# Mac Partition bad - Mac does not boot (-> TestDisk?!) [moved from HW]



## Tian

Hey there,

first: Sorry for my bad english. 

I have a big Problem with my MacBookPro. It is a Intel Mac and I have 2 Partitions on it. One Partition for MacOS, the other for Windows.
If I choose the Windows-Partition at startup, Windows boots normally. But if I choose the Mac Partition at startup ... it won't boot.

I tried to backup the Data by starting the Mac in Target Mode - but the Mac-Partition is not recognized by the other Mac - so this won't work.

I tried to repair the Volume with the DiskUtil of MacOS (started from CD) and it gives me an error Message - something like: Illegal Knot Structure. (Don't know the exact english translation). => PartitionMap seems to be damaged.

Now I tryed to use testDisk - but I'm not used to it and I don't know what to do.

I started my Mac with Windows and started testDisk.

1. I clicked in "Create"
2. I choosed my Disk
3. I choosed "Mac"
4. I choosed "Analyse"

After this testDisk says: "Bad MAC partition, invalid block0 signature"
"read_part_mac: bad DPME signature"

I can choose "Quick Search" and when I'm doing this it starts to analyse ... but it starts at 89% (34700 of 38912 cylinders). 

Below it says something like "check_FAT: unusual media descriptor...)
"Warning: Incorrect number of heads/cylinder 16 (FAT) != 255 (HD)"...
"DOS_FAT_32 40 409639 409600 [EFI]"
"HFS 409640 557989927 557580288"
"Unknown 558252072 625142407 66890336"

and later on:
"Unknown 558700016 558720754 20739 [NO NAME]"

I don't know what all these Informations mean to me.
Can anyone please help me to get my Data back? That would be very nice! 

Tian


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## Deleted090308

*Re: Mac Partition bad - Mac does not boot (-> TestDisk?!)*

Welcome to TSF. :wave:

I can't answer your questions about the Mac file system (sorry). It's been a while since I used Macs.

Have you tried accessing the Mac partition from Windows?
See if it's possible with *MacDrive*.

Thread moved to Mac support.


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## Tian

Yep - i tried to access my data with MacDrive.
He listed the drive but when I double clicked on it I got an error message. 
 

I got to this Forum about google finding this thread:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f16/mac-hd-but-i-assigned-a-drive-letter-in-vista-227659.html

Unfortunatley the Problem has not completely been solved in this thread. But it seems that I have a equal problem.


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## sinclair_tm

Well, it sounds like the drive headers got blown away somehow. I surprised that the Windows part still works. At this point, the only real thing you can do is wipe out the hard drive and start all over again. To recover files, first backup everything important that is under the Windows partition, then you could get something like Disk Warrior to run on the Mac partition, and hopefully get the files you need there. Then boot from the OS X install CD and reformat the whole drive, have it write zeros to the disk, then install OS X, then Windows with Bootcamp.


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## Tian

Hmm - but how to run Disk Warrior on a bad Mac partition?
This bad Mac partition is not recognized by another Mac when starting in Target Mode. 

I tried to catch my data with "HFSExplorer", too. And i could see many Files and Folders - but when tried to get in different subfolders it hang up. Grr! Some subfolders worked - some didn't.


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## sinclair_tm

Disk Warrior is a bootable CD. You boot from the CD, run the app on the CD and it rebuilds the disk from the files that it finds on it. No other Mac is required. Basiclly, if Disk Warrior can't fix it, then the only left is to take the hard drive to a disk recovery service where they take the disk apart and read every last bit and try to recontruct the files.


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