Can't install mavericks because apparently my disk is damaged

I FIGURED OUT HOW TO FIX THIS! Mavericks royally messed up my HD and I was freaking out because I didn't have a back-up. After much research online and going back and forth from different forums here is how to fix your "damaged" HD.

So basically to save your data (if your disk is cannot be repaired in Disk Utility or you can't access it or if you keep getting stuck in the loop), you have use an external hard drive as the start up disk and install Lion or Mavericks on that then transfer your files from the HD to the external. Then shut down the computer, remove the external (so it tries to boot up on its own), go into Recovery Mode then to Disk Utility and do a level 7 erase (it will be in your security options under erase. It's the Most Secure one that the US Department of Defense uses. This will take about 12 hours and once that is done, restart your computer in Recovery Mode then reinstall Lion. To transfer your data back on your computer, plug in the external and use it as a hard drive, your data will be under the User folder and whatever username you use. TAKE THAT APPLE.

I had the same problem on my late 2008 Unibody Macbook. I tried many of the things recomended here, but didn't get very far because many options were greyed out, and it couldn't even format my HD. I have some friends in our IT Helpdesk at work and they ran HD utility that indeed verified I had at least 3 bad sectors in my HD. Thankfully everything was backed up via Time Machine, so I ended up buying a new Samsung Solid State HD (500 gigs) for $300. After a quick install of that, it installed Mavericks no problem, backed up from my Time Machine backup, and now my machine is running better than EVER before! Sure it cost me $300 but it was well worth it. I was hoping to upgrade my HD anyways, so I'm stoked.

Probably not the solution many people would want, but I am happy to have my computer back and in better shape than new.

I had a friend with this issue. This site has a list of suggestions that helped me recover his data and also upgrade to Mavericks. The process requires an external USB drive.

On my friends Mac, every disk utility tool he tried said his HD was damaged, but it was working when you would try to reboot into recovery mode... how damaged can it be if it boots into recovery?

This guide shows how to make a emergency backup of Macintosh HD from the OS X Installer so you can reinstall Mavericks. Once installed you have the option of using the Migration Assistant to bring the files back from the emergency backup.

http://recovertextsms.com/imac-recovery.html

Good luck.

@Taramason How did you manage to get the startup Disk to recognize the external HD? I went out and bought a new external HD becuase my sister never backed up her computer and when I connected it to her computer, it never recognized the external HD in the Startup Disk function. It only shows the computer HD. Appreciate any help you can offer.

My MBP is almost two years old, and I had the same issue. I have no applecare and was wondering if the apple store charged you for that.

Thanks