Did a big NO-NO....

cyberkazoo

Registered
Hello,

I guess I just made a huge mistake on my iMac DV+ (slot loading, 450MHz). My system started acting funny, like Outlook Express locked up, etc., so I wanted to try some system utilitites before I buy any. So I downloaded the demo version of Norton Utilities and run it from OS 9.2.

....That was the mistake. Now I don't know the specific term but my HD isn't recognized anymore. Well, it is there, but when I boot from OS X CD (OS 9 CD doesn't work for some reason) it asks whether I want to initialize the HD (of course not!) I can quit the installer and run the disk ulitity, but it gets an internal error and I can't go on.

Bringing my Mac to the repair center is the last thing I want to do, but if there's software out there to do my work (to fix that data sector) I'm willing to buy it. I know there are Norton, TechTools Pro (and Drive X), DiskWarrior... which would you recommend? Or is it too late so I should bring it to the store?

Gawd... my class project is tomorrow and everything is in that iMac! :'(

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-----------------------------------
Spec: iMac DV+ (G3 450 MHz), 30 GB HD, 576MB RAM, MacOS 9.2 + 10.1
 
Norton isn't that great for Macs, I would suggest you try using a DiskWarrior boot disk (if you can get your hands on one). Before you try those, you may want to run the Hardware Diagnostics disk that came with your iMac to see if it can do something about your drive.

This thread may also help.
 
Thanks, macko,

Here's what I discovered so far: It recognizes 9.1 CD, 10.0 CD, 10.1 CD and all the original CD which came with my iMac, but it doesn't recognize 9.2 CD.

Appearently, none of them seem to recognized OS 9.x portion (note I didn't say partition as I didn't) as formatted drive, and applying another driver doesn't help either. That's why I can't even let OS X installer do the work because it doesn't see the HD (but the disk utility does see it).

Boy, what have I done?? *sigh*
 
Okay I think I see what you're saying, well that is a bad deal. Especially since you have data on there that you need. I still think your best bet would be to use a DiskWarrior boot cd and hope for the best, but if you can't get one (which you probably can't) you may want to try using the Hardware Diagnostic cd that came with your Mac.

Other than that I'm not sure what all your options are if you can't backup the current data on your whacked out HD. It sounds more like a software/file structure problem to me than a physically bad hard drive, so I'll copy this thread over to Troubleshooting and hopefully someone in there has an idea of what to do. :confused:
 
Well, I guess I forgot to mention it.

Yes, I did try Diagnostic CD that came with my iMac. But the problem with this one, is that it only checks everything, from RAM to graphic card, etc., but HD. :(

I don't know this happens to everyone, but at least this is what happened to my case. Just to let you know.
 
I had a similar problem once. I was messing around, trying things out, and fucked something up. Anyways, the Do you want to initalize thiny came up and my dad says "Oh, that's just the RAM disk, I get it all the time." Of course, he would not listen to my arguments saying the icon was that of an HD, clicked the button, and initalized the drive. Now, you must remember, "initalize" doesn't mean "wipe." Initialize simply removes a certain file that told the computer where exactly all the other files were, making the drive seem wiped. Wiping is when a program goes over the drive, writing random 1' and 0's over and over, until none of the orignal stuff is left. In my case, I used Norton Filesaver BEFORE I had a problem. It created a file (a backup index,if you will) that remembered where everything was. I ran Filesaver from the Norton boot disc, it found the file, and restored everything. All I can say is I hope you used something similar to NFS...otherwise, I'd say you're screwed.:(
 
Good question.

It wasn't Norton File Saver, but Norton Disk Doctor (demo). I thought it should test it before I buy it.

File Saver ... Disk Doctor ... close enough? Did you get that recovered with NFS or you basically reinstalled everything?
 
Your best bet is Diskwarrior. Well worth the price. It doesn't do much, but when your drive isn't mounting, fixing that is enough (and that's about all it can do). My 2cents.
 
