Help With Diagnosing My Ibook Startup Problem

aallegri

Registered
My iBook kept freezing on startup (grey screen but no icon), so I started up with the System 9 CD

I went to Mac Help and followed the instructions. (Basically to run Disk First Aid and do something with the driver -- I followed all instructions.)

When I ran Disk First Aid, after about a minute, I got a message in the little popup box that said "cannot read files" and Disk First Aid stopped running. I tried 3 or 4 times, as that's what Mac Help said, but no luck.

Then I tried my AppleCare CD and rebooted the computer from that.

It brought up TechTools Deluxe...and I ran that. It took a couple of hours...here's what I got:

RAM - Passed (ok)
Chips - Passed (ok)
Drive - PROBLEM (with a skull and crossbones) -- volume structure was the problem, and the message said that it could not repair the files (or I chose not to repair the files)

The instructions on screen while I was running Tech Tools Deluxe said to go to the "file recovery panel" to recover the files. But I could not find the file recovery panel ... I checked all the pull-down menus, both within Tech Tools Deluxe and the toolbar, and could not get anywhere. I thought it might be in the Control Panel of my iBook, so I tried that too -- it only gave me two options -- network, and startup disk. (So if "file recovery panel" should be in my control panel it's no longer there.)

I've got the System 9 and System 10 disks, and the disks that would let me reinstall all software. But I know that if I do that, I'll lose the contents of my entire hard drive, right?

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Adriana
 
Reinstalling won't help unless you reformat the drive first.

DiskWarrior will most likely repair this problem, without losing any files.
 
Thanks...have been investigating online...I use OS 9.2 but also have X installed on my iBook...

Could you recommend which version of DiskWarrior to purchase? (Does it matter?)

Thanks Bob,
Adriana
 
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