My Cube just died...

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Here's the story:

On Friday, Jan.25-02 the worst thing that everyone fears, has now happened to me.



It was a full day of Cube usage:

1. Finishing up a program book that needs to be sent to the printer's on monday.

2. Creating a Postcard for a local Organization.

2. Designed a couple Ads for a client.

3. A personnel research project on Orchestras.



By the time I was finished with everything it was just about 12:00. So, I decided to get something to eat and turn on Letterman. I came back to my computer about 12:20.

1st thing I noticed was the screen, mouse didn't move. 2nd, It was Indexing the hardrive with 30 mins to go. Also, There was also a bomb on the screen that said something about an "Address error." When I restarted I got the Flashing "?" Folder Icon. (At this point, I was concerned) My Cube always crashes, overheats, ect. I have my fingers permanently glued to "Apple" "S" Keys. BUT I never got the flashing folder before! So, I tried to starting up using software restore CD. After loading, it asked me if I want to initialize the HD. There was no way in hell I would agree to that. I Ran "Disk first Aid" and it found a problem:



Invalid Extent Entry 504, 766

(could not be fixed with "Disk First Aid")



So, I called Apple support the next morning. (since my Cube's under support) Told them about everything. Figured out that my Directory was damaged, and that they could not to anything for me. BUT if I wanted to Purchase "Disk Warrior" for 69.99, that would probable recover most of my files (by creating a new Directory) all I have to say is...... WTF! Ever since I got my Cube I have had nothing but problems; and now that I have the biggest problem I could every encounter an all Apple can do is ask me to spend more money on this SH**T! What's wrong with this picture?



The guy on the phone was like.. Yes we care about your situation, but we really can't take it any further until you purchase this software.



If and when I recover my files, I have a list of other complaints I will need to discuss with Apple Support. ...and They better be ready to go beyond there capabilities.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    very similar thing just happened to me. I was rebooting into classic to print a proof of this big project i was working on in quark. everything was fine, no errors. when i rebooted i got the flashing folder. my cube isn't under support anymore. i played around with it some, but i didn't know about disk warrior, so eventually i gave up, got mad, kicked the wall, and just initialized the drive. and being completely honest, i cried a little bit when i realized i hadn't backed up any pictures i'd taken since i got my digital camera. that's two road trips, thanksgiving, christmas, new years, and a friend's going away party. yeah, so i was pissed to say the least. Not to mention the work that I've done (which isn't that bad. I did all my designing offline, wisely, so it's just a matter of bringing things back into Quark).



    anyway just wanted to say i feel your pain plus, i am still a little pissed about what happened to me. i've redone the quark project, but there was plenty of stuff on there that can't be replaced. it's the first problem i've ever had with my cube. the worst part is that i can't be mad at anyone but myself, since i was so stupid about not backing up.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    say it happened when you installed the iTunes update a couple months ago... then they give you a free disk warrior



    it'll be pretty tough to convince them though.



    just buy disk warrior. you should have a disk repair utility anyways
  • Reply 3 of 12
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    This sounds something like my PowerBook problem, I had the same disk problem. Fortunately I had backep up 97% of my data 48hrs before this....for really the first time ever.



    Phew.....



    I would seriously just keep calling back and bitching. Decide what you will accept before you call. Personally, I would tell them the thing has been a piece of shit since the beginning and tell them you want a full refund or new bottom end or middle PM. It is under warranty. Screw them!



    You have got to be firm with these folks. Be nice, calm and fair. But don't budge. Polite threats and persistence always work in the end. I have a plan on how to get a new machine if my PB ever fails under warranty. I know given those circumstances of catostrophic failure I would win. It may take 5 months, as in Fran441's case, but I would win.



    [ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: SDW2001 ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Similar problem happened to me with my G4 400, though luckily this was my personal machine which didn't have anything critical on it. Was able to recover everything completely using a combination of Disk First Aid and Techtool Pro, but I think Disk Warrior would have be able to do the job by itself.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    kwondokwondo Posts: 217member
    Capacola,



    I understand exactly how you fell. I had a similar problem last week when my Cube HD crashed. I don't believe it's the Cube but somehow my volume directory got corrupted and OS could not read or write. It asked me it initialize the HD.



    I have TECHTOOLS and I was able to ressurrect my drive but in the process of reinstalling (restoring) a clean version of OS I put the corrupted part of my system preferences back and it crashed again.



    Starting from TechTools again I ressurrected the hd for the second time and that's when SH*T hit the fan. Luckily I had made a volume copy to another HD in October so it wasn't a big loss but I didn't realize I had made a copy until I recovered all my files using Norton Utilities 6.0.



