Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Disk Utility freezes at "Gathering info"

Bellatrix - Mar 15, 2008 - 10:41 pm

Hello again, and thanks for such a great service. I was helped greatly by DeltaMac in December, and then I spaced on the other issue I posted about after that (sorry! I just replied to that thread now).

Anyway, I have been having issues over the past few days that are getting progressively worse. First my iBook crashed when I was surfing some random website with Camino. I was able to bring it back with a Disk Utility repair and things seemed fine for a while. Then, later that day I tried to install a new printer (HP Photosmart C7280 which says it supports Mac OSX 10.4). During the install of its software, my iBook crashed again after I tried to force some unresponsive applications to quit (I think Camino may have been involved again, but I'm not sure). I ran Disk Utility again from the install disk and I think I repaired the permissions (I'm not sure if it was at this time, or when I repaired it earlier in the day). At some point, however, I got a black console-type screen and I wrote down the following:

disk0s3: I/O error

Darwin/BSD (Hera) (Console)

login: Mar 14 12:36:07 Hera/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Support/ATSServer \ FOExceptionMainHandler caught a fatal exception at 0x000d414c \n


So, I turned it off and booted with the install disk and ran Disk Utility. During repair, I observed the following:

Verify and Repair Disk "Archives"
Invalid Volume Header
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Overlapped extent allocation (file 161740d)
Keys out of Order
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
The volume "Archives" could not be repaired


So I rebooted again and tried to go into Disk Utility again, but then (and every time since then) it just gets stuck at "Gathering disk information . . . "

I'm pretty stuck too. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

zo219 - Mar 16, 2008 - 5:22 pm

First, startup using your original install OS disk. You will find a menu with various choices including Disk Utility. Run both the repair disk option and then repair permissions. Then go up to the menu for Startup Disk, choose your machine, and restart.

Clear the PRAM when you Restart thusly: Hold down these keys all at once: Command-Control-P-R, until you hear the startup chime twice, and let go.

What is this Archives Volume in the log? When you're in DU, from the startup disk, repeat both steps for each volume you have.

If Archives is an external disk, please disconnect all peripherals before following these steps.

- Mar 16, 2008 - 7:08 pm

Hi, thanks for the quick response. "Archives" is my hard disk (The disk on which OSX is installed).

Unfortunately, I cannot do a repair disk because Disk Utility (from Install disk) does not ever get past "Gathering disk information . . .". So, I can't run it. I did reset PRAM a while back, I didn't see a difference. Is there a Unix command I can type in terminal to help with this?

Here's the output of df -k right now:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk1s3 5856372 5844276 0 100% /
devfs 99 99 0 100% /dev
fdesc 1 1 0 100% /dev
512 512 0 100% /.vol
/dev/disk2 467 7 437 2% /Volumes
/dev/disk3 95 64 27 70% /private/var/tmp
/dev/disk4 95 13 78 14% /private/var/run

zo219 - Mar 16, 2008 - 7:24 pm

Have you done an fscky startup? Instructions, if needed: Startup holding down Command-S (also known as Safe Boot.) When that screen settles down, at the prompt type [fsck -y] omitting the parentheses, and do notice there is a space between k and - ...If your disk is journalled, you will change the ending to -f instead of -y.

If you haven't done this, and repairs are made, you can repeat the commande until there are no more repairs to be done.

Type reboot to start up.

- Mar 17, 2008 - 5:35 am

I am unable to Safe Boot. It does not go to the black console screen when I startup with Command-S (either upper or lower case) -- it instead goes to a gray screen where it hangs. Should I try fsck -y in Terminal from the Install Disk utility menu?

Thanks!

zo219 - Mar 17, 2008 - 7:02 am

I'm going to have to set this ticket for another tech to assist you, we just ran out of my level of expertise. Hang in there!

Serenak - Mar 18, 2008 - 7:21 am

Hello Bellatrix

I am afraid that you are in fairly big trouble here...

