I got this error after a software update that turns on journaling on the Mac OS X filesystem.
The update instructs the user to reboot using the Install Disk and running a Repair operation using the Disk Utility. That was when I discovered the error. Apparently, even the Repair operation could not fix the error.
The solution
Here is the solution, adapted from macosxhints.com:
- Reboot into Single User mode (restart, and press and hold Command-S). You will see a black screen with a command prompt.
- Type
fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2and press Enter. This will repair the error, and will take a while (~10 minutes). Wait for the operation to complete i.e. until the command prompt appears again. - Type
fsck -fyand press Enter. This will check the filesystem again, and confirm that it is now OK. Again, wait for the operation to complete i.e. until the command prompt appears again. - Type
rebootand press Enter. This will restart the system to normal.
Good luck!
Why this works
Actually, this is more of why I think this works.
Booting into Single User mode allows you run administrative tools (in our case, fsck, a disk repair tool) without mounting any hard disk partitions or starting any system services. This allows fsck to repair parts of your hard disk (in particular, the /usr directory) which are not usually possible to repair using Disk Utility from within Mac OS X that is loaded from the hard disk itself.
So, alternatively, I think you could in fact use the Disk Utility that is loaded from the Mac Installation DVD to achieve the same success. However, this method eliminates the need for the disk, and thus is useful for those who no longer have the Installation DVD or are just too lazy to find it. Plus, if this is your first time booting into Single User mode or typing such cryptic commands as the above, you’ll find it way cooler ;-)
Why this might not work
As explained above, this method will work only if you have an error in the part of your hard disk that is not normally accessible when you are running Mac OS X. If the problem you face is actually from an external hard disk, I believe that Disk Utility should suffice to correct the error, if the error is repairable (i.e. the error is not because of a hardware defect).
However, if you read some of the comments below, this method has worked for some to correct some errors on external hard disks which Disk Utility cannot; so it’s still worth a try. But there are also some who report that this method does not work, and I suspect that it is because their hard disk is physically defective, in which case, the only solution is to get a new hard disk.
Signs of success
From external web sites
From the comments
A cool thing that they’re all odd-numbered.
Donors
- Christian Riera of Transition-Area — my first-ever donation!
- Dave Frey
Thank you!
P.S.:
- If this worked for you, please do let me know here :)
It may serve as a confirmation so that other people would be willing try this method too. - This page has had 3500+ visits so far (as of June 2008).
If you found this useful, please consider donating to my PayPal account :)
74 Comments
Worked Great for me ,, thanks
Thanks for the feedback :)
It worked like magic. After following your steps I rechecked using disk utility “verify disk” and was happy to see the message “Volume passed verification”
Thanks for the feedback, David :)
Your name’s very familiar; I think we’ve met before in some military establishment, hah.
This worked perfectly! My machine froze or shutdown thru a power failure, then always took hours to boot-up, but all data & files were OK once booted and otherwise eventually acted normally. Backed all my stuff to an external and tried all the tricks and hints… eventually buying TechTool Pro. All that did was tell me of a problem I already knew of! (invalid sibling link) Running your trick did the job - everything is good again and Disk Utility & TechTool have OK’d everything. This trick worked, whereas the macosxhints you derived this from did NOT work.
The only thing I had to do differently was change the end of the command to disk0s3 (instead of disk0s2).
I suggest anyone with a sibling link problem should try this before resorting to buying a utility program, but after running Disk Utility AND backing up their stuff. TechToll, etc. are still always useful to have, but they might not fix this kind of problem…
Lesson learned, but I did learn a lot about the inner workings of OS X in the process - and Knowing is Half the Battle :-D
Thanks!
That’s wonderful news, Richard :) Thanks for the feedback.
Just to clarify to everyone else,
/dev/disk0s2refers to the partition of the affected hard drive, so depending on your computer, it might be/dev/disk0s3instead. I think installing things like BootCamp might trigger such a difference—I’m just guessing, since I’ve not installed BootCamp myself.How is the process differentif it is an external hard drive that gets the unreparable
“Invalid Sibling Link” error from Disc Utility.
My internal hard drive with the ox os is ok.
The disc has 220g Of my illustrations on it! I am using leapord also.
For an external disk, I think it should be fine if you just click the “Repair Disk” button. Have you tried that?
It worked like a charm! We have had invalid sibling links before, and DiskWarrior always was able to fix it. However, this time DW was unable to fix the problem. I got worried because this MacBook already had one HD fail. So relieved I found this page in my search.
Thanks again! I have bookmarked this page for future reference.
Glad to hear that, Jim :) Thanks for the feedback.
