"Invalid Btree Header, 0, 0" error...

[Protools5LEGuy]

Just finished a Complete DAW Restore with Cubase VST/32 with Pre-Authorized Virtual Instuments & FX with Logic and PT with a Panther set up and tried to make the a clone using ASR. First Aid couldn't help me.

Now I have to start again ... 

The First thing to do in mixed (OS9&X) is force OSX to ignore the 9 volumes!

Now I have another BTree episode. 

[Protools5LEGuy]

You have to first repair the damage and then stop the process causing it. To wit:

1.  Boot OSX.
2.  Open System Prefs.
3.  Select Spotlight / Privacy. You'll see a list form "Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations".
4.  Drag your OS9 volume icon onto the list.
5.  Go to Time Machine Prefs. Click "Options"…you'll get the same kind of drop-down form called "Do not back up".

It shows me the volumes I asked Spotlight to not to use them.

I think I have deactivated Time Machine, but every time a new volume appears it ask me if it can use it, so we need to exterminate Time Machine even deeper... 

http://www.cultofmac.com/141070/turn-off-requests-to-use-new-disks-for-time-machine-os-x-tips/

(Added by DieHard) I am inserting the info. below in case the link dies...

Turn Off Requests To Use New Disks for Time Machine [OS X Tips]

If you don’t use Time Machine, you might notice that every time you attach a new and/or blank hard disk to the computer you get asked if you want to use it for backups. Here’s a simple trick that will stop that happening.  You can stop this request dialog box from appearing by opening a Terminal window (Finder -> Applications -> Utilities – > Terminal) and typing the following:
defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool TRUE
Then log out and back in again for the changes to take effect.

If you’d like to restore the request dialog at a later date, again open Terminal then type the following (log out and back in again after for the changes to take effect):
defaults delete com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup

[GaryN]

The Cult Terminal command does work as advertised! It's really just an annoyance having TM ask about any "new" volume it sees but certainly helpful to the less-knowledgeable Mac user (of which I hear there actually ARE some).

You have to first repair the damage and then stop the process causing it.

Honestly, I must apologize…I wrote this ass-backwards. You have to first stop the processes causing the problem and then repair the damage. Otherwise, it's a death race between you and OSX the moment you boot it with OS9 visible to it.

The good thing is that once you've gone through all of the aggravation to get it all working correctly, you will be extremely unlikely to ever forget and do it again! At least I never have…

[Bondi]

I have a little report to make on this:  a few days ago, I had the Invalid Btree Header 0,0 error and I was able to fix it with Norton Utilities 6.05.   In the past, I had tried Norton some-version-or-another plus every free repair tool I could scrounge up with no success.  I was getting ready to reinitialize my disk (again) as described in this thread when I tried Disk Doctor one more time and was real pleased.   

It was this one here:  http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/norton-utilities-8-macintosh

It's kinda packaged "funny":  the webpage describes it as version 8, the download is labeled disk 9, the documentation in it is for version 7, and the "About Norton Utilities..." and version info say 6.05.  One thing to note:  I used it on a disk (and a partition on another disk) before I had any symptoms.  I just happened to have run Disk First Aid and saw the error.

Thanks so much for the info as to why this error occurs.  I have not seen that elsewhere, but I never had this error until I started dual booting w/ OSX.   I've now told Spotlight to keep out of my classic disks as described above and so far no more troubles.   I'd like to access OS9 files from OSX apps, but I haven't tried that since reading the info here.  I might run some experiments and see what happens.

[Jakl]

I have a little report to make on this:  a few days ago, I had the Invalid Btree Header 0,0 error and I was able to fix it with Norton Utilities 6.05.

It was this one here:  http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/norton-utilities-8-macintosh

It's kinda packaged "funny":  the webpage describes it as version 8, the download is labeled disk 9, the documentation in it is for version 7, and the "About Norton Utilities..." and version info say 6.05.  One thing to note:  I used it on a disk (and a partition on another disk) before I had any symptoms.  I just happened to have run Disk First Aid and saw the error.

I do have the original Norton Utilities v8 for both os9 and osx - the CD is a dual Boot. OSX and OS9. But I've used both programs over a few years, back in the day, but it causes so much problems - even creating another 128mb volume - why I don't know - but I stopped using it after a while. Did the version you used create a 128mb volume? If not it must be version 6 or 7.

Thanks for reporting that version 6.05 is able to get rid of "Invalid Btree Header 0,0 error".

[GaryN]

TIME OUT!

It appears to me from the last two posts that the two of you are assuming that the infamous b-tree error is related only to and caused only by sexual relations with OSX.

This is not true. B-tree errors are caused by lots of things mostly related to files being moved around, updated by different apps than they were created by, anything written by Microsoft and who knows what else. However, they are for the most part, minor and easily repaired with little or no consequence by Disk First Aid, Norton or many of the disk repair apps.

