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please HELP! => major disk issue - none of OSX "help" tools works (repair/time machine/reinstall)

Hello to all,


My first post, but directly with a very difficult case I suddenly encountered yesterday evening...


When, as usually I opened the lid, it turned on from sleep, as usually, however frozen suddenly... so I did hard turn off... with ON/OFF button. When it turned on again, I had no possibility to put my password, but I was directly faced with "OSX tools" with 4 options (it is in Polish so I try the translation):

1) Recover from Time Machine back up;

2) Install OSX again;

3) Get online help;

4) Disk tool;


I am totally ****** off how this could happen. There was so much stuff on the disk, including the whole Aperture libary with thousends of my daughter photos (she was born a year ago) - priceless stuff.

I would never expect Apple to give me such an "experience"... never heppened to me on any PC's before..


I have 2011 MacBook Pro 13" with Maverics.


This is what I encountered using each of solutions:

1) I use Synology DS209 for Time Machine backup (connected via Lan cable). As far as I remember backup is about 2 months old. Anyway when I choose this option. OSX tool finds the Time Machine in DiskStation, connects to "MacBook Pro" timemachine on the external disk, BUT cannot find any BACKUP further on!!!! I am lost!


2) second, but not preferred option is OSX reinstallation.After initial analysis, and conditions acceptance, I cannot choose the only disk available. I can see only "recovery disk", but when I click on it, there is a message popping up "This disk is blocked". Obviously this prevents any further activities in reinstallation;


3) Third option is BS clearly, no help at all.


4) Disk tool shows me several disks / I am not an expert, so I am not sure how to understand it (Bold is active, standard non active):

- 320,07 GB Hitach HTS54503...

- Macintosh HD

- Superdrive

------------------------------------------------

- disk1

- OS X Base System


I run "check disk" for Hitachi. No problems. Nothing to repair.

I run "check disk" for Macintosh HD => This disk requires repair. So I run "repair". Quickly I get a message "Disk Tool is unable to repair this disk. Please backup as much data as possible, format the disk and recover the files from backup"..... Really????? How can I backup any files???


DEAR COMMUNITY, please HELP!

What to do in order not to loose any data on one hand and on the other be able to use the computer again?


Please note I do not use "recovery CD" all is running without anything in CD/DVD drive.


Thanks in advance for your answers, competence and experience!



Disk tool does not give any solution, showing

MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Dec 14, 2013 4:01 AM

Reply
2 replies

Dec 14, 2013 9:15 AM in response to matzioos

You are in a bad situation, because the internal drive has malfunctioned and your only backup is on a device that is not suitable for use with Time Machine, despite what its manufacturer says.

You must try to make another backup now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible.

There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.

1. Boot from the Recovery partition or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”

2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.

3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

Jan 10, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for advice, but...


I just received SSD drive with a SATA USB connection kit to replace the malfunctioning HDD (and back up, what's still there),


I tried to follow the support article, however Disk Utility tool is not able to repair the original drive.

Only thing I was able to do, is I formatted / created a partition on the new SSD drive to make it useable.

Seems I have also made an image of malfunctioning drive on the SSD.


What I should do next? No idea...


Appreciate your prompt support very very much...

please HELP! => major disk issue - none of OSX "help" tools works (repair/time machine/reinstall)

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