Tried it, did not work for me. This happened:
**Root file system
**Checking HFS Plus voume.
**Checking Extents Overflow file.
**Checking Catalog file.
**Rebuilding Catalog B-tree
**The volume iMac24″ could not be repaired.
localhost:/ root#
—————-
Any ideas? I am somewhat desparate as i cannot start from Tiger Disk, another CD is in the drive and won’t come out.
Thanks; Jake
Hi Jake, thanks for visiting this site.
I suspect the problem is one of these:
1. Bad disk. Get it replaced by Apple.
2. Corrupt installation. Reinstall Tiger, but you have to eject that CD first.
3. The system is booting from the CD each time. Try manually ejecting the CD.
Hope it helps :)
Hi,
I’m having this sibling link error with a LaCie triple interface 120GB hard drive. This is what I’m getting when I try this fix:
jack-bayles-powerbook-g4-17:~ jackbayles$ fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk1s6
** /dev/rdisk1s6
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
** Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
Invalid node structure
(4, 3470)
** The volume Jack’s Photo Drive could not be repaired.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
I’m sorry I cannot help you, Jack. However, I could suggest that you backup everything from the drive and reformat it.
worked perfectly! The guy at Apple basically told me my harddrive was failing and all was lost. Thank god for Google and you guys!
Good for you, Dustin! :)
I’ll add my thanks to the list. Had been fumbling around trying to resuscitate my system without luck (and lamenting the fact that it hadn’t been backed up in a long time). Your recommendations worked beautifully.
thanks for taking the time to post,
mark
You’re welcome, Mark :)
thank you!
all of a sudden my macbook pro wouldn’t startup.
os x 10.4.9 just rolled on for some time then simmply shut down.
I have a firewire startup disk and tried disk utility which gave the sibling error and couldn’t repair.
I was totally stuck, with all my work in the laptop.
it works! slow, smooth, fast! :)
thank you again
You’re welcome, Michael :) Good for you!
my maiden name is mahall….my father’s nickname was “taj” just a little note….
i have just come across your tip after searching ‘invalid sibling link’ i downloaded updates on the 6th and after reboot, i cannot access mail safari itunes quicktime….. i just found this error and i would like to try your solution. will i lose any of my mail messages, etc. i am new to mac operating system so this will be a new learning experience. appreciate your help. i did download pacifist, but have not been able to open it. probably a good thing as i might do more harm than good! thanks, c. mahall. h. ;)
For me, this error didn’t affect my ability to launch any of the applications; it showed only when I run “Verify Disk” using Disk Utility. I suspect that you are facing a different problem, so perhaps the solution is something else.
I’m trying this on my MacBook right now while booted from the leopard DVD. About how long should rebuilding catalog b tree take? The first time I ran it, it kept giving ‘invalid node structure’ messages or similar so I quit out and tried it again. Now it’s been at rebuilding for 20 minutes. Am I a hopeless case? Will this only work in single user mode? I don’t know if I can get there as my hard drive seems to hate me and the mac is pretending it doesn’t exist. Thanks so much anyhow.
It did take quite a while for me, I think about 10 - 15 minutes. I guess if your disk is really bad, it would take longer. Hope it helped.
Any idea how this would work on a Time Capsule drive? I tried it and it gave a permissions error. I tried repairing it through Disk Utility and it gave errors.
I’m sorry, Simon, I don’t have a Time Capsule to try it out.
Have you tried ‘Repair Permissions’ from Disk Utility?
Thank you.
It worked great. You rock, man
Glad to hear that.
You’re welcome.
:-(( Didn’t work for me …
the volume could not be repaired.
What next?
T.
I’m sorry, I can’t help you further.
I got this message - missing thread record; missing directory record; invalid index key…. still waiting for final verdict. Taking ages. by the way is it zero or Os2?
It’s a zero.
just told me there is no 0s2, so i tried 0s3 and that is spewing out lots of messages about missing threads, directories, etc… seems like it will never give me a prompt so i can wrap it up.
Seems like you’ve got quite a bad disk over there; that’s why it’s taking a long time. Another possible reason why it’s taking forever is that there’s a physical defect with the disk—which *might* not be repairable using this method. If all fails, it’s best to save the files that you can still retrieve and get a new hard disk.
Explanation about
disk0s2:disk0refers to the first physical disk, whereass2refers to (I believe) the third partition of the disk. In my MacBook,disk0s2is refers to the Mac OS X partition, whereasdisk0s3refers to my Windows XP partition (Boot Camp). So chances are, you’ll only need to fixdisk0s2, your Mac partition.Hope this helps.
Sorry to be a pain - I can usually fumble around technically but as this is my boyfriends mac mini I want to make sure I get it spot on!
