help with a problematic HD at the very end of 2002

[Alécio Costa]

Hi friends!
I have a G4 800 on here, which I bought around last May and whose internal HD is presenting symptomns of premature death. I always use it on a daily job, along with another MAXTOR IDE 7200RPM so I do not know if it was used too much or if it is going premature.

Once in a while I examin it with Norton but now it keeps locking with :
node 358
the node in on an incorrect level. the catalog B tree is... ( 10,4,4)

System message appears suggesting that it shall be damaged. So I tried the system repair tools..

right after reading KEY LENGHT4, 358
where appears catalog b tee stuff, it says...

IT CAN NOT BE REPAIRED.

The local MAC guy told me to reformat it completly or to send it to my studio trash. Since I have been using this machine last than one year I hope Apple send me a brand new internal HD.
gear: OS 9.2.2. G4 800, 512MB RAM, PT MIX ( d24 + dsp FARm + mix farm), Waves 3.2, TC 2.0, TOAST 5.02).

what would friends suggest me? a newer version of Disk Warrior, Norton shall help? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
It will be a pain in the ass reauthorizing PT, WAves, etc etc at the other spare drives on here.

Shall I keep working recording at the spare drives but with PT still at these "sick" internal drive until another one arrives or I have available time to fix it?

Thanks
Alécio

[stoneinapond]

Alecio,

If your internal drive is indeed sick, then there is no way to predict when it will fry. Could be in the next minute, could be weeks from now. However, if you haven't done so already, back everything up NOW.

As far as I understand it, if you do a quick format, your authorizations should not be affected. I'm told that even zeroing the drive won't affect them, but personally I wouldn't try that and would remove all authorizations which, if you get a new drive, you are going have to do anyway. You will of course have to also re-install all your applications.

Although I have not used it myself, Disc Warrior seems from the reports I've read to be better than Norton at fixing certain problems.

I wish you the best during what for all of us computer users would be a troubling time indeed. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Yorik

[Alécio Costa]

thnaks Stone. In facat almost everything was backed up. It is a pain in the asse having to reauthorize everything, reinstall PT etc etc...
Things were quite good, very stable performance for several months.
what surprises me is that the HD was not so old, from May/2002.

how long have you guys been able to use an IDE ATA drive like this, based on a 6 to 8 hour monday to friday job?

Thanks again

[Lee Blaske]

I've never had problems running ATA drives on that type of schedule.

Regarding the "Cannot Be Repaired" instruction, you could try Norton or Disk Warrior, but I'd remove all your software keys first. You're definitely risking losing them.

What brand, size and type of drive is the one having problems? Is it the one that originally shipped with the G4?

Lee Blaske

[ctmartin]

I had some problems with my internal IDE drive that Norton said could not be repaired... Disk Warrior COULD fix them however. Definitely try it! Happy Holidays...

[Andre Knecht]

Alécio,

I swear by Disk Warrior, also. My advice to is to keep a close eye (read: ear) on that internal Maxtor. I had one crap out on me recently on my office machine, an 867 Quicksilver G4. The drive came to a grinding halt almost exactly one year from the days of purchase.

The good news is that, like you, I was able to observe symptoms of impending doom well before its time, and prepared. I added a second internal drive, an 80G, 7200 RPM Western Digital with 8MB of on-board cache. Holy smokes! This thing screams. In fact, with it as a startup drive, the whole system finally delivered on its promise of efficiency and speed. Yes, the difference was that dramatic.

From now on, for every new machine I buy, I will first swap its slow internal drive with a couple of faster (and hopefully less fragile, non-Maxtor) ones.

Hope this helps. Happy New Year!

[Alécio Costa]

Hi friends! Thanks for the nice info
In fact was the internal IDE ATA factory bundled that presented these problenms. Not the additional Maxtor drives I bought later.
Wow, I am so lucky.....

Seems I will have to reauthorize and reinstall everything at the new spare drive.
What is funny is that aplle Brazil/dealer asks for almost 1 month to deliver me a warranty HD.

I am recording at a spare MAxtor, but Pt, Waves, TC, Toast stuff are all in the semi-damaged one.
I have just backed up everything.
a question: seems if I reformat everything will I still have my authorizations in there? they are kept on a very "hidden place" of the HD structure. Is it true?

thanks again
[img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Alécio Costa]

the symptons that made me get worried were:
a) always locking at booting, so not being able to build desktop
b) sometimes locked with UNKNOWN ERROR

I tried the ordinary routine like rebuild desktop, ZAP PRAM, Norton, the system diagnosis tools and so..

But aren´t the internal G4 drives 7200 RPM by default? I even recorded at it, etc - it was not so slow...

BTW, I use MAxtor´s because I was not able to find Western Digital on here....

Thanks
again

[MAXIMUSIC]

Alecio,

Since you stated that everything is backed up you can go ahead and reformat the drive (not low level), your authorizations will remain intact. It may seem like a pain in the but, but you're preventing a disaster.
Rgegarding the warranty on the drive, it all depends where you've got the machine, if it was in the USA it should be fairly easy but if you've got it in Brazil you'd have to deal with those Pirates that claim they have everything under control until they face a situacion like yours. Anyhow... if you need help contacting Apple I could give you a hand, I live in Florida for 10 years but like you, I had to deal with the Pirates when I was living in Brazil.

Happy New Year.

Abraço

Marcello Azevedo

[Alécio Costa]

Hi Marcelo! Many thanks! Are you brazilian,
friend?

In fact I bought in an authorized respected dealer from the south of Brazil.

Man, I am ****ed up. I was going to finish a mastering to deliver tomorrow and then reinstall everything and now IAM NOT BEING ABLE TO OPEN any session!!!!!!Just says DAE ERROR 10!!
I treid making session copy or importing audio files to a new session and everything is ****ed up.
I have already asked for Aplle tech to come here but I did need to finish this job beforehand!!!

Might I have already lost any software?
Oh My God...
Hope to hear from ya!