[X4U] Re: Very weird disk corruption - pleas for help!

[jamesrob at sonic.net]

Stroller suggested
>
>
> why haven't you tried the original MacBook Pro system  

>disk? I don't know whether I can start the computer from it, either,  

>but it's got to be worth a try.

Here's what's weird. I was able to save what I need from the MacBook Pro (I could boot to its own hard drive into Leopard). I just could reinstall Leopard from the Install DVD, nor could I run the Leopard version of Disk Utility from the Install DVD -- the install DVD just wouldn't boot the machine; the optical drive would go through a repetitive triple-rhythm grunt forever until I stopped it. However, the optical drive itself was OK, because I COULD boot from the original Install DVD that came with the machine, and I could boot from my DiskWarrior 4 startup optical disk.

So, I copied what I needed from the MacBook Pro to my deskstop machine, inserted the Tiger Install DVD that came with the machine, completely erased the hard drive, then installed Tiger and ran every single update suggested by Apple in System Update. After the few hours THAT took, I tried once again to boot from the Leopard Install DVD. The behavior is now different but no better; a reproducible kernel panic! So, I've lost Leopard, lost Boot Camp (since the beta is no more and I can't run Leopard).

There's some chatter on various parts of the Apple Support Discussions talking about changes to basic disk formatting introduced with the 10.5.2 update that are causing problems like  this, and apparently once one does the 10.5.2 update the changes may not be reversible. Tonight I go to the genius bar. I need a reliable machine for an upcoming trip, so I may end up with a Penryn MacBook Pro by the end of the evening, and an older MacBook Pro off at Apple hoping for resuscitation.


> disk corruption that is confusing the MacOS boot- 

>manager - is in principle easy to solve, assuming you don't care  

>about your data. All you need to do is to erase the partition table &  

>job's a good 'un. Having said that, "easy" depends upon the tools  

>available to you. I would pull the laptop's hard-drive (mind you,  

>this is easier on my plastic MacBook than it is on a MacBookPro),  

>plug it into some other machine and use `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ 

>$drive` - the operation can be cancelled within seconds with Ctrl-C  

>because the partition table is zapped in moments, and when the drive  

>is replaced in the machine it will be recognised as unformatted and  

>without partitions.

>
>If you're able to to be apathetic about the data on the drive then  

>another way to remove the partition-table would be to boot with a  

>Linux CD. I would imagine Ubuntu might well support Intel Macs these  

>days and as long as you're able to boot to that (I would doubt that  

>it would be bothered about existing partitions the  way one of  

>Apple's CDs might be) then you can do the dd thing I described above.  

>I assume your DiskWarrior disk doesn't have any tools for erasing the  

>drive.

DiskWarrior does not have tools for erasing drives. It just creates new directories.

>
>Finally, PLEASE DO NOT CROSS-POST TO MULTIPLE MAC MAILING LISTS. This  

>is not usenet!! When you post a question to a mailing-list you're  

>asking readers to help you. But when you cross-post, readers do not  

>have the benefit of seeing all the other replies (those made to the  

>other list), so they could be wasting their time repeating  

>suggestions that have already been made (or made & dismissed) on the  

>other list. In future, please choose only ONE mailing list to post  

>to, and only follow-up to the other (with a summary of what's been  

>done, tried & suggested already) if you don't get your problem solved  

>within a few days.

>
>Stroller.

That's fair enough. I'm just under the gun as far as time is concerned. I need to get this resolved rapidly enough to decide whether it's a software or hardware problem that I can fix, or whether it's something that Apple MAY be able to sort out during some extended time when I won't have my laptop. if that's the way it goes, the machine gets passed down my home network food chain...

Jim Robertson