disk0s3 "Not Mounted"

okay guys...I'm back after a year. I "gave up" on my powerbook G4 15" 80GB hard drive running 10.4.x - dont remember the last # because its been a year since i last messed with it. but now i'm back, as i'm working off of my 12" powerbook G4 writing to you all, so any feedback is appreciated cause you all are very helpful at times.

What caused the 15" to crash was a security update that asked me to also update Java and iTunes. I left the room for 15 minutes, and let the PB run its course, and when i came back, i came back to a blank, black screen and hot powerbook, powered off. i powered it back on and it started to boot up fine until a folder and question mark popped up.

i hooked the 15" to the 12" via target Disk Mode and was able to "repair" over 60+ items in disk warrior and preview files which, to me, were useless because none of the things in the salvaged folder looked like anything I had on the drive. these were...i guess...OS files and not any of the music, .txt, or word documents i had created. these were files with the extension .dib and empty folders with a whole bunch of letters and numbers on it. i didnt know what they were for so i closed out of disk warrior.

Now after trial and error i finally got the 15" to boot up off the disk (The darn thing wouldnt boot past the apple logo and spinning gear. even had it on over night hoping it'd boot up but again, woke up to a apple and gear. SO FINALLY after reseting PRAM and NVRAM, waiting for three chimes, it booted off the install disk (before it wouldnt even do that, hence the apple logo and gear) so now i have the disk utility open and it's showing me, in this order, on the left pane,

74.5GB ST9808211A
disk0s3
4.2GB MATSHITADVD-...
Mac OSX Install Disc 1

Note the disk0s3 is grayed out.

I ran the verify/repair on the 74.5GB and got the following in red:
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.
(A dropdown box said basically the same thing and i OKed that.)

I noticed on the bottom it says this information:
Disk Description: ST9808211A
Connection Bus: ATA
Connection Type: Internal
Connection ID: Device 0
Total Capacity: 74.5GB (80,026,361,856 Bytes)
Write Status: Read/Write
SMART Status: Verified

So I clicked on the grayed out "disk0s3" and ran verify disk and got
Invalid B-Tree node size
The volume needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

So i ran the REPAIR Disk button and waited, and got...
Invalid B-Tree node size
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit.
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.

The information below this says:
Mount Point: Not mounted
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Owners Enabled: -
Number of Folders: -
Capacity: 74.4GB (79,892,106,240 Bytes)
Available: -
Used: -
Number of Files: -

IDK what to do. if i check the information tab for the disk0s3, it'll say the following:

Name: disk0s3
Type: Volume
Mount Point: Not Mounted
File System: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus: ATA
Partition Type: Apple_HFS
Device Tree: pci2/ata-6 @D/@0:3
Writable: Yes
Capacity 74.4GB (79,892,106,240 Bytes)
Owners Enabled: No
Can Turn Owners Off: yes
Can Be Formatted: Yes
Bootable: Yes
Supports Journaling: Yes
Journaled: No
SMART Status: Verified
Disk Number: 0
Partition Number: 3

It's telling me it's bootable, but i'm not sure how to fix the invalid B-Tree node. and the SMART status says verified. does anyone know how to fix this?? Plz help.

If u cannot resurrect anything with Disk Warrior i think the data on there is history. Time to boot off install disk do an erase with Disk Utility and then a fresh install.

I'm with Colin here. I tried for ages to fix this on a friends iMac, but never could, even with Disk Warrior.
A clean install is the way to go here.

Collin Bl said:

If u cannot resurrect anything with Disk Warrior i think the data on there is history. Time to boot off install disk do an erase with Disk Utility and then a fresh install.

Click to expand...

I was trying to avoid that lol. but when I ran Disk Warrior it "repaired" over 60+ ...uh....whatevers it was repairing. but anyway I did an erase on the HDD, zero-ing out everything. Took about an hour even though it said 30 mins.

and so i JUST ran Disk Utilities again and I got an update on the verify, I have to add that after i zero'd out everything, the disk0s3 was no longer grayed out, but black like the rest of the items on the left pane. but NOW its back to gray so i ran the Verify on the 74.5GB and got these results:

Verifying volume "disk0s3"
Checking HFS Plus volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Checking catalog Hierarchy
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
(in red) Volume Header needs minor repair
(in red) The volume disk0s3 needs to be repaired
(in red) Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1HFS volume checked
(in red) Volume needs repair

So then i ran Repair on the 74.5 and got:
Verify and repair disk "disk0s3"
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Checking Catalog Hierarchy
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
(in red) Volume header needs minor repair
(in green) Repairing volume
Rechecking volume
Checking HFS Plus Volume
Checking Extents Overflow file
Checking Catalog file
Checking Catalog Hierarchy
Checking volume bitmap
Checking volume information
The volume disk0s3 was repaired successfully
1HFS volume checked
Repair attempted on 1 volume
(in green) 1HFS volume repaired

Even though it says its repaired, if i run the verify again, it'll still tell me the header needs minor repair. and if i repair, it'll tell me the SAME repair results so I dont think its actually fixed. is this something that can be fixed in disk warrior? i'm willing to go into TDM to poke around in it. Hopefully i'll be able to start the 15" with the install disk because it took FOREVER for it to startup on the disk. it'd just sit at the apple logo and spinning gear.

