- Jul 17, 2012
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I've posted this on macrumors, but I'm not sure how technically inclined the forum is, so I thought I'd post here as well.
The other day while I was out of town, the 2009 white unibody macbook my wife uses wouldn't boot. It just stays on the gray apple screen with the "loading circle". There is quite a bit of data that is not backed up on this computer, my main goal is to get the files from this computer by using Disk Utility. I'm sure DiskWarrior will do the trick, but I'm not interested in how to use that program, as I could figure that out on my own.
What I've tried:
I have tried holding shift to boot in safe mode, I have tried resetting the PRAM, I have switched my 2, 2 gig sticks of Crucial ram I have been running for a year for the original 2, 1 gig Samsung sticks, and I have tried booting into single user mode and entered /sbin/fsck_hfs -yprd /dev/partitionName substituting my partition name. The single user mode entry was attempted AFTER I inserted the Snow Leopard install disk that I used a year ago to do a clean install. Once I opened disk utility and verified my hard drive, it came back with "Invalid Node Structure". The repair option from Disk Utility did not work either. It just kept returning "Invalid Node Structure" in red.
Now, I THINK I know my options.
OPTION 1
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-fix-invalid-node-structure-error-on-mac/
Thanks for that one Vishal...
However, the 2009 Macbook doesn't have a Fire Wire port. It has a mini-display port that doesn't transmit sound, and 2 usb 2.0 ports. How can I get the files from my macbook using disk utility from the Snow Leopard install disk? I have a 150 GB external drive I can format for the method in the link above. There is less than 150 GB worth of data on the macbook, but the hard drive is 250 GB total. I also have a 500GB usb drive that I can use if necessary.
There is one other option I'm aware of,
OPTION 2
http://techierambles.blogspot.com/2008/12/repair-disk-errors-like-invalid-node.html
I am less hopeful that this option will work, from what Vishal said in the first link, Invalid Node Structure means you're screwed. The question I have about this is, if I unmount the start-up disk to preform this method, do I risk losing data?
I'm well aware that I can fix this problem by reformatting the drive, but the thing I need to know is,
How do I get data off my 2009 Unibody White Macbook that won't boot, by using Disk Utility from the Snow Leopard install disk?
I've scoured my options of getting the thing to boot as is, and I have exhausted them. I need help getting the data off the hard drive.
Thanks in advance. I greatly appreciate any assistance you can give.
The other day while I was out of town, the 2009 white unibody macbook my wife uses wouldn't boot. It just stays on the gray apple screen with the "loading circle". There is quite a bit of data that is not backed up on this computer, my main goal is to get the files from this computer by using Disk Utility. I'm sure DiskWarrior will do the trick, but I'm not interested in how to use that program, as I could figure that out on my own.
What I've tried:
I have tried holding shift to boot in safe mode, I have tried resetting the PRAM, I have switched my 2, 2 gig sticks of Crucial ram I have been running for a year for the original 2, 1 gig Samsung sticks, and I have tried booting into single user mode and entered /sbin/fsck_hfs -yprd /dev/partitionName substituting my partition name. The single user mode entry was attempted AFTER I inserted the Snow Leopard install disk that I used a year ago to do a clean install. Once I opened disk utility and verified my hard drive, it came back with "Invalid Node Structure". The repair option from Disk Utility did not work either. It just kept returning "Invalid Node Structure" in red.
Now, I THINK I know my options.
OPTION 1
http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-fix-invalid-node-structure-error-on-mac/
Thanks for that one Vishal...
However, the 2009 Macbook doesn't have a Fire Wire port. It has a mini-display port that doesn't transmit sound, and 2 usb 2.0 ports. How can I get the files from my macbook using disk utility from the Snow Leopard install disk? I have a 150 GB external drive I can format for the method in the link above. There is less than 150 GB worth of data on the macbook, but the hard drive is 250 GB total. I also have a 500GB usb drive that I can use if necessary.
There is one other option I'm aware of,
OPTION 2
http://techierambles.blogspot.com/2008/12/repair-disk-errors-like-invalid-node.html
I am less hopeful that this option will work, from what Vishal said in the first link, Invalid Node Structure means you're screwed. The question I have about this is, if I unmount the start-up disk to preform this method, do I risk losing data?
I'm well aware that I can fix this problem by reformatting the drive, but the thing I need to know is,
How do I get data off my 2009 Unibody White Macbook that won't boot, by using Disk Utility from the Snow Leopard install disk?
I've scoured my options of getting the thing to boot as is, and I have exhausted them. I need help getting the data off the hard drive.
Thanks in advance. I greatly appreciate any assistance you can give.