Journal Corruption Can Corrupt Mac File Systems

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HFS Plus and HFS Extended file systems support the journaling feature. File system journaling enabled Mac systems gain ability to recover after instances like hardware component failure or unexpected shutdown. It reduces file system repair and hence Mac Data Recovery issues. When applied for servers, it proves helpful to increase their uptime.

To maintain file system integrity after a crash, a journal file is maintained. This is a log file that keeps records of all file changes, done on the disk. If system fails because of power failure, journal can help recovering file system (HFS+ or HFSX). When the Mac system is restarted, the file system replays this log information and comes to a well-defined state. Thus with the use of journal, hard disk get restored to its known-good state, though buffered data gets lost.

But sometimes, journal can itself become corrupt due to issues like unexpected shutdown or hardware problems. In such cases, when Mac system replays journal log entries, it marks invalid entries in the file system and all metadata structure becomes invalid. Thus, file system gets damaged and data becomes inaccessible. In some cases, system may fail to boot.

To recover file system and hence data, the following steps can be taken:

• You can use fsck command to repair corruption issues with HFS+ or HFSX file system. This command tool can repair most of the file system issues.

• If problem continues to occur, format the disk using Disk Utility and use your recent data backup to restore data from. Formatting the disk recreates the file system and refreshes all metadata information.

• If data backup is unavailable, incomplete or damaged, you can use third party Data Recovery Mac applications to recover data.

Mac Data Recovery Software

Mac Recovery software are designed to use advanced scanning algorithms that can scan damaged Mac drive and recover data. The use of such tools is valid in all logical data loss scenarios like formatted disks, file system corruption, accidental file deletion etc. Such software can work irrespective of missing drive metadata information and keep data integrity intact. You can easily use these software because of their user-friendly nature.

Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery is the finest Mac Recovery tool and comes with boot DVD for unbootable Macs. It supports HFS, HFS Plus, HFSX, HFS Wrapper and FAT file system based disks. It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard), Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) and Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther).

About the Author:

Allen a student of Mass Communication doing research on Mac recovery software.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Journal Corruption Can Corrupt Mac File Systems

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