UKC

I have a corrupt sparsebundle file (error message on trying to open it is "no mountable file systems"). There's clearly something still there (it's marked as 40GB in size)...research on the net comes up with some Terminal-based suggestions, but I am not competent to go that route. Disk Utility can't repair it, so I am wondering if there are any third party utilities which might touch it? It's not the end of the world if not, as I have all the contained files backed up,only that they're safely "off site" and I won't be able to get them for a few weeks!

thanks

In reply to Nic:

http://cdn77.eatliver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/apple-ivac.jpg

In reply to Nic:

What OSX and what filesystem is it? File vault (encryption) enabled or not?

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

Hi John - I'm on Yosemite at the moment but the file would have been created under an earlier version of X (possibly 10.3 or 10.4)? No idea re the file system, but I guess HFS+, no reason it wouldn't be?

yes, Filevault encryption is enabled...I'm guessing it is not too corrupt as it's still accessible enough to ask me for the password first, before telling me it can't be mounted

thanks

In reply to Nic:

Assume the file is not a time machine backup and is some kind of image you've created to store some files in a different image, or is this your encrypted user home folder not mounting?

I know you didn't want a terminal solution but does it mount if you run this in terminal?

hdiutil attach -nomount -noverify -ignorebadchecksums /path/to/file.sparsebundle

If not, what's the error?

In reply to John Roberts (JR):
I get this:

Enter password to access "nic copy.sparsebundle":
[I enter the relevant password and hit enter...]
/dev/disk5 Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk5s1 Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk5s2 Apple_HFS
Skynets-Mac-Pro:~ Nic$
[i.e. back to the Terminal prompt - Skynet is the admin and Nic is the user account I am in at present.]

...but I can't see a mounted disk anywhere (but then not sure I know where to look?)

In reply to Nic:

OK,

If you do this:

hdiutil attach -mountpoint ~/copy copy.sparsebundle

What error do you get?

If it works, it will mount in the folder /Users/nic/copy

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

I get:

hdiutil: attach failed - no mountable file systems

In reply to Nic:

OK try and run:

hdiutil attach -nomount -noverify -ignorebadchecksums copy.sparsebundle

then

fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/disk5s2

Assuming that the /dev/disk5s2 has remained in the same device location as it was in your previous comment, if it's not, then use whatever device location is on the third line of the output of the first command - the bit in bold below:

/dev/disk5 Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk5s1 Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk5s2 Apple_HFS

This will: debug, rebuild the catalog, clean the file system and attempt to repair any damage found.

If that works, you should be able to mount it. If it doesn't work, your best option might be getting your off-site backup...

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

Hmm...I get this:

journal_replay(/dev/disk7s2) returned 0
** /dev/rdisk7s2
Using cacheBlockSize=32K cacheTotalBlock=65536 cacheSize=2097152K.
Executing fsck_hfs (version hfs-285).
Block 3905706622 is not an MDB or Volume Header
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid B-tree node size
(3, 0)
** The volume could not be verified completely.
volume check failed with error 7
volume type is pure HFS+
primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
alternate VHB is at block 3905706622 0xe8cc5a7e
sector size = 512 0x200
VolumeObject flags = 0x03
total sectors for volume = 3905706624 0xe8cc5a80
total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00
CheckHFS returned -1317, fsmodified = 0


...and then your hdutil command gets the same "no mountable disks" command

BTW I've seen similar advice which requires you to go into Terminal as root (or super user using sudo etc.)...I haven;t done this, will it make a difference?

Also BTW, thanks for all your help so far!

In reply to Nic:
sudo won't help in this case, yet....

This is the problem: Invalid B-tree node size

You can try: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk which is free but not so easy to use (you'll need to run that as sudo)

or Disk Warrior (which is expensive)

In reply to John Roberts (JR):

I've gone for Disk Warrior (cheaper than the petrol to get the backups...), came up with lots of gobbledygook about what it fixed, but looks like it's sorted it, copying my data now!

Really appreciate your help


Nic

In reply to Nic:
Diskwarrior is a real saviour - essential Mac kit! Make sure you make a USB start-up disk with it on for the future.