I think (and don't quote me on this) they may have been indicative of an inherent shortcoming in the HFS filesystem. They are probably one of the reasons Apple went to a journaled filesystem and now they are no more.

The reason the OSX-caused b-tree error is unrepairable is because it's not really a b-tree error. A typical b-tree error is a bit or two "out of place" that results in a checksum error or such and a utility just has to more or less go through the directory, check it against the files and correct the math. The OSX error is caused by OSX writing a whole bunch of what might as well be Klingon code into the directory that is totally incomprehensible to all things OS9 and below. So it is a b-tree error only in the sense that the b-tree has become scrambled eggs and OS9 doesn't have an error message for "Sorry dude, I can't make head or tail out of this 'cause the directory is totally f**ked".

ALSO:

Norton 6.05 is the only version that will work reliably on OS9. I recall some puzzlement at the time when suddenly there was a "new" version but it was still 6.05 underneath. It seemed like the new "versions" were more new packaging than anything else.

AND:

Norton Utilities for OSX is absolutely guaranteed to trash your disk if you use it on OSX. It may have sort of kinda maybe worked on 10.0, but anything newer usually ended up being toast very quickly as far as I can recall. There may be exceptions to that, but I seriously doubt that Norton ever actually did anything positive for any OSX system.

[Jakl]

You're pretty intense there GaryN - but it's okay and thanks for explaining everything.

[DieHard]

It appears to me from the last two posts that the two of you are assuming that the infamous b-tree error is related only to and caused only by sexual relations with OSX.

Garry, that is why I don't let my OS9 and OS X G4s have sex, the off-spring OS would be pretty ugly and definitely confused

[Image.Material]

This is an old thread but did anyone mention simply mounting their Mac OS 9 partition read-only in OS X?

I do a lot of booting back and forth between 10.5 and 9.2.2 on my PMG4DA and just OS X mounting my OS 9 partition was sufficient to bring up the btree problem in disk first aid in my experience. Repairing with Disk Doctor would work a few times but eventually would crash and the drive would mount read-only in OS X, with a warning to backup ASAP.

I observed this with at least 10.3 and later(10.2 or older untested), So I came up with always mounting it read-only in OS X.

I edited my OS X fstab (sudo vifs) to have this line, whatever your partition name is:

LABEL=Macintosh\040HD none hfs ro 0 0

(of course you might prefer by UUID)

So I've made a "Shared" partition (hfs+ journaled) I put on things I would normally copy to my OS 9 volumes from OS X. It goes without saying I only repair "Shared" with the OS X disk utility.

I've been using this setup for a while now and I'd say it's the most stable it has been so far with dual booting. I check my OS 9 partition regularly and haven't had any issues since.

[GaryN]

You should read this:   http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2830.msg18258.html#msg18258
Then follow down to:   http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2830.msg18311.html#msg18311

There are good reasons to NOT install OSX and OS9 into the same volume but the most serious ones by far are Spotlight and Time machine.
The logical way to avoid having to repair Btree errors is to prevent them from happening,
Spotlight and Time machine can eff-up your OS9 Directory and Btree even if you don't use them.

[Image.Material]

[...]The logical way to avoid having to repair Btree errors is to prevent them from happening[...]

That's pretty much what mounting the OS 9 partition read-only from the start does.

My OS 9 volume no longer has a .fseventd or or .com.apple.timemachine.supported or any hidden file that OS X normally creates, which supports the fact it never gets to write to it.

Well, given both norton and disk first aid no longer complain I'm happy with the results.

[Jubadub]

This is an old thread but did anyone mention simply mounting their Mac OS 9 partition read-only in OS X?

I do a lot of booting back and forth between 10.5 and 9.2.2 on my PMG4DA and just OS X mounting my OS 9 partition was sufficient to bring up the btree problem in disk first aid in my experience. Repairing with Disk Doctor would work a few times but eventually would crash and the drive would mount read-only in OS X, with a warning to backup ASAP.

I observed this with at least 10.3 and later(10.2 or older untested), So I came up with always mounting it read-only in OS X.

I edited my OS X fstab (sudo vifs) to have this line, whatever your partition name is:

LABEL=Macintosh\040HD none hfs ro 0 0

(of course you might prefer by UUID)

So I've made a "Shared" partition (hfs+ journaled) I put on things I would normally copy to my OS 9 volumes from OS X. It goes without saying I only repair "Shared" with the OS X disk utility.

I've been using this setup for a while now and I'd say it's the most stable it has been so far with dual booting. I check my OS 9 partition regularly and haven't had any issues since.

This is a simple, yet great idea. Normally I don't dual-boot because nowadays I only like using the best machines for the task (MDD for OS9, high-end G5 for OSX), but once G5s become able to boot OS9, maybe in 2031+, this may come in handy for me.

[GaryN]

[...]The logical way to avoid having to repair Btree errors is to prevent them from happening[...]

