Stuck in Lion installation LIMBO - disk damaged, disk wont repair, disk is locked, wont revert back to snow leopard

I'm stuck in Limbo. I cant complete the install and cant revert back to snow leopard. All I have are the installer utilites (including safari).
I'm running a summer 2009 release macbook pro 17 inch. I downloaded the Lion install app and proceeded to follow the instructions and guided. After less than a minute the install stopped to say that it could not be completed because the hard disk is damaged and can’t be repaired.
So...I went to disc utility to verify the disk and this is what I got.
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Incorrect number of file hard links
Bad hard link creation date
(It should be 3325742596 instead of 3340504404)
Hard link record has data extents (id = 2888169)
Checking multi-linked files.
The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
So I put in my Snow Leopard disk and went to repair disk. Now, THIS is what I got.
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
So then I wanted to go back to Snow Leopard at least, but I cant. When I go to “Startup Disk” and select my Mac 10.6.8 drive, it says:
You can’t change the startup disk from the selected disk.
Startup Disk could not gather enough information on Selected Disk.
So that’s annoying because it keeps me stuck in that installation "limbo" - not able to finish installing and not able to go back.
I restarted, holding down the OPTION key, but it only gave me one boot selection - the installer itself.
So then I try yet again to install this thing because there’s not much else I can do...but now it won’t even start installing...when the installer screen asks which drive I want to install it on, for which I would of course choose my Macintosh HD, it says in subscript underneath Macintosh HD:
“This disk is locked” and it wont let me select the “continue” button to begin the installation.
Please help, someone.

phew, just got everything back to "normal"
I turned off my mac for about 10 minutes and then started it up again. Also I think this time i inserted my snow leopard disc at just the right time, not too early not too late.
Whatever it was, when i went to "Startup Disk" the snow leopard disc showed up!
So then I went to disk utility after booting the snow leopard installer for the first time. It said it repaired one thing but then stopped and said it couldnt repair it and told me to back up and reformat.
Then I just ran a simple verify again and it said the HD was "OK" - it gave me a clean bill of health?!?!
So then I went to startup disk again, and was finally able to get out of limbo and back to good old snow leopard.
Now I'll install Lion, but taking all cautions beforehand...maybe i'll wait a few days first though.
Thanks to everyone.

Similar Messages

How to revert back to Snow Leopard from Lion?

Foolishly I just jumped straight in, downloaded Lion and installed it, and well... I really don't like it. It's not a patch on SL.
So I'm trying to work out the best way of reverting back to Snow Leopard.
I have:
My Snow Leopard install disc.
A SuperDuper, bootable backup from 48 hours pre-upgrade.
A Time Machine backup from 48 hours pre-upgrade.
I'm fairly sure that just putting the SL install disc in, isn't going to work.
I think I have a couple of options.
1. Erase the hard drive completely, and then do a fresh SL install, then restore the last TM backup.
2. Boot from the SuperDuper backup, then restore the last TM backup.
I'd prefer option 1, as this gives me a clean install (I hope).
Before I go ahead, can anyone:
a) See any problems with carrying this out, or
b) Suggest a better, safer method?
I'm a bit concerned that SL was an upgrade to an existing OS, rather than a complete OS in itself, so I'm very wary of what might happen if I wipe the drive then put the disc in, hoping it'll give me a nice new version of SL. Might need to go and do a bit more reading up.
Thanks.

For ref.
Dragged and dropped copies of important files (Docs, Pictures, Downloads, Movies etc) to a spare drive.
Printed off any docs that I absolutely could not afford to lose.
Shut down Mac.
Attached USB drive with SuperDuper backup, and powered up drive.
Powered up Mac, and immediately pressed the option key.
From the window that popped up, chose my USB drive as the boot disk and pressed return.
Mac powered up running Snow Leopard from USB drive.
Started Disk Utility, and erased the disk labelled 250.06 GB Fujitsu.... etc In the 'name' field, entered 'Macintosh HD'
Started up SuperDuper! and copied my backup over Macintosh HD.
Incidentally, the first step it took was to erase Macintosh HD anyway, so I could probably have skipped the first erase.
Let SuperDuper! do it's thing for 90 mins.
Once it had completed, closed the machine down (it wouldn't let me eject the USB drive, as presumably it was still using that as the boot disc).
Detached and powered off USB drive.
Pressed Mac power button and crossed fingers...
And goodbye annoying Lion, hello again, good old Snow Leopard!
Didn't even need to restore the last Time Machine backup.
I may take another look at Lion again, further down the road, when hopefully Apple will have realised that OS X and iOS are two completely different animals, and that we don't all want our Macs behaving like our iPads.
For now though, I'm sticking with SL.

OSX Lion, It is slow and really lumpy/jerky Can I revert back to Snow leopard?

Where are Apple?
Had OSXLion for a week and it is nothing like as fast as the last OS, screen changes are really slow and jerky and the whole thing feels slower. Is there anything that I can do, or can I revert back to Snow Leopard?
This is a real shame never had this type of issue with Apple before.