Do you have access to another computer with OS X installed on it? You may be able to place that messed up hard drive in a different computer with OS X, and *maybe* it will see it.
 
Have you tried the disk utilities on the OS10.1 CD?
When you boot from the CD it looks as if the only thing you can do
is install or re-install, but if you go up to the menu bar under file you'll see
a Launch Disk Utilites, the always lame "Disk First-Aid" within there may fix your problem.......just a thought. Good luck
 
Yes, I already tried Disk Utility on 10.1 disk. Here are the message I get from it.

= Verify =
Verifying disk "Mac OS".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Overlapped extent allocation (file 3d)
The volume needs to be repaird.
Verify completed.

= Repair =
Repairing disk "Mac OS".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Overlapped extent allocation (file 3d)
Repair completed.

But they don't fix anything. :'(
And the error message doesn't make any sense to me.
What do you think?
 
diskwarrior is worth every cent.

when you get everything working again i HIGHLY recommend you move evrything off of that hard drive and erase and partition it.
put 9.2.1 on one partition and OSX on the other.

that will make your life MUCH easier.

i had very similar problems when i installed 10.1 on top of 9.2.1. everything went haywire but i finally got it all fixed. hang in there.
 
Wish I had more advise, Have you run it under 9.2.1?
There's the Classic verion 8.6 of Disk First-Aid that fixes a "wrapper something or other". It really is the only thing I've ever
seen it fix
I'm getting the impression the error it's finding is related to that.

I would also recomend what cujopoto said and remove
your data and re-partition your drive into (2), this is how I've done mine and it seems pretty stable.

I would also make sure all your Firmware is up to date, if you're going to go through all of the hassel.

I have a Revision 'C' iMac I'm going to try this weekend, if I learn anything,
I'll post it on the thread.
 
Sounds like a plan, but I'm afriad of running older utility on newer system...

For your question about being run under 9.2.1, the answer is no because CD-ROM is only bootable media so far. Disk Utility on OS X disk is specific and gave me that error mentioned above, but for utility on earlier disks just say "internal error occured" and stop whatever they were doing. Those installer and utilities *do* see the HD, however, they don't know where to start their work on it. That's my impression I'm getting.

By the way, the idea of repartitioning and DiskWarrior sounds great. Is DiskWarrior sold at stores, or direct distribution only?

In the meantime, I'll borrow my roommate's iBook and connect to my iMac via crossover cable. It never hurts to try, right? :) (Well, except Norton...I guess my mistake was running Norton under 9.2.1, not from CD-ROM. Buy hey, how am I supposed to know if it's demo?)
 
You guessed it. I guessed it.

I finally downloaded DiskWarrior from its web site, ran to a friend of mine's place to burn a system CD w/ this software on (I don't have a CD-R drive), so it becomes bootable, then booted up my iMac with that disk.

Gawd! It says it's too severely damaged it can't fix it!! X'o(''''''''

If we tried this hard and couldn't get the problem solved, chances are that I would just waste some money if I send it to the store and ask technitians to look at my iMac. So I might as well reformat the whole thing and partition it as you guys told me.... I always knew that I'd have to do this (so it's kinda exciting), and yet I didn't want to do this (so it's almost a little depressing) ... it's such weired mixed feelings.....

Anyway, some more questions. During pre-OS X era, I remember some experts recommending partitioning like this:
[system]
[apps]
[documents]
Do you see much benefit that way nowadays (making 6 partitions)?

Also, I notice that I have an option to make UNIX File System or Macintosh Exdended format for OS X portion. Which works better/faster?

Sorry I'm full of questions all the time ... but please take it as that I'm always willing to learn ;)

Thanks!
 
I'd recommend using an HFS+ partition for OS X. UFS doesn't have support for resource forks. Some apps (even Cocoa ones) won't run correctly/at all on a UFS partition -at the moment- (I'm pretty sure Apple is working on that one).

Sorry to hear your HD was hosed. That's never any fun at all.
 
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