Macintosh HD Corrupt (Disk Utility - Invalid Directory Item Count)

[GWG8803]

Hey guys, hope all is well.

Ran into a problem with an abrupt shutdown twice while I was re-starting my suddenly slow Macbook Pro (OS X Yosemite, 10.10). I ran Disk Utility, and I got this error message:

"Invalid directory item count
(It should be 5510 instead of 5511)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired/
Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility."​

I booted into Recovery HD, and ran Disk Utility there. Both the Macintosh HD & the OS came back clean with no errors (that's after verifying and repairing disk & permissions). Booting again normally, I still get the same error message above when I run Disk Utility, however, the "it should be _ instead of _" numbers sometimes change. Going back into Recovery HD again tells me I'm clean.

I have not encountered the reboot issue (or any other issue for that matter) since the initial one -- essentially, it's saying the Macintosh HD is corrupt on a fully-functioning MBP. Just spitballing, but could it be the beginning of the hard drive failing or something?

If anyone has any thoughts or advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers,


Marc

 

[chscag]

Sometimes what Disk Utility reports when in Recovery does not match what Disk Utility reports when your Macintosh HD partition is mounted. Try using "FSCK" from Single User Mode to clear all errors. That should get things back in sync. Follow the instructions from here.

 

[GWG8803]

Sometimes what Disk Utility reports when in Recovery does not match what Disk Utility reports when your Macintosh HD partition is mounted. Try using "FSCK" from Single User Mode to clear all errors. That should get things back in sync. Follow the instructions from here.

You're a hero. Thank you very much for the quick reply -- the problem appears to have fixed itself. FSCK found the same Invalid Directory Item Count error (it should be 5499 instead of 5500), then said it was modified and appears to be OK. Re-ran FSCK and all appears to be well, and re-ran Disk Utility in regular startup and it didn't find anything.

Do you have any idea why this happened/what it means? Should I be concerned that my hard drive is beginning to fail?

 

[chscag]

Do you have any idea why this happened/what it means? Should I be concerned that my hard drive is beginning to fail?

That error does not necessarily mean there's anything wrong with your hard drive. It sounds more like a hiccup when data was getting written. However, smart money says to keep your backups current.

 

[Slydude]

Sometimes what Disk Utility reports when in Recovery does not match what Disk Utility reports when your Macintosh HD partition is mounted. Try using "FSCK" from Single User Mode to clear all errors. That should get things back in sync. Follow the instructions from here.

That's a handy thing to know. I've had situations where fsck cleared something up that the GUI version of Disk Utility couldn't fix. Never noticed that the number of reported errors might not match.

 

[GWG8803]

That error does not necessarily mean there's anything wrong with your hard drive. It sounds more like a hiccup when data was getting written. However, smart money says to keep your backups current.

Understood. The machine is only a few years old, and I thought it'd be too early to have the HD starting to die on me, but crazier things have happened. I was about to set up an Apple Store appointment to have it looked at if I couldn't find a solution by the end of the day. And yes, backups are always up to date

That's a handy thing to know. I've had situations where fsck cleared something up that the GUI version of Disk Utility couldn't fix. Never noticed that the number of reported errors might not match.

Me neither. I'll definitely keep FSCK in mind in case something like this comes up again. This was my first real problem with any Apple product I've ever had, everything has always been smooth sailing.