This disk is locked

I am having this problem too. Would really like a solution.

Same issue here...searching for a fix.

hmmmmm that will be the next thing i try.

Thanks, it worked, and ultimately lead to the solution of my bigger problem!

I had the same error that Mac OS X can't repair the disk Macintosh HD. I tried all the diskrepair and verify options, but nothing helped. The disk was locked so the only option for me was to reformat the drive.

I used an external USB/FireWire 2TB disk, I installed a fresh copy of Lion on it and used it as a bootdisk. When I started Lion, it found the "old" internal HDD and came with the same message, but I was able to read the disk and copy everything to another external HDD.

So now I can reformat my internal HDD and the do a new clean install of Lion and restore everything.

It's not my prefered way of upgrading, but at least I have my data back and I have Lion.

Hi I had this issue when upgrading to a SSD in my Macbook pro. I resolved by rebooting, then going into the disk utility and erasing the drive. It was a samsung SSD, and I think they have some preinstalled software good luck!

Thank you!! I was trying to install statistical analysis software on a new iMac (via the external superdrive), and kept getting error messages: "Error creating folder 1008:9, -5000 Access denied error" followed by a message "You do not have enough access privileges for this installation."

After reading your comment, I simply restarted my iMac (with external drive connected and software CD still inside), and was able to proceed with the installation.

Sometimes the most basic thing will get you where you want to go!

If you HD is locked, go to disk utility, double click your partition on the harddrive on the left side of the window. The partition should be named something like "Macintosh HD" (by default), if you havn't changed the name ofc. The application will then ask for you administrator password. When you enter the password, your disk will no longer be locked

Please contact me if this didn't solve the problem.

/Zac

I FIGURED OUT HOW TO FIX THIS! Mavericks royally messed up my HD and I was freaking out because I didn't have a back-up. After much research online and going back and forth from different forums here is how to fix your "damaged" HD.

So basically to save your data (if your disk is cannot be repaired in Disk Utility or you can't access it or if you keep getting stuck in the loop), you have use an external hard drive as the start up disk and install Lion or Mavericks on that then transfer your files from the HD to the external. Then shut down the computer, remove the external (so it tries to boot up on its own), go into Recovery Mode then to Disk Utility and do a level 7 erase (it will be in your security options under erase. It's the Most Secure one that the US Department of Defense uses. This will take about 12 hours and once that is done, restart your computer in Recovery Mode then reinstall Lion. To transfer your data back on your computer, plug in the external and use it as a hard drive, your data will be under the User folder and whatever username you use. TAKE THAT APPLE.

This didn't work for me...any other suggestions? I get disk locked out while reinstalling maverick. Happened when I actually inadvertently switched off my machine while installing updates for maverick.

You can plug in an external harddrive to the USB slot on the computer. Then install OS X on that by using the recovery disk.

When the installation of OS X is finnished you can go on your harddrive that is locked, which should be "Macintosh HD" and then take a backup of all important files that you want to keep.

Then you go in to disk utility by pressing alt when you restart the computer, choose recovery disk, and delete the harddrive that is locked. Then install OS X on that harddrive again. After the installation, unplugg the external hard drive that you backed you files up on to, and start the computer.

When booted, plug in the external harddrive and you can begin copying your files to your harddrive on the mac again! 🙂