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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Strange Crash
peppermint_patty - Jul 23, 2005 - 1:41 pm
I had a crash while downloading some software (something safe I've had on my machine before).
When I tried to restart OS X only booted up half-way and then went to a blank blue screen.
I tried doing all the restart stuff.
Then I ran a hardware test and everything passed.
But when I try to restart my computer it still takes me to this blank blue screen. No icons, no finder, nothing.
Any ideas if all is lost and I should reinstall OSX or my software or both?
When I tried to restart OS X only booted up half-way and then went to a blank blue screen.
I tried doing all the restart stuff.
Then I ran a hardware test and everything passed.
But when I try to restart my computer it still takes me to this blank blue screen. No icons, no finder, nothing.
Any ideas if all is lost and I should reinstall OSX or my software or both?
Stuartpau - Jul 23, 2005 - 4:56 pm
HI can you let me know exactly what version of the Mac OSX you are using 10.2.3, 10.2.4 Etc and also the configuration of your Mac, Is it an Emac, a Powerbook and how much RAM and drive space does it have.
One thing I would certainly try is to reset the Macs' parameter RAM and to do this, restart your computer, and as soon as it starts to staart up, hold down the following keys. CMD(Apple Key) Option and P and R keys. Keep them held down until you mac has chimed at least 3 times, then let go of the keys and let it start up normally if it will.
I would hold off reinstalling the OS for now as we may be able to workaround this problem.
Do you have access to any other macs at all, as this could be helpful in troubleshooting your Mac, or if you have an edxternal Firewire drive, you could install an OS on that to see if that will let you boot your system.
I doubt if it is something you downloaded, it sounds more like the crash stopped the OS from completing one of its tasks and this may be what is causing the crash.
another thing to do is to try a Safe Boot.
To do this hold down the shift key when you restart the computer, this will take a lot longer than a regular restart and lets see if the computer actually boots up. IF it does we may be able to get into the OS and be able to fix your startu issues. THe Safe boot overrides any third party drivers and some of the Networking capabilities, it does take a lot longet to boot up so you will need to be patient and keep the shift key held down.
Lets see if we can at least get into your OS OK
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Stuart
One thing I would certainly try is to reset the Macs' parameter RAM and to do this, restart your computer, and as soon as it starts to staart up, hold down the following keys. CMD(Apple Key) Option and P and R keys. Keep them held down until you mac has chimed at least 3 times, then let go of the keys and let it start up normally if it will.
I would hold off reinstalling the OS for now as we may be able to workaround this problem.
Do you have access to any other macs at all, as this could be helpful in troubleshooting your Mac, or if you have an edxternal Firewire drive, you could install an OS on that to see if that will let you boot your system.
I doubt if it is something you downloaded, it sounds more like the crash stopped the OS from completing one of its tasks and this may be what is causing the crash.
another thing to do is to try a Safe Boot.
To do this hold down the shift key when you restart the computer, this will take a lot longer than a regular restart and lets see if the computer actually boots up. IF it does we may be able to get into the OS and be able to fix your startu issues. THe Safe boot overrides any third party drivers and some of the Networking capabilities, it does take a lot longet to boot up so you will need to be patient and keep the shift key held down.
Lets see if we can at least get into your OS OK
--------
Stuart
peppermint_patty - Jul 23, 2005 - 6:32 pm
hi stuart,
thanks so much for your response. i'm not too savvy so there's only so much i can answer. i can't tell you what OSX I'm using except that it's 2.something. I can't remember and I can't get as far as having my Finder to find out. I can tell you that it's a standard ibook G4. 256MB RAM. not sure how much drive space it has. how can i answer that for you?
i tried to reset the Mac's parameter RAM but i only knew to hold it down for the second chime. i will try again for a third.
