Unexplainable HD problem iMac 2011


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Two days ago a friend unplugged my iMac without turning it off. Since then every time I start OS X a grey progress bar appear and it takes about three minutes to start.

Disk utility informs me the HD needs to be repaired, however every other SMART tool tells me everything is fine. When I run disk utility via my Lion DVD Disk Utility is unable to repair my HD (Wrong number of files).

I did a disk image and proceed to format my entire drive. Checked the drive with DU and no errors reported. I restored the images and... the errors are back again!

The image was read only and as far as I know is impossible that drive errors can be copied to a mere disk image.

Any suggestions?

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1. Save personal files

2. Zero out hard drive

3. Reinstall

100% agree. Maybe get a larger one and call it an upgrade? :) Be sure to do your updates!!!

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1. Save personal files

2. Zero out hard drive

3. Reinstall

You mean secure format?

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Tho that will take a while (secure format). Also run the AHT just be sure everything else is in working order.

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Two days ago a friend unplugged my iMac without turning it off. Since then every time I start OS X a grey progress bar appear and it takes about three minutes to start.

Disk utility informs me the HD needs to be repaired, however every other SMART tool tells me everything is fine. When I run disk utility via my Lion DVD Disk Utility is unable to repair my HD (Wrong number of files).

I did a disk image and proceed to format my entire drive. Checked the drive with DU and no errors reported. I restored the images and... the errors are back again!

The image was read only and as far as I know is impossible that drive errors can be copied to a mere disk image.

Any suggestions?

An image is that an image, so it copied any errors you had into the image. Most likely you could go into a linux boot disc and fix it.

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No. Just wipe it regularly...

I already did that in my original post. No luck. Maybe I do need a secure format.

Will try the AHT first. Right now I'm running a S.M.A.R.T. extensive test in SMARTReporter.

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An image is that an image, so it copied any errors you had into the image. Most likely you could go into a linux boot disc and fix it.

Seems that my only option will be to make a complete Time Machine backup, reinstall anew and restore from that backup. What a hassle.

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Seems that my only option will be to make a complete Time Machine backup, reinstall anew and restore from that backup. What a hassle.

Better idea; boot to Lion install DVD, hop over to Terminal and fsck_hfs from there. Tell us the results.

In short you should do something like this;

sudo -s (switch to superuser if the terminal isn't one already)

diskutil list (to list the partitions)

fsck_hfs -y /dev/disk0s2 ( check /dev/disk0s2 and assume Yes to all queries, -f to force )

depending a bit on what drive your OSX is on.

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I'm not a frequent Mac User, but from what you say, it doens't seem like the drive is bad (eg, SMART is pointless), but that some data is corrupted... so I concur with the fsck suggestion.

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Tried the fsck_hfs suggestion, didn't work.

A friend of mine suggested me to use DiskWarrior so he allowed me to borrow his dvd and that did the trick. Now my system is fully back to normal.

Will buy DiskWarrior for future problems.

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I make a TM backup every time I run an update. Just did it before installing Mountain Lion for devs and beta testers. Then did another backup just after install it hehe. I am kinda freak but someday it will save me!

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