How Does A File Get Damaged or Corrupted?

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Level 2

475 points

How Does A File Get Damaged or Corrupted?

After a recent installation of OS 10.4.8 and Office for Mac on my friend's G4 AGP (Sawtooth) all ran well for a week or so. Then suddenly Word and Excel wouldn't open. Got error message. Attempts to reload Office provided another error message.

The core of these error messages was that there was a "Shared library error (Carbonlib)". From the MS support site we were advised that "This problem may occur if the CarbonLib file in Mac OS X is damaged or is corrupted." The recommended actions were to Repair Disk Permission and do a restart. If that didn't work, Archive and Install OS X again.

Well, even Archive and Install didn't go well, so we ended up doing an erase and install. Now everything is running well again.

My question is, considering the pain involved in fixing the problem, how does a working OS and its files get damaged or corrupted in one week of light use? If there is something we need to pursue to ensure this doesn't happen again, I'd sure like to know what it is.

Thanks in advance.

Carl B.

Power Mac MDD G4, Mac OS X (10.4.8), Dual 1.25 GHz 2MB-L3, 2 GB RAM, Verax fans, ATI 9600, DVR-111D, SyncMaster 215TW

Posted on Dec 2, 2006 7:33 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Dec 2, 2006 8:11 PM in response to CEB II

File corruption or damage is usually the fault of software, bad memory, a faulty hard drive, power glitch, or any number of other possibilities. It's one of those things that just happens, and often as not the exact reason will not be discovered. Neither computer hardware nor software are free from mistakes.

However, if you have file or disk corruption present and then upgrade something (OS X, third-party, etc.) you may then compound a problem making it worse. it's a good idea to always repair your hard drive and permissions before installing new system software or system upgrades. Always repair permissions after installing any third-party software that uses an installer. For added protection only do system software updates while booted in safe mode.

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Answer 2

CEB II Author

Level 2

475 points

Dec 2, 2006 8:57 PM in response to Kappy

"it's a good idea to always repair your hard drive and permissions before installing new system software or system upgrades."

Agreed. We did that the first time and this time. Repaired permissions before and after each item install and frequently verified the disk.

Haven't seen a caution to use Safe Mode except for a video card ROM update, but I guess it might not be a bad idea when loading system updates from Apple.

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Answer 3

Dr. Smoke

Level 9

56,586 points

Dec 3, 2006 1:42 AM in response to CEB II

Hi, Carl.

See my "Data corruption and loss: causes and avoidance" FAQ for comprehensive advice on this subject.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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Answer 4

Dec 3, 2006 1:47 AM in response to CEB II

Hi Carl

What you experienced was inconvenient, and real pain… I imagine. I can only tell you that this sort of thing is the exception. I have used OS X on a daily basis for five years and have never had to re-install the OS to fix any issue. In fact the only time I have had to re-install the System was after hard drive failure. You should not have to worry about this issue.

I would, however, recommend that you always have a recent bootable clone of your HD available in case of disaster.

Matthew Whiting

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Answer 5

Dec 3, 2006 6:57 AM in response to matthew whiting

Me too, file corruption is a drastic exception. It seems like Microsoft applications are more prone to it than other applications. I eventually gave up on Entourage about a year ago due to preferences files becoming corrupted spontaneously.

When you know where the application crashes, you can edit the preferences file removing the corrupt section and the app will work normally. There seems to be a few failings in the Intel XMP SDK library. In the case of Microsoft, I believe they use some proprietary preferences format so the files are not editable.

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Answer 6

CEB II Author

Level 2

475 points

Dec 3, 2006 4:51 PM in response to Gnarlodious

According to the technical support knowledge base that I accessed for the stated problem, the corrupted or damaged file was an Apple file in OS X (carbonlib), not one of the MS Office files.

I'd like to blame this on MS, but I think the problem was either with the initial install of Tiger, hardware (RAM) related, or other. The erase and install went fairly smooth, so I'm hoping that part is all right this time. I'm pursuing one suspect RAM module, which has been pulled from the G4 for exchange. The RAM module didn't test out bad, but it is significantly different than the other 3 installed, so I'm trying to limit the possibilities of another major problem.

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Answer 7

Dec 3, 2006 8:43 PM in response to CEB II

Did you read this page?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842646

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Answer 8

CEB II Author

Level 2

475 points

Dec 4, 2006 6:14 PM in response to Gnarlodious

Yes, that's the one. Says the problem may occur from a damaged or corrupted CarbonLib file in OS X. Suggests some actions to take before contacting Apple Technical Support.

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