Mountain lion install failed due to hard drive failure. It said I needed to repair the disk and I was taken to the lion recovery menu.
Unfortunately, and quite idiotically, I never made a back up of my files and the lion operating system before trying to upgrade. My main concern now is just making sure none of my files were lost because of the install failure. I don't know what to do from here because I'm afraid to make a mistake and never be able to recover them again. What can I do to restore my computer back to normal? When I look under Macintosh HD in the Disk Utility option on lion recovery, it seems as if it recognizes that all of my files are still intact, because about 200 GB out of 319 GB are used up on it. This correlates to the amount of files on my disk. Pleaseeee tell me I didn't just lose all of my files. Any help will be greatlyy appreciated!
Sincerely,
Mathew Smith
You only need the powered exernal drive, OS X reinstall is free to install on the external drive.
Hold the option key and boot from the extenral drive.
When OS X upgrades or installs (without a disk wipe first), it doesn't touch Applications and User account folders (only Apple programs) so as long as the drive and file system works, (even if OS X doesn't boot on that drive) the files can be recovered via normal drag and drop methods.
If you can't access the files normally, only then you will have to install Data Rescue on the external drive (another $100) to read the 1's and 0's of the non-encrytped files directly, bypassing the file system structure. Thus is the price for not making adequate backups.
Most commonly used backup methods
In some major cities where there is a lot of computer tech support competition, you might be better with a local PC/Mac data recovery and restore service, saving you some money. But with the extenral hard drive you can then later make that a TimeMachine or clone drive, which you need anyway regardless.
Similar Messages
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Install failed due to hard drive issue -- now can't start Mac
I downloaded and installed Mountain Lion, but about 5 minutes into the install it said it couldn't do it because of a hard drive failure. It then told me to restart and try again, which I did. It failed again for the same reason. This time I quit the installer and restarted. Now my Mac won't start up -- it gets caught on that first screen with the spinning icon.
How can I get my Mac back up and running?Hi David,
I am so sorry I could not post this earlier. It's too bad you replaced your drive. I hope you have not lost important data through this ordeal!
I also went to the Apple Store yesterday (as I am covered under Apple Care) and had a consultation with a 'genius' who very quickly concluded that I either had a faulty hard drive (which I knew was not the case) or the ENTIRE contents of my primary hard drive were corrupted. According to him, my only choice would be to reformat and re-install from scratch. I was also chastised for not backing up my data before attempting to upgrade to Mountain Lion. He was also very persistent in asking (multiple times) if I "understood technology". I was dismissed with the excuse that there were other people waiting for him and he could not waste his time on me - he actually said that while walking away... The store manager offered to direct my to a couple of companies near-by that would be able (for a hefty fee) to restore my data.
Anyways, this was not necessary. Despite the "corrupted data" error messages and the fact that the drive would not initially mount, the solution to the problem proved to be simple and my visit to Apple Store completely pointless.
This is what worked for me:
-- Use/borrow/buy (from Apple Store and then return for a refund) an external hard drive with firewire connectivity. The drive should have a fresh partition that you can erase and format as Mac OS Extended (Journalled) in Disk Utility.
-- Connect your mac to the Internet, preferably over Ethernet.
-- Restart the computer while holding the option key, select the Recovery Partition and begin the installation (in my case of Lion) by selecting to install on the freshly-created partition of the external hard drive.
-- Once that is done, you can actual start OS from the fresh partition by again holding the Option key at startup. In my case, as the drive was indeed healthy, it mounted without issues and I was able to simply copy->paste ALL my data (which the 'genius' insisted was corrupted and forever lost) on a separate drive.
-- After you back everything up, start up Disk Utility, erase and reformat the primary partition on your Mac (where you want the OS to be ultimately installed on) and repeat the installation process once again.
Regards,
Lena -
I have a macbook 2006 its hard drive was not working anymore so i install a new 500GB hard drive but now i just need the software. Which one should i buy?
Snow Leopard 10.6 Technical Requirements - http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575
You can buy Snow Leopard at:
Snow Leopard disc source - http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
You could contact Apple Support and see if they have the original discs for that machine but it would be 10.4.11 and there's no reason not to go to at least Snow Leopard, especially since the 10.6 discs would probably cost the same as a replacement set of 10.4.11 -
I don't store any files on my computer, I store them on a hd. Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine? And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.
ehphotograph wrote:
Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine?
Yes.
And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.
Also yes.
Directly-connected external drives (ie, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt) are not backed-up by default. You must remove them from the exclusion list in Time Machine Preferences > Options to get them backed-up. (Network drives cannot be backed-up.)
