Install Failed - Disk is damaged

Wherever there is live verification it is properly impossible to repair that volume.

Try the traditional c key to start from your Snow Leopard DVD then use its Disk Utility to verify the volume. Don't rush to repair, let's see whether what's reported is significantly different.

Okay I just tried that and it wouldn't work. At the grey apple screen it just gave me the spinning grey wheel/gear and stayed like that for several minutes until I eventually held the power key and started normally.

I also tried holding down option and it brought me to the boot selection, but it only had one option - "OSX Installer"

I have the EXACT same thing happen. I am now in limbo with no where to go. In my disc utility, repair disc is greayed out. Cannot exit the installer, and do not want to reinstall Snow Leopard, I do not want to wipe my HD clean. Someone needs to fix this. I've never had a problem like this, my computer is in limbo.

Thanks, Steve M

Likewise same problem here.

Tried also selecting the boot disk to the original, internal disk and it says it hasn't got enough information etc, same error.

Tried the restore from TimeMachine option as well, but with no luck since it does not show the internal disk as an option to restore the data?

Did I understand correct that the next steps would be:

1) Try to boot from SL installation disk and repair the disk from there

2) If that fails, erase the current partition and restore from TM, assuming it will now show the volume as an option?

Thanks.

Hey I just spent half the day trying to install Lion—never ending loop of rebooting, disk is damaged, etc. I tried taking out 3rd party ram. I tried a differnt drive—thinking it was my 3rd party SSD.

I zapped the p-ram as mentioned by Graham Perrin and we're finally installing.

Well in tried the pram and command r. Put in my snow leopard disk and all it does is spinning stop and go blank. Guess I'll be calling tel support. This is on my 2010 mbp. My 2011 iMac no problem on the install. If anyone comes up with something new to try before tech support opens plaz post

These disk repair errors are so usual to me over the years even before Lion. I assume you are stuck having files on internal hard drive, no way to copy them as the only way to get operating system working again would be reformatting the internal drive first. There are 2 things you could do to copy the files out of the broken partition:

- use unix console commands in Terminal that you can run from OS X install dvd, to copy files to some external memory (too difficult for some users)

- use OS X install DVD to make a temporary install to some external memory like a large USB disk or a unused USB hard disk. Then you can boot it off that and use Finder to normally copy files from the broken partition to somewhere safe.

I had the same problem in the Lion install. I was able to reboot from the SL DVD (holding c during boot) and it was able to repair the hard disk (which Lion could not). I was then able to re-boot from the SL hard disk, and am now frantically backing up (which I of course should have done prior to the Lion download). I think I'll stick to SL for a while...

About 3 this morning I managed to reformat my hard drive using my snow leopard disk. Right now I am copy files from the time machine. Should take another 2 hours, I think. Can't wait to see what registration info or photographs I've lost. Can't imagine why the damaged drive info happened but shame on Apple for not giving us a way to get back to our previous condition so early in the install. Especially since this is a download and any flick of the Internet could change the installing files.

Anyway, hoping to have things clean with capability of actual upgrade to Lion.

I'm stuck at the same spot. I've tried resetting the PRAM and starting up holding command-c and both just bring me back to the lion installer with the installer being my only my onlly startup option. All of this is with the snow leopard installer in the drive. I've had all of the same "cannot repair disc errors" as everyone else. I've even tried to restore the disc and back everything up onto a different drive to no avail. More errors. Has anyone had anything else that works?

Been mostly on my own with it. So managed to boot off snow leopard in the cd drive then I erased the drive using snow leopard utilities. Then I let snow leopard reinstall on the drive. Ater it finished, it asked me if I wanted to copy files off another computer, the web or time machine ... I selected time machine from which it is copying now.

I have the same problem.

Following some of these instructions, I am now stuck in Mac OS X Utilities, I can't repair the disk, and when I reset PRAM/NVRAM and hold down option after the sound, I only have two options : OSX Installer and Bootcamp. I've tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM a number of times. I can't restart using "Startup Disk..." because when I choose my Macintosh HD 10.6.8 it says it can't gather enough information. Anything else I can try????

Well good or bad talked to tech and my less than yrs old mbp is going into the store in a few hours for a new hard drive. My iMac worked fine during the lion upgrade.

Plz do the software update then update a combo leopard download on the lion "things to do before you install". I did those steps faithfully and had zero problems with my iMac. Just my two cents worth

J

Good news! 😀

I have had exactly the same problems all day since downloading Lion at 9:30am

Tried reinstallling, creating disk image, running repairs, etc etc

I have spoken to support on the phone who told me it sounds like a broken hard drive, which as Im out of warrenty will cost me to get fixed! 😢

Have gone to my local Apple store to visit the Genius bar expecting the worst and have come out with all my files safely backed up on a portable hard drive - snow leopard reinstalled as a fresh new install and everything working as it should be!

Dont give in and just change the harddrive, the guys on the genius bar are wizards and it seems they can fix anything!!!! 😍