I was downloading OS X Mountain Lion on my MacBook Pro (purchased Aug. 2010) and received the message: "OS X couldn't be installed, because the disk Macintosh HD is damaged and can't be repaired." What does this mean, and is it covered by Apple Care?

Question

Level 1

0 points

I was downloading OS X Mountain Lion on my MacBook Pro (purchased Aug. 2010) and received the message: "OS X couldn't be installed, because the disk Macintosh HD is damaged and can't be repaired." What does this mean, and is it covered by Apple Care?

Last night, my computer randomly cut off. It was acting fine before then. After, it would not turn back on. It would respond to my pressing the power button, but it would freeze while powering up. It did eventually power up, and I decided to go ahead and upgrade to Mountain Lion so that I could back up my documents to iCloud, just in case I experienced this issue again. That's when I received this message: "OS X couldn't be installed, because the disk Macintosh HD is damaged and can't be repaired."

What does this mean, and is it covered by Apple Care? I have a MacBook Pro, and I purchased it in August 2010 with Apple Care protection.

I have an appointment at the Apple Store, but I'm just trying to see if anybody knows what I'm looking at. I'm in law school and uber poor right now, so hoping for some good news... HELP, please 😟

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 14, 2012 8:49 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 14, 2012 9:00 AM in response to ldemmink

It looks like your hard drive's directory is damaged. This is NOT the physical hard drive itself but a software structure that keeps track of where all the files on it are. I am sure hoping you have a backup of your important files that are on the MacBook Pro, as it is likely that the next step will be to erase the hard drive and reinstall the system.

If you have important data that is not backed up, look into data recovery before you take the machine in for service. Data recovery is not covered by AppleCare. Fixing the system and getting you back up and running they can do and it is covered.

Best of luck.

Reply

Answer 2

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Oct 14, 2012 12:29 PM in response to ldemmink

Boot from your OS installer disk and run Repair Disk in Disk Utility. Hopefully DU can do the repair. If not your options are:

1. get a stonger disk repair utility like DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory or,

2. erase, reformat the hard drive and reinstall 10.6, update to 10.6.8 and,

then you can run the ML installer.

Reply

Answer 3

ldemmink Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2012 5:19 PM in response to ldemmink

Thank you both! I was able to get an appointment at the Genius Bar this evening and they sorted everything out. I had everything backed up onto Time Machine, so they were able to quickly get my hard drive fixed and put Mountain Lion on my computer. All is well!

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 14, 2012 5:23 PM in response to ldemmink

Smart man! Those Time Machine backups are a lifesaver, aren't they? It has saved my butt more than once, so I am glad you were using it.

Enjoy Mountain Lion.

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 14, 2012 10:16 PM in response to ldemmink

I would try the following if you can. Slight chance of repair.

Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk. You could have some directory corruption. Let us know what errors Disk Repair reports and if DU was able to repair them. This could just be a start in repairs and you may need a better utility to finish the job.

Then Repair Permissions.

No need to report any Permissions errors........we all get them.

 DALE

Reply

Answer 6

Oct 14, 2012 10:17 PM in response to Dale Weisshaar

Never mind....didn't see the last posts till too late!!

Reply

Answer 7

Aug 10, 2013 11:20 PM in response to ldemmink

did you have to pay for anything at the Genius Bar?

Reply