This is a user to user forum. You can only revert to Snow Leopard through your backup. You might attempt piecemeal data recovery after backing up your Lion system, and copying your e-mail folders to IMAP if they weren't stored there before. Spotlight frequently needs to finish updating in the menu in the upper right (it will only have a search field if it is done, and say it is indexing if it is not), or some plugins may need upgrading to be Lion compatible before you upgrade to Lion. See my FAQs*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html#LION

How do I revert back to Snow Leopard from OS Lion without losing files etc

I need to revert back as my work VPN cannot operate with the java cocoa version that is part of safari due to the OS Lion upgrade I performed. I have done a ton of work on my system in the last week and don't want to lose any of it - and no I didn't use time machine. HOw much am I going to lose when I uninstall Lion and then reinstall Leopard?
Thank so much for your help,
cmw

First, do a full backup of your current system.
Reformat your hard drive's main partition that you want to revert to Snow Leopard from Lion. This will delete EVERYTHING on the partition, which is why you need to do the backup first.
Reinstall Snow Leopard from the installer media you own.
Download then install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Updater.
Run Software Update repeatedly until there are no updates left to install.
Reinstall all your third-party applications.
Connect the backup you made of the Lion system and copy over your data. You should only have to copy over the files you know about within your own user account folder.
If you do this right, you'll have everything back in Snow Leopard with no loss. If you do it wrong, well, that's another reason we made a backup all the way back in the beginning of this process - you can always start over.

Can I revert back to Snow Leopard after upgrading to Lion?

I would like to install Lion over my current Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installation but I have some concerns that I may not like it. If for some reason, I want to revert back to SL, can I use a Time Machine backup to return to my former OS?

Yes. Just boot up from your Snow Leopard DVD, and restore the last Time Machine backup that was made before you installed Lion.

Can I revert back to Snow Leopard from Lion?

Hey guys,
Last night i upgraded to Lion. Have since found out my Focusrite 24 DSP audio interface wont work with Lion (No Drivers yet).... can i simply re-install Leopard from the install discs that came with my imac until such time as drivers become available for my hardware, then re-install Lion? Can this be done without clearing my entire hard-drive and starting again?
Cheers
Sean

mscys wrote:
If you have a complete Time Machine backup of your previous Snow Leopard system, going back to SL is really quite easy.
Just boot from the Lion Recovery partition (option key at startup) and choose to restore from Time Machine backup. (You'll be able to see your last dated and identified SL backup, even if you'd already been using TM with Lion.) It will erase the drive for you and restore a bootable SL. No DVD required.
Works great.
(If you don't have a complete TM backup, then you'll have to wipe the drive, install SL and updates, then use Migration Assistant to bring over your partial TM backup, ie: does not include system and apps.)
Thanks very much for this. I've just restored Snow Leopard from Time Machine, and it only took 30 mins. Worked perfectly. Now I have an OS that works properly (hooray!).
Bob.

How to downgrade from Mountain Lion back to snow leopard with Time Machine

The final straw was the horrible mouse sideways page wiggle while trying to scroll down and read safari pages. Even after turning the feature off, tech support said it will still wiggle a little. That and the HORRIBLE grey icons everywhere was enough to send me back to my beloved iMac I loved when I bought it. I'll give up the iMessage and the few new items ML gave me. But as many others said, what I got new was far less than what was taken away.
So what tech support had me do was this. Even though the apple engineers said it would not work, apple tech support had me try it and it worked for me so good luck. Engineers said that after you install mountain Lion, it messes with ALL your time machine back ups and won't revert back to snow leopard even if you select a snow leopard date back in time. That didn't happen to me. I have a 2010 27 inch iMac
This worked for me but PROCEED AT YOU OWN RISK
Export individually any email folders or photos or data you will lose between now and the date you are reverting back to.
1. Insert Snow Leopard DVD that came with computer. The install disk not the applications. Make sure time machine external drive IS connected.
2. Restart computer and when you hear The Mac chime, hold down the C key and then it will take several minutes to boot up from the DVD.
3. Select the little blue triangle to continue in English.
4. When it gets to the screen that says "continue" stop. There might be a screen or two before this one I can't remember but either way stop at the word continue.
5. Go up to the top left and find the UTILITIES pull down menu and select disk utility.
6. In the window that opens up, Select the Apple drive which should be the very top one in the window.
7. Select erase.. it should be Mac OS extended journaled
8 select erase and maybe a password. It only takes a few seconds
9 go back up to UTILITIES in upper left and then select restore from time machine or backup or whatever it says. It's the last choice.
10. Select the external time machine drive and navigate to the date you last had Snow Leopard running and that will be the date it restores to. You will lose any data between now and then but you can export your mail, export photos, and other items separately. I only stayed on ML For a few days before hating it enough to go back so I had no loss of data except a few emails.
11. Hit RESTORE. And then it will take several hours. When you restart it, it should come right back to that day you selected as if ML was just a bad thought on someone's drawing board.   If for some reason it still comes up ML, Then they said to erase HD Again (steps 1-8) and then manually drags back USER folder or individual folders with Mail, photos etc.   if this way doesn't work, have another plan printed out so that you are not stuck by this one.
Good luck. Proceed at your own risk..

