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Didn't Know I was Adopted : Invalid Sibling Link


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Didn't Know I was Adopted : Invalid Sibling Link
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2010-02-10, 23:14

I think that I need to replace the HDD in my Mom's eMac because it loads REALLY slowly and when I run "Verify Disk" with Disk Utility it comes up with "Invalid Sibling Link".

Does this mean that I'm adopted?

If not, does it mean that I should tip-toe to the nearest hard drive store and sneak one into the machine ASAP?

What's the best recovery route if I do it myself? (thankfully, I have a recent backup of her drive in case it all goes blooey.)

...

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
Captain Drew on Twitter
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2010-02-10, 23:35

Got DiskWarrior? That should fix it.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2010-02-10, 23:47

You know I never did buy DW... but with hard drives as inexpensive as they've become I'm thinking that I'll get my local IT gurus to clone and swap out the drive. It's 6 years old and it just kind of makes sense...

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
Captain Drew on Twitter
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scratt
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: M-F: Thailand Weekends : F1 2010 - Various Tracks!
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2010-02-11, 00:13

6 years old, "Invalid Sibling Link". I'd say it's probably toast.
Last time I had that problem I got the drive going again, only to have it all go wrong again a few weeks later....

Like you say. HD's are cheap. Certainly cheaper than our time spent repairing them.

FWIW something I always do with HDs these days is make at least three partitions. I make a small one as a clone of an OS X install disc, a second larger one for data, and a third one as a System drive.

When drives get old I have always found that it's the System drive that goes first and / or is most likely to get corrupted.
By having data on one partition and a further separate partition which is a rescue disc I can always get everything back even if I get caught out without a backup. And I am putting no strain on my data partition, and my restore partition is pretty much pristine when I need to do emergency stuff.

Just some thoughts for you to ponder.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2010-02-11, 00:16

Yeah, what scratt said. Not worth the risk since you don't have DW handy.
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FFL
Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2010-02-11, 00:27

"When in doubt.... swap it out!"

Plus, a new drive will be noticeably faster. Throw in an Archive & Install for even more speed boost.

For the record, though, I'm pretty sure I've run across this Disk Utility error message at least once before, and DW fixed it right up.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2010-02-11, 00:41

Hmmm... I like that solution Scratt.

System

Data

Rescue

I mightn't do it for my Mom's machine, but maybe for my own. Is the rescue partition the typical Apple disk utility or Disk Warrior?


...

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
Captain Drew on Twitter
  quote
crazychester
Dick in the Abstentia, The
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2010-02-11, 19:44

Oh the invalid sibling link in an eMac. Been there, done that.

Firstly, it might not be the hard drive and you may be able to fix it via the method I'll toddle off and find a link for shortly.

Secondly, it might not be the hard rive and you might not be able to fix it by replacing the HD. I had the problem in an old eMac. Tried the above SW approach without success. Decided to buy a small cheap HD to see if I could fix it just for the challenge. Did so much to my delight (CRT's aren't nearly as dangerous as they're cracked up to be when handled with care).

Chester very pleased with herself. But no more problemo? 'Fraid not. It's still flakey (I'm now guessing logic board but only because if something isn't the HD it always seems to be the logic board not because I have any clue as to why that might be the case).

But the story has a happy ending! I'm walking the dog a day or so after my almost successful (hard) repair jobby and I spy an iLamp next to a rubbish hopper. I snaffle it and take it home thinking it probably won't even boot. But it works just fine. Needs some more RAM but other than that I now have a comparable spare 'puter with 100 mHZ more CPU. And I always did want an iLamp because it was such a neat idea in a way and the whole monitor appearing to be suspended in space is very kewl.

In short, it ain't worth spending more than the $10 I spent on a small HD to see if it's fixable IMHO. For the love of god, don't pay to have it repaired! As it was, the guy I bought the HD off, offered me a working eMac for $25.

But if Mumsy can wait and you want to try the repair yourself, I'll send you the 20 gb HD I put in it if you want. I hate to see good parts go to waste but I guess the postage would make it not worth it........I definitely wouldn't assume purchasing a new HD will resolve the problem.

Besides the eMacs always were a bit of a lemon.


Try this first.

There was also one thing I read that suggested pulling it apart, unplugging all the internal cables and leaving them so for several days before reassembly. Can't find link to that and can't imagine why it would work.

eMac service manual (There are other take aparts available that I'm sure you can find yourself but I used the service manual).

Bugger discharging the CRT (without getting zapped).



PS I'm sorry for derailing your action figure thread. FWIW I did like the gremlin epaulette on the AF you linked to (Bio-death or something?) Nice bit of detail. I have a tooth abscess and haven't had the will to comment on it.

Last edited by crazychester : 2010-02-11 at 20:10.
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