Leopard installer killed my hard drive?

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Yesterday I bought the Leopard install disc and loaded it up. When I tried to install 10.5.6, the installer told me that I couldn't install that version on my hard drive. I assumed it was because I only had 1 gb free, so I quit the installer and restarted so that I could free up some space. That's when the problem began...

The gray startup screen came on, but then the little circle icon just spun and spun for a few minutes, then the mac shut down. I looked up some solutions on another machine. I tried selecting a startup disc, zapping the pram, etc. No good. I started in verbose mode and it said something about an invalid sibling pair, and the last command I saw was something like 'CPU end'

I ran the disc utility from the OS X system disc, and it was unable to verify the drive.

So what the heck did the OS X installer do to my hard drive? Did it corrupt the catalog? I quit the installer, so it shouldn't have touched it. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

(the worst part is that my super duper smart update wasn't working properly, so I need to get the data off that hard drive or I lose 2 years of work :(
 
If you only had 1GB of hard drive space free THAT without doubt is your problem.
The fact now that yuo cannot access your drive is a direct result from the lack of space.
It is my understanding that when most copying functions occur there is a duplicate made so just in case of corruption yuo have still a good file. Consequentally the only way is to get your drive mounted onto another Mac via Traget mode and a firewire cable... delete some files and try to repair from the other Mac. It may be a case of, delete files, copy files and completely erase and start again.. this is if you can mount the drive at all!
 
Yes, if you only have 1 GB free space on your hard drive, you won't be able to install Leopard. I think the installer didn't actually damage your hard drive. When you run low on space, it's only a matter of time before you begin having problems.

Time to use Disk Warrior

Do you have an external hard drive, and does it have enough space to back up your internal hard drive?
That would be a good next step, I think.
 
Yup. For under $100 you can get hugemongeousity Ex-HDs. Add in Disk Warrior--connect the Ex-HD, book on DW, follow the directions to rebuild. Let me see . . . I think I have pickies:

DiskWarriorDirectory.jpg


basically you can create an "image" of your HD and try to pull files out of it--to your Ex-HD. Once you do that, you can try repairing what you have:

DiskWarriorRepair.jpg


If that works, you should then back up and delete what you need to create room . . . OR . . . consider getting a bigger Internal HD as well.

In that case, once you repair what you need, clone it to your Ex-HD using Time Machine or SuperDuper!. I believe TM makes a "bootable clone" which means you can boot off the Ex-HD--something you want to be able to do!

Next, wipe the old Int-HD/insert New Bigger HD, format it properly, then load Leopard . . . make some coffee . . . organize your sock drawer. Decide whether or not you need the 75,000 printer drivers.

Then, it will ask you as part of your set up if you want to transfer a previous account. Connecteth up your Ex-HD, clickee the button and voila!

Download the ComboUpdates to update to current system.

Then schedule routine backups of your data to your Ex-HD.

Rotate your tires.

--J.D.
 
Doctor X said:
In that case, once you repair what you need, clone it to your Ex-HD using Time Machine or SuperDuper!. I believe TM makes a "bootable clone" which means you can boot off the Ex-HD--something you want to be able to do!
Click to expand...

Time Machine backups are not bootable, but SuperDuper! backups are (if you so choose to specifically create a "bootable" backup with SD!).

Mac OS X's own Disk Utility can create bootable backups as well, although there's an intermediate step to take with Disk Utility that is not required with SuperDuper!

(Note that the name of the utility is "SuperDuper!" with the exclamation point -- don't confuse that with me being excited about my sentences...)
 
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