    I don't know why I decided to buy TechTools 2 years ago. I have always used Norton until now. I initialized my HD and partitioned in into three and once I created a new volume directory I began running Norton "UNERASE" tool and I can't tell you enough how amazing Norton is. I was able to recover most of my files. Scary at times what Norton can do. I had an iMac 333 bought new few years ago and when I was snooping around the HD with UNERASE I was able to recover files that were on the HD even before my purchase! (I called Apple and complained that my purchase of the iMac was new but didn't understand why there were files that had modified dates pre-existing my purchase. There were a lot of porn pics on it. I told Apple I feel cheated that i got a used part when I paid for a new product.) Sorry for the side track but don't panic too much. I may be wrong but I think that when you initialize the HD you are not erasing the content of the drive (unless you set initialization to "set to zero" in which you then cannot recover any files) but simple instructing the computer to create a new volume directory. The way I see it it's like thowing files into the trash. and selecting "empty trash." Though you don't see the files anymore they are still there. The computer simply tells itself that it can write over the trashed files. Experts, am I right in my assumption?
  • Reply 6 of 12
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Your hunch is correct. That's why a multi-gigabyte file is "deleted" as quickly as a piddly little text file.



    Furthermore, Apple's file system keeps track of when something was deleted, and if it needs to write over a deleted file it chooses the oldest ones. This means that deleted files will stick around for as long as practicable, in case you find out that you really need them back.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    logan calelogan cale Posts: 1,281member
    Don't erase your hard drive, I have that problem constantly on my iBook and I've finally figured out how to temporarily fix it (at least for me).



    I have 10.1.2 and 9.2.2 on my iBook and it happens every time I do a force restart in either OS. What I do is:



    Boot onto my 10.1 CD and run DFA on the drive. Then I restart and boot off my 9 CD and the hard drive will mount. Then reselect the drive in startup disk and restart. From then on it works until I force restart again.



    Happened on my Pismo too. Never did it again after I replaced the hard drive. If my iBook keeps doing it for a while I'm going to send it to Apple as it's under warrantee.



    [ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: MacAgent ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 12
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Summer of 2000 a G4 I was working on started going loopy... then died. All of a sudden when I did a Get Info on the HD, it said I had a 13 Terabyte HD with 30 Terabyts free... ummm, riiiiight.



    I managed to save all critical files by booting from a custom made boot cd and back them up on CDR. I tried repairing and it worked sort of...



    I decided to just kill everything. I did a "zero all data" initialization and reinstalled OS 9 onto it.



    Weird stuff.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    I figure that it was only a matter of time until something like this would happen. Lets face it, the Cube had a lot of problems. Many people had issues with the exterior "flaws" in the case. ...Or maybe it was the fact that you had to tip the Cube over to plug something into it. Oh, and lets not forget about the power brick..... Good Design.



    It's now Day two. Waiting for the "saviour" software to arrive. Even if it recovers some of my files. I'm probable going to need to reinstall the system, and all of my apps. How much of a Bi**ch is that going to be! I can't believe this is happening to me right now. Do any of you guys think it's worth fighting for? Maybe it was hardware/ software problem. Something in the Cube F**cking up while Sherlocks was Indexing the HD. Why should I have to pay for something I had no control over? Sure, I could of went into Sherlock to disable the auto Indexing, but why should I have to doubt an Apple default system 9 feature?
  • Reply 10 of 12
    This doesn't really have anything to do with this topic, I'm sorry for that, but I was reading all of these stories, and got kind of scared.



    I've never really had a system or habit of backing up, but luckily i've never had a problem either.

    here's my question: I have 2 hard drives, one that has my serious work on (6GB), and the other has music and pictures and stuff(30GB), that i don't really care to back up, because if i lose it, i'm not too teribly concerned. but i don't want to lose my work. can i just drag the 6GB disk to the 30GB disk? that would be easy, but it would back up the sys folder and stuff too. will that cause any problems?



    it's past my bedtime, so if this is incoherent, please forgive me.



    p.s. i have os9.1 installed on both drives.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    wormboywormboy Posts: 220member
    Well, yes, this will work (and in fact having two bootable partitions on one drive can be useful) but it would be loads slower than it needs to be. Why not just be sensible and use the file hierarchy to your advantage? That is, keep all you work files in a single subfolder and just drag that folder over (or even better, create an applescript that does it automatically on shutdown or startup).



    And capacola, while I have symapthy for your situation, I don't think you should be able to hold apple liable for DiskWarrior. These things happen (if they didn't, Norton would not have a product to sell, and would do rather poorly as a company!). Sometimes file directories get mangled; it's an awful thing, but it's your responsibility to be prepared. Buy Norton, or Techtool Pro. It is a worthwhile investment. You can download a "lite" version of TTP from their web site.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    Something similar happened to me back in 10/01.



    I was bruning some songs from the Gorillaz CD into my mp3 library...and it froze. Something about some invalid key length that DFA couldn't fix. So I got the same "you need DiskWarrior which COULD work..." line. So, I did something I regret doing, I erased my trusty iMac's hard drive clean! Ugh, there went old conversations/e-mails I would've liked to hold on to, my mp3 collection I had going since May 2000, some school assignments, etc. ALL GONE IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. Have been steadily rebuilding...(partitoned into two).



    All is well now (my uncle has DiskWarrior which I could've used...the review that said it would fix ANY problem made me regret having erased it all more).



    # of mp3's to date: 453 (2.12 GB worth).



    --Daniel
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