Disk Warrior: Original Directory was too Severely Damaged

[Sertorius]

Hello,

Problem with the girlfriends Mac. Ran Diskwarrior and gave the details report and message that says "Original Directory was too Severely Damaged" and won't allow me to replace. The first time I ran diskwarrior it gave the error message (2153, -36)... now though it is giving that "Severely Damaged" message and the replace button is dimmed out.

So now i'm trying to backup some of her files from the preview. But I can't see my external hard drive from the preview nor am I sure if I should? How can I start copying her files from the preview to my external hard drive if I can't see it?

It is a USB external hard drive that i am trying to copy too but can't see and wonder if I must use a firewire external HD?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[harryb2448]

Either the drive may be just too damaged to salvage or the external has not been formatted correctly. Have a look at this link from Alsoft for suggestions:-

http://supportdb.alsoft.com:591/FMP...html&-script=counter&-token=85&-Skip=15&-find

 

[Sertorius]

Thanks for the reply. I believe the external hard drive is formatted correctly as it has been used on this Mac before.

Also... when viewing Diskwarriors report I can hit File and save the Report as a .pdf to the external hard drive, it shows up in the save window and I can save it there as well as view all the other files that exist on the external hard drive.

It is when I am viewing Diskwarriors preview that the same external hard drive does not show up at all.

Any other advice on how to navigate to my external hard drive from the preview window so I can begin to copy and backup files?

 

[miles01110]

Disk Warrior isn't recovery software, you want something like Data Rescue II.

 

[Sertorius]

Disk Warrior isn't recovery software, you want something like Data Rescue II.

So i've bought DiskWarrior at the price of $130.00 CAD and it has availed me not as it could not rebuild what was broken.

Now i've bought Data Rescue II at the price of $120.00 CAD and it appears to have rescued sweet **** all.

1. I boot to Data Rescue II.

2. I Select Drive to Scan (I can see my external hard drive in this list). I choose to scan the "Macintosh HD" (and all other options after the nefarious step detailed below).

3. Now I get to choose "Select Working Volume". I see the 4GB "Boot Volume", the bootable Data Rescue Drive. And I see "Macintosh HD". My external hard drive (USB) is not there to utilize as a working volume. Selecting the two available volumes results in failure.

Please someone point out how much of an idiot I am for not putting a check in a checkbox somewhere, for not selecting what I was supposed to select, or for letting my GF buy a Mac in the first place.

Extremely dejected, any advice or clarity would be much appreciated.

EDIT > I just wanted to add... this iMac was bought on June 7th of 2008, two weeks after the factory warranty expires. This is a fresh machine.

 

[Sertorius]

This is the GF. The problem has been pointed out to the "idiot" (he is not) and data recovery is started... YES!

I am not too pleased with my Mac and still don't know if it can actually be fixed... am pretty upset as a matter of fact. Considering writing a scathing letter to someone but don't really know who to send it to, I guess I will just have vent somewhere in cyberspace.

 

[miles01110]

I am confused; your external hard drive is the one giving you problems? How and why is that a bad reflection on Macs? If your external drive is actually dead, neither a Mac or Windows machine is going to be able to do anything.

 

[bobtomay]

Hard drives fail. There are no Mac drives, Linux drives or Windows drives. All the computer manufacturers use drives made by the same drive manufacturers. If a drive is going to fail, it's going to fail whether it's in a Mac or in a Windows machine.

I know it can be upsetting for a drive to fail when you have no backup of the data. This is why for years, everyone has said backup, backup, backup. You could have had 2 or 3 1TB external hard drives for the same cash that's now been spent trying to salvage the data on this one dead drive.

Please anyone else reading this thread - do yourself a favor and spend the $60-$100 and get a drive for backup before you too, run into the same thing. Mechanical parts do fail.