I do have access to another Mac, although it's a G3, and i don't have and external firewire drive.
i'm at work and won't be back home until late, but then I'll try resetting the Mac's parameter RAM again. If that doesn't work I'll try the safe boot but what do i do if it boots up? what should it look like, a normal screen minus networking and third party drivers? and is there any special way to shut it down until i can get further instructions about what comes next if a safe boot works.
just F.Y.I. right now the progress bar in the OSX start up window gets a quarter of the way and stops. not sure if that helps at all.
thanks very much for your help,
carla
thanks so much for your response. i'm not too savvy so there's only so much i can answer. i can't tell you what OSX I'm using except that it's 2.something. I can't remember and I can't get as far as having my Finder to find out. I can tell you that it's a standard ibook G4. 256MB RAM. not sure how much drive space it has. how can i answer that for you?
i tried to reset the Mac's parameter RAM but i only knew to hold it down for the second chime. i will try again for a third.
I do have access to another Mac, although it's a G3, and i don't have and external firewire drive.
i'm at work and won't be back home until late, but then I'll try resetting the Mac's parameter RAM again. If that doesn't work I'll try the safe boot but what do i do if it boots up? what should it look like, a normal screen minus networking and third party drivers? and is there any special way to shut it down until i can get further instructions about what comes next if a safe boot works.
just F.Y.I. right now the progress bar in the OSX start up window gets a quarter of the way and stops. not sure if that helps at all.
thanks very much for your help,
carla
Stuartpau - Jul 23, 2005 - 7:53 pm
HI, the reason for the safe boot is to try and see if there is a file that is stopping the OS from loading.
When you start up in the safe boot everything will look the same but you may a get a message during the boot process that tels you you are doing a safe boot.
Once you manage to get into a computer with a safe boot at least you can start to look around to see if the cause of the boot process in your Mac can be located.
Plus once you are into your Mac, you can go to the apple menu and start up up ABOUT THIS MAC.
This will tell you what OS you are using and How much RAM you have.
Then you can click in More INfo and that will list out everything that is connected to your Mac, all the software pretty much everything.
For the Hard Drive(s) you can select the HD and do a CMD (APPLEKey) followed by an I for a get info and that will let me know how much drive space you have and how much of it is used.
There exists a possibility that the drive itself may need fixing so you might need a program called Diskwarrior or something similar, but we can look into that if we can get into your system.
It would be helpful to know if you have a lot of data on your Mac that you cannot replace, because that will affect how we have to approach things as well,
There is more than one way to reinstall your OS, and one of those ways protects your Data and the computer settings. THe trouble with this is you have to get all yor data back to where you want to keep it.
Having another computer can be really handy, especially if the other computer has Firewire built in to it. That way we can use the computer that wil not start up as a target firewire drive and this gives us the ability to run some of the tools that Apple supplies to help fix your drive.
A lot of this stuff sounds a whole lot harder than it really is so don't worry too much, lets just see how far you get with the PRAM reset and a safe Boot. At least that way we should be able to find something that will help get you going again, even if an OS reinstall is needed. OK
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Stuart
When you start up in the safe boot everything will look the same but you may a get a message during the boot process that tels you you are doing a safe boot.
Once you manage to get into a computer with a safe boot at least you can start to look around to see if the cause of the boot process in your Mac can be located.
Plus once you are into your Mac, you can go to the apple menu and start up up ABOUT THIS MAC.
This will tell you what OS you are using and How much RAM you have.
Then you can click in More INfo and that will list out everything that is connected to your Mac, all the software pretty much everything.
For the Hard Drive(s) you can select the HD and do a CMD (APPLEKey) followed by an I for a get info and that will let me know how much drive space you have and how much of it is used.
There exists a possibility that the drive itself may need fixing so you might need a program called Diskwarrior or something similar, but we can look into that if we can get into your system.
It would be helpful to know if you have a lot of data on your Mac that you cannot replace, because that will affect how we have to approach things as well,
There is more than one way to reinstall your OS, and one of those ways protects your Data and the computer settings. THe trouble with this is you have to get all yor data back to where you want to keep it.
Having another computer can be really handy, especially if the other computer has Firewire built in to it. That way we can use the computer that wil not start up as a target firewire drive and this gives us the ability to run some of the tools that Apple supplies to help fix your drive.
