Internal Hard Drive, Slave

Question

Level 1

0 points

Internal Hard Drive, Slave

[Power Mac G4 733mhz Quicksliver, OSX 10.4.7]

Hello Experts!

I replaced my 40GB hard drive with a new 80GB drive set up as the master drive > Installed OSX 10.4 on new drive and then set up the old drive up as the internal slave drive > Booted up from the Master and all volumes appeared on my desktop and were accessible.

My plans were to reorganize my files and use the Slave as a backup. First, however, I updated 10.4 to 10.7 on the new master drive. Following the update the slave drive is now inaccessible and does not appear on my desktop. The drive appears in disk utility but the disc volume is gray(dimmed) and shows up as "unmounted".

I've tryed clicking the "mount" button in DU but this does not solve it. Also tried resetting PRAM. The disc does not appear in System Preferences "Startup Disc" either, but it is present in the System Profiler confirming the slave unit number 1.

What else can I do to access this volume? Hope you can help!

PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Nov 23, 2006 11:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 23, 2006 12:42 PM in response to t.hamm

Hello! First I'd repair permissions in disk utility and then start from the install cd/dvd and run the repair disk function of disk utility, then restart and run the repair permissions again. Then I'd use the combo updater to get to 10.4.8. repair permissions again after the combo update is installed. Most likely those steps will resolve the problem. Tom

Reply

Answer 2

t.hamm Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 23, 2006 4:24 PM in response to Thomas Bryant

Thanks Tom, If only I could get past your 1st suggested step....

The "Repair Disk Permissions" is also gray/dimmed out. I ran Verify Disk I got an error stating: invalid key length; underlying task reported on exit; volume needs to be repaired. "Repair Disk" does not complete task.

When I use the Install dvd and access Disk Utility the Slave does not show up at all. Vanished, gone!

Any other ideas? note: I had tried the 10.4.8 update and my system froze up so I reinstalled from 10.4 install disk and opted for the 10.4.7 update which had worked fine for me previously.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 23, 2006 7:06 PM in response to t.hamm

Hello Again! It's time for Diskwarrior! It usually fixes most problems and is a "must have" Mac utility. TechToolPro is another good utility. I use both. Tom

Reply

Answer 4

t.hamm Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 23, 2006 9:02 PM in response to Thomas Bryant

The Warrior! I ran DW but after 40 minutes I got nervous and canceled the rebuild. Should I expect DW to rebuild for an extended period of time on a disk that has about 25GB of its 40 used? The message I got during step 5, locating directory data, was "speed inhibited by disk malfunction". A rhythmic 'chug, chug, chug' accompanying the message made me nervous that my Mac might fry!

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 24, 2006 4:29 PM in response to t.hamm

Hello Again! Interrupting DW is a bad idea. I'd let it run for an hour or two especially since interrupting it may have caused additional directory damage. If that doesn't fix it then it's time to reformat the hard drive. Be sure to have everything backed up as a reformat is an erasure of everything. Tom

Reply

Answer 6

Nov 25, 2006 9:28 AM in response to t.hamm

Hi, t.hamm!

I'd follow Tom's expert advice and allow DiskWarrior as much time as it needs to complete it's work, which has even been known to work on some drives for days before ultimately resolving really severe directory problems. Forty minutes is not a long time, so I'd be patient with it. This particular error is one which DiskWarrior is generally able to correct, despite Disk Utility's inability to deal with it.

If the drive itself is physically going bad, there's always the possibility that the drive itself may fail in the interim. If you suspect that this is the case, and if the data is critical to you, you might download and run the demo version of Data Rescue II, to see if you can see the files on the volume and successfully recover one of them. If successful, then consider purchasing the full version to recover what you can, if not all of the files.

Gary

1GHz DP G4 Quicksilver 2002, 400MHz B&W rev.2 G3, Mac SE30 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 5G iPod, Epson 2200 & R300 & LW Select 360 Printers, Epson 3200 Scanner

Reply

Answer 7

t.hamm Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2006 4:38 PM in response to Majordadusma

Thank you, Tom and Gary, so much for following this problem!

I will run DW again and let it take all the time it needs (hopefully canceling it previously hasn't added more problems). Meanwhile, I have some curious additives to this issue:

Started up my computer this afternoon and the new 80GB drive with 10.4.7 would not start up, I got the gray screen with flashing globe. So I took another approach:

Shut down > Started while pressing Option key>both drives appeared (Master & Slave)>Restarted Slave and it booted in OS9.2 (I had Classic on this volume)>All volumes then appeared on the desktop so I copied Slave files to a backup partition on Master>then went to System Preferences to select Master as Startup Disk>Master booted up fine and all volumes (both drives) now appear on desktop.

So, if I never have a power failure and just let her sleep maybe I can get back to work... What kind of sense can you make out of this, if any?

Reply

Answer 8

Nov 29, 2006 8:44 AM in response to t.hamm

t.,

I'd insure I backed up my user files and then run Disk Utility again to see if the issue remains. If it remains, it really should be addressed and eliminated so things don't suddenly go from bad to worse.

Gary

Reply