And they must be formatted for a Mac -- any variation of Mac OS Extended.
If the drive is connected, you can browse or restore normally -- just go to the folder or document in question and Enter Time Machine.
If the drive is not connected, it's a bit different. See #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Message was edited by: Pondini -
my iphone 4s said it needed updating to ios7.2 and so far its displaying the itunes logo and saying plug into itunes so i tried updating with itunes and it keeps saying it has failed (3194)
Hello Amz_Bajwa,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
iTunes: Specific update-and-restore error messages and advanced troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694#error3194
Unable to contact the iOS software update server gs.apple.com
Error 1004, 1013, 1638, 3014, 3194: These errors may be the result of the connection to gs.apple.com being redirected or blocked. Follow these steps to resolve these errors:
Install the latest version of iTunes.
Check security software and ensure that communication to gs.apple.com is allowed. Follow these stepsfor assistance with security software.
Check the hosts file. The restore will fail if there is an active entry to redirect gs.apple.com. Follow theadvanced iTunes Store troubleshooting steps to edit the hosts file or revert to a default hosts file. See "Blocked by configuration: (Mac OS X/Windows) > Rebuild network information."
Try to restore from another known-good computer and network.
If the errors persist on another computer, the device may need service.
Best of luck,
Mario -
Mavericks has failed due to hard drive problem
I have tried to install Mavericks on my Mac Pro which is my office machine and mid way through it says it cannot install due to a problem with the hard drive and that I should back up my data.
I do not have my time machine with me to resotre my Mac.
How can I get past the OSX installer and reboot back into the previous version to remove the Mavericks install?Apple Genius said my logic board was bad along with a fan???
SO I tried creativenature's IDEA
“I had the same error 15 mins in to the install.
I ran disc utilities to repair the hard drive
and then to get out of the endless loop of the installer
While restarting... I held down Option while booting to select my HD drive.
Booted up normally and have everything back”
AND IT WORKED WOW!!!!!!! YAYAYAYYAYA!!!! PARTY!!!!!!
I really do believe that Apple Genius’s should go through some more thorough process before helping customers/developers with problems.
For example last month I had an Apple Genius tell me complete false information about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation iPad’s. -
Re-install design premium after hard drive failure
In May 2012, I installed Creative Suites on my laptop. My laptop's hard drive has failed. How do I transfer my Abode programs to a new computer?
You install them using installation files. Here is a general link that can lead you to downloads for whichever Creative Suites you installed.
Download and Installation Help -
https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install.html
Assuming you lost the laptop without deactivating the Adobe suites, you should contact Adobe Support thru chat and ask them to reset your activations. That way you will still have ypour two allowed activations available to you in case you want to install on a second machine as backup.
For the link below click the Still Need Help? option in the blue area at the bottom and choose the chat option...
Serial number and activation chat support (non-CC)
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service1.html ( http://adobe.ly/1aYjbSC ) -
How do I reinstall Creative Suite due to hard drive failure?
My hard drive failed and I do not have access to it. I need to reinstall my creative suite. How do I do so?
download the installation files and install.
if you see an excess activation count issue when installing, contact adobe support for an activation count reset by clicking https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html >'still need help'.
Downloads available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4 | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 13 |12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7
Photoshop Elements: 13 |12 | 11, 10 | 9,8,7
Lightroom: 5.7| 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.
window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'. -
Is there a way for my macbook air (running Lion 10.7.2) to access an external hard drive on my Imac (running snow leopard 10.6.8) specifically for Iphoto and itunes?
Yes. For those two applications specifically there is sharing. This presumes both computers are on and connected to the same network.
In iPhoto, enable sharing by (on the iMac) going to the iPhoto menu > Preferences > Sharing > check Share my photos. You can either share the entire library or only selected albums. Now on your MacBook Air, in iPhoto, go to the same preference pane and select Look for shared photos.
iTunes has something similar. In the iTunes menu > Preferences > Sharing > check Share my library on my local network. On the other computer, look in the left column for SHARED and select the iMac. You can now play that music on the MacBook Air.
There are other ways to share files but for those two applications this is the simplest way.
Best of luck. -
After installing the 4.09 fix to process RAW from Sony RX100 (after updating to 3.5.1), photos do not continue to load into Aperture from the external hard drive where they are referenced. The same photo is stuck in the adjustments frame to be worked on and the photos will not advance, no matter what I try, so i can work on the next one. I can only work on a few at a time and then i have to go away and come back another day. 4.09 does fix the barrel distortion but it has completely gummed up the uploading of the referenced photos. It's taking me days and weeks to process a couple of hundred photos.
