[adamfishercox]

Here's the log: can I do anything but re-format? I'd rather not lose all my TM backups, but I'm not taking it to drive specialist or anything.

VERIFY:

Verifying volume “Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Incorrect number of directory hard links
Invalid node structure
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 1781379 instead of 1763809)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 314595 instead of 311701)
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 12824228 instead of 12992449)
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Time Machine needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

REPAIR:

Verify and Repair volume “Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid record count
Volume check failed.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

[CharlesS]

You could try DiskWarrior, but be aware that DiskWarrior reads the entire directory into memory, and since DiskWarrior is a 32-bit app, this means that if the disk directories take up more than 4 GB of space (which can sometimes happen with Time Machine disks), DiskWarrior will not be able to do it. If your directories are smaller than 4 GB, though, DiskWarrior is pretty much the best around for this sort of thing.

[adamfishercox]

n00bish question, but what counts as a directory? a single file, or the lowest folder in a hierarchy? none of the above?

[CharlesS]

It's kind of confusing, because the word "directory" often is used to mean a folder. However, in this case, I'm referring to the invisible files that contain the information on where all the files and folders on your disk are located. These are the files that Disk Utility and DiskWarrior scan for errors and repair if necessary.

[adamfishercox]

Well, its just Time Machine, so I'm just going to reformat. Or I was... until Disk Utility tells me that Erase failed due to "Operation Timeout." Is the hard drive itself physically shot?

The reason this all happened was the plug got pulled on the whole setup, apparently corrupting something. But I wouldn't think this could physically damage the drive?