I have a 115 GB partition that both TechTool Pro and Disk First Aid
claim is okay, but every time the Finder starts -- and at other times --
I get a message that serious damage exists in the catalog tree, and that
I should use DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory immediately, usually
followed by (8008,1), sometimes by (8008,2). I'm using it under 8.6,
but I brought the disk to a Mac running OS X, and Disk Utility also said
it was okay. I ran DiskWarrior under 9.2, but after running for three
days it never got past finding directory data. There probably is a
problem, because sometimes my computer freezes when it's accessing part
of that partition; I have a feeling there were some bad blocks as well.
Copying to or from the partition sometimes doesn't work: the progress
dialog stops at some point, and pressing the Stop button doesn't close
it. Is there anything I can do besides letting DiskWarrior go for as
long as it wants? I've let it run for over a week straight on other
disks; I'd prefer not to do that.

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:33:01 UTC, Nullibicity
<nullibicity-news@SPAMBLOCKnullibicity.com.invalid> wrote:


If it takes fantastically long, my guess is that it's doing retries all
over the place, based on a less serious problem I recently had. But mine
took only
7 1/2 hours on a mere 50-Gig disk that's not full; your case sounds worse.


It would be nice if there were a Mac utility that would just attempt a
surface scan to let you know how bad the hardware is; radically, maybe
even _where_ the errors are. If anyone finds such a thing, I'd appreciate
hearing about it.

A substitute, for the Unix-minded who have a *spare* gigantic disk
partition: Start a terminal window, log in as root, do a copy (cp -Pr , I
think) of everything, with error output redirected suitably. This lousy
substitute for a simple utility was extremely useful to me.


--
Dan Drake
dd@dandrake.com
http://www.dandrake.com/
porlockjr.blogspot.com

In article <nullibicity-news-F0D7C5.14335413092006@news.verizon.net>,
Nullibicity <nullibicity-news@SPAMBLOCKnullibicity.com.invalid> wrote:


Null-

If that partition has a problem, your HD has a problem. I suggest backing
up any other partitions immediately.

For that partition, copy as many individual files as you can, while you
can. For the rest, how about using the OS X machine to rescue them, since
it thinks there is no problem?

Fred

In article <fmmck-1509061554570001@172.128.29.123>,
fmmck@aol.com (Fred McKenzie) wrote:


What makes you think that? What do the numbers mean, and why does only
DiskWarrior complain? I've been using the disk for several months; this
has only popped up around the time that the partition got to about 5 GB
left. Actually, an 80 GB partition on the disk has started to show the
same complaint at startup, now that it has less than 1 GB left. Could
it be a hardware failure? The disk seems fine otherwise.

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

In article <vhIsdqY67dTD-pn2-2diOcziLYhtb@localhost>,
"Dan Drake" <dd@dandrake.com> wrote:


Retries? Wouldn't that mean accessing the disk? The disk activity
light has typically stopped after a while on Step 5; I figured
DiskWarrior was sorting through the contents in memory. I once let
DiskWarrior run for over a week -- it may have been on this disk -- and
for most of that time the progress bar didn't move. Sometimes you have
to have faith, especially on a slow machine.


TechTool Pro has a surface scan, though I'm not sure it works, because
it gave a pass to the disk in question. I think Norton Utilities had
that feature, but I heard it's horrible on OS X disks.

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

In article <nullibicity-news-F0AA06.16212815092006@news.verizon.net>,
Nullibicity <nullibicity-news@SPAMBLOCKnullibicity.com.invalid> wrote:


Null-

I don't know what the numbers mean.

Even though each partition acts as if it was a separate hard drive, it is
only part of a larger drive. If there is a head problem or some areas of
the disk surface have a problem, there is only one head (or set of heads)
and there is no reason to believe problems do not exist on the disk
surface allocated to other sectors. In other words, when the first sign
of a hardware problem appears, it is time to back it up. Doesn't
"complaint at startup" qualify?

It is cheaper to replace the HD now than it is to pay several hundred
dollars to a data recovery expert later.

Fred

In article <fmmck-1709061301340001@172.167.14.153>,
fmmck@aol.com (Fred McKenzie) wrote:


Thank you for your response. You're right -- I'm just wondering how to
know whether it's a hardware problem or just more catalog corruption
than usual. I'm using DiskWarrior 2.1, and I thought that doesn't deal
with hardware errors. I may just back up the critical data and leave
the disk as it is, but I was hoping someone else had seen this problem
before so I could avoid it in the future.

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/

In article <nullibicity-news-4C7951.15101717092006@news.verizon.net>,
Nullibicity <nullibicity-news@SPAMBLOCKnullibicity.com.invalid> wrote:


Null-

In my experience, catalog corruption is NOT usual. Perhaps there is one
simple problem that has eluded you, but it sounds like something more
serious.

When the factory formatted the HD, they ran a check for bad blocks.
Nearly all HDs have some, and there is a table or bad blocks somewhere on
the drive. One thing you can do if you have the right utility, is to run
a check for bad blocks. Once the table has been updated, you should have
no further trouble.

If you do have further trouble after doing that, it is likely you have a
hardware problem. The utility program may discover that in the process of
checking the HD.

I can't remember the name of the program I used to use with OS 8 and 9. I
think it was Norton Utilities. Norton has a bad reputation for use with
OS X, but worked well with OS 8 and 9.

Fred

In article <fmmck-1909061229510001@172.137.225.138>,
fmmck@aol.com (Fred McKenzie) wrote:


True, I've never had this problem before, but I have had problems which
I needed DiskWarrior to fix, especially with partitions over 100 GB:
disks that wouldn't mount at startup, loss of disk space, and the
dreaded error -412 (which I don't think I've ever been able to fix
completely). I try to run DiskWarrior every once in a while to prevent
problems.


I think I ran TechTool Pro's Surface Scan feature; it didn't report
anything, so that's why I don't think it's a hardware issue. Of course,
bad blocks could have developed since then.


Right. For years I heard try DiskWarrior first, then TechTool Pro, then
Norton Utilities as a last resort.

--
Nullibicity
http://www.nullibicity.com/