One for Markus and Mac gang
 

My original Macbook Pro - single core 13in screen - has just done a system update to 10.6.8.

It won't do Lion - Dual Core only :(

Anyway - all tickety-boo except it will not restart. Got that horrible disk churning in the same place noise.

Started in Safe Mode/Command V - goes fine until it says disk0s2: I/O Error.

Oh dear - knackered disk.

However I put in the OSX disk - boot from there and run Disk Utility - it verifies the disk, no errors.

What up chaps?

Most Google responses indicate knackered disk - but OSX Disk Utility says no!!

In the system profiler from the OSX installation disk it says that the hard disk is 'disk0'.

So what is disk0s2?

Other people have had problems and recovered it by various means.

My thoughts would still be fubar'd disk :(

The only other thing it to try a reformat (clutching at straws time) and reinstall.
Don't hold your breath though.

Good luck - a physical sound is usually never a good thing (hope I'm wrong though)

DAn :thumb:

Look I am not that knowledgeable about Macs but can you boot from the install disk and get to the shell prompt and run /sbin/fsck -fy

That should check the whole disk and tell you if anything has been modified or if anything is worng.

Markus will be able to tell you if that is OK to do or not or search in Google... like I said Macs not my area of expertise sothere may be a reason you cannot do this, but I doubt it.

My guess is the Mac Disk Utility isn't checking all of the disk.

F1 - I can and I will try that - thanks

I had seen that mentioned - but not the full command :)

Ok, sounds like the disk is most unhappy.

The disk0s2 thing is fine, my iMac is saying the same thing. I think it refers to partitions on the disk. So disk0 = first disk, and s2 = volume / partition two on the first disk. Why 2? Probably due to bootcamp (guessing you do have BC installed?) On my machine it'll be due to the hidden recovery partition that Lion installs, so that'll be disk0s.

Actually, if you do have BC on there, you might want to boot into windows and run disk check and see if that throws up anything.

BEFORE you do anything else, backup the machine unless you have a backup, don't want to screw the disk any more than it already is.

As for DU, well, I don't trust it 100%, I too have had it say all is happy and well with a disk and it's not been. Investing in something like TechTool Pro might be wise, and running it every now and then. Obviously backing up is a good thing to do as well.

The fsck command is, I think, similar to what DU does when you ask it to verify / repair the disk, but I might be wrong on that point. No harm (adhering to the previous statement about backing up) in giving it a shot though. However, just issuing that command from Terminal launched from boot disk won't help, it'll try and run it on the current root mount, which will be the CD not the hd. Additionally, you want to mount the disk as read / write so it can repair it (something mount related. but cannot remember, think it puts it in the prompt that displays the fsck command).

Try a search for how to mount a volume via command line and then you should in theory be able to check it, that or simply boot into single user mode (if it will - hold down command + S on boot) and run the commands from there.

Your latter comments explain why the fsck command is not working!!!

A backup is not essential - I don't have one as this is back up machine for her indoors to browse the web - the disk has already failed once - just wanted to see if I could avoid rebuiling the machine again.

Not using BC - I am a Parallels man.

I may use this as an excuse to get a Macbook Air for when I am travelling and the i7 at home :)

Sorry should have been more specific with my advice. I just assumed you would know to check the system disk, apologies.

or just buy an SSD drive....... :D

F1 - sorry not really a techy!!!

My last experience of command line was DOS thirty years ago!

No worries, my fault... just so used to doing that sort of thing from the command line I forget there are other more normal people around who don't have the misfortune to be acquainted with that sort of thing any more.

BTW my Mac friend says try Diskwarrior as it does a better job than Disk Ultility, but at the end of the day I like others suspect your disk is going west.

Something just occurs to me, Disk Utlility and fsck are file system checkers.... maybe your problem is more fundamental than that.

Markus, does Mac have badblocks or any other *NIX utlity to check the low level disk for bad sectors etc..

My guess is you have problems with the boot area of the disk and a program like this will check that out.

The annoying thing is that this happened after an OSX upgrade!!!!

Anyway I have got the drive out now with a pair of pliers ;)

Downside is that the only caddy I can find in the house has the wrong interface - I have a new one coming with Amazon tomorrow.

Once I have it in a caddy it should be a whole lot easier to work on.

was going to recommend Disk Warrior - I've got it and it's feckin brilliant.

Doesn't necessarily sort out hardware issues, but it could go some way as to telling you what is wrong......

Food for though :thumb:

DAn

Nope, badblocks is not part of the tools installed with OS X. You can of course install it, but for this situation it's not going to help :(

Will Knoppix boot on this Mac?

be rude not to wouldn't it :D

:D

Yes will boot(with c button held )




Jura

Disk is FUBARd.

Anyone want an original Macbook Pro - needs a new HD and a new battery!!!

Free, pick up only :D

nearly tempted to see what all the fuss is about