HD Issue. Help

[NamelessChat]

Hello to all, I hope you are having a good day.

About a week ago my imac would not boot up. So i took to the internet to figure out what the problem may be and came across some useful information. I can boot up to disk utility and i see the hard drive and everything but once i start running first aid it tells me this:

Repairing file system.

Checking Journaled "***" volume.

Checking extents overflow file.

checking catalog file.

Invalid key length

The Volume "****" could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 8.

Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required .

File system verify or repair failed.

Operation failed.

If i run it again, it bugs out and says there is no space on the hard drive. In the Info tab it says it can be Verified and Repaired but i have no idea how. I have tried /sbin/fsck -fy in single user boot but it says that it cant do anything. I restored it to the external hard drive i was going to use to back it up my files but it shows the same thing when i run first aid. So my questions are these, Is It Fixable? Is there any way i can fix this problem without losing all the data stored on the hd? If not how can i recover all the data before i fix it? Im really stressing out about this. I have 6 years worth of logic pro x files on there and the day i was going to back it up it decided to give out.

 

[joema2]

...I restored it to the external hard drive i was going to use to back it up my files but it shows the same thing when i run first aid. So my questions are these, Is It Fixable? Is there any way i can fix this problem without losing all the data stored on the hd? If not how can i recover all the data before i fix it?....

What version of macOS, and what year and model Mac?

How did you restore the contents to an external drive, Disk Utility? Carbon Copy? Time Machine?

That is a good 1st step -- you definitely want a reliable backup of the current state, even if damaged. At least you can revert to that if subsequent attempts to fix it fail.

However you want to be certain the backup is accurate before taking irrevocable steps on the system drive. If the system volume file system is damaged, a file-level backup might not capture the current state. The fact you got errors on the backup drive after the copy could imply you did a block-level backup.

Carbon Copy used to offer a block-level cloning option. It doesn't do this anymore; I don't remember why. I think Super Duper might offer this, also there are other cloning utilities: https://blogs.systweak.com/2017/11/5-best-disk-cloning-app-for-mac-in-2017/

Re repair procedures, there are some steps mentioned on Stellar Recovery's site (I am not recommending this tool, just mentioning it): https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/repair-mac-hfs-hard-drive/

I have used Disk Warrior in the past and it fixed some things which First Aid could not. But it's not magic -- it may result in truncated files, renamed files, etc. This is why you need a good backup so if it messes things up you can try again or try something different: https://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

If these don't work sufficiently your option is to send the a drive with a block copy of the data to a data recovery company.

I once used Secure Data Rescue on a reformatted camera SD card. They are one of the least expensive recovery companies: https://www.securedatarescue.com

Best Buy's Geek Squad contracts with an outside data recovery company. I don't remember the name but they are US-based. They are much more expensive than Secure Data Rescue. You can also inquire locally -- there are local data recovery companies in many large cities. In all cases you'll need to determine if they handle Macs.

Any drive can crash at any time. We've all probably been caught in a situation without a backup. The price of an additional backup hard drive is tiny relative to the cost of a data recovery service or losing valuable data.

 

[NamelessChat]

I don't really remember. I think it was macOS Sierra – 10.12

I restored it through Disk Utility.

And how would i know if its block-level backup?

I was also told this in another thred:

"You’ll need to boot up under an external bootable drive to fix your drive. I would recommend you make a full backup using TimeMachine so you can properly fix your drive. Sadly it will need to be reformatted and a fresh OS install (MacOS & Windows) to fix this as the boot sectors are damaged. Often times I see this with BootCamp installations when a Windows virus attacks the drives boot sectors.
I would strongly recommend you get a good antivirus app that runs under MacOS & Windows as well.
Here’s how to create the needed boot drive: How to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive Go to your Apps Store app and open the Purchase tab to locate your OS to re-down load it."

I looked into the pricing of data recovery and man does it cost a lot. I hooked the external hard drive to my laptop and installed disk warrior but i kinda got discouraged when it started going over a TB of files when i remember it only having 750 GB max.

I'm really short on money right now and i'm just thinking of scraping up some money, throw in a ssd and starting from scratch till i sort it out.

 

[joema2]

I don't really remember. I think it was macOS Sierra – 10.12...I restored it through Disk Utility....And how would i know if its block-level backup?

I think Disk Utility does file-level backup not block level. However I've seen conflicting statements on this. This utility (Stellar Drive Clone) says it can do both types. Note: I have never used this myself: http://www.stellarclonedrive.com/types-of-cloning.php

... I hooked the external hard drive to my laptop and installed disk warrior but i kinda got discouraged when it started going over a TB of files when i remember it only having 750 GB max.

You often see things like that in corruption cases. If you can access the disk at all when plugged into the laptop, I suggest copying off whatever important files you can find. If you can't do that, it's a more serious problem.

I don't understand the other forum's advice. They focused on a boot problem, but you just want your data back. Usually a disk with a boot failure can still be plugged in an external drive and the files accessed. You already have a copy of the disk (for better or worse) made by Disk Utility. How well that represents the original disk you don't know. If the file system is damaged yet that same file system is needed for file-level cloning, you never know what you get.

Even a block-level clone will only guarantee the current data state of the source disk. It may not be any easier to fix, but at least it's an identical copy.

..... i'm just thinking of scraping up some money, throw in a ssd and starting from scratch till i sort it out.

These situations are sometimes difficult and expensive. There's often no cheap easy solution. I'm sorry.

From my limited experience I trust Disk Warrior more than the other recovery programs, and if it can't recover anything, that's not good. Without Disk Warrior if that external clone is totally inaccessible, then maybe it's better to run it and see if you can recover anything. Your concern should be NOT fixing totally fixing the disk but just recovering anything. Of course if that disk is your only backup you might be concerned since unsuccessful recovery steps could mangle it further. That's why recovering from data corrupt or a failed drive is expensive. You really need two backups -- one to experiment with and a safety copy to restore from each time an experiment fails.

 

[lizaborne00]

May be because of your settings it's not getting updated..you should reset your settings than try again...

 

[JustMartin]

Have you got access to another Mac with Logic? I think it might be worth taking your external disk to another machine to see what it makes of it. My guess is that it must have done a block level copy because it's copied the corruption, but it's worth a double check from another machine. And if you can get hold of another external drive (just borrow one if you can), then you could try something like carbon copy or another utility that does a file level copy and try a file copy to the new drive. My gut feeling is that it will fail, but if not, you know your files are safe.

 

[mikehalloran]

The drive is bad and needs to be replaced. That is absolutely certain.

Disk Utility, run from an external, may be able to fix the drive well enough so that you can get the data off. If it can’t nothing else will either. Run Repair Disk on the entire drive, not the volume. If you get errors (in red), run it again. If the errors change, keep running DU over and over—it often repairs errors one at a time. If the same errors repeat 3 times in a row, give it up—you’re done and there’s nothing more you can do. I’ve run DU 50+ times till I got green. If you get green, get the data off ASAP — it’s a temporary state and will pop errors again in an hour to 10 days. You can “clone” a drive in Disk Utility just as well as with 3rd party utilities.

Forget block copy. Forget DiskWarior and every utility you’ve ever read about. All you want is the data from that drive. If you have a Time Machine or other backup, just replace the drive and restore from the backup.

I have a lot of experience with this over hundreds of drives.