You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Installing Mavericks but disk damaged, no recovery or safe modes

So I have a 2009 Mac book. I downloaded OS X Mavericks successfully this afternoon. But when I try to install it, it tells me: "The OS X upgrade couldn't be started because disk is damaged and can't be repaired. After your computer restarts, back up your data, erase your disk, and try installing again. Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again." Okay, fine, but annoying. So I hit restart and end up at this exact same error message. And when I open disk utility, the repair button is greyed out. When I try and open in recovery mode (holding down command - r) it just takes me back to the OS X installer and the error message. When I try to restart in safe mode, my entire computer just shuts off.


When am I supposed to do now? Luckily I backed up my computer last night. But I'm a grad student and a teacher. I need my computer to work. Help?

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 9:45 PM

Reply
36 replies

Oct 22, 2013 10:08 PM in response to PST MD

Exact same problem here. I need my computer for work tomorrow. When I follow the instructions on the screen it won't let me repair the disk as it suggests. When it reboots it just tries (and fails) to install Mavericks again. It won't boot in safe mode. I can reboot in recovery mode but there are no choices there that are useful to a user like me. I just need to get back to Mountain Lion where I was this afternoon. Everything was working great until I decided to upgrade. It just my computer to work like it did a few hours ago.

Oct 25, 2013 4:59 AM in response to mattolds

You've got to get out of the Mavericks loop where you can't repair or erase the disk (you don't want to erase your 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, you have two options,


a) restore from time machine back up or


b) open Disk Utility and use it to run a disk repair routine on your main boot drive.


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


I chose a), waited 6h to restore from Time Machine. Then tried again without any problems. If you don't have Time Machine or 6h, b) might be a better option.

Oct 25, 2013 6:00 AM in response to Dog One

Thanks so much! The unfortunate thing is I don't have a Time Machine Backup and when I try to 'repair disk' through disk utility, I get an error message saying disk utility cannot repair disk. What would you say area options at this point? Thanks for the help.


I'm ordering an external hard drive today so I can start using time machine.

Oct 25, 2013 6:27 AM in response to mattolds

If you are feeling adventuresome, you could try forcing a re-write of the GPT. I remember way back when it was de rigeur for solving a disk problem.


You need to enter Disk Utility and go to the Partition tab. Reduce the size of the disk a little. Click on "Apply" and let it finish. Then you can expand it again to the original size and "apply" again. This only serves to make it do the re-write.


User uploaded file


No guarantee this will solve anything!

Oct 26, 2013 3:09 PM in response to PST MD

Reposting this from my other post in a similar thread. This is if you don't have a backup of your stuff and your only option is to wipe the disk.


If repairing the disk doesn't work there are two work arounds to at least save your data before wiping and doing a reinstall.


(Make sure to have tried to repair the disk from recovery mode. Cmd+R during boot and from there use the disk utility to try to repair it. It shouldn't be greyed out. If it still fails, read on.)


1. Hook up another mac to yours with a firewire cable. This is what Apple support told me to do. Instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661


2. If you don't have another mac you can install OSX on an external hard drive. This is what I did. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5911


From there you can access your file system and backup your files. Then you can proceed to wipe the drive and do a fresh install.

Oct 29, 2013 10:13 AM in response to putnik

I see the error code on the corrupted RAID drives----- Writing lastMountVersion as FSK



I've seen that before and it's discussed here a bit


http://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/data-recovery-articles/how-res olve-mac-journal-magic-bad-error-340304.html


MAC operating system has a feature of journaling the file system due to which the chances of fault flexibility together with providing protection to the file system preventing from the hardware failure incidents and sudden power turn off. The journal plays vital role comprising all the confidential information that are required by the MAC operating system so that it could be returned to the previous working station.


These journals being vital component of the MAC operating system if gets corrupted, leads into serial results. It may turn the whole data inaccessible by means of turning the volume unmountable. Once user undergoes such disaster the only thing that leads to recover the situation is the valid backup as the data can be restored and the corrupted can be removed from the hard disk without being worried about the data loss issue.


While the corruption is encountered in the HFS volume of the MAC operating system then error that is encountered with the user is stated below:-


HFS(3): Journal replay fail. Writing lastMountVersion as FSK!


jnl: is_clean: journal magic is bad (0x1fd17 != 0x4a4e4c78)


HFS: late jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0).


jnl: open: journal magic is bad (0x1fd17 != 0x4a4e4c78)





While the corrupted HFS + volume is attempted to be mounted, the above shown error triggers on the screen. The corruption of journal being the major cause turns often turns to smash up the entire MAC volume to an extent along with damaging the command line. Although you may find the disk utility option as well as the command line application facilitated in the MAC operating system which you may use in order to get the issue resolved. If possible try disabling journal and further turning it on.

