” and then proceeded to repair the HD. However, when I tried to boot from the HD, the problem remained.

I ran DFA a 2nd time. This time it reported:

”MountCheck found serious errors”

and

”Problem: Volume Header needs minor repair, 1,0,” and again proceeded to make the repairs. But again, it didn’t help.


I ran DFA a 3rd time, and received the same report as after the first run (“Volume Bit Map” problem). Once again, the repair didn’t work.

The 4th run of DFA was a repeat of the second run (“MountCheck” and “Volume Header” problems; the repair didn’t work).

The 5th run of DFA reported:

“Problem: Invalid BTree Header 0,0”

and

“Problem: Volume Bit Map needs minor repair, 4, 546.” Again, the repairs didn’t help.


The 6th run was a repeat of the second and fourth runs (“MountCheck” and “Volume Header” problems; the repair didn’t work).

The 7th run was a repeat of the fifth run (“Invalid BTree Header” and “Volume Bit Map” problems; the repair didn’t work).

Subsequent runs of DFA resulted in a cycle of repeatrs of these last two runs (i.e., repeating reports of the ”MountCheck”/”Volume Header” problems and “Invalid BTree Header”/”Volume Bit Map” problems, and repairs that didn’t work. The only variation was in the reporting of the Volume Bit Map problem: The “4, 546” changed to “4, 547.”).


I also booted from an older MacTools Pro CD (v 3.02), and it reported a different problem: “Invalid Leaf Node 38,17961648 Insufficient memory to rebuild directory.” Repeated runs of MacTools Pro yielded the same results.

(FWIW, the iMac is a 266MHz G3 with 64 Megs of RAM and a 10 GB HD, running OS 9.2.2. And, though I doubt it makes any difference, the install CD I’m using (and, hence, the DFA utility I’m using) is for Mac OS 9.1 -- I don’t have the 9.2 install CD.)

I was kind of expecting DFA to return errors but not
be able to fix them. It sounds like a corrupt
directory. The cheapest way to deal with that is to
reformat the disk and then reinstall the OS. This
will erase everything on the drive though, but if it
works, you'll be all set.

That’s tooo much data to lose. 😟

The other way to go is with third party software.
Diskwarrior being the best for this kind of damage.
Your mactools pro should be able to do a similar
job, though I don't know why its giving you an out
of memory error. JMaybe the version is too old, its
been a while since I used that particular osftware
so I don't remember the system requirements for
particular versions. There's no garauntees with
third party software, but if you have stuff on there
you can't afford to lose, its the way to go.

I‘ll have to check the MacTools manual.

I have an old “Backup” CD with backup copies of various items, including a copy of a MacCare CD, which includes DiskWarrior. Of course, there’s no way I can get it on to the iMac, and I can’t boot from the Backup CD.

Would I be able to temporarily “trash” my system folder (i.e., hide it in the trash) and then install a basic version of OS 9.1 from the install disk? That way, maybe I could then boot from that basic OS 9.1 system, and copy DiskWarrior to the iMac, and (maybe) run it.

the problem is that the system folder isn't the
problem. The directory is separate from that and
appears to be the root of the problem. Reinstalling
the system folder can actually make the problem
worse.

I was kinda hoping that the directory was somehow linked to the installed OS. But the directory is associated with the entire HD, right?

Issue number two is the diskwarrior can't be run from
the drive its repairing to fix the directory. So it
wouldn't do you much good anyway. So you'll really
need access to another machine to make a bootable Cd
with that diskwarrior disk on it,

I was afraid that might be the case. 😟

or borrow an
external drive (boot from your install Cd and run
diskwarrior of the external drive). Perhaps a friend
or your local mac user group if there is one can help
with this.

I’m pretty much alone in MacLand here...everyone I know uses PCs.

If you have a USB jump drive, you could
try getting diskwarrior on there, boot from the
install CD and then run diskwarrior.

That’s a thought. I guess I could buy a jump drive (if it’s not too expensive), and use the machine I’m on now (another used iMac that’s also about to fail -- it failed a few months ago and mysteriously came back to life (somewhat) a few days ago...I have no clue how or why, nor for how long) to install DiskWarrior onto the jump drive.

And I was just thinking, the other product you were
using was called mactools right. The one I was
thinking of was techtool pro made by micromat, which
had a directory repair routine. So the product you
have may not be able to do it. I'm not sure.

My mistake...I meant TechTools Pro, not MacTools. FWIW, I found the manual, and it only requires 5 MB of memory, so I have no idea why it tells me it needs more memory to implement the directory repair.

OK...here’s some more strange behavior:

I kept repeatedly running DFA, kept getting those problem reports and claims that it repaired them, over and over. Then, suddenly, the repairs seemed to “work” -- that is, DFA stopped reporting that there were problems, and gave the iMac a clean bill of health. Knowing that DFA can’t always be believed, I then booted from the HD, and got the same old “firmware prompt” (what is that, anyway?).

I then booted from the TechTools Pro disk, and ran it. This time, it also gave the iMac a clean bill of health. I then ran it several more times, both the full set of tests, as well as individual tests of the directory. Every time it told me there was nothing wrong. I then told it to rebuild the directory (a choice available when you run the directory maintenance routine). Then I booted from the HD. The problem still exists!!!

