Can't Repair Disc Permissions

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I'm a video/audio editor and am at the end of my diagnoisic accumen.

I have a computer that takes a day to boot, and then just hangs on the pinwheel. I have tried everything I know to fix it, and now need a real technician.

Here are the specs

G5 quad core PowerMac 2005(late) (not Intel)
4gigs ram
I think my processor speed is 1.87

Problem:

Computer unresponsive.
Verified disc permissions on boot drive - verified something was wrong and needed to repair disc permissions
Tried to repair disc permissions on the hard drive I boot from. After a day and a half no progress had been made. Repair hung on the horizontal blue barber pole.

Then, I manually inserted the install disc and ran Repair disc permissions from the utilities menu, again, repair did not progress.

Test the hardware, everything passed.
reset pram

Tried to boot, took a day and a half, again, tried to run Repair Disc Permissions, but it did not work.

Booted from Install, tried to repair disc permissions, did not work.

I've repeated the steps above several times, now I end up at what looks like DOS when I boot. and the screen says, "disk timeout"

At one point two red lights were lit on the logic board, but have not recreated the situation again.

It seems i just need to repair the disc permissions on the Boot HD, but it won't do it.

any help is appriciated.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Most likely cause in my opinion is a dead or dying hard drive, because all the steps you have taken would normally fix a simple permissions issue.
You could try running FSCK and see what that throws up, but I suspect it won't really help if the drive is indeed dead/dying.
 
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how do

Most likely cause in my opinion is a dead or dying hard drive, because all the steps you have taken would normally fix a simple permissions issue.
You could try running FSCK and see what that throws up, but I suspect it won't really help if the drive is indeed dead/dying.

How do I run a FSCK? Could I install OSX to my other hard drive and boot from there?
 
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no safe boot either

I'm a video/audio editor and am at the end of my diagnoisic accumen.

I have a computer that takes a day to boot, and then just hangs on the pinwheel. I have tried everything I know to fix it, and now need a real technician.

Here are the specs

G5 quad core PowerMac 2005(late) (not Intel)
4gigs ram
I think my processor speed is 1.87

Problem:

Computer unresponsive.
Verified disc permissions on boot drive - verified something was wrong and needed to repair disc permissions
Tried to repair disc permissions on the hard drive I boot from. After a day and a half no progress had been made. Repair hung on the horizontal blue barber pole.

Then, I manually inserted the install disc and ran Repair disc permissions from the utilities menu, again, repair did not progress.

Test the hardware, everything passed.
reset pram

Tried to boot, took a day and a half, again, tried to run Repair Disc Permissions, but it did not work.

Booted from Install, tried to repair disc permissions, did not work.

I've repeated the steps above several times, now I end up at what looks like DOS when I boot. and the screen says, "disk timeout"

At one point two red lights were lit on the logic board, but have not recreated the situation again.

It seems i just need to repair the disc permissions on the Boot HD, but it won't do it.

any help is appriciated.

I forgot to add that it won't safe boot, when I hold the shift key down upon starting the computer, it simply shuts down, so I guess I can't do the FSCK.
 
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20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Hi, yes rebooting holding down the Apple key and S gets you to the menu for using FSCK. If it will not boot to that, then it's almost cetainly a dead HD.
As for booting to OSX on an external drive, Yes it is indeed possible, but you won't be able to use the internal drive for anything, and that may be a bit of an issue.
 
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Two internal drives

ok I'm trying to boot with the apple key + s.

I have two internal 500G drives the "A" is the one with the problem, the "b" checks out fine. COuld I install to "b".
 
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Yes, no reason why not at all. Let us know how you get on though first.
 
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Back in the saddle

fsck didn't work.

So I reinstalled osx on "B", everything is fine, I can even access all the files on "A", which I am surprised by, since I thought it was dead.

Not sure what went wrong or what I should do, but i'm backing up all the files from "A". And I guess I'll just keep booting from "B".

Thanks for all your help Kevriano.
 
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It's dead Jim

Just a follow up.

I ran the disc utility on the "a" HD. Repair Failed "invalid node structure" is what it said. So I guess i'm F'ed in the "A". And likely won't be recovering the files from that drive.

Still, my lovely machine is working again.
 
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Thanks for getting back again. A shame it didn't work, but invalid node structure is not necessarily a dead hard drive, it's more often a corrupt system fault. However, as you can't run FSCK, which would normally fix it, I suspect the drive is indeed dead sadly.
Have you been able to back up files ok?
 
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Way... way too many specs to list.
I've had to run fsck more than once on a drive on more than one instance to recover the filesystem. Generally after a grace-less power down though.
 
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Fsck?

I am totally unfamiliar with this FSCK, and although, I've done some research on it I'm sure what my computer is supposed to be doing.

I'm running FSCK right now, but I've changed my boot HD, does it only affect the boot HD, or will it also check my other HD.

It has verified that my "B" (Boot) HD is good, and is just sitting at a prompt and the fans are on turbo. Do I just let it sit? will it eventually check the "A" HD, which has the problem?

It would be great if the "A" HD was back online, as I don't relish reinstalling all my software. not to mention the updating.

I think if this doesn't work, I may buy a program called Disk Warrior. I've read some good things about it.
 
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20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
FSCK will only check the drive it's running from, so your B drive in this instance, it's not possible (as far as I know) to make it target other drives which is why disk utility is used in the main instance, though FSCK has it uses.
Disk Warrior is indeed very good, but I still think you'd be better changing the A Drive if possible, it's the cheaper option, as Disk Warrior is around $100, and a new drive probably half that at most.
 
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Can't change boot HD

My computer is no longer recognizing my "A" HD, except with the Disc Utility, so I can't change it to the main boot HD.

Although, I backed up most files, there were some recent files I did not back up, and I really want those files.

SO I'm guessing DiscWarrior is my only choice left, to reclaim the files.
 
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You should be able to run fsck on another disk.

fsck -fy /dev/whatever


where ..

f = force fsck to check 'clean' filesystems
y = assume yes for all questions
 
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fsck -fy /dev/whatever

is this the actual comand I should type in at the prompt. The HD that is bad is referred to as "Macintosh HD". Would I type that instead of "whatever"?
 
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fsck -fy /dev/whatever

is this the actual comand I should type in at the prompt. The HD that is bad is referred to as "Macintosh HD". Would I type that instead of "whatever"?
It needs to match the device you're having an issue with. Not by mountpoint, but by device structure.

for EXAMPLE: fsck -fy /dev/disk0s2
 
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I tried using:

fsck -fy/dev/disk2s3

said illegal operation.

might I be using the wrong device name? how would I find the corresct name?
 

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