The Macbook Air is a low end Macintosh for graphics apps and you are asking it to perform a heavy pro workflow using a pro application. The integrated GPU of MBAs is a serious limiter to heavy graphics. Personally I would expect flaky performance with certain operations. In general I recommend that Aperture users choose boxes with independent GPUs and capable of taking 16 GB RAM if necessary.
It will be important to carefully optimize workflow. How much RAM is in the MBA? The most Apple specs is 8 GB but you can check OWC to see if you can go to 16 GB. My Aperture/Photoshop workflow paged out at 8 GB RAM before I upgraded to 16 GB RAM.
You should evaluate whether or not you have adequate RAM:
Look at the Page Outs number under System Memory on the Activity Monitor app before starting a typical Aperture/Photoshop work session and write the number down. Recheck the Page Outs count after working for a few hours and write the number down again. If the page outs change (manual calculation of ending page outs number minus starting page outs number) is not zero your workflow is RAM-starved.
Ignore the pie charts and other info in Activity Monitor because they can be misleading regarding RAM usage. For RAM analysis, manually count page outs before and after a work session.
HTH
-Allen -
Recently I found it necessary to re-install my entire operating system, and I lost my ability to down load streaming videos. I am an artist almost 70 yrs. old, and am not very computer proficient which is why I purchased a MacBook Pro. I used Firefox/Mozilla to do downloading because it was easy. When I brought my system back up I found that the top 'Firefox banner' had changed from red, orange and yellow in color to shades of gray. With this change found that I no longer had the download 'tab' to click on to initiate downloads (located top right on the Firefox top section).
I've tried re-installing Firefox and Antbar download helper but am still not able to download. How do I get the download capability back again???? ......roxor999Your storage device is probably faulty. It would be helpful if you indicated the EXACT model/year MBP that you have.
Ciao. -
I've just bought a new laptop and through home share tried to transfer my iTunes library. The new laptop is authored and is 3 of the 5 allowed. About 1000 songs came up as 'computer not authorised', any ideas/solutions/or similar probs.
Done that and computer is authorised. I click on play on one of the songs that transferred over annotated a 'not authorised to play' and when I click to play I get the 'not authorised' error message, go to authorise the computer and get the message 'already authorised', but still can't play the track. Ahhhhhhhhh!
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Can programs be installed on an external hard drive with my mac pro?
Can programs be installed on an external hard drive. I am running low on space. Final Cut Pro X spins off the rendering files which takes a large chunk of space. Like to at least have those rendered files on an external drive, but can find that option to make it happen.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro10,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP102.0106.B07
SMC Version (system): 2.6f59
Serial Number (system): C02L250VFFRP
Hardware UUID: B26BB020-5346-5A3E-BE36-8D63AAF041C4
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
Hard Drive APPLE SSD SD256E:
Kent MechemHello Ian. I am currently using Lion installed on a WD My Passport 500Gig drive connected to my MBPro via USB, which is still running 10.6.8. Like you I am not prepared to lose all my currently functioning Mac, but also like to see how the new OS runs before making the total switch, maybe when it gets to 10.7.2
So after you download Lion and select to run the installer it will show you which disk to install on, being the default SL drive you downloaded Lion with. But here you can click Other Disk and select the external HD. The installer will run and then boot into the external drive to complete the installation. From then on you can use Startup Disk or the Option key to select the preferred OS. -
Mac OS X Lion compatibility with Iomega external hard drives
iMac & MacBook Pro does not recognize external iomega hard drive anymore following upgrade to OS X Lion. Is there a software fix.
I am using Time Machine to back-up to the hard drive. At one point I started receiving error messages that the hard drive was drawing power from the iMac and it was ejected. The hard drive has its own power supply though, which is working fine. I am assuming that there is a software problem as these difficulties only started once I had upgraded to Lion.
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OS X install on a new hard drive
I'm trying to use the Install Disk on a new hard drive. I have gotten the disk to spin up, it sounds as if it is working, but after a minute or so, a gray screen comes down from the top of the screen and a box appears with the following message:
You need to restart your computer. hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
There is no Restart button, so I opt for the Power button option. I have tried restarting with the disk in using various key press and hold options- C, Command R, Option. It just repeats the above results and ends up back at the " you need to Restart" screen. I've tried ejecting the disk and restarting, that leads to the grey screen with the blinking folder icon with a ?.
I have also completed the Apple Hardware Test. No problems were found.
Any suggestions of what to try next?That gray sceen is a kernel panic
Try http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
Allan
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