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HUGE/Strange problem...please help!

Josh

Josh

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 4, 2004
1,640
1
State College, PA
I got this question from a friend, but I do not know how to answer it.

Can you help him out? His question:

I need to pick your Mac OSX brain for a huge problem I am having.
I was installing an OSX update yesterday (Garage Band Update, Security Update, OSX Update, Airport Update, etc). Well 80% through the installation the Mac froze and I had to restart.

I cannot login as when you get to the OSX box that shows you all of the startup processes its bogged at the login part and all you see is a spinning beach ball! I could not do anything past that, so I used the recovery disk (install disk) and ran the hardware check and everything passed. I continued from there and ran First Aide disk repair. During disk verify, the permission passed but the disk would not verify as it was damaged.

I cannot repair as well as I get an error message when attempting to repair that reads:

Error -9972
The underlying task reported failure on exit.

I don’t know where to go from here as everyone around here that I have contacted cannot tell me any good news. Obviously there is a problem with the OSX HFS, as during repair I am receiving this message when it is attempting to fix the HFS.

Plesae let me know ASAP and this is a New Mac and should not have this problem. I will be troubleshooting with MacMall later or Mac support, but that will take awhile!
Thanks,

Joe
 
This sounds lame, but it's possible he may have to do a complete reinstall from scratch. If the update froze before it finished, it could've majorly messed something up. Doh!

Lee Tom
 
I'd try booting up from your original OS X install CD by holding down "C" during startup. At that point try running disk utilities on your hard drive. I fear LeeTom might be right - you may have to wipe the HD start from scratch. I hope you had everything backed up.

Others say booting from disk utilities disks like Diskwarrior, Nortons or TechTool can help in this sort of situation - haven't had the need to do that yet though so I can't vouch for that.
 
He says to tell you this:

"Tell them that I have ran the CD by holding Control down while booting and have used the disk utility and First Aide. There must be a way to reinstall the corupt files, please advise ASAP!!"
 
Here's what I would do:

Plug the computer into another mac via Firewire.
Turn it on, holding down the T key.
This will mount its hard drive onto the other mac like a firewire hard drive.

Backup all the documents.

Restart the mac with the OS X cd in, wipe everything and reinstall.

There may be another way, but I'm not aware of it.
Lee Tom
 
Indeed a very sensible way to back up files - boot with another mac.
I hadn't even though of that myself... had something similar happened to my computer, I probably would have taken for lost all the files that had not been saved!

One more piece of information stored up.... would booting that way also work via ethernet, if say the only other mac one could access was older and did not have firewire?
 
Ethernet won't work if one of the computers won't boot. What's being suggested here is called "Target Disk Mode" and only works with Firewire. Connect the 2 macs with a Firewire cable and hold down the T key while booting the dead Mac. It will mount as a hard drive on the other Mac. In addition to being an excellent way to retrieve files from the dead Mac it's also an opportunity to fix what's wrong with it (if you know what's wrong with it). You could also clone a working OS X install to the dead Mac.
 
He just got back from the mac store, and sent me this message to post:

"I went to the Mac store today and I found a few things out.

I tried to start in safe mode, than attempt to finish the download (system software update) ... but failed

I started up in verbos mode and could not determine a error as with OX 10.3.4 the verbos mode skids the manual login and gose direct to the GUI login screen.

I tried to enter the Archive option and reinstall OSX, however after disk verification I am told that the system cannot be installed as there is an error in installation! Reinstalling with the archive is now not an option!

I entered the UNIX shell and found alot of things out.
Searching the system logs in VI I found out that in the crashreporter in the /library/logs/crashreporter I had 2 files. One was fix_prebinding.crash.log and the other was loginwindow.crash.log

The loginwindow.crash.log told me that "truncated or malformed library and led to the path /systemlibrary/privateframeworks/admin.framework/versions/A/Admin (file empty)

Can I simply copy these folders from another version of 10.3.4 (or any other version) and replace them with the old folders & files?

Also the fix_prebinding.crash.log said the following.

Error detected while proccessing function <SNR>2_Edit Entry:
Line 21:
E303: Unable to open swap file for "/library/logs/crashreporter/fix_prebinding.crash.log". Recovery impossible

"/library/logs/crashreporter/fix_prebinding.crash.log" [readonly] 55167C 3788645C


This makes things more interesting.
Any help?
Thanks,

Joe"

Since he cannot see your replies or post here, it is a little difficult to get the proper communication, so I appologize for any difficulties. But I do appreciate your help and I know he does too, so thanks a ton!!
 
Josh, did you read the other replies? Doing the target disk, etc. There's no use writing down all the errors. :eek:

Do you have another mac or someone with a mac. DO target disk mode and do a clean install. If that doesn't work, buy a new hard drive and install os x.

Most likely, your mac didn't freeze but was busy with a critical part of the software update and you turned it off.
 
tell him to do an archive install. this way he will not have to back up all his stuff. that should work. if it doesnt then back up erase and installl. also i dont use the sw update download and install feature. I always dl the entire update and install it myself. I found that i ran into problems doing the same thing he did.
 
