disk problems...

magicfingersmagicfingers
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
my kids have a slot loading 400mhz imac and when I run fsck it keeps reporting "overlapping extent allocation" and it gives a file number in parentheses. it says that the "disk has been repaired", and that the "file system has been modified" but the same error occurs every time I run fsck so it doesnt appear to be fixing it at all.

any help or ideas as I dont know what an extent allocation file is or how to fix it other than maybe a re-install and I really dont want to do that.

any help would be appreciated....Thanx in advance, Randy

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    darren smithdarren smith Posts: 26member
    The extents allocation file keeps track of which sectors on your hard drive contain which files. It's a part of the disk directory (sort of like a table of contents for your drive).



    Many third party utilities are able to repair damage to the directory. The most common are Norotn Utilities, TechTool Pro, and DiskWarrior. DiskWarrior is commonly agreed to be the best of the three at repairing directory damage, and has the added bonus of being available for immediate download when you buy it. It's a little expensive, but most Mac users agree it is worth the price.



    I don't know of any freeware utilities that rebuild the directory, though it's possible there is a Unix command line to do it. Maybe someone else can help you with that.



    Hope this helps,



    Darren
  • Reply 2 of 4
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    DO NOT BUY NORTON

    that is all...
  • Reply 3 of 4
    vandewaalsvandewaals Posts: 450member
    I second Paul. Get DiskWarrior.



    To expand...are you running fsck off of the Install CD? If so, do you keep running it until it says it didn't change anything? Sometimes you have to run it several times in a row, as fixing one thing will expose another problem. I have no idea if fsck can fix this problem. If it can't, definitely get DiskWarrior. Or, reinstall if you already have your data backed-up elsewhere.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    aquafireaquafire Posts: 2,758member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    DO NOT BUY NORTON

    that is all...



    Its hard to admit, but Norton has been Bad news all round for quite some time.....

    Good for earlier systems but not OS-X..( totally f*cks everything it touches.) \
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