We have a 1TB Lacie drive with all of itunes & iphotos, apps etc stored on it. We have had the lacie drive almost 2 years and all of a sudden it would not be recognised and the icon disappeared from the desk top. on going into utilities and verifying I am getting the ‘invalid sibling lilnks’ ‘hfs plus volume’ etc
I cannot repair at all. I have been on google and have read horror stories on what can & can’t be retrieved from the drive,
Please can you go through the instructions of what to do for a non techie person, who has the logic to do it.
thanks
What does it say when you try to repair it using Disk Utility? I think the Disk Utility should suffice if you’re using an external drive.
Hi There!
I am in disk utilities and I have clicked onto the lacie on the left have nav bar.
I got the following:
Verifying volume “lacie Disk”
Checking journaled HFS Plus volume
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Invalid sibling link
Volume check failed.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed
The popup:
First Aid Failed
Disk utility stopped verifying “LaCie Disk” because
The following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed.
(only option is to click OK)
I have checked power supply to the lacie and I have tried switching from USB to Firewire 400 (lacie supports 400 & 800, but mac mini is only USB & firewire 400)
Same thing time and time again.
Inside Disk Utility, select Disk Info, and take note of the ‘Disk Identifier’ value. Then click Unmount.
Now open Terminal (under Applications, Utilities) and try the following:
fsck_hfs -r /dev/<the disk identifier value which you noted>Strange one but I have 2 sets of info - is this normal ? If so I will follow your instructions, but on which one - I only have 1 lacie disk
Name : LaCie Group SA
Type : Disk
Partition Map Scheme : Apple Partition Map
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : LaCie BigDisk Extreme Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : FireWire
Connection ID : 58629683847496998
Device Tree : fw/node@d04b6307060526/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 931.5 GB (1,000,215,699,456 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0
Name : LaCie Disk
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s6
Mount Point : Not mounted
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
Device Tree : fw/node@d04b6307060526/sbp-2@c000/@0:6
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : BA1B5739-098D-33AB-BDEA-9722E26D97CB
Capacity : 931.5 GB (1,000,215,040,000 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 6
sorry by ‘unmount’ do you mean eject?
Yes, it is normal. Use disk1s6. So that’s
fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk1s6followed by <Enter>
I meant Unmount. If the Unmount button is disabled, then skip the step.
Proceed to running the command in the Terminal.
got the following
fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk1s6
** /dev/rdisk1s6
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
Invalid sibling link
(3, 56)
** Volume check failed.
I’m sorry I can only help you this far. Perhaps you could try to Google for another method to fix it, or contact Lacie for help. If all fails, I guess you’ll just need to get a new disk.
ok - well thanks very much for your help - I do appreciate you taking the time
Hi, i want to try to backup my information on my corrupted disk, i’ve tried many things, and now i’m down to terminal. i’ve tried using the fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2 method and it sometimes works. i’ve tried mounting my laptop to another computer to recover the files, but i accidentally stopped it mid-transfer and now the laptop isn’t recognized on another computer. any software ideas to recover my data?
1. Run Disk Utility from the Mac OS X Install disc and try to repair the disk again.
2. Boot a Linux Live CD (any distribution should do), mount your hard disk, mount a USB drive, and copy files from your hard disk onto your USB drive. Here is one guide on how to mount your OS X hard disk: http://jclark.org/weblog/2005/05/24/ubuntumount/
Hope that helps :)
Hey,
I am working through this right now and I don’t know iff this would fix the problem but my questions is…how can i save all the data on the hdd before I format it?
Is there and free way to get the data of the disk?
appreciate ur helo
You could use a Linux Live CD to mount the hard disk so that you can copy files from it into, say, a USB drive.
worked like a charm, only took me 4 rounds of repairing attempts and some sweat. i guess you know what im going to do next. backing up everything! Thanks!
Invalid Sibling Link on External Hard Drive:
I experienced the error on a Freeagent external drive that I was using storage for all of my music files and photographs on my Macbook. I tried calling the company (Seagate) for a fix and they told me to (a) send them my drive and they’d recover the data for $700, or (b) Google the fix (yes, they honestly told me to Google the fix).
So, I found this site, ran the fsck commands (having not used this kind of interface since playing video games DOS in the 1980’s, this was quite scary for me), but the issue did not get fixed. I called Seagate back and finally got a competent rep on the phone. The fix they provided was quite simple:
1. Have both your computer and the external hard drive connected by the USB cord and powered up
2. Go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utilities
3. Verify that your external hard drive is visible in the drive listing on the left side of the window
4. Select your external hard drive from the list
5. Click on the RAID tab. Ensure that the “Volume Format” is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
If you made it through steps 3-5, the drive is apparently okay and the issue is with mounting it to your computer.
