[Gaffer74]

hi, in a bit of a problem here.

System: PB 550Mhz (used at home) with 512Mb Ram, 20Gb HD, Mac OS 10.3.9

problem: I stupidly tried to install Norton Utilites 2.0 (for the anti-virus software) and ended up with the install program saying something like Kextextension invalid/failed to load or something.
Anyway, being wary of Norton on a mac, I then completely uninstalled it from the HD using the norton start-up disk.
I then deleted all un-removed norton folders etc.

System running ok still.

I re-booted into single user mode and ran fsck -fy to check all ok and it came up with:

Invalid extent entry
(4,759)
Volume Check Failed


I then panicked and booted from the Mac os x install disc to run disk utility.
It found invalid extent files, but won't repair them (well, it says it's repaired them, but they're still there on subsequent scans).

If I reboot into mac os x on the HD, everything runs fine....no problems.

Q1: Should I be concerned or carry on as normal
Q2: If something needs to be done, how do I repair these files, short of spending $100's on extra software?

Thanx for any help

[Brad]

You should keep a regular backup just in case things do go wrong. Invalid extent entries usually aren't immediately fatal in my experience, but you're no doubt have more serious problems at some undetermined point in the future.

I'd suggest investing in a copy of DiskWarrior. It's the de facto filesystem repair tool around here. At least as many people swear by DiskWarrior as there are people who swear at Norton.

http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

It's only US$79.95 to order and to immediately download too.

[Gaffer74]

Thanx Brad.

The problem is, other people have had similar problems with Norton Utilities/anti-virus on macOSX.
They also tried DiskWarrior
It didn't work for many of them (hence the "without spending $100's on extra software" caveat at the end of Q2).

I don't want to risk spending money on software that may not work (unless I can get a refund ) and thought there must be a work around solution that is ?maybe something I overlooked?

[Brad]

When it comes to low-level damage like this, there's very little you can do own your own. If fsck and Disk Utility don't work, you're only alternative is a commercial solution. I'm not aware of any trial/shareware titles in this area. I can't even imagine how that would work out since you'd have to fully use the software before making a judgment on it and paying. This kind of software is a one-shot deal, not a program you'll be using every day. It would be more like "donation-ware" than anything else.

As far as commercial software goes, though, DiskWarrior really is top-notch and the best in its class. It's a steal at $79 and is worth at least twice that. The only way you'll end up spending "hundreds of dollars" more is if your drive is physically marred and you need to send if off to one of those facilities that dissects it to pull and reconstruct your data. Generally speaking, if DiskWarrior can't fix it, nothing in software will.

Now, there may be cases where Norton irreparably damages a filesystem; I've seen one of my partitions hosed by TechTool Pro so badly that nothing would see it. That generally isn't the norm from what I've read, though.

My 2 cents.

As I said before, though, start backing up data now. If your system is still usable and you can access all of your important data, you don't even need to bother with purchasing DiskWarrior. Just backup everything, erase the drive completely, and restore your files.

[Gaffer74]

Thanx for your help Brad.
How aboput a clean install of OSX (this is a relatively clean install from scratch anyway, so I have no useful data on there).

If not, it looks like DiskWarrior it is then......

[Brad]

Yes, reformatting the drive and doing a clean install will do it too.

[scrouds]

Gaffer74, reformat then clean install will solve your problems cheaply.

[chucker]

Since it apparently hasn't been brought up: what does Disk Utility report regarding the disk's SMART status? If it's "Failing", backing the drive up is even more imminent; furthermore, there's no way for you to fix the drive. Contact the manufacturer for replacement.

[Gaffer74]

Thanx guys.
Did a clean install (gave me a chance to remove those useless prtitions and the oh-so-useless OS9 drive as well ).

Spent a morning re-installing software and everything working fine.

LESSON: If you own a mac, keep away from Norton "I'll call meself anti-virus, but act like an actual virus" software.

PS, this was preceeded by the computer starting to act funny, like not letting me rename my own folders/documents for instance.

Until I can find my 10.3 setup discs (lost them during a house move ), I've re-installed 10.1 again...it's not too bad, and fine for a PB only used for internet/word stuff mainly

[Mac+]

I got the same PB here and I recall that I started having troubles renaming files and changing icons occasionally when the disk was too full and the page in/outs were too high. Backed-up, moved some media files to an external firewire HD, reformatted the 20GB internal drive and put on a fresh install of 10.3. No System 9 junk either. Worked like a charm.

As for 10.1, yep it is perfectly usable, but ... oh well, at least it is your *second* PB. We should all be so lucky.