Macintosh HD greyed out and shut down after progress bar complets

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Level 1

8 points

Macintosh HD greyed out and shut down after progress bar complets

Hello everyone, after i manually closed my macbook by holding the shut down button for 5secs due to an application crush, my macbook pro doesnt seem to be able to boot anymore. It executes the progress bar under the apple icon on the screen (trying to repair my hd) and after it completes the process, it shuts down. When i press cmd+R, i can see from disk utilities the 500GB hard drive and the macintosh hd. The 500GB total hard drive is normal (even with no problems to fix after running verify and repair) but the Macintosh HD-part is greyed out and verify/repair fail with an error when i click on them. What should i do? i dont think its a hard drive failure. At least, how can i back up my system or some files? from disk utilities the new image function should be executed for the macintosh hd partition and not for the parent 500GB hard disk in order to make a backup, right?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Jul 29, 2014 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 29, 2014 12:43 PM in response to gelazari

In order to backup your data you would need an external drive with OS X installed. You can select to format the drive and install OS X on the external drive.

You can then boot from the external drive and run software to clone your data. Let me know if you need help with clone and or setting up an external drive.

Select Reinstall OS X while in Recovery. This should not damage your data but it's always advised that you have a backup first.

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Answer 2

gelazari Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2014 12:48 PM in response to dianeoforegon

I put Mavericks in my 500GB external disk and now i am in Disk Utility. For one moment, my disk was MOUNTED and then again became unmounted!!! Now back to square 1. Explain to me "clone and setting up the external drive" please.

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Answer 3

Jul 29, 2014 12:57 PM in response to gelazari

1) In a Finder window, select the Macintosh HD. Can you see the contents? If yes, you can select to drag over files.

2) Download SuperDuper (free)When it opens does it recognize the internal drive in the popup? If yes, you will need to make a second portion on your external drive for the clone of your internal drive.

3) If you can't see the contents or the drive in Finder or SuperDuper then you will need to download and run Mavericks over the internal drive.

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Answer 4

gelazari Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2014 1:30 PM in response to dianeoforegon

i cannot boot into Mavericks so how can i open a finder window?

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Answer 5

Jul 29, 2014 1:34 PM in response to gelazari

You previous said "I put Mavericks in my 500GB external disk and now i am in Disk Utility."

I'm confused, did you install Mavericks on the external drive or just copy the installer to the drive? You will need to install Mavericks so it's bootable. Once you are booted you can see if the data can be seen so it can be backed up. If not, you'll have to run the Mavericks install over the Mac HD.

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Answer 6

gelazari Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2014 2:18 PM in response to dianeoforegon

ok i opened the OS through the hard drive -> opened a finder window but no macintosh HD there...also nothing on the SuperDuper..My disk is still unmounted. It was weird that it mounted for 2minutes when i was in Recovery Disk Utility . :S

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Answer 7

Jul 29, 2014 2:29 PM in response to gelazari

Sounds like a serious issue with the drive. If you can't select it to Reinstall OS X you would have to erase the drive.This would delete all your data. You could replace the internal drive and look at recovery services. This is really expensive.

Let's continue trying options to get the drive to mount.

Open System Preferences > Startup Drive

Does the internal drive show up as an option?

If yes, select the drive.

Shut down.

Restart this time holding down the Shift key. This might allow you to boot into the drive.

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Answer 8

gelazari Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2014 4:02 PM in response to dianeoforegon

after being for a while in the OS Mavericks from the external drive, my disk suddenly appeared in finder and I copied the files that i needed but any other action was denied such as delete. When i restarted my computer now and tried to boot from it, it still prompted the progress bar and shut down as before. I dont know whats wrong with it!

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Answer 9

Jul 29, 2014 4:11 PM in response to gelazari

Glad to hear you were able to recover your data.

I would boot from the external drive then erase and reformat the internal drive.

You have two options:

1) Clone your current drive to the internal drive. This would not get you the recovery drive using SuperDuper clone option.

2) Best option would be to install Mavericks on the internal then drag back the data you were able to copy.

Let me know if the internal drive boots with the new install.

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Answer 10

gelazari Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2014 4:21 PM in response to dianeoforegon

i booted again from my external hd Mavericks (now my Macintosh HD is seen as UNmounted) and i am trying to format my hard disk but it seems that i cant. the format fails because of an unmount error or something.

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