The scenario is a failed hard disk containing some photo files that I want to save if at all possible. The advice below (thanks guys!) was to try DiskWarrior or to start up the iMac as a Firewire drive whilst linked to another Mac and copy over the files.
I bought DiskWarrior and ran it, it returned the following message: "DW has successfully built a new directory. The new directory cannot replace the original directory due to a Mac OS services failure - try rebuilding again". I've done it three times with the same result.
I tried the other suggestion. I booted the iMac holding down the "T" key and I got a Firewire logo on the screen - so far so good I assume. However on starting up the second Mac I got a message saying "You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OSX can read"
Clearly there are some serious problems here. Any other suggestions? I tried starting in "single user" mode and typing the command "fsck_hfs -fyr/dev/rdiskOs9" as mentioned in another thread but just got the message "no such file or directory" As an experiment I tried the same command but ending in "Os10" and got an "illegal option" message. I've no idea what any of that actually means by the way!
If I were to attempt to re-install OSX, would I lose any chance of recovering the photos? I'm thinking that a re-install might then allow DiskWarrior to complete the job. Any suggestions gratefully received!
I bought DiskWarrior and ran it, it returned the following message: "DW has successfully built a new directory. The new directory cannot replace the original directory due to a Mac OS services failure - try rebuilding again". I've done it three times with the same result.
I tried the other suggestion. I booted the iMac holding down the "T" key and I got a Firewire logo on the screen - so far so good I assume. However on starting up the second Mac I got a message saying "You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OSX can read"
Clearly there are some serious problems here. Any other suggestions? I tried starting in "single user" mode and typing the command "fsck_hfs -fyr/dev/rdiskOs9" as mentioned in another thread but just got the message "no such file or directory" As an experiment I tried the same command but ending in "Os10" and got an "illegal option" message. I've no idea what any of that actually means by the way!
If I were to attempt to re-install OSX, would I lose any chance of recovering the photos? I'm thinking that a re-install might then allow DiskWarrior to complete the job. Any suggestions gratefully received!