Disk Utility stopped repairing Mac HD - Now what?

Do as instructed. Get your self a backup drive if you don't have one. Backup your files. Then erase your OS X volume and reinstall Mountain Lion.

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch

Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

Boot to the Recovery HD:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Erase the hard drive:

1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.

2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the

left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on

the Security button and set the ZeroData option to one-pass. Click on

the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

because it is three times faster than wireless.

Adam Lorber wrote:

So after reinstalling OS X, the Time Machine backup should put everything back in it's place? Programs and all?

If there is boot drive corruption there is no guaranty that TimeMachine will restore or not, or if it manages to do so will your machine continue to function correctly because the data itself is corrupted from the problems of the original boot drive.

What you should also do is get another external drive and copy just your User folders of Music, Pictures etc., over to the storage drive, that way those files can be used to restore back in case TimeMachine fails, which it has in the past. Operating system and programs can be reinstalled from original sources, but your files are unique, so preserve those seperatly.

The biggest problem with TM is there is no easy way to verify the data is good, if TM copies crap, then you get crap back. TM drives are not bootable to use the computer, it's only a backup.

Bootable clones are a much superior backup method, as one can quickly boot from the clone and verify the machine and software operates as intended.

Follow the "Emergency Quick Copy" method here, and later also employ bootable clones in your backup plans.

Most commonly used backup methods

Adam Lorber wrote:

So after reinstalling OS X, the Time Machine backup should put everything back in it's place? Programs and all? Do I need to deauthorize or uninstall any programs (iTunes, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) before doing this?

Any idea how long this whole process takes?

And is there any risk to ignoring it and to keep working as if nothing is wrong? Everything seems to be working fine...

Yes if there is no corruption or failure to restore, yes programs and all, no you don't need to deauthorize anything, it will take hours to restore (bootable clones are faster to restore) and there is great risk to continuing like you are because further problems could develop that will hose the entire machine and you won't be able to use it at all.

If your not sure, there are local PC and Mac specialists that can do the software portion, but if you have a HARDWARE problem, then take the matter to Apple which they will replace the drive under AppleCare.

It doesn't hurt to try Apple first, if you have a hardware problem and they discover it, then they will replace the drive and reinstall the OSX for free, which you then reinstall your apps and then the FILES from the storage drive I mentioned earlier, don't use the TimeMachine to restore as it's data is corrupted.

If I were you then for now just erase the volume and reinstall Mountain Lion. Then be sure it's working OK without further problems. If so, then you can proceed to restore your data from your Time Machine backup. You can use Migration Assistant to restore your Home folder, third-party applications and support files, and system preferences.

After that is completed log out of your current account and log into the migrated account. Check that all is OK then delete the other account. You do that in Users & Groups preferences.

I think your drive is shot or so badly corrupted that nothing is going to work properly. You may end up losing your stuff if you cannot get it transferred with CCC. If the drive has not failed then it needs to be completely repartitioned and formatted to work. But if you do that and there is still a problem, then you will have to replace the drive. In any event saving your files seems an impossible task outside of possibly trying to drag and drop from the drive to your backup drive. You'll want to stick to your Home folder. This is where all your files will be stored.

Hi Adam,

I was having the same issue as you were and decided to do some maintenance. Went through the same exact exercise as you and ended up with the same error (surprisingly because everything was fine besides running a little slow). My question is, how were you able to get back to your desktop? When I try to restart, I get the chime, then the logo with a status bar soon after. It stays there for about 5 minutes then the mac shuts off. What did you do to get back to your desktop? I wish I never did the maintenance and ran DU. Yes if it found DU found a problem, then I may have had one eventually but sure wasnt expecting this to happen. Please let me know.

Thx Adam

Dan