[(young) pioneer]

Hi there,
i own a 12" powerbook (80gb / 1,25 memory) and i've been trying to check my disk (with Norton Utilities and with the Mac OS X 10.4.2 CD).
However, when i insert the cd's and restart with 'c'-key the CD's are being spit out after 5 seconds or so...

I did start up from the OS X cd by choosing the CD in the startup items but this will only allow me to reinstall the system (what i do NOT want)

anyone knows what the problem here might be?
(this is the first time i try to check my disk on this mahine)

Also what software do you people think is the best for checking/repairing your harddrive. I've been using Norton for years, but of course OSX also has this first aid program...
just wonder what is the best software to use.

thanks!!!

[chabig]

A couple of thoughts:

1. Ditch Norton. Actually throw the disc away if you can. It has a reputation for nothing but trouble on the Mac. And if you've installed anything Norton, delete it!

2. When a Mac refuses to start from a CD, it usually doesn't eject the disc. It simply starts from the hard drive. The behavior you describe seems strange to me. When you restart, it's important to hold the C key down continuously until the grey apple logo appears.

3. You don't have to restart from a CD to check your hard drive. Just run Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder) and click on the First Aid tab. From there, you can verify the hard disk. Chances are everything is fine. If it returns with errors, let us know.

By the way, Macs typically don't require the maintenance mindset that Windows does. If it's working fine, then just leave it alone.

Chris

[(young) pioneer]

Hey thanks Chris!
so ditch Norton eh?
i've had people telling me the same thing... but then others said it was OK.
Someone told me to use disk warrior. Any thoughts on that? (never used it)

thanks again for the advice.
i'll keep you updated


Stein

[(young) pioneer]

Hi there, just checked with first aid > verify disk. the popup window said it can't continue to verify disk...

here's the message:

_______________________________________________
Verifying volume “YUMIGO”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Illegal name
Illegal name
Checking multi-linked files.
og hierarchy.",0)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume The volume needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
_______________________________________________

or ???

[chabig]

Disk Warrior is fantastic for one task--repairing directory corruption. Before OS X, I used to use Disk Warrior as a preventative tool. Since OS X (and especially since disk journaling was introduced), Disk Warrior has become a repair tool, not a maintenance tool. I've only used it once in the past 5 years. I would not recommend buying it unless Apple's Disk Utility reports problems that it is unable to fix.

As for Norton, search this and other forums. You'll find plenty of reports of bad stuff. The problem is that the Windows security companies see the Mac as a new market to crack for more revenue and so they market to us (mainly people switching from Windows). The trouble is, we simply don't need them because we don't have the kind of Windows problems their products were designed to fix.

Chris

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by (young) pioneer

Hi there, just checked with first aid > verify disk. the popup window said it can't continue to verify disk...

here's the message:

_______________________________________________
Verifying volume “YUMIGO”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Illegal name
Illegal name
Checking multi-linked files.
og hierarchy.",0)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume The volume needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
_______________________________________________

or ???

You need to start up in single user mode by holding down command+s while booting and then typing fsck -yf and pressing return when you get to the prompt. When it's done it will say filesystem modified. You need to do the command again until it says the disk appears OK.

[(young) pioneer]

...this will not affect my files???
what does it do exactly?

(sorry, never tried this so i rather make sure... )




Stein

[ghporter]

This is an OS issue, not an Applications issue. I'm moving it to where it belongs.

[chabig]

For a complete description of what fsck does, open Terminal (in the Utilities folder). It's the command line interface to the OS. Type "man fsck" without the quotes, then hit return.

The command as you'll use it from single-user mode:

fsck -fy

Chris