[G4] G4 Powerbook Won't Boot Up. Help?

[Eric Volker]

Ron-

This is not my area of expertise, but I can see at least one problem 
with your approach. When running fsck_hfs, drop the 'n' option and 
replace it with 'y'. This will force fsck_hfs to at least try to fix any 
problems it finds. Thus you would enter:

fsck_hfs -fy /dev/disk0s9

This is assuming that /dev/disk0s9 is actually the raw device that 
corresponds to his drive.

Trying to mount your friend's hard drive on your G4 is certainly a valid 
option. Don't be upset if it doesn't immediately mount, but instead 
start Disk Utility and see if it appears there. If it does, you can 
attempt to repair the drive with Disk Utility.

I'm not familiar with Disk Warrior, but it might help if you pass on 
whatever error your friend got when trying to repair the disk with that 
utility. If I recall correctly, Disk Warrior comes highly recommended, 
so I'm surprised it didn't at least tell you something useful.

Eric

Ron Michael wrote:

> I have a buddy who is having G4 Powerbook problems which is stopping 
> him from booting up. He's tried Disk Warrior and that wouldn't repair 
> it. I'm pasting some of the on-screen messages he's getting but this 
> is as far as he can get before it hangs. I may be posting  too much 
> but hopefully it might help someone smarter than me interpret what's 
> going on. He was afraid to re-install until I posted this message 
> (also at my suggestion) since he's hoping his data is still all there. 
> Any advice I can pass along to him. I've got Tech Tool Pro but he 
> lives about an hour away. I thought about having him come over, 
> connecting the Powerbook to my G4, via Firewire and Target Disk mode 
> but if it won't start up, that idea won't help.
> Thanks a lot.
> Ron in Memphis
>
> 0. hfs: WARNING - blocks on volume Macintosh HD not allocated!
>
> 1. panic(cpu0): 0x300 - Data Access
>
> 2. panic: We are hanging here.
>
> 3. Incorrect block count for filesystem.log
> It should be 15987 instead of 15988 (---or is it  file 
> system.log---probably just one word.)
>
> 4. Invalid key length (4, 9807)
>
> 5. Volume check failed
>
> 6. Warning: blocks on volume MacIntosch HD not allocated
>
> 7. Returning false early
>
> 8. Connector or machine incorrect  (this message may be on same line 
> at #7 message. I know it follows #7 message.)
>
> 9. After running fsck_hfs -fn /dev/disk0s9, I get these messages:
>    ** /dev/rdisk0s9 (No WRITE)
> **Root file system
> **Checking HFS Plus volume
> **Checking Extents Overflow file.
> **Checking Catalog file.
>    Invalid extent entry
> (4, 9807)
> **The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
> **Volume check failed.
>
>>
>
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