Hard Disk Damaged during Mavericks Installation

On an iMac 12,2 (2012), I “upgraded” from the last Mavericks to 10.9.2, and I have had unending misery as a result, similar to others on this post.

My 250 GB SSD from which I run OS X started acting funny, so I shut down from the software and started up again, and got spinning gears.

Using Disk Utility from Recovery Disks did nothing, and I think it was only when I unplugged all peripherals and ran my savior, DiskWarrior (long-time fan, has saved my bacon so many times), that the SSD booted up.

In the meantime, I find that 2 of the 3 partitions on my 1.5 TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex are unavailable, and my TimeMachine backup was on one of the partitions. No help this time through DiskUtility and DiskWarrior, they won’t even recognize the 2 GoFlex partitions.

Anyone have other ideas for other ways to recover my TimeMachine other than TechTool. And any recommendations for data recovery services, if it comes to that?

APPLE, APPLE, APPLE. I keep trying to believe in you. Then THIS happens.

Thanks, all, for your reports, which are so helpful.

I forgot the most important part: I ended up reinstalling Mavericks 10.9.2 from another drive, and now it's booting up, but I'm getting lots of beachballs.

Add another one to the list. 2011 MBP running Mountain Lion. No problems with the HD. Regularly checked by DW 4.4, plus repaired permissions, and SMART status shows as verified.

Downloaded and ran the Mavericks installer last night. Installer quit after a few minutes and left me in a loop. Tried booting in safe mode (failed). Tried recovery mode, but that just gave me the option to reboot into 10.8, which then tried to install mavericks again.

Tried target disk mode. Other Mac reports it cannot repair the disk. Diskwarrior reports hardware failure of the disk (funny that SMART says it's fine, and it never gave me a problem until trying to install 10.9), and suggests I recover all files. Disk utility on the other Mac reports that it cannot make a disk image due to a hardware error.

I have backups, but they're maybe a week old so there are a few files which aren't backed up.

Currently, the MBP has started from the original DVD and disk utility on that disk is (successfully so far) creating a disk image.

This is ridiculous though. Given the number of posts in this thread, clearly there is an issue with the Mavericks installer causing some damage to the drive (on a sizable number of machines) that is reported as a hardware error.

Perhaps Apple are too busy working on a new iPad, but it would be nice if they could fix the problem.

Hi, i can follow your concept, that a hardware failure have no connetions with a "normal" software, but I have the suspect, that a System Software Update can make problems. I base my idea on this parameters: 1) the S.M.A.R.T. Status is reported from a software > also this software can have a incompatibility with the new system. 2) A Systemsoftware Update can make also a firmware update and this can also be a corrupted firmare package, that lets the S.M.A.R.T. Software find a failure. Last, but not least, a really Hardware failure (mechanical) can only with external analysis software be found.

I think, that a very deep input (I had for many years such a problem) can influence basical functions of the sytemsoftware (this is also the best backdoor for many intruders). - παντα ρει -

ciao

Zardock,

I have run the disk utility three times and rebooted all three times, but repair disk is still grey.

Do you have any further suggestions?

Thanks,

CHM3

wow.....

its wild that in later(now December 2015) this is still an issue on macbooks with mavericks....lol in fact I work in a tech shop and we have 5 count them 5 MacBook airs with 128GB ssd m.2 drives that all had mavericks and ALLL DO THE SAME THING!!!

sigh...I usually ONLY post technical stuff on forums and try to stay out of things, but I have to say after perusing the attached conversation and several related to it. I have learned a valuable fact about the apple forums...

1) they are incredibly helpful (if you are looking for a laugh 99% of the time) assuming you can find a way to filter 99% of the comments out.

2) that the higher points a user has basically genuinely just means they are an apple fanboi troll in 99% of cases....now now before I get shart on....the 1% of you high points users that actually contribute to the conversation with technical knowledge and knowhow, we , all of us, in IT land, love you and thank you for your insights and your devotion to NOT being insulting to those who are asking for help and NOT being condescending to the average person on here asking advice. there was pretty much ZERO reason this forum convo needed to start shooting heavy bullets at the people for not having backups....an end user KNOWS THEY DON'T! do you really think they need you and your lip? hopefully you get the same when you ask for help.

3) you can pretty much guarantee any conversation you have is going to become insulting, convoluted and completely bass ackwards to the originating purpose of the convo within at least 2-3 posts. it seems that the only people who are "epic" in the world of computers and IT are you guys who troll people on these forums.....thank you for your continuing support of trolls and for constantly giving my entire staff a good laugh

and again to those 1% of you who are actually helpful on here...we love you! good night!