Disk utility input/output error, my macintosh HD won't mount and when restoring to another HD fails after setup...

Sounds as if your internal hard drive is dead. Do you have backups? You can buy a new internal from a number of sources - OWC, Crucial, MacMall, etc., and also buy an enclosure for your dead drive if you hope to try to get any data off of it.

Please tell me you have a backup to two.

Clinton

I don't think that your software is 'corrupt' - I think that your drive is dead or dying. Which is why I suggested buying ad installing a new drive and an enclosure for the old one, to see if you might rescue some of that data.

Since it wasn't backed up there's no guarantee that you're going to get it back (sorry to say). Some people have had luck with utilities such as DiskWarrior or Data Rescue 3 but, fortunately, I've never had to use either.

Have you tried booting into your Recovery partition? Is this where you're seeing the Disk Utility error?

Clinton

Then take it into Apple and see what they suggest. They can only replace the drive, if needed. They won't try to rescue your data so you'll need to keep your old drive if they let you, and purchase an enclosure for it.

I don't know what Apple's policy is about giving back a dead drive if it's replaced under warranty - I've never had a drive go bad while under warranty.

Clinton

Had issue partitioning 2TB my passport drive, got input/output error while using disk utility.

Here is what I did to get my external disk back

In Disk Utility

1) Try to use erase option first, it failed

2) Try to partition the disk, failed as well.

3) Then try erase option again, then ... it worked !!