Kernel panic - safe my files - heelp!

[Niiiklaz]

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Hey everyone
I have a problem with my 1,5 year old Macbook Pro 13".
My mac was on standby over the night and when i opened it, it had a kernel panic. I rebooted my mac as it told me too and the gray screen and Apple logo appears.. And I'm stuck.

I am able to boot from the CD start up disk but when I get into Disk Utility, the icon for my hard drive (named "Macintosh HD") is faded. I am able to perform a disk repair (which I did, and it tells me that Disk Utility wasn't able to repair it) and the "Repair permissions" and "Verify permissions" buttons are faded out so I can't select them.

I have tried booting up into Single User Mode so I could run fsck, which apparently worked, but when I reboot (and after a really slow startup) there appears yet another kernel panic.

I'll type more if someone needs more info.

I do have another Mac available if it's the case, but I'm afraid that if Disk Utility can't read the disk then connecting it to another Mac will not allow me to read it either.

I would really like to avoid erasing the disk. If I can just somehow save the data somewhere first, and then just let my extented AppleCare Protection Plan deal with the whole start-up problem.

Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Target Disk Mode could help.
Then: To retrieve files, that have been deleted and also been emptied from the Trash or on a corrupted volume, you can use

Data Rescue 3 (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 99 USD) or
FileSalvage (trial lets you scan the HDD and see, if data is recoverable, but to actually recover files, you need to buy the full version for 89.95 USD).
DiskDrill - lets you recover data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac., for free.​

 

[Niiiklaz]

It's not deleted or files deleted from the trash I'm having troubles with, it's files on my 'Macintosh HD' hard drive i can't access.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It's not deleted or files from deleted from the trash I'm having troubles with, it's files on my 'Macintosh HD' harddisk i can't access.

I understand. That's why it also says "corrupted volume", which your "Macintosh HD" may be. Just connect the MBP to your other Mac via Target Disk Mode (as noted before) and see, if you can work your way with that.

 

[Niiiklaz]

Can you be more specific?
I'm new in this, so if you have a link to a guide or something, it would be great.

Thanks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Can you be more specific?
I'm new in this, so if you have a link to a guide or something, it would be great.

Thanks.

A guide to what?

I linked you to the Target Disk Mode (TDM) instruction two times already (three guides to be exact).

After you established TDM, you try Disk Utility again, and if that fails, you download one of the applications I linked to and then install it and then run it and scan the hopefully recognisable "Macintosh HD" and see, if you can recover files.

 

[Niiiklaz]

How was I suppose to know that was i link.
But I'll try it. Thanks for your help!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

How was I suppose to know that was i link.

I don't know your proficiency browsing the web, but I assumed, you would know, how a link looks like, as you somehow found this message board by clicking links and somehow managed to create this thread, by clicking links, thus the concept of links should be known to you.
Sorry, sometimes I may just assume just too much I guess.

This is not a link.

This is a link.

 

[Niiiklaz]

Now I've tried to use Target Disk Mode, but I can only access my Windows partition, not my mac partition. What to do? Help!

Thanks.

 

[Niiiklaz]

When I run fsck it's checking all different kind of things, and then i writes:

**Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 6369402 instead of 6369384)
**Repairing volume.
disk0s2: I/0 error.
disk0s2: I/0 error.
** Rechecking volume ..

And then finish with:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFED *****

 

[GermanyChris]

When I run fsck it's checking all different kind of things, and then i writes:

**Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 6369402 instead of 6369384)
**Repairing volume.
disk0s2: I/0 error.
disk0s2: I/0 error.
** Rechecking volume ..

And then finish with:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFED *****

Put a new hard drive in there reinstall the os, then see how many of your file you can access with it attached externally. The HDD is done so you need another one anyway, without the stress of booting and operating the computer you may get your stuff back.

The $99 external time machine HD is looking cheaper now eh..

 

[Fishrrman]

"Now I've tried to use Target Disk Mode, but I can only access my Windows partition, not my mac partition. What to do? Help!"

Sounds like your OS X partition has become corrupted in some way. This seems to be a common problem with folks who have used BootCamp to install Windows on their Macs.

If _NOTHING_ else works to recover the Mac partition, you could try this:
- Get ahold of one of the file-recovery apps (DataRescue3, Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery, Disk Drill, or Nice To Recover)
- Re-initalize the problem drive into a single partition (yes, you read that correctly)
- Use the data recovery software to scavenge the re-initialized drive and recover the lost files.

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
If you re-initialize, do not, repeat DO NOT choose to "zero out" the drive. This will wipe clean the data sectors! There will be nothing left to recover!
Just initialize, DO NOT zero out!

Do this at your own risk, but it worked for me when nothing else would.

And when you do get things going again, take a moment to consider: do you REALLY need to have a Windows partition on that drive? Or, could you do better with something like VMWare Fusion or Parallels? Neither will require a separate Windows partition, and it's less likely you'll have to worry about the problems that you are having now.....

 

[Niiiklaz]

So, for example, if I use Datarescue 3, I can by booting directly from a disk extract files and put them on a externel harddisk?

 

[Niiiklaz]

Here is another issue. I can't choose the Macintosh HD harddisk when I will initialize it. I can (once again) only access my windows partition.

Thanks!

 

[Niiiklaz]

However. Is it possible to delete data on the harddisk by using Disk Utility and then install OS? And then use dataresue 3 (or whatever) to recover my files.

----------

Okay, I tried to format the disk by deleting data with disk utility, but then a error shows up, and tells me that it's not possible to delete the data, and the disk changes name to 'disk0s2'. This is so strange.

 

[0dev]

Your drive is screwed, buy a new one and try to work with your current one externally as has already been recommended. And do backups in the future.