[Preciousss]

This is what happened:

1.) Kernel panic, yet again, logging in between admin and non-admin account (happened so many times before).

2.) Shut down with power button. Restarted 45 min. later. Only the admin account appears in log in screen. Other one is missing.

3.) Home folder is for non-admin is still there, but of course, all the folders are locked.

4.) Verified and repaired permissions.

5.) Started up with software install disc to verify and repair disk.

6.) Got the following during verification:

- Overlapped extent allocation (file 212829d)

- Invalid directory item count (It should be 48 instead of 47)

- Volume bit map needs minor repair

- Invalid volume free block count (It should be 13413603 instead of 13413609

I had to repair disk twice before seeing any results: all but the "Overlapped extent" message were repaired. I attempted to repair one more time, verified once more, and tried to repair two more times. It's still there.

I'll call Apple tomorrow when they're open, but does anybody have a clue what the hell is going on and how I can fix things?

(1GHZ Superbook, 10.2.3. 1GB RAM)

When I restarted to post this message, the admin account was still the only one that appeared in the log in screen.

[gorickey]

Sounds like you have some critical directory problems...a utility like DiskWarrior will fix those immediately!

[Cipher13]

DiskWarrior will fix it.

[Metzen]

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T USER NORTON!

My little brother had the exact same problem (well... extent overallocation or something) and he tried to use Norton (6.0) to fix it. It ****ed up his system something fierce. Now he gets a list of errors of ALL of his files "overlapping" with one another. Running DiskWarrior (purchased after Norton made this mess) took 3 days and 3 nights running straight fixing all 66,000 some-odd files on his computer.

I HATE NORON UTILITIES NOW!

[Preciousss]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
DiskWarrior will fix it.

The only thing is, I was waiting this next few weeks for the new version...In the meantime, I hope I didn't make it worse.

The saga continues...

I noticed that other users on the Apple forums had >similar< problems, but with the admin account disappearing. Lots of solutions offered too, but since my problem is slightly different, I'm presuming so is the solution.

Anyway. Since the previous post the following has happened:

1.) Restarted in single user mode and did the fsck -y thing until it said everything was OK. Interestingly enough, I did not get the "Overlapped extent allocation (fileXXXXX)" message, but another one that Disk Utility was supposed to have repaired already: Volume of bit map needs minor repair. Ran fsck again and it said things were peachy.

2.) Booted up but, again, only the admin appeared in log in screen. Home folder for non-admin user still present once I logged in.

BIG MISTAKE COMING UP?

3.) Called Apple and unquestioningly followed their instructions: archive & install.

- Reboot from install CD, when the Options button appears, choose Archive & Install and Preserve User & Network Settings. I was told this would retain all my prefs, apps, everything. My old System Folder would be marked Previous, retaining all this data, and a new one would be created. The only thing I would need to reinstall would be 10.2.3. Once I was sure I still had all my docs, I could log in as a root user and delete the System Folder (Previous) directory.

But it didn't quite work out that way. I'm still trying to understand exactly what happened. I now have a folder named Previous Systems\Previous System 1\ that has my >Shared< folder from before.

But the (new) root directory has all of the Home folders and files from before (admin account, non-admin). I'm quite confused and probably have not done a very good job of explaining the results (which doesn't help you, sorry).

Good news is that Disk Utility no longer finds any problems. I'd like to do a clean install now, and will probably use the Archive & Install feature again, but I want to be sure I fully understand what I'm doing this time. Tech Support did caution me to rename the previous system folder before attempting this again, so I'm aware of that issue.

But I'm still a bit lost. Sorry for the length of this. But I'm guessing this whole problem started with that string of kernel panics I kept getting when logging off and on between the admin and non-admin account. This was probably why my hard drive got corrupted. And I still don't know if simply creating a new user and dragging everything over from the non-accessible user will make everything OK.

Let me end this post now. Hopefully, one of you can help.

[Nai no Kami]

Hopefully, one of you can help. [/B]

I had a problem with a persistent error that neither fsck nor Disk Utility ( 9 and X version) would fix.
I would suggest you to backup all your important information and applications (cocoa apps sould be stuffed or put in a .dmg before backuping: I had an issue with OmniWeb and my iPhoto Library because of that) and even your preferences folder, if you like since this seems to be a disk problem rather than a corrupted preferences/cache one. Then my options would be:

a) The free one: reinstall the whole system. If you save your prefs you will not need to reconfigure the most part of your system.

b) The paid one: Run DiskWarrior and let the app solve you directory problem; it surely will.

Hope this helps.

This disk related error may also be the cause of your apps unexpectedly crashing/quitting.

PS: How come you like Neruda?

[e_ticket]

Isn't DiskWarrior an OS 9 utility?

What do you guys use for a new Mac that only boots OS X?

[pliny]

I've gotten these overlapped things before, the one time I used diskwarrior only to back up and redo directory, this worked fine, when i used techtool pro, it made things worse, so much worse i wiped the drive.

i think i was experiencing these problems because of booting back and forth between 9 and x partitions. Doing this always caused odd problems. I think. Anyone else think this may be true--well I mean, experience this? Sounds retarded I know but well....

Directory problems seem to be the biggest one for X from what I've seen.

[dtriska]

Originally posted by e_ticket:
Isn't DiskWarrior an OS 9 utility?

What do you guys use for a new Mac that only boots OS X?

From what I understand, the new Macs allow booting OS 9 from a CD, but not from a hard drive. Besides, DiskWarrior 3 is supposed to be an OS X app.