Verify/Repair Disk Failing, Not sure why...

dmetzcher

dmetzcher

Metzcher.com
I decided to try to verify my startup volume today via Disk Utility. It failed, stating that there was an error. I decided to boot from my Mac OS X Tiger installation DVD and repair the volume from there. It attempts this three times in a row, and reports an error. Here is the information below, as it appeared. If anyone knows what might be causing this, please let me know. I'm cloning the drive right now for fear that the internal disk drive in my iBook may be close to failing. I installed the 100GB drive about 8 months ago, and everything has been find up until now. What can I do?

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Disk Utility Output
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Checking HFS+ volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Incorrect number of thread records.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
----------------------------------------

From this point on, the checking of everything happens again. It then goes through all this a third time, and says something like, "repair failed due to error."

After the third check, the output says this:
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1 HFS volume checked.
1 volume could not be reparied because of an error.

Repair attempted on 1 volume.
1 volume could not be repaired.
----------------------------------------

What can I do? What can I check? Should I be worried? What should I be worried about?

Thanks so much to anyone who is able to help me out with this one. I really appreciate it.
 
DeltaMac said:
DiskWarrior
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
Click to expand...

Is what I am seeing typical of a (physically) failing hard disk? I ask because, rather than purchase an $80 piece of software to tell me this, and repair a disk that is going to fail (altogether) later anyway, wouldn't I be better off putting that money toward a new hard drive which will probably cost me about $130 with shipping?

I'm not being cheap here. I'll buy the software, but if anyone knows if what I am seeing is typical of a physically failing hard disk, as opposed to just a software issue, that would be helpful. If it's impossible to know that with any small amount of certaintly, I'll buy that as a reason to try Disk Warrior out. If it's probably going to be the disk anyway, I'd rather save the cash (just for now) and get a new drive instead. Eventually, I think I'll be buying Disk Warrior anyway, because I'm getting a new Mac Pro, and will have two Macs, at that point, and having Disk Warrior will be totally justified, in my mind.

(While typing this, I'm poking around the Disk Warrior Web site you linked to, and I see that I can grab it now and download it. Does it make a boot disk after I download it, or do I have to wait to get the CD/DVD in the mail for that? I'm a bit of an impulse buyer, sometimes, and this may be one of those times, especially if I can make a Disk Warrior boot disk right away.)

I am running fsck in single user mode right now. It looks like it might have corrected things. I'll post again when it's done doing whatever it does.
 
By the way, I knew the first response would be to get Disk Warrior. :) I've been wanting it for some time now, but, like many things in life, other things (other app purchases) pop up and I wind up putting it off. I'm getting it once I get my Mac Pro, regardless of what happens with my disk repair tonight.
 
fsck seems to have fixed the issue, I think. I will run Disk Utilities repair again from the install DVD to make sure nothing fails in a few minutes.

Here is what the fsck output looked like.
----------------------------------------
Checking HFS+ volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Incorrect number of thread records.
(4, 34792) <- This is something that was not output by Disk Utility. (error code?)
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
----------------------------------------

After the recheck, I saw the following
----------------------------------------
... (all same as above, without the "Incorrect number of thread records" line.)
Checking volume information.
The volume Macintosh HD was repaired successfully.

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
localhost:/ root# Nov 4 23:03:18 launchd: chown("~/var/launchd/0"): Read-only file system
Nov 4 23:03:18 launchd: chown("~/var/launchd/0"): Read-only file system
----------------------------------------

So, should this mean that things are OK?
Should I still worry, even if Disk Utility tells me that nothing needs repair?
Is this typically a symptom of something that's going to rear its ugly head in the near or distant future?

Thanks!
 
Ran Disk Utility's repair disk tool...
No errors found this time.
"No repairs were necessary" was the output.

Again, I'll ask my earlier questions again...and thanks for your help, whomever replies.

  1. So, should this mean that things are OK?
  2. Should I still worry, even if Disk Utility tells me that nothing needs repair?
  3. Is this typically a symptom of something that's going to rear its ugly head in the near or distant future?
 
It looks like you just had a data-based error, so the hard drive should be OK. As always, keep backups.
 
Just check again once a day or so for a few days. If the problem doesn't reoccur then you're probably OK. Gliches happen.
 
OK. Thanks for the replies. I will check daily for a few days to be sure.
I normally wouldn't panic so much when it comes to hardware failing...it happens...I have clones of the drive and could be up and running again in seconds on a backup, it's just that...replacing a hard drive in an iBook is no fun, unless you enjoy holding your breath for two hours while you gut your computer with a putty knife. :)

Also, I managed to get a backup of the drive when I first noticed this, just in case, so I figured that whatever it was it hadn't done any damage to the data yet.

Thanks again!
 
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