[rubenshein]

My Mac OS 10.1 Tiger does not boot. It will show either a blank grey screen, or a flashing question mark. Or sometimes the apple plus the working circle --- but without getting anywhere.
Booting through Installer Disc will not help --- it seems. It is partitioned in two operative systems: one Windows (minimum size), and one Mac (maximum size). Resetting PRAM changes nothing. Upon hitting C key (which ideally enables you to chose Windows or Mac as start-up disc), the screen is grey, empty --- except for a stupid mouse that has nothing to hit on.
Disk Utility's First Aid failed, saying: "Underlying task reported failure on exit." Further notes: first, "Invalid Node Structuree," then, "Rebuilding Catalog B-tree," lastly, "The Volume MacIntosh HD could not be repared."
After having read various forums, I relaunched Disk Utility, opened the Terminal, then typed various commands all of which were known for having solved other issues relative invalid node structure. The commands I typed were: "ditto -V/Volumes/<old disk> /Volumes/<new disk>" (this had been known to copy files, save them, such that you could go on erase and reinstall [let it be known that it is absolutely vital that I don't loose any file]). It didn't work. Then I typed: "/sbin/fsckhfs -ypr /dev/partition" --- a command that supposedly should do much the same as the above. The response was that it could not check the system, due to unexpected inconsistency. And it adviced me to run fsckhfs manually. Exit code 8. No result here either. Then I typed the classical one: "fsck" --- with no result whatsoever, just blank.
I should also say that upon trying to reinstall it don't find the Mac, only Windows (which, by the way, is far too small a partition to allow installation).
The guarantee will give me a new hard disc, Apple just said; but I would have to pay for saving the data, the files, my entire work. Is it not possible to fix this otherwise?
Any ideas, tips, SOLUTIONS? It would be GREATLY appreciated. I am no expert, so please respond in clear, spelled-out terms and language.
I had a similar problem 10 days ago, but at that point it was enough to reinstall since it could still locate the MacIntosh...
Best, Rubenshein

[mrbach]

The Invalid node structure does not mean your hard disk is damaged, it means that the directory is damaged. I don't know where you got those commands from, but none of them will deal with nodes. It is the option key not the C key that lets you select an OS to boot from. The C key is for booting from the CD drive.
To boot into single user mode, use command S, then use the command fsck -fy You always have to put the f to force it on a journaled drive and the y means yes. You were just typing fsck. Unless you really know what you are doing in the terminal, you should only use commands that you are sure will not damage your files, and you must use them properly. The commands you have been putting in may have lost the partition already, but hopefully not. I would always use this over the disk utility, simply because it saves time booting from the CD. Sometimes running it 3 or 4 times will fix a node problem, but it this is a serious problem. Diskwarrior is very good at this, but you really need to do an archive and install. This will retain all of your documents and allow you to back them up (which is what you should have done, and should always do from now on). If your data is so important, then why no backup? Just insert the system disk and boot from it ©, and follow the instructions and options to do an archive and install.
Once you recover the data, I would reformat the drive and reinstall the OS again. Skip installing Windows because bootcamp has expired on Tiger. Then always maintain a backup. I use an external drive and keep a bootable clone.