HELP! iBook harddisk failure...?

[TheT]

Hello and thanks for reading this.
Right next to me is a two month old iBook G4 12"... an hour ago, it was working well without any problems. That was before I shut it down. When I wanted to start it up again, I got the Apple logo and a few seconds later the "pretty screen of death" (the message to restart the computer in like 5 languages). On the next startup, the folder with the blinking question mark appeared. I am not new to the Mac, so I did a couple of things like holding down option, resetting the PRAM and of course Disk Utility. The HD is spinning, but this is what Disk Utility tells me:

Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.

Error: the underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)

Disc Utility shows the HD, but the volume on it is greyed out (not mounted), and it can't be mounted.

There are some very important files on there, so if anyone can help me in any way, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[latergator116]

Befor you do anyting else, get another mac with firewire and put it in firewirer target disk mode and try to get all your files over to that computer. After you do that, I would call apple because you should'nt be having these type of problems on a new mac.

Instructions for firewirer target disk mode:http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/~tech/Support/MacOS9/targetdiskmode.html (they give an example with a tibook, but it doesnt really matter) Good luck.

 

[TheT]

Befor you do anyting else, get another mac with firewire and put it in firewirer target disk mode and try to get all your files over to that computer. After you do that, I would call apple because you should'nt be having these type of problems on a new mac.

Instructions for firewirer target disk mode:http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/~tech/Support/MacOS9/targetdiskmode.html (they give an example with a tibook, but it doesnt really matter) Good luck.

Target Disk mode didn't work because the volume could not be mounted, not on the iBook and not on my iMac.
But I could do something with Disk Warrior; now, I get the Apple logo again (which means the volume is somehow mounted). But that's about it, the iBook still doesn't want to start up.
At least I can now actually use the Target Disk Mode to save my data... then, I'll run Disc Utility again...
... well, don't know where that came from...

 

[latergator116]

After that, you will definately want to call apple. They will be able to pinpoint the problem and help you fix it. Besides, you still have a warranty on the machine. Data is the number one priority though....

 

[titaniumducky]

Target Disk mode didn't work because the volume could not be mounted, not on the iBook and not on my iMac.
But I could do something with Disk Warrior; now, I get the Apple logo again (which means the volume is somehow mounted). But that's about it, the iBook still doesn't want to start up.
At least I can now actually use the Target Disk Mode to save my data... then, I'll run Disc Utility again...
... well, don't know where that came from...

Your HD is going to fail soon (most likely). Apple will replace it though, since it's only 2 months old.

 

[keysersoze]

It's either your HD or logic board. I got an ibook G4 in January and have had BOTH of these pieces of harddware replaced since then. The logic board failure showed up with kernel panics and unable to boot. The HD failure was a complete crash. it sounded like a broken lawnmover and the computer couldn't even turn on after a minute. good luck.

 

[musicpyrite]

I don't know if theis helps but ironically I hade the same problem you did just yesterday (well the symptoms look similar). When I went to turn on my coputer yesterday, I got a kernel panic, well I searched Apple's web site and it said I should boot up in 'safe mode.' To do that turn off the computer, then press the power button, IMMEADITLY after you hear the startup chime press and hold the shift key. If that doesn't work, call Apple, they'll know what to do.