Difference between revisions of "Repair macbook hard disk"

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On the bootable linux usb stick, we also gave up before getting it to work.  Probably need to use refind or refit to make the usb stick bootable.  Tried using unetbootin, but the resulting usb stick was not visible to the mac when booting with Option held down.
 
On the bootable linux usb stick, we also gave up before getting it to work.  Probably need to use refind or refit to make the usb stick bootable.  Tried using unetbootin, but the resulting usb stick was not visible to the mac when booting with Option held down.
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Didn't try this http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417, but it looks promising.

Revision as of 05:35, 16 September 2013

A late 2007 Macbook refuses to boot.

Entered the serial number under the battery to enter into an Apple support page to determine that it was a 13-inch late 2007 model macbook. Googling for that, I found this page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP12

Determined that it was a core 2 duo 64-bit processor which guided the selection of which Ubuntu iso to download.

Holding down Command-S brings up single user mode.

Running fsck -fy doesn't fix it, but yields the error "The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired".

Running fsck -d to get debug info gives more detail:

  • root device is /dev/rdisk0s2
  • journal replayed successfully or journal was empty
  • Index key doesn't match first node key
  • Invalid index key (4, 35529)
  • rebuilding catalog b-tree
  • hfs_UNswap_BTNode: invalid node height (1)
  • volume type is pure HFS+

On a parallel track, trying to create a bootable USB stick to use linux tools to troubleshoot the corrupt root filesystem.

Tried various fsck options and could not get to recovery. Googling didn't reveal any path forward except for taking the laptop into a service tech.

Gave up.

On the bootable linux usb stick, we also gave up before getting it to work. Probably need to use refind or refit to make the usb stick bootable. Tried using unetbootin, but the resulting usb stick was not visible to the mac when booting with Option held down.


Didn't try this http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1417, but it looks promising.