Hello,

I am still trying to repair the file system from a failed Maxtor drive from a Mac running OS.X 10.3.5. I was able to "jump start" the drive with PC3000 and pull an image including damaged sectors. I can mount the image with TransMac, however, when I try to open it, it gives an error that this file system may be damaged and to run diagnostics from a Mac (catalog file missing or damaged). How can I rebuild the catalog file manually? Or is there a software app wich can do this job? Thank you.

Have you tried DiskWarrior by Alsoft?

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

I will do some research on DiskWarrior and post back with any sucess. Is it possible to manually rebuild the B-tree from an image with bad sectors in this area? Is there any know reference guides for doing this?

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1150.html

This is a Longgggggg read , but very useful information..
I use this manual everytime I get a mac drive that is corrupted

Steve, thanks for the link, that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

I don't know any manual tools. Diskwarrior does a great job of automatically repairing directory problems, but it is not 100% foolproof (I have had it fail on some image rebuilds).

Why don't you call Alsoft and ask their tech support about the product's capabilities, relative to your problem?

FYI, I run it on every Mac image that I recover . . . .

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

I have tried using DiskWarrior 4 which can see the image I pulled from the failing drive. It advises that the directory wrapper needs repaired, I click repair, then it comes back with an error stating that the drive is badly damaged and that I need to hold option while clicking rebuild. This seems only to apply to rebuilding actual drives as the process to rebuild an image file is a little different (you select this command from the file drop down menu). I have tried holding option while I select the option from the drop down menu but I still get the error.

Is there a way to force diskwarrior to continue with the repair process? I may need to go back to the original drive and try to get a a better image, however, it seems the drive is badly degrading and this may be the best image I am going to get.

how did you get along in the end with this. I have seen similar cases, but have not worked out what actually solves them bar getting a better image. how did you disk image? much missing?