Back to clean install I think, sorry.

All of the files that you backed up before the error are fine, though, right?

Kevriano said:

Back to clean install I think, sorry.

Click to expand...

how do i do a clean install if the drive doesnt show up in the installer??? There's nothing there. What are the steps? because the disk0s3 is "Not mounted" but it says it's "Bootable" in the info tab.

Jamie-Jamie said:

All of the files that you backed up before the error are fine, though, right?

Click to expand...

At this point I could care less about the files, I just want this mac up and running.

oh wait guys...the disk0s3 showed up! i'll let you know how the install goes.

llanos20 said:

oh wait guys...the disk0s3 showed up! i'll let you know how the install goes.

Click to expand...

ok, it got into the installation and it stopped on "Finish Up" and said

"There were errors installing the software. Please try installing again."
I'm gonna try to install it once more.

If u are getting errors then try booting off the install disk and doing another erase and then try the Install.

Collin Bl said:

If u are getting errors then try booting off the install disk and doing another erase and then try the Install.

Click to expand...

OK i did a clean install by hooking up the 15" via firewire to the 12" and running disk utility off the 12" while the install disk was in the 15" and both devices showed up so i was able to copy the image and setup/install everything fine on the 15" HOWEVER

if i opened disk utility on the 15" and checked the disk (before the fresh install) i'd get the errors from there. one minute it'd give me an error but not say WHAT it was. it was just like...an underlying task...but there was physically no error posted, no b tree node, no invalid -whatever, NOTHING. but there was an error. BUT when i ran disk utility (before the install) through firewire, the DU on the 12" would tell me that the disk for the 15" was OKAY. ran every test possible to the 15" through the 12" and everything was fine.

SO, i did the clean install, zero'd the drive (again) and all that but the problem still remains....it hangs on the apple and spinning gear so now what??

I can still boot off the disk but it wont boot off the HD even with the clean install. even on the 12" it'll tell me that the disk has 10.4 on it. i fixed the permissions and even ran fsck_hfs, -y, all that. booted in Single user mode, Verbose Mode however said something like:

creating RAM disk for /var/volume
creating RAM disk for /var/tmp
Creating RAM disk for /var/run

APR 1 11:54:45 localhost DirectoryService[38]: CNet InfoPlugin: : Initialize - notify_get_state failed over last minute (Status - 1) repeat 5x

then says

Apr 1 11:57:45 localhost memberd[34]: Couldnt find root user. Sleeping and trying again. (and repeats that 5 times)

before going back to the first message and those two messages keep repeating down the screen

WHAT does this mean?? What next??

can someone tell me the proper steps to installing cause what i did in disk utility was drag the HD image to "destination" and the install disk image to "restore" (i think it was) and started up the installation, after i zero'd out the drive and checked the drive on the DU on the 12" to make sure it was okay because the DU on the 15" kept giving me mixed answers. sometimes it'd mount, other times it didnt. one time it'd say disk is ok, then it would have an error. one error said b tree node, the other said sibling link...i'm getting frustrated.

Honestly, I think your HD has had it. No amount of installing is going to sort this I feel.

Kevriano said:

Honestly, I think your HD has had it. No amount of installing is going to sort this I feel.

Click to expand...

for some reason i'm not convinced in that. Because there's no clicking/screeching from the HD, no weird noises, it's BOOTING up, just not getting past the gear which tells me something minor could be blocking the passage. I did a little research to the root thing and it's somewhere based around passwords for the machine. I did have a user login before it died so that could be an issue. i'll run some more tests cause I doubt the HD is actually dead otherwise DU would have told me so, Disk Warrior would have told me so...I'd forever be stuck on the folder and ? mark, but i'm not. i've succeeded past that. All i need now is for the PB to stop throwing this tantrum and move on to the login screen.

As they say, "Where there's a will, there's a way." and i'm willing to find it.

Before you try installing again, ZERO OUT the drive (in disk utility under security options). This will take a while, an hour or three, but it will also "block out" any bad blocks and that may be the key to successfully reinstalling.

If so, you should be aware that this is usually the first sign of an HD going bad, and keep your backups VERY current.

chas_m said:

Before you try installing again, ZERO OUT the drive (in disk utility under security options). This will take a while, an hour or three, but it will also "block out" any bad blocks and that may be the key to successfully reinstalling.

If so, you should be aware that this is usually the first sign of an HD going bad, and keep your backups VERY current.

Click to expand...

ok i did that and i got through the first installation, the comp restarted and went into the second phase of installation asking for the 2nd install disk so i inserted it. when i did, it resumed and got all the way to

"Installing GarageBand Application
Writing files: 93% Completed
Time Remaining: About 17 minutes"

seemingly staying that way for quite some time.

then saying "There were errors installing the software. Please try installing again."

The installer log reported:

"Apr 1 03:15:52 localhost : BomFileError 5: Input/Output error - ./Library/Application Support/Garageband/Instrument Library/Sampler/Sampler Files/String Ensemble/08n7aG2.wav

Apr 1 03:15:52 localhost : install failed: Some files for GaragebandApp20 may not have been written correctly."

How do i go about fixing this??