DiskWarrior steps for farkled disk

[ElyseC]

Just FYI for anyone interested, as I type my Mac G5 tower is being checked
by DiskWarrior and has been in that process for the past 18 hours, with
virtually no change in the progress bar.

Seeing no apparent change in the progress bar after about an hour, I called
Alsoft to inquire if this is normal. Left a message and their tech called me
back giving me the following advice, then emailing it to me, too, so I
didn't have to scribble it down while on the phone. I'll pass along here in
case it happens to help anyone else sometime down the road. Let me add that
where DW appeared to stop was it its "step 5" and with a parenthetical
comment below the progress bar that said "(Speed inhibited by disk
malfunction)". Here are the tech's instructions:

1)
If the mouse cursor still moves during step 5, then the computer did not
hang or freeze. DiskWarrior is still working on reading the directory of
the disk.

Such slowdowns are usually the result of having bad blocks on the media.
DiskWarrior is having trouble reading data from the locations on disk
where the directory structures are stored.

Please let DiskWarrior run for as long as it takes. This can take quite
a few hours but should eventually complete. On rare occasions, it might
even be necessary to run this for a day or two.

2)
When you run DiskWarrior started up from the CD, and you select Preview
at the DiskWarrior report, your new directory and your old directory will
appear side by side in the Preview window. At the top of these windows,
you will see the name of the disk you are viewing: one will read "your
disk(original)" and the other will read "your disk(preview)".

First, compare the original and preview directories. Does it appear that
all of your files and folders are there? If so, you can now copy from
the rebuilt directory to another drive. To do this, select your other
drive in place of "your disk(original)". Now, that column should list
the files and folders in the disk you can backup to. In the other column
(i.e. the Preview disk), select items (a few at a time) and click the
Copy button below the list of files and folders. This will backup your
data to that drive.

3)
After DiskWarrior completes, the disk should be in a usable state.
However, since the "speed inhibited" message indicates hardware-related
issues, the best long term solution is to backup your files, reformat the
hard drive, re-install the operating system and restore from backup.
When you are reformatting your drive, you should choose to "Zero All
Data" (an option in Apple's Disk Utility program).

Hopefully no one else here will ever need this info, but if you do....

[Mike]

Thanks for posting that. It's reassuring to know that DW can cope with even badly damaged discs (though I do hope I never need to put it to the test).

Hope your machine is back up and running.

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by Mike

Hope your machine is back up and running.

Not yet, alas. DiskWarrior has been running for about 48 hours now.

I have emailed the Alsoft tech asking for confirmation that DW will - for sure - complete or throw in the towel and tell me there's nothing to be done but wipe it, lose all the data and rebuild from scratch. He'll probably read it once he gets to work tomorrow morning, so until I hear differently I'm just letting it run. <sigh>

[Mike]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

Not yet, alas. DiskWarrior has been running for about 48 hours now.

Any change yet?

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by Mike

Any change yet?

Nope. About 90 hours and counting. Still haven't heard back from two queries to Alsoft tech support. Maybe I'll go to their site and look for a different email address to try.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

Still haven't heard back from two queries to Alsoft tech support.

Maybe they're trying to emulate their software. <g>

I think I'd give it a week and then pull the plug and start again.

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by Mike

Maybe they're trying to emulate their software. <g>

I think I'd give it a week and then pull the plug and start again.

Well, here's the reply today from Marc, the support tech (sure a helpful, patient, nice guy):

There is no point in the process where DiskWarrior will give up on trying to read the data. Depending on how many blocks are damaged, the state of the data on those blocks, the speed of the computer, it is possible that this can take even longer than a day or two. However, people have allowed DiskWarrior to continue and have recovered their data after extended periods of time.

At the end of the day, how long you allow DiskWarrior to run is really based on other use of the computer and need for the data on the drive.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

Well, here's the reply today from Marc, the support tech (sure a helpful, patient, nice guy):

At the end of the day, how long you allow DiskWarrior to run is really based on other use of the computer and need for the data on the drive.

Hmmm. So maybe my idea of waiting a week was somewhat overoptimistic then.

[ElyseC]

Originally Posted by Mike

Hmmm. So maybe my idea of waiting a week was somewhat overoptimistic then.

I guess so. <sigh> I've asked Marc for clarification, whether DiskWarrior will ever go beyond the spot on the disk its been attempting for days to see what else it can recover beyond the bad stuff.

[djb]

Originally Posted by ElyseC

I guess so. <sigh> I've asked Marc for clarification, whether DiskWarrior will ever go beyond the spot on the disk its been attempting for days to see what else it can recover beyond the bad stuff.

Told 'ya it was florfed, not farkled...

<d&r>