Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
The cursor stops responding for up to minute (without changing to a "beach ball"), lots of "beach balls", delays in typing/deleting, even delays when using arrows. Restarting helped (though it didn't shut down properly), but the problem is back. I'm on 10.7.3, using Safari, but the problem is across apps. I have very little else open at the same time.
Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!
MacBook Pro (+7 previous Macs), Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Are you booted from the recovery partition?
Yes. It shows the recovery partition and the HD, both locked.
Launch Disk Utility and run Repair Disk (not Repair Permissions) on the startup volume.
Ewww. DU can't repair. Hope that TM did its job!
Can you walk me through reformatting? Or is there another solution?
What is the error message? What backups do you have?
One line says "Invalid index key", then "rebuilding catalog B-tree"
Then, after a few moments "The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired"
Then, "Volume repair complete. Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required."
Then, "Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
I had the Time Machine running, but I just got a new Time Capsule and I haven't checked whether everything was there. I assume so.
I wouldn't continue to use a drive that threw that kind of error. I'd replace it.
However, if you do decide to keep using the drive, you'll have to erase the boot volume and restore from a backup. I recommend that you make at least one more backup first, to an external hard drive, independent of the Time Capsule. One backup is never enough.
Thanks so much for your help and your time!
Hi again--I was away last week and am back to trying to wrestle with this HD.
I can't get out of the Cmd-R session to get back to "normal," no matter what I try. This is just the drive dying, right? I've restarted several times, and it will boot in the recovery mode, but it tried to start for an hour this morning in normal mode (it won't start in safe mode either). I had wanted to make another backup copy, but that doesn't seem to be a possibility. Anything else I could try?
Thanks again for all your help!
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to fully boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot from your recovery partition (10.7 or later), a local Time Machine backup volume (10.7.2 or later), or your installation disc (10.6.8 or earlier.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in the support article linked below, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
How to back up and restore your files
2. If you have a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode by holding down the key combination command-T at the startup chime. Connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable. The internal drive of the machine running in target mode will mount as an external drive on the other machine. Copy the data to another drive.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
You're my hero!
Thanks for all of your help!
Ick, I'm back. Replaced the HD, restored data, all fine for a day, now I'm getting the same "can't repair disk" message. I'm now assuming it's a software issue that was carried over, but if there's something I'm missing, I'd really appreciate any insight. Otherwise, I'll be deleting non-system software and crossing my fingers.
Thanks again for your help!
The drive is failing, or you have some other hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. Back up all data before you go.
Will do. Thanks again for your help and patience!
Hi again Linc--
I stumped 2 geniuses today!
They got the same error when launcing from an external drive and after removing the drive entirely and using an external. Apparently, no issues with HD, cable, or logic board. They erased and repartitioned my drive and loaded Lion again, and it worked to begin with, but suggested the back up may have corrupt data, so I'm stuck reinstalling/retrieving everything manually (which is not working out well so far!).
Anyway, wanted to give you the update in case you were wondering, and thank you again for your help!
Have a good week.
Late 2008 MacBook Pro is stuck a lot lately
