Troubleshooting HFS Plus Formatted Drives - 16
HFS Plus Formatted Drives The hard drive in the iMac is formatted with HFS Plus (also
referred to as Mac OS Extended format). It is important to note
that Norton Utilities version 3.5 is not compatible with HFS Plus
(or Mac OS Extended format), and in fact, can destroy data on the
hard drive.
Norton Utilities version 3.5.3 or 3.5.2 will not attempt to repair
a drive formatted with Mac OS Extended format and versions 3.5.1
and earlier cannot recognize that a hard drive is in Mac OS
Extended format and can result in hard drive corruption and loss
of all data on the drive.
Note:
When diagnosing hard drive problems, it is important to
verify whether or not the customer may have used the wrong disk
repair software for their drive before assuming that the problem
is hardware related.
If you experience problems with a hard drive that has been
formatted with HFS+, Apple Computer recommends using Disk
First Aid (which is included on the system software CD that ships
with the iMac). Disk First Aid can be used to recover data that may
have been deleted by Norton Utilities. (See the Symantec Web site
at http://www.symantec.com/nu/num-hfs.html for more
information on Norton Utilities and Mac OS Extended format.)
Some other disk utility and disk locking programs are
incompatible with Mac OS Extended format. Before you attempt to
use a disk utility or disk locking program, make sure the version
you have is compatible with Mac OS Extended format. Check the
documentation that came with the program or contact the
manufacturer or the vendor that supplied the program.
Use the Get Info command to determine how a hard drive has been
formatted. Drives formatted with HFS will appear as “Mac OS
Standard”, while drives formatted with HFS+ will appear as “Mac
OS Extended.”
For more information on HFS Plus formatting of hard drives,
refer to the Technical Info Library, article # 30344.