Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
after I entered "sudo pdisk /dev/disk2s10 -dump", it prompted me to enter a password, but it won't allow me to enter anything...no characters are showing up as I type.
 
The characters don't show. Just type the administrator password blindly.

you have to use /dev/disk2, not the partition device.
 
ok, here we go

Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=488397168 (232.9G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 23 @ 64, type=0x1
2: 36 @ 120, type=0xffff
3: 21 @ 176, type=0x701
4: 34 @ 232, type=0xf8ff

232.9G = 232.9GB = the correct size of the drive?
 
sorry, I didn't see the stuff above that

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/disk2'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 64
3: Apple_Driver43*Macintosh 56 @ 120
4: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 176
5: Apple_Driver_ATA*Macintosh 56 @ 232
6: Apple_FWDriver Macintosh 512 @ 288
7: Apple_Driver_IOKit Macintosh 512 @ 800
8: Apple_Patches Patch Partition 512 @ 1312
9: Apple_Free 262144 @ 1824 (128.0M)
10: Apple_HFS Apple_HFS_Untitled_1 488133184 @ 263968 (232.8G)
11: Apple_Free 16 @ 488397152

Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=488397168 (232.9G)
DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0
Drivers-
1: 23 @ 64, type=0x1
2: 36 @ 120, type=0xffff
3: 21 @ 176, type=0x701
4: 34 @ 232, type=0xf8ff
 
oh boy...I downloaded HFSdebug, but could you post detailed instructions on how to "view the file system header." I have no idea how to use Terminal...
 
1. Install hfsdebug. Let's do it the fast way: copy just the hfsdebug program to /usr/bin

2. Run hfsdebug in terminal with the raw device of your partition (I don't know your volume name to use the -V option instead):

sudo hfsdebug -v -d /dev/rdisk2s10

At the beginning the size appears.
 
It's hidden in the desktop. OK, let's do this:

1. Copy all those hfsdebug files to a folder /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug2.56
2. In the terminal do:

Code:
cd /usr/bin
sudo ln -s /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug2.56/hfsdebug .
 
this is what I'm getting..

CPE000d93699524-CM0013718d2092:/usr/bin username$ cd /usr/bin
CPE000d93699524-CM0013718d2092:/usr/bin username$ sudo ln -s /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug/hfsdebug .
ln: ./hfsdebug: File exists
CPE000d93699524-CM0013718d2092:/usr/bin username$ sudo hfsdebug -v -d /dev/rdisk2s10
sudo: hfsdebug: command not found
 
Code:
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel  41 Aug 13 12:52 hfsdebug -> /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug/hfsdebug
 
OK. Let's just do this:

Code:
sudo /usr/bin/hfsdebug -v -d /dev/rdisk2s10
 
Code:
-rwxr-xr-x   1 danielst  admin  109704 Jun 17 19:25 /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug/hfsdebug

sorry, the folder had a space in it, I took it out.
 
Code:
cd /usr/bin
sudo rm hfsdebug
sudo ln -s /Applications/Utilities/HFSDebug/hfsdebug .
sudo hfsdebug -v -d /dev/rdisk2s10
 
nothing...I type it, press Enter, and it goes to the next line with no text or anything...is it processing?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.