Need help with "weird" HARD DRIVE PROBLEM

[Cognacad]

Hello all, I'm a long time lurker first time poster.

So my computer shuts down because my battery died (getting a new one tomorrow). I turn it on again and I get the apple logo and spinning wheel, after about 30 seconds it shuts down again. I tried resetting the VRAM (or whatever its called) the power systems (holding power button) and tried to go into safemode without luck. I ran the command line interface and did the disk check in there and it said Invalid Index Key

After a while I gave up, through in my OSX 10.4 CD and tried to clean install. It didn't work, so I had to restart. Surprisingly, here I am back in OSX 10.5 without problems.

I run verify disk in disk utility and it says: "Invalid Index Key". I ran Onyx and it says I need to repair the disk.

Now, I don't have my 10.5 CD so I can't boot with that and attempt to repair (if that is possible)

Is this a software issue or a physical issue? If I do a clean swipe with Snow Leopard will it fix it (and if I just upgrade?)? Do I need a new HD? If I do its no problem I just buy one, but I don't want to waste money if this drive is fine.

Please let me know!

Mike

 

[LimeiBook86]

This sounds like your computer was writing or editing some important data when the battery died. This could screw up some system files and prevent your system from booting properly. What computer are you using?

Resetting the PRAM is what the phrase is (command, open, P, R - usually), as long as you don't hear audible weird noises, like the head of the hard drive crashing into the platters, you probably don't need a new hard drive.

Now you say you can boot into 10.5, so you installed 10.5 on the hard drive - was this before or after the compute refused to boot up? More information would be useful in figuring out the problem. You may have to reformat the hard drive (using Disk Utility when booted from an OS X disc) - however remember that this will erase all data on the drive! A Clean Install of 10.4 may not work (if you're downgrading from 10.5) unless you erase / reformat the hard drive.

Good luck!

 

[Cognacad]

Thanks for your suggestions.

After I restarted the computer it wouldn't boot up again. I booted from my external hardrive with 10.5 on it and restored with time machine to a few days ago.

All seems to be well now.