The Kernel Panic (Black Screen with the multilingual message) and the message disk I/O error indicate a failing HDD

I/O is input/output (aka read/write) and is BAD...
this output from DU is also nasty
Verify and Repair Disk "Archives"
Invalid Volume Header
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Overlapped extent allocation (file 161740d)
Keys out of Order
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
The volume "Archives" could not be repaired

and the fact that after attempting to fix it DU can no longer get past gathering information tends to point to a terminal HD melt down

I hope you have your data backed up because short of a reformat I doubt this disk will run or mount again

To be honest if DU can't fix it very little else is likely to help
DiskWarrior is the usual fall back and can sometimes help but it is about $100
Also in the $100 range is about the only tool that may be able to salvage some data from the disk ProSoft DataRescueII (but data recovery is rarely quick or fantastically sucessful in my experience)

A full format and reinstall might be successful but you have to ask yourself how much you trust the HDD if it has failed quite so badly. If you do reformat it make sure to use Apple Extended Journalled and to have SMART on if possible. If you need to check the disk more thoroughly you will need a tool like TechTool Pro or Drive Genius...

Sorry to lay bad news on you but I am afraid there is not really any other way to put it

Bellatrix - Mar 18, 2008 - 3:45 pm

Hmm, I was afraid of that. If you by any chance perused my other questions, you saw that I had another hard drive problem in December and had to just reinstall OSX. I thought that my problem at that time was caused by the fact that I was using disk encryption (can't remember what Apple calls it); I had been having problems with the PRAM/PMU and kept having to reboot without defragmenting (and forgot to ever go in and defragment it on my own; they only reason I ever did remember to defrag it was because it would ask me upon shutdown). I figured it just got so corrupted it finally wouldn't boot. But maybe it was just a hardware problem; I am not sure I would trust it again but I might try to reinstall OSX for fun (unless you tell me I might be able to access the drive using firewire to retrieve the data--which is minimal anyway, since I recently reinstalled OSX anyway--to a new Mac, which doesn't seem likely without the Disk Warrior app you mentioned).

Which brings me to my question: In your experience, is this a fairly common problem with Macs, indicating a reliability issue that is worse than most PCs? Or is it a good bet to buy a new MacBook? I would probably get the middle-of-the-line one, unless they are including SuperDrives in the base model now (haven't looked lately). I do like Apple, OSX in particular due to Fink support and Aqua, and it just sounds awful to have to use a PC all the time from now on (it's already bad enough to be on one now while my iBook is out of commission).

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Bella

Serenak - Mar 18, 2008 - 4:33 pm

Hello Bella

I would not say that this is any more prevalent a problem in Macs or PCs - it is simply what happens when the disk reaches a fail point (many experts say after 3 years most HDDs are into the end of their lives - I think that is a bit harsh for home use PCs but if you are talking "mission critical" possibly not - try reformatting and installing OSX and simply see how it goes and don't trust any "critical data" to it until it seems that no problems are developing (run Disk Utility Repair Disk every few days at first and if it starts reporting problems then the disk is probably reaching its end of life.

If you can get Target Disk Mode (hold down T when you restart till you see a big FW symbol) then yes you could try mounting it as a remote disk... but if the system is toasted you may not get it anyway - try it and see if you can get it.

Replacing a HD in an iBook is not a task for the fainthearted so unfortunately the cost of replacing one in an older iBook may well be prohibitive - I highly recommend the MacBooks - I have one, my wife has one, and our daughter has one - only my wife's has superdrive - but Apple may have gone up to all superdrive now.

If the iBook will reformat and install again it may be usable for simple internet stuff - if it does then great. If not then you could sell it on ebay as good but with a failed HDD... plenty of people would buy it who have the skills to dismantle one and fit a new HDD - it can be done if you know how - it isn't so much hard as tricky and a bit scary (or people will buy it for parts - all the parts have good resale values) - get quote to replace the HDD first though! You might find it is worthwhile to fix it.

Hope that is some help

Bellatrix - Mar 19, 2008 - 10:22 pm

Thank you so much, this answers my questions. I will probably look into the MacBook (I see Pro now has multitouch trackpad, but it's a bit more than I want to spend). Although I may try to reinstall OSX on the hard drive again to see what happens. Thanks again, I really appreciate this service.

--Bella