A lot of this stuff sounds a whole lot harder than it really is so don't worry too much, lets just see how far you get with the PRAM reset and a safe Boot. At least that way we should be able to find something that will help get you going again, even if an OS reinstall is needed. OK
--------
Stuart
peppermint_patty - Jul 24, 2005 - 2:41 am
Thanks, Stuart. So neither the PRAM reset or the safe boot worked. I did realize though that on my MAC OSX install discs it has version 10.3 so maybe it wasn't 10.2 on my machine after all.
Unfortunately, I can't give you any information beyond that.
The other computer I have access to does have a Firewire built into it and the owner would be willing to let me use it if it'll help.
So, not sure where to go from here.
Most of the data on my machine could be replaced or chalked up as a loss (writing/music/etc.) What kind of hassle would I be looking at if I did try to save some?
Well, let me know what you think is the next step.
Thanks again,
Carla
Unfortunately, I can't give you any information beyond that.
The other computer I have access to does have a Firewire built into it and the owner would be willing to let me use it if it'll help.
So, not sure where to go from here.
Most of the data on my machine could be replaced or chalked up as a loss (writing/music/etc.) What kind of hassle would I be looking at if I did try to save some?
Well, let me know what you think is the next step.
Thanks again,
Carla
Stuartpau - Jul 24, 2005 - 7:04 pm
Ok well at least we have some idea of which OS you are running and it really can change things as each OS no matter whether it is an Apple OS or a Microsoft one can all have different bugs in them, even the interim releases that cure some bugs, often end up with different ones in them.
I have a feeling that what has happened to you drive is that whilst you were downloading (Adding something to your HD,) then crashing before it finished you may have damaged the catalog on the drive.
This is the part of the drive that you never really see but it is probably the most important part because it tells the computer where everything is on the drive. It should just need fixing.
Please read all this messaage before starting any repair work, as I list a couple of different approaches
You may be able to repair your Hd using the OSX Install Cd's as follows
Insert disc one of the OS X Install set, and restart your computer holding down the C key. Your computer should boot up on the CD, just keep holding the C key until you can see that the computer is actually starting up on the CD.
This should start up in the OS Installer. This is where you need to be careful.
Instead of going ahead and installing the OS, Locate under either the Apple menu or the File menu, I forget which, the disk or drive utility and select it.
From here you should be able to repair permissions and also run disk first aid to actually repair your disk.
Using target Mode
IF you have another computer that has Firewire on it, and it is running more or less the same OS as the one you need to fix, in other words OS X 10.3.??, then there will be some tools on it that may help you fix your other system.
This is what you do.
Make sure you have the other computer handy and preferable turned off.
You will also need a firewire cable to connect both machines together.
At this point do not make the connection.
1.Restart your fauly machine, at the same time hold down the T key. This should put you faulty system into what is known as Target mode and essentially this means that your computer becomes a firewire drive.
Once it is in target mode, you should see the Firewire symbol on the screen.
2. Connect both systems together and start up the good system.
Once it has finished starting up, you should ne able to see another drive on the desktop that was not there before, and that is in fact the drive in your faulty computer.
If you do manage to get this working, and you are sure that the G3 is running OS X 10.3 or better, then you can go to the utilities folder and find the disk utility and run Disk first aid. this may be able to fix your HD. Run Disk first aid about 2 times, and then also repair permissions.
Using the CD approach is OK and does guarantee that you will probably be using the correct version of the disk utility. The disadvantage is you do not get access to a desktop so you cannot browse through your faulty drive, however the faulty drive may not mount in target mode, if the catalog is badly damaged.
So for tonight if you have the chance try fixing things with the CD and we will only use the other computer if we run into a really bad problem.
At this point I usually recomend to people that they buy a third party drive utility such as Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Tech Tool Pro will check out your machine hardware and do a ton of useful things, but for the repair of a damaged HD, then I find it hard to beat Diskwarrior from Alsoft. Make sure that if you decide to get one or the other that you also get the startup CD.
