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- Thread starter TheShinyMac
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I don't have any external hard drives. I may bring this to 
tomorrow. There is a store right near my school. Should I just keep the comptuer on all night? I will put my most important files on Mobile Me tonight, 
tomorrow. There is a store right near my school. Should I just keep the comptuer on all night? I will put my most important files on Mobile Me tonight, 
I don't have any external hard drives. I may bring this to
I would definitely put your most important files on to a memory stick or some other storage medium. In relation to turning it off, you are going to have to turn it off when you take it to the Apple Store. So it's not going to make a large difference.
Agreed, a good backup would be wise. Time machine backup could make it easier come the future if you need to replace a disk.
Get all you important files on another disk as well just to be safe.
Sounds like your directory tree is damaged.
1. Restart your Mac and hold the Command key and - S, this will boot it into single user mode.
2. type in this '/sbin/fsck -fy' and press enter - this will try to rebuild and repair your directory.
3. Run this again after you let it finish (quicktip press the up arrow key and it will enter the last command you entered) . It might or might not be your fix, since we arn't sure if this just software mapping of the hard drive or a mechanical problem (I'm thinking software).
4. After you are done you can type in 'reboot' and it will restart.
Hopefully this will save you a trip to the Apple Store!
1. Restart your Mac and hold the Command key and - S, this will boot it into single user mode.
2. type in this '/sbin/fsck -fy' and press enter - this will try to rebuild and repair your directory.
3. Run this again after you let it finish (quicktip press the up arrow key and it will enter the last command you entered) . It might or might not be your fix, since we arn't sure if this just software mapping of the hard drive or a mechanical problem (I'm thinking software).
4. After you are done you can type in 'reboot' and it will restart.
Hopefully this will save you a trip to the Apple Store!
Agreed. If you take it to the apple store they are gonna do exactly what they are telling you to do here...It is basically a corrupted filesystem.
Put a backup external HD on your "Don't cheap out on" list!
Then install a clone of your internal HD on that external disk.
When disaster strikes, when not if, you will thank yourself!
BTW, an external USB case costs less than $20 and a good HD for it will be about $70-100 depending on the size, etc.
That's cheap for the peace of mind it will bring you.
Personal opinion only, if you like to live on the edge .....
ignore this advice.
Then install a clone of your internal HD on that external disk.
When disaster strikes, when not if, you will thank yourself!
BTW, an external USB case costs less than $20 and a good HD for it will be about $70-100 depending on the size, etc.
That's cheap for the peace of mind it will bring you.
Personal opinion only, if you like to live on the edge .....
ignore this advice.
Sometimes it's just a corrupted file system (which can be fixed via Hellhammer's method), other times it's a dying HDD.
I'm getting a similar message and I've backed up the system but I cannot run Disk Utility from startup, it just freezes up as does attempting to launch in safe mode. Any ideas?
Boot up from your cloned external HD system and run Disk Warrior on the affected drive.
(Sideline nagger voice: Say What? You don't have an external bootable HD? Are you crazy?...What's that, say again, you have never heard of Disk Warrior? ...oh, oh, what's to do, what's to do... wring my neck quick!)
You can also try booting from the Install DVD and running Disk Utility on the internal drive. It won't do any harm, but it is limited in what it can fix, compared to DW. BTW, if the issue is hardware related, no software solution will suffice, and you will have to get a new HD, reinstall the OS and then replace your data from your cloned external HD or Time Machine backup.
(Sideline nagger voice: Say What? You don't have a .... oh oh)
Aren't you glad you have a backup? It really is necessary the way mechanical HDs bite the bullet from time to time.
Then your only options are to try booting from the Install DVD and using Disk Utility to try to repair the drive. Or if you don't have an Install DVD handy, start up the problematic Mac in Target Disk Mode (press the "t" key at startup) and connect it by firewire to another Mac, it should show up as a disk mounted on the other Mac's desktop. Then run Disk Utility. Disk Warrior is made by Alsoft, and is considered to be the best disk repair utility on the market by many experts. It has saved my %$% several times. No conection to the company, just a very satisfied customer, check it out. I consider it well worth the reasonable cost, as it can repair many disks that Disk Utility gives up on.
Thanks again,I have all my original install disks but when ever I option boot to select the install DVD it hangs when I selecet the install disk. I should still be under warranty I think but as I'm sure you know I'm hesitant to take it to apple as it takes three weeks to get an appointment with a 'genius' who will just tell me to try what I've already tried. Does Disk Warrior need a seperate Mac or to be ran via the 'option' boot route?
