MAJOR PROBLEMS - Need Your HELP!

[DJP]

All -

You've been so good to help me out before and now I have some serious issues that I need addressing as soon as possible.

15.2 Aluminum PowerBook G4
1. When attempting to copy my "home" file to my Western Digital 160GB HD, my computer froze and then finder failed to respond. I could not restart the computer so I held down the power button. Upon restarting, I attempted to use spotlight to search for disk utility. However, spotlight failed to work. It will not find anything on the computer and comes up with "no results found."

2. I have two external hard drives: a Western Digital 160GB and a 80GB Lacie. Both are not mounting. I have to get info off of these as they were primary back ups and now I can't read either of them. When attempting to back up my wife's iBook G4 (panther) with my Lacie, the iBook kicked it off and then the screen popped up saying that I should have removed the disk properly. Once the iBook kicked me off, I can't read that drive at all, either on the iBook or my PowerBook.

I've attempted to run disk utility to repair permissions, but that did not work. I'm out of ideas and would appreciate your help.

Thanks in advance!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

1. Force Spotlight to reindex the drive. One way to do this is to add Macintosh HD to the list of devices not to index, then remove it, from System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy.

2. Connect the drives that are not working (one at a time or both at once). Open Disk Utility. Does Disk Utility detect the disk? If it does, then attempt to verify it. If errors are found, click Repair Disk. If the repair reports that it fixed errors, then attempt repairs again until you get one of the following messages:
The volume appears to be OK
OR
The underlying task reported failure on exit

 

[DJP]

1. Force Spotlight to reindex the drive. One way to do this is to add Macintosh HD to the list of devices not to index, then remove it, from System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy.

2. Connect the drives that are not working (one at a time or both at once). Open Disk Utility. Does Disk Utility detect the disk? If it does, then attempt to verify it. If errors are found, click Repair Disk. If the repair reports that it fixed errors, then attempt repairs again until you get one of the following messages:
The volume appears to be OK
OR
The underlying task reported failure on exit

Thanks!

Each time I have attempted to repair the disks, they say "underlying task reported failure on exit."

What should I do after this?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Thanks!

Each time I have attempted to repair the disks, they say "underlying task reported failure on exit."

What should I do after this?

This message means that your disk(s) have file system damage Disk Utility cannot fix. You have 2 options at this point:

1. Use a more advanced repair tool that is compatible with Leopard
2. Reformat the disk

 

[DJP]

This message means that your disk(s) have file system damage Disk Utility cannot fix. You have 2 options at this point:

1. Use a more advanced repair tool that is compatible with Leopard
2. Reformat the disk

Would using a program like Disk Warrior potentially fix the issue on the external HD? If I reformat the disk, would it erase the contents? How would I go about reformatting if it came to that?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Would using a program like Disk Warrior potentially fix the issue on the external HD? If I reformat the disk, would it erase the contents? How would I go about reformatting if it came to that?

Yes, and yes. Use Disk Utility to reformat the disk, if necessary.