my machintosh HD partition quit decrypting. How do I recover the files from the HD? I have replaced the 320 GB 5200RPM Hitach and I have the old one.

Hello,

Was running osx Lion, newest update. Using Hitachi 320 GB 5200RPM HD. I5, 4 gb DDR3. Mac Book Pro, 13 inch. Heres what happened:

Opened Disk Utility Via Launchpad> Utilities upon normal boot into home screen. Ran Disk verify on Mactintosh HD partition and was told the disk needed repair. Restart, cmmd-R upon restart. Run disk utility, verify disk on Main Disk (whole drive), Needs repair: run permissions repair, run disk repair. Completes both processes on my Main disk (the whole 320 GB).... Machintosh HD now is greyed out, and will not unlock with my password to run Verify Disk. Attempt restart in safe mode, fail. Disk utility refuses to recognize drive, Machitosh HD turns to Disk 13 after failed attempt. Select Macintosh HD, Turn off encryption. Attempt password access to unlock and mount, fail will not accept password.

Trying from Terminal/ command line now via cmmd-r restart.... diskutil list.... sees Macintosh HD 3 tiers. will unlock Macintosh HD (bottom tier), but fails to mount. Second tier, says decryption is happening, but no direction is given.

What I have been told by the computer guys I tool it to is that the HD froze while it was being decrypted, and they cannot extract the data. There is nothing mechanically wrong with the HD. I had to buy a new HD, and Keep the old one with hopes of extracting the Data....

What do I do here guys? How do I mount the drive externally to connect to my mac book pro?

What sort of file recovery program is going to get these files back?

Why did this happen?

Thank you guys in advance.