DW is available for sale online and they send you the DVD bootup disk via snail mail. However, it will not bootup the latest MBPs, check the web site, http://www.alsoft.com/, for more info on that. If your Mac is too new to use the DVD, you will have to use the Target Disk Mode method or have a bootable external Firewire or USB drive with a system and the DW app on the other Mac or the external HD.
That is why I suggested you have a bootable external HD available, prior to trouble appearing is ideal of course.
The system hanging when you try to boot from the original install disk is strange, assumng the DVD is not the cause, either the optical drive is dirty or malfunctioning or
there is a problem with the motherboard. Get on the phone with AppleCare?
Actually, I suspect your HD is almost toasted, try a new HD and restore from your backup?
Yeah its not looking good then as I only bought this MBP in April of this year, will get on the blower to Applecare and see what they say. Thanks for the help though chief, gave me some options. How do I know if my USB HD is bootable by the way? Sorry I'm not very tech savy, I just draw pictures!
This might help
I recently had a hard disc corruption and this saved my life.
Hold down Cmd-S when you boot. It boots into a command line unix interface. Type in "fsck -fy" (with the gap between the k and the -) to fix any disk issues that are fixable.
I don't know if it will do the trick but blow me down if everything returned to normal and the disc has been sweet ever since.
Good luck
AG
I recently had a hard disc corruption and this saved my life.
Hold down Cmd-S when you boot. It boots into a command line unix interface. Type in "fsck -fy" (with the gap between the k and the -) to fix any disk issues that are fixable.
I don't know if it will do the trick but blow me down if everything returned to normal and the disc has been sweet ever since.
Good luck
AG
Thanks for the tip, sadly when the utility begins to load it freezes and hangs on the loading from library line of text. This really is becoming troublesome!
Ok New Problem! HELP!!!
Ok so my disk utility is saying this.
However when I try and start up from the Install disks the machine hangs and sits on a grey screen. Any thoughts?
Ok so my disk utility is saying this.
However when I try and start up from the Install disks the machine hangs and sits on a grey screen. Any thoughts?
Sounds like a dead hard drive. Have you replaced the hard drive at all since you got the machine?
Insert the original Install Disc that came with the machine and while holding down the Option key power up the computer, choose the Install Disc, Choose Language, Utilities, Disk Utility, choose internal HD on left, First Aid Tab, Repair Disk. If it finds errors, run Repair Disk several times until it's OK. Once done try restarting from internal HD. If it won't start it's time for a new HD.
I've inserted the original install disk and as it says in my original post It will not let me boot from this. I have tried either holding C to startup from disk or option and selecting the Install disk, both routes end in a frozen screen.
I haven't had any problems with the HD at all until now and the machine is only 5 months old, i7 processor purchased direct so I'm not sure what has happened here.
I haven't had any problems with the HD at all until now and the machine is only 5 months old, i7 processor purchased direct so I'm not sure what has happened here.
You have some options:
1. Can you boot into single user mode? This is done by holding down command-s (http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/Mac_Keys.shtml).
2. Then type fsck -y which will try to repair the volume.
(http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/commandline/single-user.html)
When it completes it will tell you if there were any problems. Type reboot to restart into a normal startup mode.
3. If none of those work you could purchase Disk Warrior (or another commercial repair util) that comes with (or allows you to) create a bootable disc so you can try to repair the volume.
Its very strange that you cannot boot off the install disc. I'm not trying to give you a hard time but did you wait awhile? Sometimes it can time a few minutes for it to come up.
If nothing else, I would get your important information archived quickly just to make sure your drive doesn't completely die on you.
Good Luck!
P
1. Can you boot into single user mode? This is done by holding down command-s (http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/Mac_Keys.shtml).
2. Then type fsck -y which will try to repair the volume.
(http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/commandline/single-user.html)
When it completes it will tell you if there were any problems. Type reboot to restart into a normal startup mode.
3. If none of those work you could purchase Disk Warrior (or another commercial repair util) that comes with (or allows you to) create a bootable disc so you can try to repair the volume.
Its very strange that you cannot boot off the install disc. I'm not trying to give you a hard time but did you wait awhile? Sometimes it can time a few minutes for it to come up.
If nothing else, I would get your important information archived quickly just to make sure your drive doesn't completely die on you.
Good Luck!
P