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bbales · Feb 24, 2007, 03:44 PM

My powerbook (12-inch) was very loud this morning (thought it was the fan, but I'm not sure) and frozen on the startup screen. Reboots yielded gray screen with apple. Single-user mode failed. Safe boot mode failed. I got it to boot onto my diskwarrior CD and put it to work. Disk Warrior found critical errors in the volume wrapper. About 2 1/2 hours later, it said it had fixed some things and was ready to replace the directory BUT it needed 154 MB more for a fail-safe replacement.

Well, I couldn't exactly get into the machine to toss some files and empty the mail, so I can't GET 154 MB. (I tried attaching an external HD, hoping I could actually move some files over, but it didn't work, which I really didn't expect.) So I tried going with the repairs I already have and restarting it, hoping for the best. Hope was denied...

So -- any ideas? Apparently I have less than 4 GB free on the drive (which kind of surprises me, but again, I can't do anything about that at the moment). Should I let DW run again, and this time replace the directory anyway? I can't even boot from the Tiger DVD, b/c the DW CD is in the drive.

Help is quite appreciated. I don't know if the drive is going bad or what. I can only say I'm glad I copied my quicken and Turbo Tax file yesterday. Unfortunately, the backup of the rest of it was going to happen today. Most of my stuff is OK, as this is not my main machine, and I did do a full backup a month or so ago, but my daughters may lose some stuff, including any itunes purchased on the last month.

Jacke · Feb 24, 2007, 05:49 PM

Hmm. Well, you should be able to remove the CD by rebooting with the mouse-button held in.

bbales · Feb 24, 2007, 06:26 PM

Yes, after I posted, I looked up (to refresh mymemory) the shortcuts, and did do that. Now I have the Tiger install in, and am running disk utility. It's still working away. I'm just wondering what I'll do if -- after running disk utility AND DW, IF the hard drive still won't boot (which so far it won't, on its own). I think I may run DW again and, despite the warnings, have it rebuild again. I'm not sure I could be worse off than I am now, which is pretty bad. Let's face it, I have a non-booting laptop.

I will say, if it is the drive (and by the way, SMART says the disk is verified, it will be my first dead drive in 15 years of mac ownership. Knock on wood.

seanc · Feb 25, 2007, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by bbales

Yes, after I posted, I looked up (to refresh mymemory) the shortcuts, and did do that. Now I have the Tiger install in, and am running disk utility. It's still working away. I'm just wondering what I'll do if -- after running disk utility AND DW, IF the hard drive still won't boot (which so far it won't, on its own). I think I may run DW again and, despite the warnings, have it rebuild again. I'm not sure I could be worse off than I am now, which is pretty bad. Let's face it, I have a non-booting laptop.

I will say, if it is the drive (and by the way, SMART says the disk is verified, it will be my first dead drive in 15 years of mac ownership. Knock on wood.

Boot from the Tiger CD and install OS X on your external firewire drive. Then boot from that and copy all of your IMPORTANT data over. If your drive is failing it's best to get the imporant files first.
You can then try and free some space and then run DW again.

Sherman Homan · 10:11 AM

seanc is right, that is the safest approach. If your drive is dying, get your data moved pronto! On the other hand, if the drive really was about to go up in smoke then Disk Warrior would probably not be ready to toss the directory and build a new one. You are most likely going to be just fine. From your original post, DW only wanted another 154 megs of space. You should be able to clear that up pretty easily. Good luck!

bbales · Feb 25, 2007, 09:33 AM

I just posted on the Powerbook thread, but I'll reinterate. I did install from the Tiger CD and repaired the disk (which took one heck of a long time, too). Then miraculously, my drive came back. I trashed some files, to give me space for DW. Then I was trying to do a backup (stupidly via the network instead of just plugging in an external drive -- I was lazy); the program failed and then I couldn't get the drive back. This morning, I booted up again from the Tiger DVD, repaired the disk again (no problems found). Got the drive back again, thank God and am currently backing everything up again. (Fortunately, I'd done a full backup a month ago, and much of what is on that drive is already duplicated elsewhere or isn't essential. But still. I want everything, if possible, so I'm doing the whole thing.)

I'm going to run DW again, and as soon as the backup is done.

But, as I said in my hardware section post, the drive is really making some funky sounds when it's trying to boot up unsuccessfully. Not pretty at all. I'm wondering if I should just replace it, or continue to use it (backing up really frequently!) until something else happens.

Never had a drive die on me...
But I back up just in case. I back up my desktop all the time, just in case. And now I'm seeing what a good idea that is.

Sherman Homan · Feb 25, 2007, 10:11 AM

But, as I said in my hardware section post, the drive is really making some funky sounds when it's trying to boot up unsuccessfully. Not pretty at all. I'm wondering if I should just replace it, or continue to use it (backing up really frequently!) until something else happens.

Ah, funky sounds from a hard drive is never a good thing. Your mileage may vary, but the drive is failing and it will get worse, not better. I would get a replacement drive.... and keep backing up your most important files.

bbales · Feb 26, 2007, 08:49 AM

It froze again yesterday afternoon (this time on itunes), so I tried DW again. Iterestingly, even after I gave it more space, it still told me I needed 154 MB of space (after dumping several gigs, this was interesting), but I just went ahead and rebuilt/replaced anyway. So far it's running. No noises yesterday. I still think it's going to go, but we'll see. Everything's backed up, so I'm good for the moment.

I do wonder if it's a software/corruption problem instead of simply hardware. I installed an assignement planner/tracker program on Friday for one of my kids. And I'd also had a problematic Tiger update install a month or so ago, and I wonder if that started something that just showed up now. We'll see.

Goldfinger · Feb 26, 2007, 09:21 AM

I wouldn't bet on it being a software problem. It's probably hardware. Get a new drive asap.