Help! My hard drive won't "mount"? What do I do?

gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hey, all you geniuses... I really need your help with this one. I own an iMac DV 400MHZ with a 10Gig HD, and am running O/S 9.2.2. Just today, when I started it up, I got the dreaded flashing question mark over the folder.



When I used my O/S 9 Startup CD, I got a dialog box that said the HD was unreadable. I canceled out of that and ran Disk First Aid.



The first time I ran the utility, I got the messages:



"MountCheck found serious errors"

"Volume Header needs minor repairs"



I ran the utility a few more times, and each time I got these messages:



"Invalid BTree Header, 0, 0"

"MountCheck found serious errors"

"Volume BitMap needs minor repair, 4, 252"

"Volume Header needs minor repair, 1, 0"



What should I do from here? Is my HD toast? Or is there another utility I can run to solve the problem?



If not, is it worth fixing? I've backed up most everything I had on the HD, including the most sensitive material, and although I have lost a few files and some hours of work, all the key material I need is not only backed up but saved on my iBook as well. However, I would like access to my email archive if at all possible, so I'm wondering where to go from here.



Thanks in advance for your help!



GTSC

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    durandaldurandal Posts: 277member
    Well... the B-Tree is the catalog where the Macintosh stores the File/Directory Hierachy (to some extent similar to the FAT on PC HDs with a FAT Filesystem). You might try using another disk repair utility, Apple's First Aid is known for not being able to fix every problem that would be solvable.



    If that doesn't work, you might indeed have to initialize (i.e. format) and thereby completely erase the hard drive. This is, as long as your hard disk isn't physically damaged (which is hard to assess for me, I'm not that much of an hardware expert, ya know...)



    Greetings

    durandal
  • Reply 2 of 8
    voxappsvoxapps Posts: 236member
    DiskWarrior is designed to fix what ails your Mac.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    To be safe replace the drive... You might find that the drive will fail you again.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent Posts: 187member
    Thanks to all of you for your advice.



    Good news... I ran Disk First Aid several times over (and prayed), and it mounted.



    Since then, it has booted up perfectly every time. However, I am aware that this problem may occur again--even soon--so I have backed up the additional files I needed, and will consider replacing the drive. (BTW, how much would that be, including labor? Just curious. I'm no longer under AppleCare.)



    However... I have one final question. Where is the file that contains one's entire email cache for Outlook Express 5.1? I have email stored in several folders that I would like to transfer to my laptop, but I can't find that information on my hard drive anywhere. Where should I be looking?



    GTSC
  • Reply 5 of 8
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Cost = the price of the HD, labor = you can do it yourself. HD replacement is very easy. Remove the cover of your iMac, gently pry the power cable out of back of the HD (the smaller of the two) and than pull the larger data cable out (should come out easier than the power cord). Take a look at the jumper settings on the back of the HD and mirror them on your new HD. Than plug in the data cable, than power cable, after you have physically mounted the drive (with screws and whatnot). Extremely easy, don't get a HD above 120 GB, or else your iMac won't be able to use any portion of the data above 120 GB (in other words, if you get a 140 gig HD, 40 of the GBs will be unusable.) If you don't want to do it yourself, or think you are not capable (which can't be true since it is so easy) expect to pay a little extra for labor. HDs are cheap, very cheap. Look online, www.macmall.com has some deals, or check the local office supply and or computer stores for deals, rebates make it extra sweet. HDs are universally compatible, so after a quick formatting, it will work in a Mac. Good luck, any more questions post them here or drop me a Private Message, I'll be happy to help any way I can. There is probably a support page on www.apple.com I tried to find it for you, but the support site seems to be down right now. Sorry.





    Edit: I forgot about your second question. You can find some mail files in ~/Library/Caches. Where ~ is your home folder. Your actual mailboxes are located in ~/Library/Mail. It may be ~/Library/Outlook express for you, I use mail, so I imagine it would place a similar folder for you.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    what about transfering all the data to the new hd, imac can't run both, i had mine updated to a western digital 80gb the install and transfer of data full check , diagnostics (for some reason my hd osx wouldn't transfer or died so my tech reinstalled osx and all updates and fixed everything total cost $200

    he said he had to install the old HD and new hd on a tower to do the transfer. He told me to keep the old drive as a data backup. My tech comes from 60miles away, we met halfway, but in eastern KY not a lot of apple tech people. I'd love to have an apple store near me. the closest is 140miles in columbus or cincinnati ohio
  • Reply 7 of 8
    voxappsvoxapps Posts: 236member
    Well, if money is no object (yeah, right) you could buy an external drive, copy your files to it, then restore after the new internal drive is in place. I bought one that's both USB (1 and 2) and FireWire, so I can connect to a variety of Macs. I partitioned it to work as a backup location for 3 different Macs, plus a couple of partitions for junk and non-critical archived stuff.



    Of course, copying a large hard drive over USB 1.1 is not an exercise for anyone in a hurry.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

    Where is the file that contains one's entire email cache for Outlook Express 5.1? I have email stored in several folders that I would like to transfer to my laptop, but I can't find that information on my hard drive anywhere. Where should I be looking?



    OE likes two places:

    path to your Outlook folder:Identities:Main Identity and Documents:Microsoft User Data:Identities:Main Identity (mine always prefers the first, however). There is file called Messages there. You take the largest one of them (it should also have a more recent date). If you need everything, not only messages, copy the whole 'Main Identity' folder.



    PS. Prepare some portable file server to carry the data, because my messages for only half a year take over 800MB.\
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