G5 Hard Disk Defrag Problems

[cwright]

I'm having some problems using DiskWarrior on my G5. Every time I try to defragment my hard drives, I get this error:

A couple months ago, I got the same error on my stock 160gb system drive, and I ended up reformatting the drive and that fixed the problem. Now, it refuses to work on either of my two hard drives. I'm wondering if this is a DiskWarrior problem or if there's some odd reason that the drive is causing this error to pop up again?

This is with DiskWarrior version 3.0.1 if it makes any difference. Also, the error happens just the same when booted of the DiskWarrior CD and when booted off the system drive (to defrag the storage drive).

If this is a software issue, are there any better apps that will do a good job at disk defragmentation?

Thanks

 

[CanadaRAM]

Fragmentation is NOT your problem.

Bad directory is. It will not go away on its own, it will get progressively worse until you get the dreaded "there are no readable volumes on this device" message.

Boot from your OSX CD/DVD, go into Disk Utility from the menu at the top instead of entering the Installer.

Do a Verify and Repair on the hard drive(s)

See if it comes up errors, and if it fixes them.

If Disk Utility also finds directory or catalog errors, and can't correct them, you needs to back that drive up - like right now - and plan for reformatting and reinstalling.

If Disk Utility fixes all the errors it finds, then still back up.

Then try the Disk Warrior Repair again.

 

[cwright]

Thanks for the reply.
I haven't rebooted yet to repair the system disk, but I just repaired the storage drive and it didnt have any problems. If there are no problems here, then why would DiskWarrior give me bad directory errors? Is it something I should be worried about?

 

[giffut]

Journaling Active?

Probably you got Journaling activated.

Nevertheless with OSX defragmentation is no longer necessary. OSX itself defragments on the fly, you don´t need it anymore like in OS 9 days. Just don´t do it.

 

[cwright]

what does journaling mean, and why would it cause directory errors?

anyway, is there anything else I should do, or just not worry about it?

 

[CanadaRAM]

Are you running Tiger?
Have you checked the DiskWarrior website?

http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/support.html#Tiger
"In order to run DiskWarrior while started from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) you will need to use DiskWarrior version 3.0.3. Earlier versions of DiskWarrior, while not compatible with Tiger, will not harm your disk. Attempting to rebuild a disk with DiskWarrior 3.0.2 or earlier, while started from Tiger, will result in an error stating that a "Mac OS Services" failure occurred."

 

[cwright]

Well I guess I should have looked there first

thanks for your help