Volume Disappeared

S

steve-ortiz

Registered
Howdy! This morning, I was checking e-mail on my G4 Desktop running OS 10.2, when all of a sudden the rebooting circle of lines appeared and the system was locked up. So, after unsuccessfully trying to force quit, I went for the power button. I turned the system on again and tried to boot into single user mode, but it wouldn't boot. I booted from the install CD and started disk utility, and it showed the hard drive, a 60 GB Maxtor, but it showed NO volumes. Without any visible volumes, I couldn't run disk utility's first aid. Before the crash, I had just one partition/volume on this hard drive with drivers for OS 9 and Mac OS Extended (HFS+) format. But now it was acting as if there were no partitions or volumes. So, I tried reseting the P-RAM and the Open Firmware to see if that might help, but it didn't. Since reseting those, disk utility now thinks the hard drive is a 20 GB Maxtor (Maxtor RIGEL Media is the disk description now, but before I believe it was something different). So that concerned me, but not much I could do. Next I tried Disk Warrior for OS X, but neither the drive nor volume were visible to start the scanning process. In the hardware test, I tried to test the Maxtor RIGEL drive, but it said this hard drive does not have built-in S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics, test completed. Then I tried Disk Warrior for OS 9.2 and Drive 10, but I ran into the same problem of nothing to scan. So, if I remove the CDs, I get the blinking question mark and still can't boot into single user (so I can't run fsck)... and neither disk warrior nor drive 10 can see the volume to attempt to repair it. I even tried unplugging and replugging in the IDE drive in the hopes that it was a loose connection, but that didn't work either. Is there anything else I should try, or is it time to give up on recovering that data and reformat?

Actually, if I reformat now, I am worried because the HD thinks it is a 20 GB drive now and it's really a 60 GB drive. Maybe the hard drive has failed all together? any thoughts?

This is my second hard drive for this computer... my first one failed about one and a half years ago... and I knew the HD had failed because I could hear loud clicking noises and disk utility wouldn't recognize the drive at all. Sigh... I haven't had good luck with hard drives I suppose. If I need to get another, could someone offer a recommendation for a more reliable brand than the Maxtor Apple has given me (twice now). Thanks in advance!
 
Well, I can't help you much with your problem other than suggesting that you reformat and reinstall Mac OS X, and try to keep it as vanilla an installation as possible. Stay away from all haxies and system changers like theme changers and what-not. In my experience, Mac OS X is MUCH more succeptible to disk errors and file system errors and basic, all-around system errors. Mac OS X does not recover as gracefully from hard lock-ups as OS 9 did and since there are tens of thousands more files in OS X than OS 9, your chances of corrupting an essential system file goes up.

Check the cables to the drive again, just to be sure... also check the drive's cable connection on the motherboard as well, not just the connection on the drive itself. Check the cable for any damage (sometimes they get "pinched" a little when you close the case -- I've got three hard drive ribbon cables in there, and I've got to hold one out of the way when I close the case, otherwise it gets pinched between the drive and the bottom of the case).

If you do choose the reformat and reinstall option, try to delete the existing partitions on the drive and create new ones (or one partition, whatever your preference). That may be the reason that the disk utilities you're using see the drive as 20GB instead of 60GB.

I can recommend Western Digital drives for reliable drives -- some people may not agree, but I've never had a WD go bad on me... in fact, I have four WDs in my machine, including the original 10GB that came with the computer... almost 4 years ago. The only complaint I have with the drives is that I have two high-speed WDs (7200RPM drives) and they "whine" a bit when they're spinning... other than that, they're fast, reliable, and cheap as well.
 
I was going to suggest WD as well.

Can you update your firmware? You'll need to download it and burn it on another computer, and make the disc bootable to successfully execute this.

Can you install new drivers? Again, you'll have to download and burn on another computer.
 
Thanks for your replies. A couple other folks I've spoken with have recommended Western Digital as well. They must be pretty good! Actually, I had a spare 10 GB WD HD collecting dust in an old linux box, so I scavenged it and put it in my PowerMac. So, my computer is up and running again, but at one sixth the storage capacity, at least until I figure out whether the 60 GB Maxtor drive can be resurected.

While I was pulling out old CDs, I found the Apple Hardware Test CD and I ran it. With just the WD installed, it passes all tests, but when I add the Maxtor drive, it fails with a cryptic error code.

A friend of mine suggested running Norton Disk Doctor, stating it could repair volumes that were not mountable. Then if that's successful, to run Disk Warrior on it to finish repairing things. So, I will try that tomorrow and let ya'll know if it is successful.

I also found out I'm not the only one who has had problems with the Maxtor drives from Apple... many folks have!

http://www3.macintouch.com/maxtor.html

One of the posts mentioned Maxtor replacing their drive with very few questions. His drive had the same model number as mine (5T060H6) so it is starting to sound more like a hardware problem... which means my chances of recovering that data are probably not too high.