6. Unplug the USB connection on the external hard drive end (not from the computer) so you just have the USB cord connected to your computer
7. Unplug the external hard drive from its power source
8. Shut down your computer (not a Restart)
9. Wait a minute or so and Restart your computer. Let it start up all the way before proceeding
10. Plug the external hard drive back into the power source
11. Plug the USB cord (which should be plugged only into your computer at this point) into the external hard drive
The external hard drive should show up on your desktop in a moment or so. This worked for us, and I really hope it works for you all.
Thanks for sharing, Dave.
I tried it for an external drive that Finder wasn’t seeing when connected via USB, but Drive Genius was (and was able to erase) via FireWire. I got the disk#s# from Drive Genius, but couldn’t boot from the Leopard DVD, so I tried this method, and it just said the disk in question couldn’t be found. It seems the external drive, without any assigned name, changes its disk name with every reboot. Any idea on what I can do?
Try comment #51:
http://mahalkita.nanogeex.com/2007/09/28/how-to-fix-the-invalid-sibling-link-error/#comment-4284
This worked for me too, many thanks I thought it was a lost cause.
I had the same problem, but when I ran the first command it had three attempts, then it gave up.
It says that some directories are missing, and then “The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired after 3 attempts.
FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED”
Any tips are greatly appreciated!
Wait, nevermind. I ran fsck -fy, and it managed to repair it.
Thank you so much for this guide!
You’re welcome :)
Deo Gratias! It worked on my Black MacBook the very first time!!! Thanks so much all of you! SanMichele+
OK I am trying the Terminal command now, so far I have:
** /dev/rdisk1s12
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
** Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
How long should I wait? eg how long should the rebuilding take and how will I know if/when it has happened or not?
It has worked! I had to run the terminal command twice: the first time seemed to repair some things, but then had a Bus Error.
However the second time it repaired successfully, and now mounts and can be accessed again.
introspectif: thank you SO much, you have saved my sanity (and my data!)
You’re welcome, SanMichele and istara :)
Thank you so much!
My computer had this error while I am out of the country - so I couldn’t get to an Apple Store.
It worked perfectly - saved me from having to go service tech and pay a lot of money.
Thanks again!
You’re welcome, Adam :)
I Ran Disk Utility, Repair Disk, and it told me ‘Invalid Sibling Link’. I then rebooted and held down command S, and booted into single mode.
I ran the commad you suggested, and it found a problem with the amount of file numbers, and corrected the problem -and said repair successful. Then, I ran the verification to check again, and it was all good. When I rebooted, still the drive did not mount. When I ran the procedure again, it again found files didnt match and corrected the problem. But on reboot, still the drive wont mount. I guess I have a dodgy drive?
Something makes me think I am repairing the wrong drive?
**checking Volume Information.
Invalid volume file count
(it should be 781324 instead of 781323)
invalid volume free block count
(it should be 13568147 instead of 13568170)
Volume Header needs minor repair (2, 0)
.
.
.
**The volume Macintosh HD was repaired successfully.
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED*****
I know what I was doing wrong. I was repairing the internal HD, which is fine. Using Disk Utility, it says my external HD is disk 2 partition 0 ,
I tried that
fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk2s0
and it says:
cant stat /dev/disk2s0
cant stat /dev/disk2s0: No such file or directory
(replied Peter via email)
Thanks a lot from Amsterdam! You just saved me a lot of time!
Thank you SO much. Your instructions were easy to run, but my HD seemed way too messed up. After 15 min and loads of checking and repairing, it finally said UNABLE TO REPAIR.
Thanks to Henrik Christiansen’s comment saying he tried fsck -fy after repair failled, this was what did it for me! So thanks to everyone you has taken the time to post as well. Will definetly keep you bookmarked mahalkita.
You’re welcome, Anton and Clarissa :)
I tried your original suggestion and nothing happened. I then ran fsck -fy and saw that the disk was 05. I then re-ran fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s5 and now get the message “The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.” What do you suggest? Is any data retrievable? thanks much!
Dave
You just saved me a lot of data (3 weeks and 10000 km from my TM backup). Thanks for your clear, careful post. I shot you a paypal donation.
FWIW, I did lose a few iPhoto “events,” photos and all; I’m guessing fsck_hfs does a best effort repair and couldn’t get everything back.
Now I’ve been duly prodded into researching a proper on-the-road backup strategy…
Thank you so much for saving my data!
It works!!! thanks!! I almost gave up and thanks God I found your website! Thank you!!