With Tech Tool Pro, you have to have it installed before you can use it, which in this case you can't because you cannot get to the startup Disk.
Diskwarrior comes with a secure CD that you can work with right from the start and overall, I have found Diskwarrior to be the best one around for drive repair. This amazing program looks at your HD and sees what is supposed to be on it, then it makes a brand new optimized catalog with everything in the right place. If there is a partial or corrup file, it will usually let you know what it is called and some times where it is so you can trash it.
Tech tool Pro if yo ualready have it installed pretty much checks out all your hardware, your drives, you files everything, and it has some really neat functions available in case you have a situation like this but it has to be installed first to the best of my knowledge. This Application is made by Micromat
The reason you need one of these aplications is that Apple's disk utility only offers limited repairs. IF you don't need one of thesse applications now you almost certainly will in the future, everyone needs a third party drive repair utility PC users or Mac users.
So let's see if the Apple drive utility on the CD's will repair your drive, if not you can either go ahead and do a special OS archive and reinstall, if you have data that you do not want to lose, or you can get Diskwarrior and try and repair the HD.
I recommend getting diskwarrior anyway and keeping up to date with it as the Mac OS gets updated.
My reason for saying this is that if you end up with a lot of files and a lot of software, it can be a real pain rebuilding the entire system after reinstalling the OS, especially when you can usually fix it and get back to where you left off with Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Not only that, but both applications can keep an ongoing check on your HD and if it starts to get faulty, a lot of the time they can repair the HD in the background without you even knowing it is being fixed. Personally I have both Applications.
Also I wish to apologize for not mentioning the CD approach to repairing your Mac earlier on, I was reallly tired and it so happened I was actually doing the Target mode thing on another Mac and completely forgot you can do almost the same thing from the Install CD's.
--------
Stuart
I have a feeling that what has happened to you drive is that whilst you were downloading (Adding something to your HD,) then crashing before it finished you may have damaged the catalog on the drive.
This is the part of the drive that you never really see but it is probably the most important part because it tells the computer where everything is on the drive. It should just need fixing.
Please read all this messaage before starting any repair work, as I list a couple of different approaches
You may be able to repair your Hd using the OSX Install Cd's as follows
Insert disc one of the OS X Install set, and restart your computer holding down the C key. Your computer should boot up on the CD, just keep holding the C key until you can see that the computer is actually starting up on the CD.
This should start up in the OS Installer. This is where you need to be careful.
Instead of going ahead and installing the OS, Locate under either the Apple menu or the File menu, I forget which, the disk or drive utility and select it.
From here you should be able to repair permissions and also run disk first aid to actually repair your disk.
Using target Mode
IF you have another computer that has Firewire on it, and it is running more or less the same OS as the one you need to fix, in other words OS X 10.3.??, then there will be some tools on it that may help you fix your other system.
This is what you do.
Make sure you have the other computer handy and preferable turned off.
You will also need a firewire cable to connect both machines together.
At this point do not make the connection.
1.Restart your fauly machine, at the same time hold down the T key. This should put you faulty system into what is known as Target mode and essentially this means that your computer becomes a firewire drive.
Once it is in target mode, you should see the Firewire symbol on the screen.
2. Connect both systems together and start up the good system.
Once it has finished starting up, you should ne able to see another drive on the desktop that was not there before, and that is in fact the drive in your faulty computer.
If you do manage to get this working, and you are sure that the G3 is running OS X 10.3 or better, then you can go to the utilities folder and find the disk utility and run Disk first aid. this may be able to fix your HD. Run Disk first aid about 2 times, and then also repair permissions.
Using the CD approach is OK and does guarantee that you will probably be using the correct version of the disk utility. The disadvantage is you do not get access to a desktop so you cannot browse through your faulty drive, however the faulty drive may not mount in target mode, if the catalog is badly damaged.
So for tonight if you have the chance try fixing things with the CD and we will only use the other computer if we run into a really bad problem.
