Can't install mavericks because apparently my disk is damaged

J2nh:

Is the partition not able to mount (shown as grey in diskutil) ?

Try booting from another media (CD,USB,external drive) and run the Python script shown here.

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

See if your partition type is set to Microsoft or anything other than HFS.

j2nh wrote:

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.

I'm having this exact same thing happen to me. I plugged in an external HD and loaded Mavericks to it so I can boot from that. Now I'm trying to see if I can get TIme Machine to do a backup of the internal HD so I can reformat, load Mavericks and migrate from the TM backup. Anyone with ideas on whether this is a possiblity at all? Right now I can't figure out how to get the TM backup done and I think I might have to manually backup the files. I guess worst case this will work for me, but I really would rather not go through installing of of my software again.

gth293a: First see if MacOS sess the partition (look for it in finder, df -k in command line) if you do not then that is what you need to fix.

Try running the gpt_surgeon.py list (as shown in this page)

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

Make sure you select the right disk (disk0 disk1 disk2). You can get see by looking at the devices in diskutil or system profiler.

I can see it in finder. I just can't get disk utility to fix it. I'm at work right now but I'll def give that a try. Thanks for your input!

gth293a: if you can see the disk then its not so sick then. You should be able to copy files off it with superduper or other. Try searching for other repair utilities.

redrock999: Here's the weird thing, it has a new folder labeled "Damaged Files" now. That folder only has two documents; one is a word doc and I can't recall what the other is off the top of my head. I can't delete them though. Is there any way to do a TM backup of the disc though if I'm not booted from it? I'd really like to pull that off somehow so I can point the Migration Assistant to that TM backup when setting up the clean install of Mavericks. Any thoughts?

gth293a, I have the same problem and want to do the same procedure with Time Machine. Please post if you succeed!

I had exactly the same problem too! My brother told me to upgrade to Mavericks so I went and downloaded and installed it. And sadly, it said that my hard drive was damaged too! Went to disk utility and veified/repaired my hard drive but that didn't work. I was worried that my files were all deleted since I didn't back it up. So I went into panic mode BUT then I remembered that my Mac came with a snow leopard CD!

So I popped it in, restarted my Mac (while holding the option key) and it took me to a page that showed the Mavericks installation or the snow leopard CD. You may have to press command+shift+P+R all at the same time and then type 'exit' on the black screen (forgot what that screen was called) before you can get to that page. I clicked on the CD and it took me to the snow leopard installation. Then I decided to go to startup disk option to see if my hard drive would be visible and miraciously, it was there! I clicked on it and it went back to normal! I've learned 2 things out from this experience: 1) Go get an external hard drive and back up the files using time machine! 2) I'm never going to upgrade to a new OS ever again!

It took me 8 hours to figure out how to abandon the failed installation of Maverick on my trusty MacBook and use recovery mode to revert my system back with Mountain Lion as before, using recovery mode and time machine restore.

The discussion on this problem here and on related threads suggests that my hard drive really is close to failing.

Perhaps, and I was previously thinking of getting a replacement machine with a larger screen and more disc space.

Maybe it is time to switch from Apple.

The company seems to have lost more than Jobs. Nowadays we get flaky Apps, and system upgrade installation problems, all seriously degrading Apple's reputation. Wrong CEO for the job?

You are planning on switching because of a failure on a part that Apple does not manufacture?

Hard drives are comodity hardware.

Although getting stuck in the installer is extremely annoying. And Apple should have placed a "Cancel Install" option in there.

Yes Stuka87, a cancel option, and a careful check on suitability for Mavericks installation, and better advice on reason for failure, and ....

Getting dumped into a screen with obscure options, including a link to ambigous and unhelpful support information is hardly the way to go.

Of course HD is a commodity,which Apple supplied me with. And HD seems to be fine now, thanks.

I would prefer to know what it is about installing Mav that sometimes corrupts the HD, while installng Lion does not (the restore begins by erasing the HD).

There are just a few thousand machines affected it seems. Pity those without a recent backup.

redrock999, I ran into the exact same issue and also had a bootcamp Win7 partition. Did you have to change the partition type on that partition as well after fixing the HFS partition? I would have thought if the bootcamp partition was OK as a MS Data type that it would have still been possible to boot into Windows even if the Mac OS X partition was messed up, but that currently doesn't seem to be the case for me.

I gave up. Fortunately I had a recent backup and didn't lose anything. Wiped and reformatted the HD and Mavericks installed without any issues.

It seems that Maveriks is a disk killer, mine to got crazy - "damaged", without any possibility to coming back to ML. So, after trying many ways "ihad" to reinstall my old copy od ML from TM backup. nevertheless. this is not the most advanced operation system if it even cannot be installed! Is Apple the new microsoft?

Could you go into more detail how you reinstalled ML? For many, the loop of the damaged disc cannot be escaped, including myself.

I am not as quick to suggest Apple is now MSFT. A number of reasons may be apparent as to why Mavericks failed to install for some. Anti virus programs, File Vault and others have been mentioned. Millions have upgraded with no problems so the few hundred here are a tiny fraction of the Mac population. Having used Macs since System 6, I can safely say that with each new upgrade there are always those few that have issues.