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defrag incomplete, volume messed up

achtung!

achtung!

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 21, 2005
206
24
Portugal
yesterday i boot my powerbook g4 using techtool boot dvd so i can do a defrag. and it was doing a long long defragmentation, but i left my mac, without being plugged into the power. when i came back the battery had runned all off, and my mac was dead. i tried to restart but the mac get stucked in the gray apple screen... it messed up my volume disk, cause the defragmentation process was interrupted. i've tried to boot from the apple cds, so i could reeinstall osx, but it didn't detect my disk volume!!!:confused: i've tried disk utility but it got stucked again, checkin the ATA.i've tried again the techtool dvd, to se if i could repair or continue the defrag, but all i've got was spinning balls when i tried to selecte the files, volume button. the read and write test, also seems to freeze then i got mad and shut everything off. again i've tried booting in safe mode, and nothing... i've tired going to the terminal and doing a command such has: diskutil volume/ "something else" and i've got some information, about my "dev/disk1s3" it said 3gb used, capacity 100%. i coulnd't understand this. just seems like it was no recognizing the full capacity of my volume which are 80gb

can anyone give me a help ?? i'm afraid of losing all my work.:(
thks
 
Defragging the drive can be very risky. OS X puts files in specific places that defragging can move. But I guess you've noticed that.
 
1. Were you not warned about backing up your data first?
2. Not on AC power?
3. Defragging?
4. Maybe try a fsck
5. Reinstall OS X
 
Eidorian said:
1. Were you not warned about backing up your data first?
2. Not on AC power?
3. Defragging?
4. Maybe try a fsck
5. Reinstall OS X
Click to expand...

he specifically said he can't get disk utility to detect the volume, can't get into safe mode, used installation CD, but can't detect the volume?
 
bearbo said:
he specifically said he can't get disk utility to detect the volume, can't get into safe mode, used installation CD, but can't detect the volume?
Click to expand...
Time to make a new partition. If you can't get single user or verbose to diagnose.

In before data recovery.
 
guys i know that i was a foll. i know that ive done wrong, but i'm just trying to get some help here. don't "spank" me okay? (sorry about my english)

i'm doing a fsck right now, and after the "checking catalog file", i'm getting bunches of "IOATA controller device blocking bus." what is this?

EDIT:now it shows this line "disk0s3: I/O timeout", but continues with the "IOATA controller device blocking bus."
 
What happens when you boot from a CD (such as the Installation Disc) ? How far can you get before it stops you?
 
i can go until he promps me to "select A destination: select a destination volume to install the Mac OSX", and i don't have nothing to select here! :( it's empty...
 
If you have data on it you want to keep, I wouldn't format it just yet.

Try and find a local computer expert shop (I don't know if the Apple store offers this) and get them to mount your hard drive to another computer and see if they can get any data off it.
 
I fear your drive is, erm, kaput, for the time being at least. I think the only option available to you at the moment is to get an external firewire drive, install OS X on that, boot up, and then try disk utility on your internal drive. It is very odd though that it isn't even recognised. Even a blank drive should be recognised. :confused:
 
yes i will do both things, going to a shop and booting from a firewire external drive.

i've tried also holding down the "option" key on the restart, and i see that my disk's name is still recognizable on the screen. standing side by side with the OSX disk and the apple hardware test on the selection menu. but selecting my volume here, get's me stucked after a while. i'll give it another try later 'cause i'm doing apple hardware extensive test right now, just in case...
 
This is not a hardware problem. Your data is just screwed. Killing a defrag in progress kills your partition. And data recovery is unlikely because your **** is all moved around from where it ought to be. The physical disk itself is fine, you just need to start from scratch.

You need to boot your installation CD, use Disk Utility to completely re-partition the drive, install OS X, cry about what you lost, and move on.
 
Vegeta-san said:
Wait what....? I was told Mac's don't need to be defragmented...Is that false?
Click to expand...

As already said, OSX will automatically defrag files under 20MB's over time. But if you have a lot of stuff that is over that, videos, high quality music, high quality pictures, programs etc, then it won't do much for those.

Defragging is basically re-organising your disc for faster access.
 
Kilamite said:
As already said, OSX will automatically defrag files under 20MB's over time. But if you have a lot of stuff that is over that, videos, high quality music, high quality pictures, programs etc, then it won't do much for those.

Defragging is basically re-organising your disc for faster access.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend using TechToolPro for defragging. It has been my experience that TTP takes forever and a day to defrag a drive, while DriveGenius will do it in a considerably shorter time. I do not recommend defragmenting Mac drives to my clients unless they are doing a lot of video work. OS X does a fine job of maintaining file and directory structures, and there is very little to gain in the way of performance by defragging.

The likelihood of recovering anything off this drive is slim to none. As a previous poster mentioned, you're probably best to boot off a system disk, partition the drive, and reinstall OS X.

FWIW, both TTP and DriveGenius run very visible disclaimers before the defrag process regarding loss of power and potential damage that will result if it occurs.

MD
 
my daily basis involves read/write/manage files above 50MB, sometime above 100MB... high def tifs, video, programs and so on... so i have to defrag my disk from eight and eight months, it's not the first time that i defrag it, and it does wonders for my mac. but this time, i made a silly mistake without having the AC power connected.

i maybe try to boot from a exterior drive today, and i'll keep in touch...

thks for the help
 
I have defragged my drive with iDefrag a few times with no problems. Boot up from the iDefrag CD and leave it plugged in overnight and you'll find everything defragmented.

Defragging is useful if people encounter the Bootcamp "some files cannot be moved" problem. iDefrag defrags and reorganizes files to the beginning of the drive (when done from the bootable CD, because the drive needs to be unmounted in order to work). The firs initial boot ups would be a little bit slower, but will speed up over time.

next time it is wise to have a backup image of your drive. I have a bootable image of everything on an external hard drive should something go wrong. Try doing what previous posts have stated
 
yesterday i've tried booting from an external disk, by firewire, but it didn't detect my disk. i'v tried other bootable utilities but none of them detected my volume.
i'm considering formating the disk, but i can't do it cause it's undetectable.:confused:

the techtool dvd that i used was a bootable dvd because i know that the drive needs to be unmounted so the defrag be full and consistent.

maybe today i'll go to an apple shop, to see if they could mount my disk in another machine and see what happens. i don't have much hope left, 'cause it's an awkward situation, since the hardware seems to be fine (passed in all hardware tests), but i can't even do a fresh install if i want to. it's silly trashing a disk when it is still working, it's just a matter of internal "software"...
i've already started to counting money to buy a new HD.. oh crap...

i'll keep in touch

PS: live4ever, the techtool eDRive doesn't work, i click and it doesn't respond.
 
my local apple shop, somehow, managed to mount my disk using some tools. although, no data from my disk could be saved. they have to format it and create a new partition. maybe tomorrow i'll have my mac back, for a fresh start. oh well, life goes on...

thank you all for the help.
 
3 things you messed up on here OP.

1. Defragging
2. No AC
3. No Back Up

Sorry for your troubles but you were really asking for it.

1. Dont bother defragging. OSX handles the majority it itself.
2. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use AC power when doing stuff like that and software updates. If not and the battery dies then you will be left with some very broken software - as you have found out.
3. Always back up your stuff. It can be a pain but it is worth every second of your time.
 
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