Question about this Western Digital and sleeping the hard drive. When I got this Maxtor to replace my last defective drive (thanks Apple), it would lock up when it tried to wake up from sleeping... so I turned the sleep hard drive option off. Those of you with WDs, have you had this problem, or do you allow your hard drive to sleep? Is it better to let the hard drive sleep?

In response to arden, I suppose physically, I could update my firmware and install new drivers. But I don't know what I should upgrade with or install. I keep up to date with Software Update... is there something else I should be checking for updates?

Also, FYI, I just ordered a LaCie 160GB external firewire drive for backup purposes... a little too late, but if there ever is a next time, I will be better prepared. Most of my really important data I have burned to CD, so it wasn't a horrific loss, but annoying none the less.

Thanks all! I really appreciate all your help and hope this discussion helps others who may face similar problems. If you're reading this and it has been awhile since you've backed up your files, don't put it off like I did... go take care of it right now!
 
if you can connect that maxtor by firewire, you might still have luck with diskwarrior. launch DW first and then plug in the bad drive. often it will recognise it at that point at be able to repair it. i've saved my externals a few times that way.
 
That's an interesting idea... it's an internal drive, so I can't connect via firewire directly, but if I booted in target disk mode, do you suppose I could see it with disk warrior from another computer? I will try this out tonight!
 
not exactly what i had in mind but i'd be interested in hearing how it goes. i was thinking more along the lines of putting it in a firewire casing and then doing what i suggested.
 
Oh, that's what you meant. I never even thought of replacing the hard drive of an external firewire hard drive before. I will give that a try too!

I just got home and tried Norton Disk Doctor without success... it doesn't even see the disk on the bus! But for some reason Disk Utility can. So, no luck there.

I also tried to boot in target mode, but it simply shut-down after a brief pause. So that didn't work either.

I think the firewire drive idea you suggested is my best and possibly last chance now. I don't have one here, but I can borrow one tomorrow from work. Thanks!
 
Like any utility, there is always a risk when used.

In so far as to Norton's specifically, most of the horror stories all stem from pre-Mac OS X versions in which the product installs extensions that are running all the time and cause conflicts with other apps.

Besides that, I use Norton's & Disk Warrior together all of the time. However, I also NEVER install the apps onto the machines, but boot from the discs to run diagnostics.
 
mr. bill - i completely disagree with you. the majority of horror stories have been since norton rushed into the os x version and they've never quite gotten it right. 0s 9 (and before) versions were pretty reliable, although they still had lots of flaws - like continually claiming to repair the same problem over and over and continually finding that problem on every pass. the dangers from a crash or power outage during the process are also things to be aware of. norton is the fastest, but most dangerous, repair utility to use. i still think the majority of people who stick with it are the ones who just don't know any better.
 
Couldn't have said it better myself, Ed. Stay away from Norton's.

I also never install utilities on my systems. Always boot from the CD to run.
 
Thanks all for your helpful advise. I gutted an external firewire drive and replaced its hard drive with mine, but I got the same errors. Unpluging and reconnecting the firewire drive didn't help any of the utilities to better see it.

I also tried a utility called "Data Rescue X" which is designed to recover data without trying to repair the drive. It looked like a nice program and it could see the disk, but it could not read the blocks from the raw disk drive. Which again seems like a hardware problem rather than data corruption.

Lastly, just to convince myself once and for all that this was a hardware problem and there was no possible way to get the data from this drive, I tried to initialize the drive, but even that failed!! Which is good... if it worked, I would have been upset I just initialized a working drive and made my data even more difficult to recover!

This weekend I heard back from Apple that the cryptic error code (ata 1/6/3 HD:2,1) meant that the hardware had a problem and should be replaced. I am still covered by AppleCare, so I will contact Apple on Monday to arrange for a replacement drive. And I am going to do my best to insist they send me a Western Digital... this is the second Maxtor drive they have provided me and both have died after roughly one year.

All-in-all, this has been a great learning experience for me. I am dissapointed I couldn't recover any of the data, but glad I purchased the extended AppleCare and now I have a nice LaCie 160 GB Firewire drive to do nightly backups (better late than never).

I tried PsyncX on Saturday but psync was behaving strangely... it would only backup some of the files and then quit. Maybe coincidentally, maybe not, the last directory it would start to backup contained the source code for PsyncX. Has anyone heard of this problem before? Do you have a favorite backup software to do nightly backups to a local firewire drive?
 
Wow, if you can't even initialize it, you probably have a bad drive mechanism. I'd say get it recovered from a company like Drive Savers, though prices start at $100 (and that's for easy jobs with small drives).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top