The thing is though is that he is trying to avoid reinstalling panther - Im not sure why though. I know it would be tedious to get everything back, but I think it'd be worther it, plus Im not sure if he has an option.

He wants to copy the /library folder from a 10.3.4 mac at the mac store onto his to fix it. Would that work?

He is also wanting to know if he can fix the problem from 0S 9 - is that possible?
 
Josh said:
The thing is though is that he is trying to avoid reinstalling panther - Im not sure why though. I know it would be tedious to get everything back, but I think it'd be worther it, plus Im not sure if he has an option.

He wants to copy the /library folder from a 10.3.4 mac at the mac store onto his to fix it. Would that work?

He is also wanting to know if he can fix the problem from 0S 9 - is that possible?
Click to expand...

good luck but i think he is going to have to do an archive install.... its not like it takes that long or anything. he should have done it along time ago instead of trying all these weird solutions.
 
Like I said before... in my opinion he's wasting his time and has to reinstall panther. with all the time he's spent mucking around, he could've had it done by now!

Lee Tom
 
I can finally post!!!!!!!!!!

Well, now I can finally post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to the Mac store again and spent 2 hours with the Guru @ the Genius bar. Lets say I stumped the Genius. The only options he gave me after the diagnosis was to run Disk Warrior that would be able to fix the HFS or to Erase and install.

Remember I cannot do an Archive & Install as I have installed both security & OSX updates on my version bringing me to 10.3.4. I cannot enter safe mode, and verbos mode shows nothing as well. FSCK only finds the normal Journaling errors deemed normal & safe per Apple, however cannot fix the problem. Same thing with First Aid, pretty much a useless utility if you ask me!

I have the crash logs to work off of, and for those that say they are worth nothing please elaborate! I don’t want to take the easy and bull**** way out by doing to pain in the ass (even more so tedious) method of Erase and Install. There is a missing or corrupt file in the library folder ( /system/library ) and I know there is another way of fixing it.

I copied the library folder from a G4 @ the Mac store on a DVD and will try swapping mine with this one. The guru even said that this might work however he has not tried this nor knows anyone that has. I’ll be trying this later tonight and will let you know how this works.

If not, are there any possible UNIX solutions as I can enter the shell?
Are there any ways of repairing in OS9 (I will be replacing the old library folder with the new one in OS9)?

Thanks,

Joe
 
I'm not stumped, I just think you're being stubborn for trying to fix a problem that will be so easy to fix by doing a clean install. It would've been done 2 days ago!

Have it your way...
Lee Tom
 
I can't speak for everyone else, but many are probably concluding that you have your own reasons for wanting to hack your way through this by grafting files from a different system onto your OS X installation. Feel free to pursue your vision of a solution.

If it were me, I'd do the target disk mode thing to back up your data (or get the Apple guru at the store to do it), then do an erase and install. That way you get a complete, clean installation of Panther, that is optimized for your hardware, not some kind of software Frankenstein hacked together from different machines.

One of the reasons I use a Mac is because it Just Works. I'm not sure I'd expect a system that has been through what yours has to continue Just Working unless it's reformatted and started afresh.

Good luck.


Crikey
 
Crikey said:
I can't speak for everyone else, but many are probably concluding that you have your own reasons for wanting to hack your way through this by grafting files from a different system onto your OS X installation. Feel free to pursue your vision of a solution.

If it were me, I'd do the target disk mode thing to back up your data (or get the Apple guru at the store to do it), then do an erase and install. That way you get a complete, clean installation of Panther, that is optimized for your hardware, not some kind of software Frankenstein hacked together from different machines.

One of the reasons I use a Mac is because it Just Works. I'm not sure I'd expect a system that has been through what yours has to continue Just Working unless it's reformatted and started afresh.

Good luck.


Crikey
Click to expand...


I understand what your saying, however I refuse to accept the fact that I need to do a complete install whenever there is a power outage or when the computer freezes durring an update. I was told this should never happen but it did! I want it working so I can at least enter in safe mode and I can fix it from there.

I understand that I cannot use all of the files from the other computer, but most are universal to the OS and not Machine. I will be doing this tonight, so crossing fingers!!!!! Worst case scenario is the fresh install, and I could do a data transfer to my iMac upstairs via Ethernet when I boot in OS9 (Remember I can still boot up in OS9!).

I think its pretty ****ing ghey that you cant install the same OS after an OS update (ie: standard Panther to 10.3.4)
 
Hey Kids—

counldn't he, when he is in TargetDisk Mode, reinstall OS X over the existing OS X; i think this would work not sure though. I know that i used to be able to do this in OS 9, but i only did this when i didn't have any valuable files which needed to be saved for some reason. If you do, then i back the recamindation that you do a clean reinstallation of OS X.

good luck, ryan
 
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