disk0s5: I/O error ?

[Sapphyre]

I tried running a file system check and I keep getting this error:

disk0s5: I/O error.
Invalid key length
(4, 3424)
** Volume check failed.

Can anyone tell me what this means? My iBook is running incredibly slowly and I am unable to repair disk permissions (when I try, disk utility just stops doing anything when the progress bar is at about 20%).

 

[yellow]

You need to try and use a more robust disk repair utility, something along the lines of Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro. Your (cheaper) alternative is to erase everything, zeroing all data, and reinstall the who kit and kaboodle. For ***** and giggles, I'd check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive as well..

And finally, you'd be well advised to back up your data ASAP.. just in case.

 

[Sapphyre]

You need to try and use a more robust disk repair utility, something along the lines of Diskwarrior or Tech Tool Pro. Your (cheaper) alternative is to erase everything, zeroing all data, and reinstall the who kit and kaboodle. For ***** and giggles, I'd check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive as well..

And finally, you'd be well advised to back up your data ASAP.. just in case.

How do I go about erasing and reinstalling, etc? Do you mean just stick in the Tiger install DVD and do another erase and install? How do I check the S.M.A.R.T. status... I'm not even sure what that means :S

 

[CanadaRAM]

Your hard drive is b0rked - either in its logical structure (which may possibly be fixed by Disk Utility Repair Disk or with a utility like DiskWarrior) or it is failing physically.

In either case: Back up your data NOW.
Your best course of action may be to get a Firewire external hard drive, to make backing up faster and easier. Also, you can install OSX on a Firewire drive and boot from it, which gives you additional abilities to recover data from or attempt software repair on the internal drive. The investment of $175-$300 is well worth it -- then you can continue using the Firewire drive to back up your important data

Back up now, though, whichever method you can. BEFORE you attempt an Erase and install, please!

Is your iBook under AppleCare warranty?

 

[yellow]

How do I check the S.M.A.R.T. status...

Open Disk Utility, select the manufacturer's info of the disk (NOT Macintosh HD or whatever you've named it) and look at the bottom of the Disk Utility window. There's a "S.M.A.R.T. Status:" there.. Verified is ok, anything else is bad juju.

As we both noted, backing up is quite important.

 

[Sapphyre]

I just did an erase and install yesterday, so most of what I had on the computer is already backed up somewhere.

No, it isn't under warranty anymore, the iBook is over three years old.

The S.M.A.R.T. status does say Verified.

 

[yellow]

The S.M.A.R.T. status does say Verified.

Well, that's a good thing..

"Proceed at your own risk™"

So boot from your Tiger DVD and run Disk Utility, select the drive, select the Erase tab, click the Security Options button, select Zero Out Data, click OK and proceed as normal to erase the disk. This should map out any bad blocks on the drive.. Hopefully it will address your problems, though it may not. Unfortunately.

I wonder if perhaps the ATA connection ribbon has come loose from the HD? Possibly..

 

[Sapphyre]

So boot from your Tiger DVD and run Disk Utility, select the drive, select the Erase tab, click the Security Options button, select Zero Out Data, click OK and proceed as normal to erase the disk.

How do I boot from the Tiger DVD? I tried holding down C as it was starting up, but it just starts up the installer. Do I have to use the install CD that originally came with the computer?

 

[yellow]

How do I boot from the Tiger DVD? I tried holding down C as it was starting up, but it just starts up the installer.

That's the one.. choose your language, and once the pull down menus become available, there should be one for "Utilities" or something like that.. look around, you'll find it.

 

[Sapphyre]

Thanks... I really appreciate all your help. I'll try doing that and see what happens.