At this point I usually recomend to people that they buy a third party drive utility such as Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Tech Tool Pro will check out your machine hardware and do a ton of useful things, but for the repair of a damaged HD, then I find it hard to beat Diskwarrior from Alsoft. Make sure that if you decide to get one or the other that you also get the startup CD.
With Tech Tool Pro, you have to have it installed before you can use it, which in this case you can't because you cannot get to the startup Disk.
Diskwarrior comes with a secure CD that you can work with right from the start and overall, I have found Diskwarrior to be the best one around for drive repair. This amazing program looks at your HD and sees what is supposed to be on it, then it makes a brand new optimized catalog with everything in the right place. If there is a partial or corrup file, it will usually let you know what it is called and some times where it is so you can trash it.
Tech tool Pro if yo ualready have it installed pretty much checks out all your hardware, your drives, you files everything, and it has some really neat functions available in case you have a situation like this but it has to be installed first to the best of my knowledge. This Application is made by Micromat
The reason you need one of these aplications is that Apple's disk utility only offers limited repairs. IF you don't need one of thesse applications now you almost certainly will in the future, everyone needs a third party drive repair utility PC users or Mac users.
So let's see if the Apple drive utility on the CD's will repair your drive, if not you can either go ahead and do a special OS archive and reinstall, if you have data that you do not want to lose, or you can get Diskwarrior and try and repair the HD.
I recommend getting diskwarrior anyway and keeping up to date with it as the Mac OS gets updated.
My reason for saying this is that if you end up with a lot of files and a lot of software, it can be a real pain rebuilding the entire system after reinstalling the OS, especially when you can usually fix it and get back to where you left off with Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro.
Not only that, but both applications can keep an ongoing check on your HD and if it starts to get faulty, a lot of the time they can repair the HD in the background without you even knowing it is being fixed. Personally I have both Applications.
Also I wish to apologize for not mentioning the CD approach to repairing your Mac earlier on, I was reallly tired and it so happened I was actually doing the Target mode thing on another Mac and completely forgot you can do almost the same thing from the Install CD's.
--------
Stuart
peppermint_patty - Jul 25, 2005 - 1:31 pm
hi stuart, thanks again. i understand about being tired and not mentioning the disc before. i really appreciate the help. i'll try using the cd. after it does the repairs i won't need to reinstall right? will i be able to back out of the install disc and restart? will it prompt me for that. just curious about what i'll be going into beforehand so i don't inadvertantly make a bigger mess.
also, if the cd repairs work will i have access to my normal desktop and files. meaning, can i then wait before i pick up tech tool or diskwarrior?
thanks so much for the help.
carla
also, if the cd repairs work will i have access to my normal desktop and files. meaning, can i then wait before i pick up tech tool or diskwarrior?
thanks so much for the help.
carla
Stuartpau - Jul 25, 2005 - 5:04 pm
HI Carla, if you do manage to repair your HD with the disk utility on the CD, you should be able to restart without installing the OS. There will not be a prompt to restart, but if the Disk utility says your drive is fixed you should be back to normal.
That is the theory, in practice what I have found is that more often than not, disk first aid says your disk is OK, but it really still is not, that's where I told you that the repairs that disk first aid can do are limited, it does not find all the faults on your drive. The only way to know is to run Disk First aid. Fix the disk, repair permissions and try a restart to see if it really did work.
If it did not work, I would wait until you get Diskwarrior, you will need Diskwarrior in this case because you cannot install Tech Tool Pro as you can't get to your HD to install it.
So get Diskwarrior, run it and then when it has gone through its thing which takes quite a while, it will offer you a replacement of the directory on you HD and also show you if it can the directory that failed.
It will ask you if you want to use the new one (the one Diskwarrior built) or the old one which is broken.
Choose the new one, let Diskwarrior replace the catalog file and then when it has finished, you should be able to simply restart and take off from where you left off with no problems and hopefully the only files that are no good are the ones you were trying to download at the time.
They might not even be there as it never really got all the way to your HD and probably there is a hidden temp file that you don't need that Diskwarrior will probably ignore and you should be able to go and try to download it again.
