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Delkan Cott
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
 
2005-03-19, 11:27

My powerbook (as I mentioned in an earlier thread) won't install OS X. The issue has been ongoing for several days now. Most recent attempts have ended in errors or in the install taking over 12 hours and never finishing. Catalog B-tree seems to be the cause (if that makes sense). Also there are numerous invalid nodes that come up when I verify the drive. I ran the hardware test and everything passed, but the dang install will never finish; it almost gets there and never finishes.

My new question is since I've been trying to reinstall 10.2 and it has been unsuccessful would I be any more fortunate if I tried installing 10.3?? --OR do I need to go spend lots of money and time going to an Apple store??

Thanks,
Dan

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LudwigVan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2005-03-19, 15:23

Someone suggested in the other thread that you consider wiping the drive (reformatting) and reinstalling (saving your data beforehand, of course). Are you considering this only as a very last resort?
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FFL
Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2005-03-19, 15:27

You NEED to back up and reformat.

You will never have a properly running Mac as long as you have those B-Tree errors.

Trust me on this. I don't just maintain my own Macs, I maintain and fix them for dozens of clients.
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Delkan Cott
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
 
2005-03-19, 15:59

I've already backed up and reformatted. After I erase the drive the new install never finishes, it just goes on and on until an error occurs.

Currently the computers stuck at the white screen with the gray apple and spinning lines, but its not even booting to the cd so I can try to reformat.

maybe im missing something ...

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alcimedes
I shot the sherrif.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Send a message via ICQ to alcimedes  
2005-03-19, 16:04

when you erase the drive, make sure to zero all data. not sure why exactly, but i've found this to fix errors that a simple reformat doesn't.

also, there's a program called Disk Warrior that can and will fix btree errors. nothing else i've used ever has. might want to give that a whirl. however, if this is a new powerbook and it's giving you this much trouble, i'd just bring it to an Apple Store (if you have one around) and ask them to install OSX on it. when they can't do it they'll replace the drive most likely.

Google is your frenemy.
Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty
I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me
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FFL
Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2005-03-19, 16:07

Quote:
Currently the computers stuck at the white screen with the gray apple and spinning lines, but its not even booting to the cd so I can try to reformat.
Hmm, you may have a problem bigger than a bad hard drive.

Here's what I'd do next:

Boot into Open Firmware and Reset NVRAM (see GB Sticky for details).

Zap PRAM when restarting from Open Firmware.

Boot to CD and use Disk Utility to reformat the hard drive itself (not its partition), and check the Option for Zero All Data.

REBOOT when reformat is complete - if you get an error message while reformatting, you probably need a new hard drive.

Boot to CD and use Installer to Erase & Install.
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2005-03-19, 16:09

How did you reformat the drive? Just a quick erase or a write zeros/8-way dealie? If I'm reformatting a drive, at the very least I'll turn on the write zeros option.

At the very bottom of Disk Utility (when the 'erase' button is clicked) you'll see a line reading 'S.M.A.R.T. status'. What does that say?


[edit:] alcimedes and FFL obviously type faster than me.

So it goes.
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HowardG
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Spokane, WA
 
2005-03-19, 16:19

Ok, stupid question but since I don't see the information I'll ask anyway.

Have you booted from the OS install CD, went to the Installer menu and selected Disk Utility and done a repair of the hard-drive from there ???
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FFL
Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2005-03-19, 17:15

REBOOT when reformat is complete before attempting the OS install - I cannot emphasize this one enough.
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