Author Topic: Keys out of order (Read 6350 times)

Gary S · « **Reply #15 on:** July 22, 2003, 10:02:12 AM »

Lindsay,

Do you have another drive you could connect and you can boot from?

The reason I ask is that you could run DW fron another drive and fix the one with the bad Directory. You could download DW and run it from the other drive

Lindsay · « **Reply #16 on:** July 22, 2003, 03:26:11 PM »

>BootCD works fine, I've used it, but it is very very slow when booting the computer,

I found BootCD, downloaded it, downloaded Disk Warrior, and burned the startup CD per BootCD's instructions.

After 15 minutes, I had nothing but a blue screen and the pointer, and all was quiet. At that point, I lost faith.

Lindsay

ljocampo · « **Reply #17 on:** July 22, 2003, 03:33:43 PM »

Lindsay:

[Do you have another drive you could connect and you can boot from?]

This advise from GaryS is ideal, and better than a bootCD. An bootable external disk or another partition internally can solve your boot problem. Also if you have a Mac laptop or can borrow a friends laptop, you can hook them up in target disk mode, to get the same affect.

ljocampo · « **Reply #18 on:** July 22, 2003, 03:38:13 PM »

Lindsay:

I know faith is hard to come by, but I do remember that it took about that long in blue screen. You might have jumped the gun by a few seconds. Give it more time, you've got nothing to lose. Just go for coffee.

Lindsay · « **Reply #19 on:** July 23, 2003, 11:33:32 AM »

>Also if you have a Mac laptop or can borrow a friends laptop, you can hook them up in target disk mode, to get the same affect. <

I have a G3 Powerbook, but realized last night I didn't have a firewire cable. Will get one and try target mode, using the version of DW that works with OS 9 -- as the Powerbook is not up to running OS 10.

I gave BootCD 45 minutes to boot up. The iMac went to sleep. When I woke it up, I saw a . . . blue screen. I concluded that life is not long enough to boot up using that method.

And you all were right about Drive 10. It took more than 2 hours to scan the hard disk before it told me it could not make any repairs. Wasted money and wasted time. I calculate since I tried to fix this problem I have lost the equivalent of 3 working days.

This troubleshooting of mine is snake-bit.

Lindsay

Lindsay · « **Reply #20 on:** July 31, 2003, 09:25:31 PM »

I have come to the stony end of troubleshooting the "keys out of order" disk error on my iMac. Got Disk Warrior up and running on my Powerbook, linked the iMac and the Powerbook with a firewire cable, and started the iMac in target disk mode.

Disk Warrior crashed within a minute or two when it tried to repair the hard disk. It couldn't even graph the disk.

I can only wonder what kind of disk error is severe enough to crash Disk Warrior and Disk Utilty, but not disable the iMac except for one operation: it cannot run InstallerVise.

Lindsay

ljocampo · « **Reply #21 on:** July 31, 2003, 10:31:08 PM »

Lindsay:

I'm sorry things didn't work out the way we hoped. Sounds like the disk directory is beyond repair, except for a reformat. If you need to recover data from it first, I'd try Prologic's Data Rescue X ($80 US). I used it for a disk that wouldn't even mount on the desktop, and it recovered my vital data nicely. I thought I'd never get the data back, but this program managed to do it.

Lindsay · « **Reply #22 on:** August 01, 2003, 09:27:31 AM »

[I'm sorry things didn't work out the way we hoped. Sounds like the disk directory is beyond repair, except for a reformat.]

You've been helpful in that I have learned a lot about troubleshooting the iMac. I have owned this computer for only 10 months, and didn't pay as much attention as I should have to how it is different from previous Macs.

I am a technical editor (medicine & pharmacy). Files are backed up, in duplicate, on CDs and Zip disks. I work in a home office, and will wait until the immediate project is done until I reformat.

When I orginally called Apple about this problem, 2 weeks ago, Apple thought it was hardware rather than a software problem.

A technician at MBS, where I bought the computer last year. suggested I do a clean reinstallation of the system software. There's no point in doing that, is there?

Lindsay

(I hope that someday I will be able to -give- advice on the TS rather than just take it.)

kelly · « **Reply #23 on:** August 01, 2003, 10:11:07 AM »

Lindsay. No. A Clean Install would do no good really.

The Directory is messed up.

You're on a Fault Line that could go any minute.

Remodeling the House built on it won't help.

Don't know why those particular items won't work.

Just one of those things.

You've been lucky it's working as well as it is.

All computers and OSs need Drive Utilities for maintenence and repair.

Even OS X, though it seems to need it less than most.

Repairing Permissions now and then seems to help a lot.

http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html

ljocampo · « **Reply #24 on:** August 01, 2003, 03:43:10 PM »

(I hope that someday I will be able to -give- advice on the TS rather than just take it.)

Lindsay: The advise here is always give and take. If we have an experience to offer, we love sharing it on TS. You have given us plenty satifaction, I, and others I'm sure, have enjoyed your lovely prose, and heart felt enjoyment of using TS. Thanks, and keep those post coming.

Lindsay · « **Reply #25 on:** August 02, 2003, 09:27:28 AM »

[You have given us plenty satifaction, I, and others I'm sure, have enjoyed your lovely prose, and heart felt enjoyment of using TS. Thanks, and keep those post coming. ]

Lovely prose?! How kind you are. And yes, I plan to keep hanging around the TS. I like this place.

Lindsay

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Author Topic: Keys out of order (Read 6350 times)