Hard Disk Repair Help!

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Hard Disk Repair Help!

Good evening,

Just wondering if you guys can give me any help with regards to my Mid 2010 Mac Mini running Mountain Lion.

I only use the computer for internet browsing and iTunes, I've upgraded the RAM to 8GB myself which was straight forward.

Yesterday I get home from work and the Mac is turned off (I usually leave it on Stand-By). Upon turning it on by the button on the back I get the Apple Logo and the rotating circle, followed by this screen;

[IMG]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/6E058BF7-C5CC-4725-BB6E-64 D53168DAD8-11438-00000B443DCDE4DC_zps4a055f0a.jpg[/IMG]

If I click on Disk Utility I've got these options on the left;

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/B1377C74-71DB-45B0-B700-11 77B06FC73D-11438-00000B4442D9F747_zps5208f360.jpg[/img]

I've a 160GB external hard drive which has stuff on it now but could transfer that stuff over to a very old and slow laptop if I need the extra space for backing up.

Verify Disk on the top drive gives me this, which looks fine?;

[IMG]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/777713AF-708F-4723-B947-2B 9337725A74-11438-00000B444825DEFF_zps957f56f9.jpg[/IMG]

But Disk Repair on the greyed out drive gives me this;

[IMG]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/5A6FC9F4-79E9-44DB-ACF3-96 44F9631AEB-11438-00000B444DBBA0CE_zps46e5ea78.jpg[/IMG]

Which doesn't sound good?

The bad bit.. I've not backed up anything since I got the computer, I've got pictures/music on my computer I'd like to keep if possible.. But I don't know anything about backing things up, or how I'd go about it. Sounds pretty terminal from that pop-up message from Apple!

I've got installation disks if I need them.

So you helpful people - What do I need to do first?

Thanks in advance!

(Apologies about the bad pictures, thought it'd be better than nothing though!)

Mac mini (Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Matthias Schulz

Level 2

183 points

Mar 4, 2013 12:00 PM in response to JonnnyWright

It seems that your internal disk is logically damaged. You only can follow the disk utility recommendations and format the disk. All your data will be lost. You can't back up any stuff at this time because your disc is inaccessible.

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Answer 2

JonnnyWright Author

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Mar 4, 2013 12:11 PM in response to Matthias Schulz

Thanks for the reply.

So the only option is to erase the HD and try again?

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Answer 3

Mar 4, 2013 12:26 PM in response to JonnnyWright

You might consider booting into single-user mode and using fsck to (potentially) recover your drive. It is what one uses when Disk Utility is too confused to recover.

Press and hold the shift key while booting your Mac.

The white text on a fast scrolling black screen is normal for single user mode.
Eventually, a prompt ‘#’ will appear.
1. type fsck -fy at the prompt. This will attempt to recover your drive.
2. Fsck is a multi-pass process. Run it at least twice.
Now type exit, or boot to continue boot process to normal login
Run Disk Utility again and see if it has come to its senses.

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Answer 4

JonnnyWright Author

Level 1

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Mar 4, 2013 12:50 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks Viking.

I've read the wireless keyboard doesn't work with keyboard shortcuts etc?

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Answer 5

Mar 4, 2013 12:55 PM in response to JonnnyWright

Read this. Wait for the first boot chime. Apple does not explicity mention single user mode or safe boot. Try these on the first chime to see if they also work. Otherwise, you may need to borrow country-specific wired keyboard.

In my previous post, I mistakenly said hold down the shift key for single user mode boot. This should read just the S key.

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Answer 6

JonnnyWright Author

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Mar 4, 2013 2:46 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks so far, Viking.

Tried to do the Shift or S key on boot up after/on the chime but nothing.

Will try a wired keyboard tomorrow, will any USB keyboard work to you know? Can borrow one from work if so..

EDIT;

I appear to have got it into Single User Mode. Tried the fsck command, this is what I got back from that;

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/19CDDA7A-43CF-4F3C-A4B7-22 BAA013BB53-12042-00000B863A4EDB71_zps64426d37.jpg

Still started up in Disk Utility..

If I try and install Lion again I get this;

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o78/Jonny2modified/C2691425-5AA3-43B7-B354-58 F1F9AA199B-12042-00000B863E72ED34_zpsc5118a5e.jpg

So, I guess it's dead?

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Answer 7

Mar 4, 2013 5:30 PM in response to JonnnyWright

Fortunately, the fsck output is normal.

In your Lion installer screen, will that drive display window scroll up or down to show your system disk?

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Answer 8

JonnnyWright Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2013 11:23 PM in response to VikingOSX

Hi Viking,

No those two are the only two drives in that list. So it won't let me reinstall Lion anywhere because of the drive being locked.

Thanks.

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Answer 9

Mar 5, 2013 10:56 AM in response to JonnnyWright

The fsck in single user mode has checked the recovery "mac os x base install" disk and not your damaged system disk "disk0s2" because it's inaccessible. You can't choose it in the lion install dialogue too. There's no way out 😟 use disk utility and reformat it. If you do so you'll have a third available disk to choose for lion to install.

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Answer 10

JonnnyWright Author

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Mar 5, 2013 11:29 PM in response to Matthias Schulz

Thanks Matthias.

Just quickly before I refomat it.. I've got an iPhone and iPod with 2000+ songs on them. Is there any way I can reload these back onto the computer as they'll be lost when I reformat..

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Answer 11

Mar 6, 2013 10:58 AM in response to JonnnyWright

The bought songs from iTunes are downloadable again. For the other ones there are some tools to get them back in iTunes from your iDevices. I did it a time ago on a wintel pc.

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