What are 'damaged files' on external hard drive (HFS format for OS X)?

I have an external HD formatted to default HFS (Mac OS Extended - Journaled) and very once and a while I get a folder called DamagedFiles in the root of the volume. The folder contains a collection of links to files on the drive. In general the files seem fine as I am for example able to open the images or text files without a problem.

Is this serious? What can I do to fix this problem? Any advice would be great as I couldn't find anything on here or via Google that addressed this problem in particular.

Many thanks.

dtlussier

Posted 2010-03-16T18:36:24.387

Reputation: 1 985

Answers

The DamagedFiles folder is created on recent installs of 10.4 when Disk Utility (or fsck) repairs a file system and finds some, er, damaged files... It's safe to delete this folder but it should be seen as a bit of a warning that your file system was messed up to some degree, at some point. For the moment, check the file names within this folder and verify your drive again. Repair it if necessary. Remember to keep everything backed up!

some situations like accidental power failure, hardware failure, virus infection, and improper system shutdown, may cause damage to HFS and cause data loss. be aware of that situations. is there any data loss ? if there's any data loss, try with this guide.

Ye Lin Aung

Posted 2010-03-16T18:36:24.387

Reputation: 5 444

There doesn't seem to be any data loss. I am able to verify and repair the disk using Disk Utility without any errors or further problems.

Does Disk Utility do the same thing, or even use fsck to do the disk repair?

Thanks! – dtlussier – 2010-03-18T14:30:18.517

There should be a log file listing out details at: /private/var/log/fsck_hfs.log

You can view it from Console (I open it with a Spotlight search) if you scroll down to fsck_hfs.log on the left side bar as well. Viewing this log will reveal exactly which files were corrupted.

Stunner

Posted 2010-03-16T18:36:24.387

Reputation: 121