Oct 29, 2013 10:59 AM in response to mattolds

mattolds -

i had the same problem (no backup, unable to repair disk), and this is what I did. it's basically what christo g is saying, i think, but without being sure exactly how to "access your old file system" this is what i ended up doing.


reposting from a similar thread ....



i don't know much about anything but here's an account of what worked for me, after being told by apple there was nothing i could do.


my 17" macbook pro (running lion) had this problem; something weird happened in the download of Mavericks (i think; maybe interrupted), told me my hd was damaged and to back up & restart. Had no back up of my files; "repair disk" wasn't working, then later was greyed-out. I thought i was going to have lose all my data and wipe my drive: and while I did end up having to wipe it, I was able to work around and back up all my files first, which applecare told me there was no way to do (take heart!).


I believe this is the same as what Christo G suggested, but after an hour chatting with apple care in which they told me my HD was shot, and that it needed ($) repair, i tried this and it worked:


1) In disk utility, create a new partition on my external HD. Name it something identifiable; not "hd" e.g.


2) Reboot in recovery mode. Select the option to Reinstall Mac OS X. At this point both Macintosh HD and Recovery HD were "locked' (and couldnt be unlocked through disk utility repairs or anything else), so I couldn't reinstall there even if I wanted to. Select the new partition of the external HD as the destination for the install. Install OS X (mountain lion) there.


3) Rebooting & holding down the Option key after the startup noise, select the disk which is the new partition with OS X (mtn lion) on it. Should be able to boot up from here.


4) When it boots up for the first time, it will give you the option to import data (like, from another computer, from an external disk, etc). Here, *even though my (internal) HD was theoretically Damaged, Failing, Locked, Irreperable, Needed to be serviced by apple, Physically Damaged, etc etc etc,* I was able to import all of my user data and applications from my (internal) HD, simply by selecting the option to import from an external disk, then selecting my (internal) HD. should be able to pick and choose what you want to import: which users, what data, etc.


5) Once that data was imported, OS X starts up (from the external HD, still) with all the data that was on my internal HD (so it looks like my computer did before i tried to install mavericks).


6) Now, create a time machine back up. I did this on the old partition of the external HD that, on its new partition, was currently running OS X. when I created that backup in time machine, it asks if you are sure you want to create a time machine back up on the same something (disk? volume? i can't remember) as your current start up disk. Usually probably a bad idea, but, here... it worked fine. So: you back up everything you have as a time machine back up on that other partition. this took about 7 hours.


7) go to sleep, wake up.


8). To sum up: You are now running OS X mtn lion off one partition of your external hd; on the other partition is a time machine back up of your data. your original HD (the one inside your computer) is irrelevant, if you've done everything up to this point; not only did you managed to copy that data to your new install of OS X/ external HD, you now have it backed up as a time machine backup (on the other partition of that external HD).


9). So: when you are absolutely sure you have your time machine backup made on your external HD, use Disk Utility to Erase your INTERNAL, macintosh HD (*not your external HD!*), the one that couldn't be repaired before, where you were trying to install Mavericks. When I first tried, Disk Utility was not able to unmount the disk; when I restarted, it had no problem. Not sure what the deal is there, others might have a different experience, for better or worse. The Erase took up about 5 seconds. I then verified the disk (which had thrown up all kinds of trouble before), it checked up, verified permissions, gave the "repair disk" a good click or two just to make sure, and it was all clean and good.


10). at this point, with the internal hd wiped clean, and a time machine back up on your external HD, reboot in recovery mode and select "Restore from Time Machine Backup". Select the backup from your external drive, and as the destination select the (now-clean) internal backup. had no problems restoring that backup to the internal drive; computer then restarts (mine automatically restarted using the internal HD as the startup disk) and should be running Mtn Lion, with all the files you backed up from that damaged HD, from your internal HD once again. At this point, after trying to feel sure that i was running off the internal hd's os x, i nervously ejected the external HD. no hitches; all my un-backed-up data; my *working* OS x mtn lion; a functional internal hd; and only some 25 abysmal hours poured into an idle attempt to get Mavericks.


good luck. i hope this is more helpful than confusing. i have a feeling it's not the most direct solution by far, and that it's just a more verbose version of what has been suggested, but in my particular situation (no access to other computers to download 3rd party disk utilities, etc) it was the only thing I could figure out that worked.

Installing Mavericks but disk damaged, no recovery or safe modes

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.