One question i have wanted to ask is, when you crashed whilst you were downloading, what program were you using?, and what exactly happened when your machine crashed.
--------
Stuart
That is the theory, in practice what I have found is that more often than not, disk first aid says your disk is OK, but it really still is not, that's where I told you that the repairs that disk first aid can do are limited, it does not find all the faults on your drive. The only way to know is to run Disk First aid. Fix the disk, repair permissions and try a restart to see if it really did work.
If it did not work, I would wait until you get Diskwarrior, you will need Diskwarrior in this case because you cannot install Tech Tool Pro as you can't get to your HD to install it.
So get Diskwarrior, run it and then when it has gone through its thing which takes quite a while, it will offer you a replacement of the directory on you HD and also show you if it can the directory that failed.
It will ask you if you want to use the new one (the one Diskwarrior built) or the old one which is broken.
Choose the new one, let Diskwarrior replace the catalog file and then when it has finished, you should be able to simply restart and take off from where you left off with no problems and hopefully the only files that are no good are the ones you were trying to download at the time.
They might not even be there as it never really got all the way to your HD and probably there is a hidden temp file that you don't need that Diskwarrior will probably ignore and you should be able to go and try to download it again.
One question i have wanted to ask is, when you crashed whilst you were downloading, what program were you using?, and what exactly happened when your machine crashed.
--------
Stuart
peppermint_patty - Jul 25, 2005 - 6:49 pm
Had to get to work so I haven't tried the disk repair yet but I will tonight and see how it goes.
When it crashed I was downloading EMusic Download Manager. It's a site I've used before. I had deleted the download manager, which just functions as a progress window when you're downloading entire records, etc. But I'd just renewed my membership so I was trying to reinstall it.
It began installation but 40 seconds or a minute into it it put up a message that installation had failed. no other specifics, at least that i can remember. Then all my icons/files disappered from the desktop with the exception of the harddrive icon. i wasn't sure what had happened and, frankly, i panicked so i restarted it. probably a very bad idea but it's what i did. when it came back on it went to the blue screen i'd described.
When it crashed I was downloading EMusic Download Manager. It's a site I've used before. I had deleted the download manager, which just functions as a progress window when you're downloading entire records, etc. But I'd just renewed my membership so I was trying to reinstall it.
It began installation but 40 seconds or a minute into it it put up a message that installation had failed. no other specifics, at least that i can remember. Then all my icons/files disappered from the desktop with the exception of the harddrive icon. i wasn't sure what had happened and, frankly, i panicked so i restarted it. probably a very bad idea but it's what i did. when it came back on it went to the blue screen i'd described.
Stuartpau - Jul 25, 2005 - 7:16 pm
It sure sounds to me like it was the Emusic Installer had a problem and failed.
I don't think your restarting the machine caused the damage, unless you did a force quit first.
If you can avoid a force quite and can cycle through any open applications and close them first. do that, if you can.
Then try and do a regular restart. IF that does not happen because some application for example the Emusic installer is not responding, then you have no choice but to do a force quite, and it is usually advisable although supposedly not necessary to do a full system restart any way.
--------
Stuart
I don't think your restarting the machine caused the damage, unless you did a force quit first.
If you can avoid a force quite and can cycle through any open applications and close them first. do that, if you can.
Then try and do a regular restart. IF that does not happen because some application for example the Emusic installer is not responding, then you have no choice but to do a force quite, and it is usually advisable although supposedly not necessary to do a full system restart any way.
--------
Stuart
peppermint_patty - Jul 26, 2005 - 1:28 am
stuart, a million thanks!! the disk utility repair seems to have worked because i'm up and running with files intact. should i assume that it's been fixed and that i don't need to run diskwarrior? (although, i do plan on getting it in the near future to avoid another mess like this.)
it'd been a bad week - bicycle trouble, stomach virus, computer crash - so you've made my life a hell of a lot more managable by getting one thing off my mind. i really appreciate your help and knowledge.
thanks,
carla
it'd been a bad week - bicycle trouble, stomach virus, computer crash - so you've made my life a hell of a lot more managable by getting one thing off my mind. i really appreciate your help and knowledge.
thanks,
carla
Stuartpau - Jul 26, 2005 - 1:31 pm
Wow, that is a bad week.
