Bluegreenocean

Q: MacBook Pro boots directly into Recovery HD after update. Disk Utility could not repair the disk. OS problem or hard drive problem?

I wanted to update a non-retina MacBook Pro (mid-2012) with OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and a hard drive that I had not used in a while to OS X El Capitan. Everything was working until I decided to update the MacBook Pro with the latest Mountain Lion security update that was available (Security Update 2015-006). My MacBook Pro first restarted to my desktop with various dialogs that said "Finder quit unexpectedly." I then decided to restart the MacBook Pro. However, a circle with a slash symbol started flashing where the Apple logo should be (as described in this Apple support article). Then my MacBook Pro booted directly into Recovery HD. I then ran "verify disk" in Disk Utility and reported a ton of "Missing Thread Record" errors and "Overlapped extent allocation" errors. I counted at least 25 instances of each error. There were other errors too, but not as many as the two I mentioned. I then ran "repair disk" and Disk Utility could not repair the disk. I also tried to put an external hard drive with a bootable clone of my other MacBook Pro running OS X Yosemite and the drive was not recognized.

 

Right now I'm not sure whether this is just an operating system problem or a hard drive problem. I'm also not sure whether to just do a clean install of OS X Mountain Lion then install OS X El Capitan, or to run a utility like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro, or to just simply get as much data as I can from the hard drive and replace it.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Aug 5, 2016 5:56 PM

Close

Q: MacBook Pro boots directly into Recovery HD after update. Disk Utility could not repair the disk. OS problem or hard drive problem ... more

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Niel,Apple recommended

    Niel Niel Aug 5, 2016 6:01 PM in response to Bluegreenocean
    Level 10 (311,818 points)
    Aug 5, 2016 6:01 PM in response to Bluegreenocean

    The problem is with the drive. Copy off as much data as you can, and then either use a utility to repair the disk, or reformat it, or replace it as needed.

     

    (143861)

  • by Bluegreenocean,

    Bluegreenocean Bluegreenocean Aug 5, 2016 6:29 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 5, 2016 6:29 PM in response to Niel

    Ok. Since this is a hard drive problem, how do I get my data off of the MacBook Pro's hard drive? I have some of the data backed up but not all of it. I was not able to use my bootable clone from my other, working MacBook Pro running Yosemite with this MacBook Pro. What should I do here?

     

    Also, would a utility like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro be sufficient to repair the disk?

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Aug 6, 2016 6:33 AM in response to Bluegreenocean
    Level 10 (311,818 points)
    Aug 6, 2016 6:33 AM in response to Bluegreenocean

    1. Use the Disk Utility to create disk images of the folders on it, or a data recovery tool.

    2. Check their support boards and online documentation.

     

    (143865)

  • by Bluegreenocean,

    Bluegreenocean Bluegreenocean Aug 9, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 9, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Niel

    Thanks Niel for your help. And thank you for the link.

     

    I decided to use a data recovery tool to get my files off of my MacBook Pro's hard drive (I chose Data Rescue). I got a new external hard drive, reformatted it to GUID Partition Table in Disk Utility in my MacBook Pro's Recovery HD, and installed OS X Mountain Lion (the same OS as in the internal hard drive). The external hard drive booted successfully into Mountain Lion. I used this Apple Communities user tip as guide.

     

    I installed Data Rescue onto the bootable, external drive and ran its "Quick Scan". I fortunately was able to obtain every piece of data (documents, pictures, iTunes Library, web browser/Safari bookmarks etc.) that I wanted to save. I also decided to obtain, just in case, some log data and some crash data from my user's "Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports" folder from when the "Finder quit unexpectedly" dialogs came up. I also ran Disk Utility from the external hard drive and saved the log file (had the same errors that I mentioned in my original post). Afterwards, I went into single user mode and ran "fsck" (specifically "fsck -fy", as shown in this Apple Support article) and reported "The volume Mac OS X Base System appears to be OK".

     

    I then booted into the Recovery HD of my MacBookPro and decided to erase the MacBook Pro hard drive's main boot partition and reinstall OS X Mountain Lion. The OS is installing now, I'm just waiting for it to finish up. I still have no idea right now whether the if the hard drive still needs to be replaced, especially since the regular Disk Utility and Recovery HD Disk Utility showed multiple errors on the drive while "fsck" showed none (I figured "fsck" showing no error is a good sign).