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kennedy · Mar 10, 2003, 12:15 AM

Running 'fsck -y' in single user mode checks my startup disk and reports all is well on volume "OSX", which is the name of one of the four partitions on that disk.

However, my problem is with the single "Users" partition on a different disk. Due to the problem (invalid node structure) which is not fixed by Disk Utility, the system is not mounting the disk.

How do I get 'fsck' to check and repair that disk???

Oh, and don't bother suggesting DiskWarrior... unless you can tell me how to get OS9 to boot... it currently hangs in the boot process due to the faulty disk.

Darwin would be a lot nicer if they'd bother to update the man pages... the man pages are from the ancient days of the /etc directory!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

pat++ · Mar 10, 2003, 12:40 AM

Open Terminal, then enter :

sudo pdisk

enter your admin password, then type 'L' to list devices.

You should see the list of all your harddisks with their respective partitions.

The name of your disk should be something like /dev/rdiskN (where N is a number).

then find the number corresponding to your HFS partition, let's call it #.

You should be able to fsck with :

sudo fsck -y /dev/rdiskNs#

(replace N and # with the appropriate values).

I've not tested all this, but it should work... let us know...

piracy · Mar 10, 2003, 08:42 AM

Holy cripes. You don't have to do all of what pat just said.

Just use:

df

That will show the "device" that represents each of your disks and/or partitions (/dev/rdisk0s9, etc.) Remember the one(s) that you need, and then in single user mode do:

fsck_hfs /dev/rdiskXsX

where rdiskXsX is what you found above using df; add the -f flag to force it, if needed. 'fsck' doesn't work here; you need to use 'fsck_hfs'.

gorickey · Mar 10, 2003, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by piracy:
Holy cripes. You don't have to do all of what pat just said.

Just use:

df

That will show the "device" that represents each of your disks and/or partitions (/dev/rdisk0s9, etc.) Remember the one(s) that you need, and then in single user mode do:

fsck_hfs /dev/rdiskXsX

where rdiskXsX is what you found above using df; add the -f flag to force it, if needed. 'fsck' doesn't work here; you need to use 'fsck_hfs'.

Yeah, I have done this in the past when one of drives "thought" it was journaled, so I had to force it into thinking and finding that it was an HFS+ drive actually.

I used the following command:

/sbin/fsck_hfs -f /dev/diskX

Worked like a charm.

pat++ · Mar 10, 2003, 09:20 AM

Originally posted by piracy:
Holy cripes. You don't have to do all of what pat just said.

I guess df alone won't work. As he mentioned, the system does NOT mount the disk. As far as I know, df only shows mounted file systems.

kennedy · Mar 10, 2003, 09:28 AM

Originally posted by pat++:
I guess df alone won't work. As he mentioned, the system does NOT mount the disk. As far as I know, df only shows mounted file systems.

Correct, 'df' only shows the mounted systems... I needed the pdisk command to find out the unmounted Users /dev name.

However, 'fsck -y /dev/rdiskNs#' doesn't work at all... it just tells me "BAD SUPER BLOCK...". So, thanks for the tip on "fsck_hfs" which did run...

Unfortunately, fsck_hfs did NOT fix the problem. It said:

disk0s9: 0x8 (UNDEFINED).
Invalid node structure
(4,2151)
** Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
disk0s9: 0x8 (UNDEFINED).

which is very consistent with Disk Utility which complained of the same "Invalid node structure" and then did the same "Rebuilding Catalog B-tree." and similarly had no real effect. Running either fsck_hfs or Disk Utility repeatedly simply results in the exact same thing every time.

[sigh]

Any advice or suggestions???

Thanks!

gorickey · Mar 10, 2003, 09:50 AM

Have you tried any other Disk Utilities?

kennedy · Mar 10, 2003, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by gorickey:
Have you tried any other Disk Utilities?

No, just fsck_hfs and Disk Utility.
It doesn't appear I can use DiskWarrior since OS9 hangs.

What other OS X Disk Utilities would you suggest?

gorickey · Mar 10, 2003, 10:02 AM

Originally posted by kennedy:
No, just fsck_hfs and Disk Utility.
It doesn't appear I can use DiskWarrior since OS9 hangs.

What other OS X Disk Utilities would you suggest?

Try Drive 10 (make sure it's the latest update)...

kennedy · Mar 10, 2003, 11:43 AM

Originally posted by gorickey:
Try Drive 10 (make sure it's the latest update)...

The VersionTracker reviews on that are a bit scary.

I tried repeatedly booting to the DiskWarrior CD and after several hangs, it finally let me in... with my Users partition mounted. OS9 itself seems to be the best tool of the bunch... when it finally works.

But, given all the positive words on DiskWarrior, I decide to go ahead and run it and see if it can clean up the problems... how long will DiskWarrior take on a 80GB disk that is about half full? I'm a bit worried as the barber pole only moves once every couple minutes and the clock in the menubar stopped cold.

Anyway, a time estimate would be very helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions... hopefully this works.

Brian

gorickey · Mar 10, 2003, 11:57 AM

Originally posted by kennedy:
The VersionTracker reviews on that are a bit scary.

I tried repeatedly booting to the DiskWarrior CD and after several hangs, it finally let me in... with my Users partition mounted. OS9 itself seems to be the best tool of the bunch... when it finally works.

But, given all the positive words on DiskWarrior, I decide to go ahead and run it and see if it can clean up the problems... how long will DiskWarrior take on a 80GB disk that is about half full? I'm a bit worried as the barber pole only moves once every couple minutes and the clock in the menubar stopped cold.

Anyway, a time estimate would be very helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions... hopefully this works.

Brian

I would allow for at least 20-30 minutes. Anything less then that is a BONUS.

CharlesS · Mar 10, 2003, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by kennedy:
The VersionTracker reviews on that are a bit scary.

I tried repeatedly booting to the DiskWarrior CD and after several hangs, it finally let me in... with my Users partition mounted. OS9 itself seems to be the best tool of the bunch... when it finally works.

But, given all the positive words on DiskWarrior, I decide to go ahead and run it and see if it can clean up the problems... how long will DiskWarrior take on a 80GB disk that is about half full? I'm a bit worried as the barber pole only moves once every couple minutes and the clock in the menubar stopped cold.

Anyway, a time estimate would be very helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions... hopefully this works.

Brian

Use DiskWarrior - you should be able to boot from its included CD.

The time it will take varies depending on how messed up your drive is. It could take 15 minutes, it could take all night. Just run it when you don't need to use the computer for a while. Chances are, when it's done, you'll end up with a hard drive that works.

Anomalous · Mar 10, 2003, 03:51 PM

Originally posted by kennedy:
The VersionTracker reviews on that are a bit scary.

There are a lot of trolls on VT. I try not to avoid using a program based solely on VT reviews.