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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Advanced HELP-Disk Utility doesn’t start

anton123 - Apr 26, 2008 - 9:07 am

Advanced HELP! Disk Utility doesn’t start, no destination install volumes shown

(also Toast Titanium 7 & Synthetic Studio Artist 3.5 quits on launch)

Hi there, I desperately need some help with this:

I wanted to install an application and when I got to the “select a destination volume” bit there was nothing there! It is blank….the drive icons don’t display?

So I went to start Disk Utility – when you click on the icon, the Disk Utility Toolbar appears on top but the application itself doesn’t start!? When you click the “window” option on the toolbar, only “show log” is highlighted and the other options are grayed out.

Coincidentally I clicked on Toast Titanium 7 – it launches and crashes (quits) as soon as the application window shows up. Same with Synthetic Studio Artist 3.5 !!

I’m sure all of these issues are somehow related. I’ve done some research and have seen it suggested to try and repair stuff by using the original Restore discs – unfortunately this is on a DVD and my old superdrive is very selective about which DVD’s it reads and it doesn’t read this one!!

I have tried the following fsck tricks:

“Installer destination window does not show drives” (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306861)
It says to:
1. Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.
2. Execute this command:

ps auxc | grep fsck
After I hit enter, nothing happens for a long time – when you try and close the terminal, a message comes up saying that the command is still running……(but obviously not doing anything)
I’ve also tried this one:
“Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck” (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214)

It lets you start up in single-user mode then type /sbin/fsck -fy - at the end the readout I get says that the “volume appears to be OK”

Furthermore I’ve tried the following:

I installed a demo of Cocktail 4.0.2 (Tiger Edition) - when you click on Disks, it says “gathering information” and it basically hangs – nothing happens. When you run the disk repair it gets to a certain point on the progress bar and doesn’t go any further

I’ve tried Diskwarrior 4 – Also checking and repairing Mac HD drive gets to about ¾ on the progress bar and then gets stuck – nothing happens. When you run a file and folder check only , it gives a report with about 4 errors on it – the errors it finds are:

Files that are damaged and cannot be repaired :

Localized.rsrc
com.cvsconsulting.supermax.plist
com.Premiumduty.Pennyweight.plist
com.finetech.prosit.plist


PLEASE, any help in resolving this would be VERY much appreciated!!

Thanks!

Ant
I’m on a PPC G5 OSX 10.4.2

gsahli - Apr 26, 2008 - 9:25 am

Do you have the hardware test CD? have you tried that?
All your symptoms DO seem to be interrelated. I suspect your Ram or motherboard.

I don't think it can hurt to find those four files and delete them, and then try Diskwarrior again. (they are all preference files that will be recreated)

anton123 - Apr 26, 2008 - 10:34 am

Thanks for the quick response.

OK I've deleted the files - Diskwarior have been at it for a long while now and it doesn'l look like it can repair the disk permissions (although when running a file check, the previous errors don't show up anymore)

I'm trying the harware test and will get back with the results

Thanks for the help

A

anton123 - Apr 26, 2008 - 1:15 pm

Ok - the hardware test didn't show any errors, so I take it- it must be a software issue?

Any other ideas? Re-install osx?

Thanks again

- Apr 26, 2008 - 4:33 pm

Ok hardware test came out fine. So it has to be a software issue then?

Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch!

- Apr 26, 2008 - 4:42 pm

Ok hardware test came out fine. So it has to be a software issue then?

Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch!

gsahli - Apr 26, 2008 - 4:47 pm

You didn't say if Diskwarrior ever finished.

Yes, I'd say it seems to be a software issue. If you are willing to reinstall OS X, then I recommend you do the Archive & Install option in the installer:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

anton123 - Apr 26, 2008 - 5:04 pm

Yeah, 2 hours later and Diskwarrior was still trying to fix the permissions.....

I had hoped I didn't have to re-instal - that means I'll have to re-install all the apps as well right?

Thanks

gsahli - Apr 27, 2008 - 6:52 am

If you use Archive & Install, only a small number of Apps will need to be reinstalled (Apps that put files in places normally reserved for System files). Unfortunately there isn't a list of "which Apps need to be reinstalled."

Oh - Diskwarrior should be rebuilding the directory - is "fix the permissions" what it says in the progress window?

anton123 - Apr 29, 2008 - 3:39 am

Thanks - I misplaced the Diskwarior cd and I haven't rebuilt the directory - I only run repair permissions from the "files" tab.

Will this still work?

gsahli - Apr 29, 2008 - 7:24 am

Fix permissions won't do anything useful for you - sorry.
Do you have your OS X Install DVD? Put it in and restart, holding down the C key until you can tell the computer is using the DVD. Select english for language, but DON'T Continue the installer. Instead, find Disk Utility in the top (Finder) menus and use it to repair the Hard Disk.