If this is your problem, your short-term solution may
be to use Tech Tool or other disk optimization
(defrag) utility. First, back up critical data if
possible. Then deleted unneeded files so that the
total is well below the 8GB limit. Then use the
utility to defragment the disk. If the utility is
successful at moving ALL of the System Folder files
below the 8GB limit, perhaps you iMac will start
working again.

I tried to defrag using TechTools Pro’s optimization routine. It began, but halted after the first of two passes and returned the message “Insufficient free space to optimize file ‘TheFindByContentIndex’.”

I’ve run into this ”Insufficient free space“ message before (on other machines) and I’ve ended up searching for the offending file and then deleting it. Unfortunately, there is no Sherlock or other search capability on the TechTool Pro CD; and even if there were, I know that this particular file (“TheFindByContentIndex”) is an invisible file, located somewhere in the System folder.

It would be nice (I guess) if I could simply delete the System folder either by copying its contents over into an empty folder, or by trashing it (at least temporarily) and installing a new (perhaps “basic”) System folder. That way, I might be able to rid myself of the “TheFindByContentIndex” file. However, as Strider warned me (above), “Reinstalling the system folder can actually make the problem worse.” Additionally, even if I could get rid of the “TheFindByContentIndex” file, experience suggests further attempts at defragging will end up discovering more “offending” files (i.e., other files that will cause the routine to halt due to “insufficient memory”) that I will somehow (without a search capability) need to locate and delete.

Any suggestions?

CORRECTION:

“Insufficient free space to optimize ...”

should be

“Insufficient contiguous free space to optimize ...”

I just searched on my older Mac OS 9 Mac. I have
Sherlock's Find By Content (FBC) disabled, so that
file was not there, but I did find an invisible
(empty) folder called "TheFindByContentFolder"; I
assume that file of yours would reside in there. It
(the folder) is at the root (top) level of the boot
volume. It's not in the System Folder.

Even though you started from a bootable CD, can't you
double click on Sherlock on the hard drive and run
it? You can access the hard drive, correct? You
just can't start up from it. If you can run Sherlock
that way, hopefully you can use it to find and delete
that file.

The TTPro CD came out about 5 years ago, when the latest OS was 9.0.4. So, it boots to OS 9.0.4, and when I attempt to open Sherlock, I get a dialog saying that Sherlock requires a later OS version.

Alternately, you may want to delete some more files
off the hard drive to make some room. You do have to
get the total space used below about 7.5GB for the
solution to work (assuming that 8GB limit is the
problem). Getting it to 6GB would be even better.

I did that last night (before reading your post). Actually, I found that there was a lot of duplication (I forgot that I had duplicated a lot of files, as part of an effort to reorganize the contents of the HD for subsequent uploading to some webspace storage). I deleted those duplicate files and am now well below the 7.5 Gig limit. I then ran the TTPro Optimization/Defrag routine. It successfully defragged the data filed on the HD, and then began the process of optimizing. It’s still going on (20+ hours later)! What I see on the cute little graphical representation of the HD is no more areas of “red” blocks (representing file fragments); a lot of segments of “blue” blocks (representing chunks of free space); a lot of segments of “green” blocks (representing chunks of contiguous files); and a few very small segments of “white” blocks (representing the directory data). The routine is s-l-o-w-l-y shifting the blue and green blocks around, apparently creating a single, large contiguous area of available free space, and a single, large contiguous area of files. What I don’t see is any change in the location of the scattered segments of white blocks. It seems to me that would suggest that the directory data itself are fragmented, but that the routine is not making any attempt (so far) to defrag them.

After reading the entire thread - to this point - I
have a suggestion. It's admittedly a chicken one,
but it's worked for me numerous times.

A combination Firewire/USB external enclosure works
wonders in situations like this. Put your present
drive in the external box. Install a new drive in
the iMac and format it. Install the OS, then move
whatever you want over from the old drive.

The external enclosure and the old drive will be
useful for rescue operations later, and won't be
money wasted. Make sure the external drive enclosure
has a Oxford 911, or newer, chip and is USB2 capable.
USB2 will be useful in later machines.

I toyed with the idea of buying an external HD, but balked when I saw the prices: The least expensive one wasn’t so expensive (only $100), but it was an 80 Gig USB-only drive. That seemed not to be a great idea, inasmuch as I do expect to be (forced by these continuing problems into) buying a new iMac in the not-to-distant future (does anyone know when the next batch of iMacs are going to hit the market?) and I didn’t want to rush out to buy peripheral equipment now -- not until I have a better handle on what my longer-term needs might be.

I visited my local CompUSA yesterday, and ended up buying a 2 Gig flash drive (Strider (see above) suggested that as a possible route to take). I don’t know if it’s any good (it’s a PNY “Attache” USB 2.0 Flash Drive). I haven’t opened up the package yet, so if anyone has a feel for PNY products, I’d appreciate some feedback. (FWIW, the salesperson said it was decent, and also assured me that there was no need for any drivers -- just plug it into the USB port.) The price seemed right: On “sale” for $50, with a $10 mail-in rebate. (Today I received an eMail ad from Microcenter, featuring a 1 Gig flash drive (bulk product) for only $16. However, I get nervous about such “bargains,” so am not particularly inclined to get it instead of the PNY device.)