HELP! Fixing Crashed HD
Hi. My roommate's hard drive on his eMac just crashed two nights ago, and I have it connected to my iMac via Target Mode (but it can't mount). He said he got an out of space error, and then deleted some stuff. He shut it down, and the next morning it would start up, but only get to the point just before the login screen... it was just a blank blue screen. Anyway...
I ran Micromat's Drive 10 to see if I could repair it. After letting it run last night, it came up with this dialog box:
I would usually just hit repair and be done with it, but it's showing a size of zero bytes... does that mean that it will erase everything? It says that it keeps all the files and folders (actually adds one), but the disk space section is a little disconcerting. We then ran Apple's TechTool (that comes with AppleCare), and it came up with almost the exact same dialog box. Actually, it listed '.0 bytes' as the new volume size instead of just 0.
He would like to get his 55 GB off there if he could (I do have the space, it's just a matter of getting to it). Any suggestions? Should I bite the bullet and click repair? Or is there a backup I can do first?
Much thanks!
I ran Micromat's Drive 10 to see if I could repair it. After letting it run last night, it came up with this dialog box:
I would usually just hit repair and be done with it, but it's showing a size of zero bytes... does that mean that it will erase everything? It says that it keeps all the files and folders (actually adds one), but the disk space section is a little disconcerting. We then ran Apple's TechTool (that comes with AppleCare), and it came up with almost the exact same dialog box. Actually, it listed '.0 bytes' as the new volume size instead of just 0.
He would like to get his 55 GB off there if he could (I do have the space, it's just a matter of getting to it). Any suggestions? Should I bite the bullet and click repair? Or is there a backup I can do first?
Much thanks!
Comments
do a df and not the device that your have mounted the disk on eg /dev/disk0s9 blah blah /Volumes/Friendsdisk
then do an fsck /dev/disk0s9
this should correct any filesystems errors that occur.
It probably ran on your friends mac anyway.
I prefer DiskWarrior if fsck doesn't help.
Dobby.
P.S. Did you try disk utility to repair it?
Yes, I did try to use Disk utility to repair it... it finished, but it didn't help.
My main question is if I click replace, will it erase his hard drive?
There is a high possibility that by rebuilding the inodes/superblock and free map index it will not delete the data as such but you can't access it as the references will have gone.
Ever read The Dice Man?
Sorry I can't help too much. How about you send an e-mail off to Micromat and ask them?
Dobby.
I do have space to back it up to... if I could just get to it...
My roomie has applecare, so he's calling them now. What a sh!tty time for this to happen... just two weeks before finals, and he had papers on there, and all!
Hmmm, maybe I should backup my drive now.
They fixed it... and not how I expected either. Apperently it was some preference that was causing all the problems... they worked him through booting into single user mode (command prompt), and renaming several preference files. After about an hour and a half, they got the right one. The tech guy even had to look up quite a bit of stuff.
I'm still perplexed as to why my computer couldn't mount it, but it's fixed now
Originally posted by bauman
they worked him through booting into single user mode (command prompt), and renaming several preference files.
Can your friend recall the file names? They must be posted to Mac OS X Hints because not all users have AppleCare support.
By the way, did you try booting your comp to OS 9 with your friend's comp in Target Mode? It might work.