skeles wrote:
My MacBook is unable to boot. Whenever I try to boot, the spinning circle and the progress bar appears on the grey screen, but when the progress bar reaches about 40%, the computer shuts itself down.
See
Gray Screen with stuck or always showing progress bar
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3046
I started in Verbose Mode and tried AppleJack, and it said my harddisk needs to be repaired; but AppleJack is unable to do that. (Error Messages: "Invalid node structure" and "Incorrect number of thread records)
I then tried to startup with both Recovery HD
Error: AppleJack is not updated to work with 10.7 (correct me if I'm wrong of course)
I then tried to startup with both Recovery HD and Mac OS X Install DVD and ran the Disk Utility on both of the startups.
Error: You shouldn't use the OS X 10.6 install diskto repair the 10.7 altered drive.
The parittion map has been changed and there is a new Recovery HD on the drive that the 10.6 DU doesn't know what it is.
At the First Aid tab, I selected my Hard Drive (not the Hitachi one, the Macintosh HD one) and clicked on Repair Disk. The error messages I got from Repair Disk were:
Invalid volume file count
Invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk..disk, and restore your backed-up files.
And, lastly, the following popup message appeared:
Disk Utility stopped repairing "Macintosh HD"
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.
Yes you need to completely erase your entire drive with Erase > Security Option Zero all data, while booted from the 10.6 DU. Select the entire drive on the far left (not the MacIntosh HD, that's a partition)
Read on later...
Not being sure how to back-up my files using Disk Utility, I plugged in an external HDD to my USB port and clicked on the Restore tab in the Disk Utility. As the Source, I selected Macintosh HD and as the Destination, I selected one of the partitions I created on my external HDD. However, when I clicked on Restore, I got the following error message:
Restore Failure
Could not restore - Input/output error
Forget Disk Utility.
I partitioned my external HDD by creating 2 partitions formatted in Mac OS Extended Journal - GPT.
Ok
Now, what can I do to save my files (and my MacBook's HardDisk)? Could anyone help me please?
Ok, I've written some heck of a lot of great User Tips to help out your problem exactly.
What you should do is follow the
1: Data Recovery efforts first, get a copy of your User files folders (Music, pictures movies, etc) off the internal drive and safe. (including out of bootcamp)
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
2: Hold c boot from the10.6 disk and Erase with Zero the ENTIRE internal drive like I've mentioned above. This will take a bit but let it finish, the reason you can't do this from Recovery HD is because your drive is corrupted, so you need to erase everything on the drive, including the Recovery HD got it?
The Zero Erase will map off any bad sectors causing your troubles. Do not move hard drives while in operation!
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3044
3: Install 10.6 and reboot, use the SAME User name as before, log in and Software Update until clear, then log into MAS option click on Purchases and redownload install Lion cakes.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3251
4: Make sure your software update is clear.
5: Install all your 10.7 compatible programs from fresh sources and update.
6: Lastly return user files to the same folders they came out of before. (music in music, pictures in pictures etc) Return user files last as thats what robs hard drives of performance, so they need to go last on the drive.
7: Clone this pristine new boot drive to a blank powered external drive by itself (no other parittions) it's your option key bootable backup (make two)
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents