Rescue/Repair Software

When all the basic OSX troubleshooting 'fixes' posted on here don't work, is there some 'advanced' software one can get to try to revive a HD which is reporting "Keys out of order" please?

Alsoft's Disk Warrior does one thing,...but does it well.

Macswork

Many thanks for the reply. I've read some of the details of this program and admit it sounds very good indeed. One thing I'm not sure of though, is it the imac's directory that has been corrupted?

When using 'Verify' on the resident HD (having booted from a firewire HD), it reports 'Keys out of order'. Does that mean a corrupted directory?

If all else fails, you can use something like ProSofts Data Rescue II. It's worked for me several times when everything else failed. You can recover your data, then just reformat or replace the drive.

baggss

That also looks very good, many thanks.

Griffo said:

Many thanks for the reply. I've read some of the details of this program and admit it sounds very good indeed. One thing I'm not sure of though, is it the imac's directory that has been corrupted?

When using 'Verify' on the resident HD (having booted from a firewire HD), it reports 'Keys out of order'. Does that mean a corrupted directory?

Click to expand...

Keys out of order relates to the catalog and if damaged the Mac has trouble finding files/data.

As mentioned ^^Disc Warrior or Data Rescue II will get your mac back on it's feet.

Good news, thanks, i'll get one/both.

Update

I downloaded Disk Warrior and transferred it to the external HD, then tried the repair, having booted the G4 from the firewire external drive.

It seemed to go fine until step 5, Locating Directory Data, when a message said 'speed inhibited due to disc malfunction'. Disk Warrior Techies very kindly advised me by email, to leave it running, maybe for hours/days!

I'm delighted to say that, after about 10 hours it worked! The G4 will now boot from the resident drive. So now I just need to get the important files/folders etc. off it onto our new G5, then I can install a new HD and get the G4 back to health again.

Many thanks for the kind help folks, much appreciated.

Just one remaining problem (I hope!), a couple of files that were created in OpenOffice (1) won't now open or transfer to the new mac (has OO 2) either, plus a couple of OO files seem to have disappeared. Is it likely that, if I run DW again it will fix this or is there something else I can try?