Data recovery from corrupt boot partition

Question

Data recovery from corrupt boot partition

The boot partition on my MacBook running 10.7.6 has a corrupt volume structure and will not mount, much less boot. The recovery partition boots but really doesn't let me do anything. Disk Utility can't repair nor even complete verification. I have lots of images which I need to recover, so am looking for a utility which might help.

Everything was apparently ok until the failure and the drive hardware checked out ok, so I'm hopeful my files are recoverable. A week or so ago I optimized the volume with TechTool Pro and the directory with DiskWarrior, and last night attempted to sync 1Password on my iPad with 1Password for Mac. This did no t work, probably because of my unfamiliarity with the procedure, but seemed to do no damage. When I ran TTPro last night from its eDrive partition it reported a volume structure problem on the partition which I started to fix with the program but then cancelled the analysis and decided to use disk utility instead. Disk utility also reported a problem but stopped the verification with the instruction to do a repair which it again could not complete. When I rebooted the system partition would again not boot but this time I got grey screen with a message that the debugger had loaded and <panic>. A message box said power down and restart, but that only repeats the process.

I'm thinking of attempting to install a system on an external boot drive and accessing the corrupt partition with a data recovery utility. Any insights, ideas or shared experiences appreciated. Thanks in advance for any desperately needed help.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Intel dual 2Ghz, 4 GB ram, Airport

Posted on Dec 21, 2012 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 21, 2012 3:42 PM in response to Thomas Camilleri

The safest thing to do here is to install a new disk in the system and do a clean install of OS X. From there, you can put your corrupted volume in an external USB enclosure and mount the file system to try and recover as much data as you can.

It's likely obvious now, but it's REALLY worth investing in a large-capacity external storage or Time Capsure to use with Time Machine. Backups are essential. Hardware always eventually dies. We all need an effective strategy to deal with that.

A long time ago, I was backing my Linux system up to 4mm DAT. When the inevitable HDD crash came, I thought I was ready. Unfortunately, I hadn't tested recovery from tape and I ended up losing everything. Which is to say, until you know you can restore, you don't even have a backup. I lost thousands upon thousands of photos of my kids growing up. 😟

BTW, if it is essential that you recover as much as possible, consider taking the disk to a data recovery service. Be warned: It's expensive.

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2012 8:26 PM in response to Trane Francks

Thanks. I will give trying to mount the drive from an external enclosure a try. Might need to go with a professional service.

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Answer 3

Dec 22, 2012 12:01 AM in response to Trane Francks

Update with good news. I downloaded a demo for Data Rescue Pro by Proview Engineering and it does look like there was minimal damage to my files. I have a universal drive connector from OWC which will let me connect any HD via USB 2 (it's an old one) but won't need to pull the drive since the data is recoverable. I'll recover files and then take a chance on letting Diskwarrior or TTPro rebuild the volume structures. It would be a pitiful PITA (that's a soggy middle eastern sandwich) to restore all my passwords and such so this way offers a possible avoidance. Thankfully I have the recovery partition and TTPro eDrive so I can run my choice of repair utilities. Maybe I'll go with TechTool Pro since that one gets the volume name right, whereas Diskwarrior (my usual go to for volume repair and maintenance) calls it "Utitled". BTW, Data Rescue Pro 3 is amazing. I love it. My firstborn son shall bear it's name.

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Answer 4

Dec 22, 2012 12:11 AM in response to Thomas Camilleri

Hey, glad to hear that things are looking salvagable. I hope it works out for you! 😀

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