I would think that you could go ahead and run OK as normal, you got lucky, mind you as time goes by Disk First aid does get better.
I still would get something like Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro, and now that you have access to your system, you can decide which one best suits your needs.
Tech Tool pro is by Micromat and Diskwarrior is by Alsoft, both ae great applications. Personally I have both of them, but you really should only need the one.
For plain drive issues I recomend Diskwarrior, I have never lost any dat using that application, unless the drive itself was trashed internally.
Tech tool Pro is great because apart from all the things it can do like checking hardware and drives Etc, the new version can even create a special startup Edisk, that you can use to access Tech Tool Pro and fix things on your startup drive, it really is a neat function.
Look both of them over, there are other tools as well and some people prefer them, I guess it is all personal choice in the end.
One thing I would definitely do, is back up all the data Music whatever in case you ever have another crash like this.
I am these days a backup freak because, one day , I decided to get all my work over the past few years and put it all on one big drive, and then back it up to tape. Well I got it all on the big drive, started the tape backup. While that was going on I cleaned all the stuff off my other computers (Back then drive space cost a few dollars more than today), anyway I deleted about 5 years worth of work.
Then I noticed the tape was not running properly, started to check it out and then I touched the HD, it was red hot and it had frozen up completely, I had lost all that work, tht was a real bad week for me, and I managed to get about 20% of my old files back off the other systems using an older disk utility similar to Tech Tool Pro, but I never ever saw the rest of my work, except the stuff that had got onto Video or other Ads. Bad news, so now I back up all the computers here on a regular basis, onto tape using Retrospect and 2 different tape sets to have a spare copy if one goes wrong, plus I also back up to big Firewire Drives as well for quicker access in case of crash.
I don't know how much you do on a computer but a good backup system can save the day and so can a good drive utility.
So it sounds like you are OK, Glad I could help.
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Stuart
I would think that you could go ahead and run OK as normal, you got lucky, mind you as time goes by Disk First aid does get better.
I still would get something like Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro, and now that you have access to your system, you can decide which one best suits your needs.
Tech Tool pro is by Micromat and Diskwarrior is by Alsoft, both ae great applications. Personally I have both of them, but you really should only need the one.
For plain drive issues I recomend Diskwarrior, I have never lost any dat using that application, unless the drive itself was trashed internally.
Tech tool Pro is great because apart from all the things it can do like checking hardware and drives Etc, the new version can even create a special startup Edisk, that you can use to access Tech Tool Pro and fix things on your startup drive, it really is a neat function.
Look both of them over, there are other tools as well and some people prefer them, I guess it is all personal choice in the end.
One thing I would definitely do, is back up all the data Music whatever in case you ever have another crash like this.
I am these days a backup freak because, one day , I decided to get all my work over the past few years and put it all on one big drive, and then back it up to tape. Well I got it all on the big drive, started the tape backup. While that was going on I cleaned all the stuff off my other computers (Back then drive space cost a few dollars more than today), anyway I deleted about 5 years worth of work.
Then I noticed the tape was not running properly, started to check it out and then I touched the HD, it was red hot and it had frozen up completely, I had lost all that work, tht was a real bad week for me, and I managed to get about 20% of my old files back off the other systems using an older disk utility similar to Tech Tool Pro, but I never ever saw the rest of my work, except the stuff that had got onto Video or other Ads. Bad news, so now I back up all the computers here on a regular basis, onto tape using Retrospect and 2 different tape sets to have a spare copy if one goes wrong, plus I also back up to big Firewire Drives as well for quicker access in case of crash.
I don't know how much you do on a computer but a good backup system can save the day and so can a good drive utility.
So it sounds like you are OK, Glad I could help.
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Stuart
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