HFS catalogue file corrupted

[slingshot]

Got an ongoing case where the only option that yields the clients data is through dealing with it as RAW data.

Unfortunately all his file names, structures etc are toasted and everything is just being lumped together in various forms. The customer has more office documents than Microsoft, thousands of them, he is melting down at the thought of having to go through them all to find his x, y & z files.

The 500GB drive only had 3840 bad sectors (right in the middle of it) that will not read at all, no matter what, but I don't think this has caused the file system to just dump its load, its more like the OS has gone haywire.

so my question is :

- Is it possible to repair a corrupted catalogue file on a HFS+ drive ? If so how could I go about it with a method that works ?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Jared]

3084 bad sectors shouldn't lead to only getting a RAW recovery result. Two questions for you:

1. What programs have you tried? I'd usually recommend R-Explorer or Data Rescue 4/5 for HFS+.
2. Are you certain it was never formatted? By yourself or possibly by the customer before it came to you? When HFS+ is formatted the new cabinet file will completely overwrite the old one even though it's mostly blank in the beginning. So that'll always end with a RAW recovery and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[slingshot]

Hi Jared, thanks for your reply.

1. Tried DiskWarrior (can't even see disk), R-Studio and Data Rescue 4, both yield same results RAW files only (data files are opening ok).
2. 100% certain, it arrived in a MacBook Pro still switched on and behaving erratically, all Ive done is shut it down and imaged it on the DDI.

 

[Jared]

Ah, then this is a MacOS High Sierra issue most likely. The disk is probably APFS formatted, not HFS+.

Upgrade your Mac workstation to the latest OS and see some magic happen.

Or try R-Explorer since that supposedly supports APFS so long as it's not encrypted.

 

[slingshot]

Strewth, I was only reading about that last week as well and thought it would be a while before I saw an APFS job so completely forgot all about it LoL.

I'll give that a whirl when I get into the office tomorrow and see what happens (I never upgrade OSX right away, just nasty), I hope to see some magic....if not I'll try R-Explorer std and see what happens (haven't got that tool yet) - thankfully its not encrypted.

Cheers Jared I think you may have saved the day, I'll let you know what happens

 

[Jared]

Yeah, I got one or two in that were APFS already. So they're showing up. One was encrypted, so it was fortunate that MacOS was able to mount it fine after imaging. I haven't really needed to use R-Explorer for APFS yet, so I can't speak to how well it works. I suspect it's pretty limited to just browsing the good part of the file system. I doubt it's fully functional at finding deleted entries and the likes just yet.

I also saw that Reclaime Ultimate now says it supports APFS. Haven't looked at that yet.

 

[slingshot]

I'll buy it tomorrow and have a go, probably basic as you say.

I used reclaime the other week to get the best stripe for a RAID set, do you rate there paid for version ?

Im getting excited as well now due to being in a position to possibly buy a PC3000 next month

 

[jol]

Im getting excited as well now due to being in a position to possibly buy a PC3000 next month

dont get excited just yet, it has a high learning curve
not to mention the tricks can be done with it (that even ACE lab is not aware of)

 

[Jared]

[post]10044[/post] dont get excited just yet, it has a high learning curve

This is very true. But, there are nice people out there (or should I say...on here) that are willing to help you learn. You've just got to be willing to share what you're billing out to the customer with whoever is giving the remote support.

 

[Jared]

By the way, I just noticed that the latest version of MacDrive Pro added read-only support for APFS.

Might come in handy.