disk utility can't repair this disk!

muziklistner wrote:
Is there another soloution as opposed to re-install?

a 3rd party app such as DiskWarrior may be able to fix the disk.

J GG

Reinstall will not erase any of your files or 3rd party apps, just the OS.

i believe *The hatter* intended to link this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2566907&tstart=0.

J GG

...except that the hard drive is damaged beyond repair with Disk Utility, which means it may need to be erased.

If your data is not backed up, I'd definitely recommend trying to use DiskWarrior to get things fixed to the point that you can get backed up.

However, my issue with using third-party tools to repair such a badly-damaged drive is that, once your drive is that badly damaged, some of your files will already be corrupt. Repairing the drive still leaves you in an uncertain state. Even if it boots up, it may be subtly unstable in ways that are difficult to fix. In this situation, I usually prefer to just wipe the drive clean and start over from scratch, restoring my data files (and only my data files) from one of my many backups.

agreed.

besides, there's no guarantee DW can fix the drive.

J GG

In Disk Utility what does the S.M.A.R.T. Status show on the drive?

I'd scan it first with Prosoft Data Rescue 3 to see you can, and if you use DW, only use the PREVIEW feature. "Repair" should be limited to drives that have a backup, but has files needed.

Backup should be sets, redundant, multiple drives and even more than one 'type' or method.

Clone the drive, boot from the clone to insure it works, on a regular basis. Run DW or something on the clone before you use it to insure it copied successfully. And then reinitialize your drives on a regular basis, like when a new OS or mid-stream.

A drive can go even when the user paritition is intack but the partition table or hidden areas are not, like when there is a bad block that cannot be repaired owing to being in a section that cannot be reallocated, and only initialize and format will.

Ah you can try various utilities from Apple download section..One is Stellar Phoenix having the free trial version which will show you the recoverable files on preview if you find your files on preview then download the full version otherwise not.....