That's pretty much what mounting the OS 9 partition read-only from the start does.

My OS 9 volume no longer has a .fseventd or or .com.apple.timemachine.supported or any hidden file that OS X normally creates, which supports the fact it never gets to write to it.

Well, given both norton and disk first aid no longer complain I'm happy with the results.

That works as long as you never have to alter, remove from or add to your OS9 System folder and such…ever.
If you use OS 9 for music production or other real work, as I do, Extensions, Prefs, Help files, and a thousand other things are updated and changed all the time.

It's easy to prevent a ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" file from being created by simply locking TM and Spotlight out of the OS 9 partition in OSX TM and Spotlight Prefs.
It's not the presence an OSX-related small file or flag that causes the trouble… it's the constant updating and re-writing of a "foreign" index. Both Spotlight and TM do that. They store their indexes on the volumes. Eventually those indexes bump into and fragment around the OS9 directory files and then OS9 Disk repair tries to "fix" it. That works…ONCE. The first time you boot back into OSX, it see the "repairs" made by OS9 as corruption, re-fixes it and the battle is on.

I have both the .fseventd and .com.apple.timemachine files on my OS9 volumes but they just sit there cause no problem as long as they're not getting updated every time I run OSX.

[DieHard]

As always, thanks to all; these posts are invaluable as many will search the forum for "Btree error" in the future. 

Gary, you have done a great job explaining and we can finally put this "Btree" baby to bed.

Another "side effect" of the dual boot scenario is renaming things on the OS9 volume with file names that are past 32 characters, this will yield some awesome funky characters and screwed up files names when booting back into OS9.

Summary (if you must have both OS X and OS 9 on the same machine):
1) Avoid dual booting on the same volume
2) Use separate drives (if Possible)
3) Follow Garry's settings so Spotlight and Time Machine keeps their hands off the OS9 Indexes or give member "Image.Material" settings a try

[IIO]

long filenames are not really a problem, they just look funny. sometimes i wish there would be an option in 10.4. finder to limit renaming to x amount of characters.

[Roman323]

Hello All,

So, I am also getting this b'tree error as well. Sadly, on a PowerBook G4, its not that simple, since I have one 512GB SSD(M2 SATA) which does work due to LBA-48 addressing on the Titanium G4 1ghz DVI. I have no choice but to partition separately for both OS 9.2.2 and macOS 10.5 Leopard.

As of this message, I do have 6.0.5 Norton Utilities and I was told that will fix this error under OS 9, or am I missing something ?

[DieHard]

As of this message, I do have 6.0.5 Norton Utilities and I was told that will fix this error under OS 9, or am I missing something ?

That will NOT fix the error AFAIR... you must backup all files and re-initialize the drive

[teroyk]

I have not get Invalid Btree Header error in my Powerbook in it's 15 years installation period (although I have copied partitions to new disks one time), but reason might be these:
- It's dual booting OS 9 and OSX 10.3 in same partition (If I now do these, I will put these separate partitions)
- OSX 10.4 is on different partition in same drive (so machine is actually trible boot)
- first thing I did after OSX 10.4 installation I did run Disable Tiger Features-software that turns Spotlight off (it easy to do without software too in Terminal).
- I didn't install OSX 10.5 at all in it. (If I really needed I use G5 for it)

On OSX side I really don't need Spotlight, EasyFind is better and not make index-files. Even good old Sherlock is better than Spotlight, learn use it.
Time machine might be useful, but remember if make small partitions, you can backup them with Diskutility from another machine with firewire target diskmode.

[peeperpc]

Hello All,

So, I am also getting this b'tree error as well. Sadly, on a PowerBook G4, its not that simple, since I have one 512GB SSD(M2 SATA) which does work due to LBA-48 addressing on the Titanium G4 1ghz DVI. I have no choice but to partition separately for both OS 9.2.2 and macOS 10.5 Leopard.

As of this message, I do have 6.0.5 Norton Utilities and I was told that will fix this error under OS 9, or am I missing something ?

In my experience, Norton Disk Doctor 6.0.3-6.0.5 can fix this problem, provided that your SATA/IDE (if you're using one) is compatible with Disk Doctor.

That is, I never could repair my HDD with Disk Doctor (unknown error or something like that) when it's connected to an adapter with JMicron chip. After moving it to my Firmtek 1s2 clone PCI card, all errors were fixed.

Then, to prevent the problem, I just follow GaryN's advice.

Of course, OS X's Disk Utility will not agree and report the repaired partition as needing repair. I just ignore it.

[Roman323]

As of this message, I do have 6.0.5 Norton Utilities and I was told that will fix this error under OS 9, or am I missing something ?

That will NOT fix the error AFAIR... you must backup all files and re-initialize the drive

Damn.. That means I will need to format my entire M2 SATA 512GB stick which includes Leopard and OS 9 - wow. If I were to try Norton Disk Doctor 6.0.5, it still won't fix it ?