Can't install mavericks because apparently my disk is damaged

I had a similar issue. After the install reboot would fail with a stop sign and hourglass.

I went into the Recovery Mode and ran diskutil. The MACOS Partition was visible but not mounted. When running repair it reported this error:

INVALID BS_JMPBOOT IN BOOT BLOCK: 000000

Searched the internet and found these two solutions:

http://steelpangolin.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/invalid-bs_jmpboot-in-boot-block-0 00000/

http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/invalid-bs-jmpboot-in-boot-block-000000-t2895 .html

Basically the Boot record is corrupted and the name was changed to a Windows Partition that's why Mavericks couldn't boot.

I booted from an external drive and then ran the python scripts as sudo (you have to follow very carefully what is written there). As soon as I changed the partition to HFS it was mounted. I rebooted and system came up right away in Mavericks.

I have a seagate SSHD and bootcamp which may be a factor in this error happening.

Many other posts with this issue. Can we requests the mods sticky this one or one of the other threads.

Format & Re-install might work but is the shotgun approach. Likely you can fix the partition Boot record that appears to get corrupted without any loss of data.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5467493?answerId=23498113022#23498113022

Many many thanks for posting the link to this video - this has done the trick. Everything else hasn't worked and following this video I am now into my old version of OSX with all my files etc.

I am now backing up to a separate time machine I have at home and will try Mavericks again once that is complete. If it fails again I will use the same route to get back to my previous version.

Thank you so much for sharing this link it ws very helpful and I am incredibly relieved it worked.

I spoke too soon. I got in using that method but stupidly thought I'd try Mavericks again. I'm now back where I was and no option to boot to the hard drive any more :(

OMG guys! This same issue just happened to me as well on my MacBook Pro (circa 2010). As it was installing Maverick, the installation failed because it said my hard drive was corrupt. After panicking here is what I did and it worked:

1) I did the CMD-R function, while re-booting the notebook. It brought me to the OS X Utilities screen, as depicted in the YouTube video above.

2) From this screen, I selected the "Disk Utility" option

3) Select the "First Aid" tab. Then click on "Verify Disk". It will scan the disk for errors, correct them, and then report back to you that your Macintosh HD is now OK.

4) Once your disk is OK, select "Restart" from the "Apple" drop down bar at the top of the screen.

Your computer should re-boot using your previous operating system (in my case, Mountain Lion), and all should be fine. Good luck!

I've followed the option boot trick again and now have access back to my old hard drive and my old install. Mavericks failed a second time on my MacBook and I do not think it is worth the hassle or the stress to install. I'm sticking with Lion on my work computer - at least I know that works!

I agree. Apple has an issue here that they need to correct. ***?Use advanced editor

You've got to get out of the Mavericks loop where you can't repair or erase the disk.

1. Restart your Mac

2. Hold down Command-R during startup and OS X Recovery springs into action. It will take a few minutes, but you should be back in the land of the cats (lion etc) http://www.apple.com/au/osx/recovery/

3. Once the recovery partition has loaded, open Disk Utility and use it to run a disk repair routine on your main boot drive.

4. After any found errors have been fixed, you can then reboot normally and try the installation again.

Except for some of us that doesn't work.

Unable to repair disk because the disk is locked, unmounted.

Same as it seems quite a few others. MacBook Pro, upgraded to Mavericks, installation failed and now the recovery boot utility cannot fix the errors and states a reformat the HD is required. Tried everything I can think of.

Hi j2nh

I know when I hit cmd-R first time round, I ended up back in the OS M the 'Loop'. Found that I needed to hold down Cmd-r until OS X version loaded. I couldn't do anything useful in OS M disk utilities.

J2nh see if you get the jmp_boot error when you attempt to repair in the recovery ? If so this is the same thing that happened to me and you can repair it.

If its a different error or problem that diskutil repair can't fix then its likely the data is still there ok, but you need to somehow try to find the root cause of why it isn't booting... Boot from another media (USB,CD, ext. disk) so you can try and acesss the partition and try to repair it.

Took my MBP to the Apple store. They ran diagnostics and could not repair the HD. They reformatted the HD and installed 10.8.5 for me fresh. The tech thinks that something happened to corrupt the partition tables. When I got home I upgraded to Mavericks with no issues. Resolved for me. Thanks all!

richfromut.. Goot to hear that worked.. but my message is you can fix the partition tables.

If you have valuable data that you can't recover.. Resist the urge to reformat..

Take the disk out if you need to or work of an external drive temporarily.

I felt really bad for the guy that lost his wedding videos.

I keep getting "Invalid record count" error during Verify Disk (Macintosh HD). Disk Utility tells me then to Repair Disk.

Which leads to

"Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required"

and then "stops repairing Macintosh HD"

with the message,

ERROR- Disk Utility can't repair this disk...disk, and restore you backed-up files.

Ugh.