EveryMac.com - Re:HELP I think my hard drive is hooped

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RandyinBC
User

Posts: 41

HELP I think my hard drive is hooped - 2008/02/12 20:03 Hello and help !! A couple of mornings ago My PowerBook (17" 1.67Ghz 10.4.11) was acting very strange, sluggish and wouldn't respond. I could not even do a proper shut down, I had to just hold the power button down. I tried to do a restart and I got to the blue screen with the logo and the little spinning wheel and it would go no further. I booted off the install disk and ran "repair disk" in disk utility. I got a message saying the operation could not be completed because there was an "Invalid Sibling Link", what ever that is. I went and bought Disk Warrior to see if that would help. I booted off the Disk Warrior CD and clicked on "Rebuild", it did its thing and came up with a huge report that boggled my mind. Some of the items I remember (from last night) it saying was that it could not repair the disk, it had a very large number of files in the "Rescued Items" folder and that I should use its "Preview" button to decide if I should keep or discard these files. It was late so I figured I prefer to tax my brain on this the next day (today) so I just left the computer as is and went to bed. After work today the screen was dark and I could not get it to come on, I pushed a few keys, clicked the click button and space bar, then a few seconds later the machine rebooted off the Disk Warrior disk that was still in it. When it booted up, Disk Warrior could not see my hard drive, nothing, zip.
Am I screwed here ? Can I still get the data off my hard drive ? should I sit in a corner and cry :(
Any info would be great, if there is anything I can add to this to help please ask.

Thanks for any assistance
Randy

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krowmagnum
User

Posts: 790

Re:HELP I think my hard drive is hooped - 2008/02/13 01:31 That really sucks....

I have a feeling you haven't been doing your back-ups ?

Unfortunately hard drives do all fail eventually and it sounds like this is one of those times we learn the hard way about backing up files.

There are data recovery services but are expensive. They remove the platters from the hard drive in a sterile room and put the platters in a new drive mechanism so you can imagine what the costs may be.

There is recovery software but I have never used any and couldn't really recommend anything. I think TechTool Pro has data recovery functions and may be worth looking into. Or you could try freezing the hard drive and put it in the Powerbook or an external case to get the data off as quickly as possible. Sometimes this method will give you a working drive for a short period of time. The freezing contracts the metal and frees up stuck drives. (temporarily)

The invalid sibling link is a new one to me...

I think it may be time to go to the corner and cry ;-(

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RandyinBC
User

Posts: 41

Re:HELP I think my hard drive is hooped - 2008/02/27 15:31 Hi all, I have just replaced my dead hard drive and am re-installing all
my apps. I had a back up, a couple of months old, but it had most of my documents, music, pictures ect.... After installing Google Earth I observered that GE had, instead of putting all its support files in the proper places, had created a folder in my "Users" folder to put some of the files. The support files should be in Home - Library - Applications Support - Google Earth and Home - Library - Caches - Google Earth. The first folder was not created and the second had series of numbered folders plus dbCache.dat and dbcache.dat.index .
In my Users folder, GE created a folder with my old home folder name
and in it folders named Library - Application Support - Google Earth
and Library - Caches - Google Earth. The first folder contains:
myplaces.backup.kml, myplaces.kml and myplaces.kml.tmp, the second
folder contains two folders named "icons" and "images"
I checked on my girlfriends Mac and all the files and folders are
in the correct places. I have deleted all the above mentioed files
and folders and re-downloaded GE, re-installed it and it did the same
thing. What's with this and how do I fix it so the files are where
they should be?
PowerBook G4 1.67G 10.4.11 2G ram
Thanks in advance for any help
Randy

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