Disk Utility Reporting Hardware Failure on Mac HD- Not Repairable

Hi! Looks like my hard drive is toast on my 24" aluminum case 24" imac. NOT under warranty although I bought it in Jan 09. DU reporting Mac HD in RED with message...'disk utility has detected hardware problem which cannot be repaired'. Ok. Will a simple hard drive replacement do the trick? Or, could there be additional grief? Thanks!

Do you have a backup of at least your personal data on the drive? If you do, you should try reformatting (erasing) the drive using Disk Utility, before giving up on it.
Restart from your Mac OS X installation disc, for the system you have installed currently; to do so, insert disc and restart with the C key held down. When you get to the first Installer screen (after language selection), go up to the menu bar. Under Utilities, select to run Disk Utility. In the sidebar, select the internal drive. On the +First Aid+ tab, run +Repair Disk+ (not +Repair Disk Permissions+ ). Do you still get that previous error at some point in this process? Do you get some other error that Disk Utility is not able to repair?

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    Disk Utility reports that my internal HD cannot be repaired (I tried booting to the installation CD as-well-as a Superduper image with the same result). Here is the complete dialogue:
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    Checking HFS Plus volume.
    Checking Extents Overflow file.
    Checking Catalog file.
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    Unfortunately the backup image has the same problem, so no use restoring the internal HD from it. So what do I do now? I read on a forum that the 'illegal name' error is caused by Photoshop CS, but didn't see a solution. Help!
     20" Intel iMac (2.0GB RAM, 256MB VRAM, 500GB HD)   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    I get this error occassionally too. In those cases I take my original install dvd, put it in, reboot and hold the c key.
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  • Disk utility reports "Device could not be opened" - error when trying to format a new drive in a Mac Pro 1,1

    MacPro 1,1 Quadcore 3 GHz (2006 "Woodcrest")
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    11. I powered down the computer, took out the HDDs from Drive Bays 3 and 4 and put the caddy with the new exchange drive in Drive Bay 4 [Maybe, I could have also just left it alone in Drive Bay 2, or 3].
    12. After powering on the system, disk utility will quick format the exchange drive without any error message. Also, when erasing again by selecting the option to write zeros to the drive, disk utility will finish without error.
    13. After disk utility finished formatting, I put back the original drives into Drive Bay 3 and 4 and put the now newly formatted drive back into Drive Bay 2.
    14. After switching on the computer the system start and login proceeds without any error message. All drives appear as expected on the desktop.

    If anyone is reading this still looking for what caused the issue and how to fix it here is what I discovered.
    The antivirus program our company uses, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, was causing some of the PDF files not to open. After troubleshooting the different modules and settings the culprit was..
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  • Disk utility reporting "Microsoft Reserved"

    Hello,
    I have been having a problem with Disk Utility reporting a NTFS volume as a Microsoft Reserved one. I run Windows XP on the NTFS partition, and use macdrive to access my HFS+ vol, but I cant use NTFS-3G to access the other way round, as it wont mount. Does anyone know of a method to possibly rescan the hard drive? rEFIt recognizes it.
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  • Disk utility reports "unused node is not erased" after installing 1TB HD

    Hi there,
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  • Disk utility reports smaller hard drive size than actual

    I have been using a 3tb external drive (Formatted mac osx journaled) without any problems on my mac mini.  Suddenly, it no longer allows me to write to the drive and more often it does not even recognize the drive when it is in the caddy.  The caddy supports USB3 and is fairly new.  The hard drive is a 7200rpm seagate. 
    When looking at the drive in disk utility, it states that the drive is 2.2 TB while the size is 3TB.
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    Thanks!
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    Hi Eric,
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  • Disk Utility reports everything is fine but everything action is slow?

    My 13in MacBook Pro has been running very slow lately. Disk Utility reports everything is fine yet the pinwheel shows up all the time and it takes forever to respond to a clicked app. What's going on?

    First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
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    If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
    If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
    Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
    Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
    Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
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    If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
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    Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
    Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
    Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?
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    Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
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    Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
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  • I am in mavericks disk utility recovery mode as my mac book will not boot up & stays only on the grey apple screen. When I verify the disk I get open error5 :input /output error on Syst stuck on 1 minute pouring out over 50 error messages & still counting

    I am in Mavericks disk utility recovery mode as my mac book pro will not boot up & stays on the Apple grey screen . When I verify disk permissions I get
    Open error 5:"input/ output error" on syst with over 50 of this messages & still counting . Disk Utility says 1 minute
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    I can not verify disk or repair disk .
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    Does anyone know what is going on here ?
    My system looks like it has been totally corrupted . Thanks Andrew

    Could be. The "lock" isn't actually looking for a password.
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  • I have a 750GB HDD. Speaking visually (looking at Disk Utility) I had a 250GB Mac Journaled partition on the top, and a 500GB Mac Journaled partition on the bottom. The 250GB partition is now free space, now how do I expand the 500GB partition upwards?

    I have a 750GB HDD. Speaking visually (looking at Disk Utility) I had a 250GB Mac Journaled partition on the top, and a 500GB Mac Journaled partition on the bottom.
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    OK.
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  • Disk Utility reports DVD disc does not have enough space

    I am trying to create backup DVDs of some valuable data using my Macbook
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  • Disk utility "You can't use this version of the application Disk Utility with this version of Mac OSX. You have Disk Utility 12.1"

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  • Disk Utility reports a block count error for a deleted file?

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    Hi Hollie, and welcome to the forums!
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    OmniDiskSweeper is now free, and likely the best/easiest...
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    A.

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