Invalid Volume Header

[Myst420]

Hey everyone,

New to the forum here. Let me start off by saying I'm a pc guy, so macs are still a little foreign to me (I'm learning though)

I'm helping out a friend of mine with her Early 2008 macbook pro. It won't startup (I just get the grey apply and spinning wheel). I have booted into recovery mode (command-R) and run the disk utility. When I attempt to repair the volume, I get error:

Invalid Volume Header @ 0: incorrect block type
Invalid Volume Header @ 248880819712: incorrect block type
disk14 is not a CoreStorage volume
Error: Storage system verify or repair failed.


Now, a little back story. Her laptop originally wouldn't do anything but spin the cd drive and the led would go dim. I'm not a mac guy so she took it to someone else who thought it was the HD, and connected it to their mac to verify this (not sure what method they used), but they said it was ok.

They couldn't figure it out so she brought it to me. I determined she was victim to the gpu issue of this model, and was able to fix that by baking the logic board.

The first time I booted it seemed to be ok, until I tried to open any app, it would just bounce. Finder wouldn't even open a new window for me. After restarting it, it won't even boot anymore.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Mike

 

[benwiggy]

Clearly, the hard drive has problems.

Have you tried repartitioning the drive, then re-installing OS X on it? (Assuming there is a backup.)

However, if the drive has hardware problems, then you are best off replacing it.
You can always install OS X on an external and see if that will boot.

 

[Myst420]

Ok, so I have learned that the person that "tested" the hd on another mac, connected it via USB, and in the process of trying to access it, repaired the permissions while it was connected to their macbook.

Could this be what's causing my issues? and if so, is it fixable? as of right now, there is no backup of the HD.

Can I access the HD using a windows machine to backup all her personal files? I have windows xp, and 7. I can also borrow a macbook pro if needed.

 

[benwiggy]

"Repairing Permissions" won't cause disk errors. (It is, however, the thing that everyone does when they don't know what else to do. It doesn't do much to help or hinder.)

Mac drives use HFS+ format, which I don't think is supported on Windows (without extra software).

You should be able to use "Target Disk mode" on a 2008 MBP. Connect it by FireWire to another Mac, and boot it up while holding down T. The Mac will just act like a big external FireWire drive. (Of course, newer Macs don't have FW.)

My advice is: get the files off that drive; erase it, reinstall the OS.
Oh, and start backing up!!

 

[Myst420]

benwiggy,

I think that would be my best bet. The MBP I would be borrowing is a newer one, so could I connect the HDD via USB? I have Sata to USB adapters that I use all the time...I'm assuming they would work for the mac?

Also, once connected to the newer MBP, do I need to worry about personal files being locked, or permissions, etc?

 

[benwiggy]

I don't think Target mode works via USB.

Your USB to SATA connectors -- this would mean taking the drive out of the Mac?

Permissions can be ignored on the volume (in Get Info); however, the drive stores the first user ID as 501, and the same User ID will probably be in use on the other Mac, so it will see the files on the external as its own.

 

[Myst420]

Yea, the adapters involve taking the hdd out. But I haven't attached the top to the case yet, because I wanted to make sure it was working after baking it, so removing the hdd is only 2 more screws.

Is there a specific procedure to be able to access all the user files after attaching it via usb? I know Windows can "lock" user files so even if the hdd is moved, ownership needs to be taken. Is there anything like that with mac?

 

[justperry]

Yea, the adapters involve taking the hdd out. But I haven't attached the top to the case yet, because I wanted to make sure it was working after baking it, so removing the hdd is only 2 more screws.

Is there a specific procedure to be able to access all the user files after attaching it via usb? I know Windows can "lock" user files so even if the hdd is moved, ownership needs to be taken. Is there anything like that with mac?

If you do this you could try using diskwarrior on that disk with the other Mac, it many times can repair damage which Disk Utilities can not fix.

 

[Myst420]

If you do this you could try using diskwarrior on that disk with the other Mac, it many times can repair damage which Disk Utilities can not fix.

I've been considering diskwarrior. Doesn't it have a bootable CD that would allow me to repair the drive?

 

[Myst420]

ok, so I connected the drive to another mac via a sata adapter and used disk warrior to repair the drive. It said everything went ok. After re-installing the drive into the MBP, I see the apple logo with the spinning wheel below it...but it doesn't go past that point. I have tried resetting the pvram using the command-option-r-p while startup, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

I also noticed that after the repair, while the drive was still connected to the newer MBP, the user folder of the disk appeared to be empty...is there some kind of security that locks these files? I was thinking at the very least I could back up her files and reinstall OSX, but how do I backup her files?

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Also, and I don't know if this is normal....but when I boot into recovery mode, I cannot repair the permissions or even get the partition to mount until I unlock the drive.....is this normal?