The ultimate solution:
You need an USB of at least 5 GB and the Snow Leopard Install DVD.
1. make a bootable USB with Disk Utility in it:
     a. download the Mountain Lion Installer from the App Store
     b. quit the installer after download
     c. find the installer in the Applications folder
     d. option+click in it and select "Show Pakage Contents"
     e. go to Contents>SharedSupport to find there the InstallESD.dmg file and mount it by double-clicking it
     f. with the Disk Utility, restore its contents into your USB
2. boot from the USB:
     a. restart the computer and hold-down the option key while booting
     b. select the USB and boot
3. run the Disk Utility and format in ONE partition the HD of your computer
REMEMBER: BACKUP YOUR HARD DISK BEFORE DOING ALL THESE, YOUR DISK WILL BE EREASED AND DATA BECOME UNRECOVERABLE OTHERWISE
4. insert the Snow Leopard DVD and reboot from it
5. follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X 10.6
After this, you can, if you will, upgrade to Lion or stay in Snow... Good Luck!!

I am ready to dump mountain lion and go back to snow leopard

Can someone stop me? I am so frustrated with lion and now mountain lion that I am actually looking at dumping the OS X 10.8 and reverting back to snow leopard.
I have a small office with three mac machines. I have been a fan of the macs for many years, even though we have software for enigineering that requires a windows versions. I have several issues that will not go away on each machine. I have a table below that describes a few of the problems. These problems have left me and my staff with no trust that our work is safe (yes, we do backups and TM). Our work flow is no longer fluid or fun with mountain lion.
Machine
OS X issues
Macbook 2009 5,0 running 10.7.3
Graphics problems, extremely slow performance opening and closing files.
Macbook Pro mid 2009, 5,1 now testing 10.8.3 beta
Graphics problems, dropped WIFI, time machine corruption, very slow finder performance, CUDA performance issues, loads of lsboxd issues, spotlite runs indexing alot, Sync services still broken in mountain lion. Cannot keep the Adobe licensing for Creative Suite 4 activated. Fresh install of 10.8.2
Macbook Pro Late 2011, running 10.8.2
Graphics problems, flash problems, kernel panics after sleep, Kernel panics with VM Ware fusion 5.0.2, Memory relase issues after software quits, Very slow finder performance, Safari causes kernel panics. Any panic causes multiple versions of Office for mac 2011 autosaved files from one original file., spotlite indexing issues. Sync services still broken in mountain lion. Fresh install of 10.8.2
I am normally a good troubleshooter and have resolved many issues so far. But they just cntiue and I am spending a lot of time resolving problems with the machine's OS that I could be using for productivity. I guess I feel like the old days as an engineer in an office where windows requires a near constant windows administrator.
Is this just me whining? Is anyone else suffering through the OS X 10.7 and 10.8 issues?
Somebady tell me I am crazy... I just want to get back to work.

Some troubleshooting information.
Isolating Issues
Isolating an issue by using another user account
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
Basic Maintenance:
Disk Utility
Disk Utility Repair Permissions You Can Safely Ignore
Reset NVRAM/PRAM
Reset SMC
General Maintenance Recommendations
Safari Problems

I've just upgraded to "Lion" from "Snow Leopard" which to my surprise does not support "Appleworks" I've used Appleworks for a number of years for all correspondence etc. and need to continue using this software. Do I need to go back to Snow Leopard? d

I've just upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard and to my surprise it does not support my 'Appleworks' application software. Ihave used Appleworks for all correspondence for six years and need to refer to the files (letters etc.) from time to time. Is my only option to revert back to Snow Leopard?

The reason appleworks no longer runs is because it is a powerpc based application. Since it's end-of-life in 2007, it was never converted to intel architecture, since it was dropped as a supported product. It continued to run on intel machines via rosetta, but OS X Lion formally discontinues all support for powerpc based programs. Powerpc based applications can only be run on OS X 10.6.8 or earlier releases (ones that still support rosetta).
So, it does sound like your best option is to move to iWorks' Pages now - otherwise you will be stuck with an increasingly more outdated operating system. And if you should buy a new machine, it would not run the older versions of OS X anyway, so at some point you have to leave appleworks behind and move on. Seems best to do it now, before Pages perhaps also moves forward to a point where it too may no longer support ancient file formats.
http://www.apple.com/support/appleworks/faq/

Downgrade Lion back to Snow Leopard

I have a 3 month old macBook Pro - which came with Snow leopard (I have the original Snow Leopard install disc)
I have installed Lion but want to revert back to Snow Leopard
but Snow Laeoprd install app won't work under Lion using the DVD
as yet there is nothing on this laptop that I need - so I won't need a backup - I just want to get rid of lion & have a fresh start
When I try to boot from the Snow Leopard install disc (by holding C or option key) - I get a grey panic screen which says "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off, then press the power button again"
I have done this several times - but when holding "c" I get the same message
any ideas ?

that thread assumes you can boot from the SL install DVD - there is no way my MacBook pro will do that
as I stated
When I try to boot from the Snow Leopard install disc (by holding C or option key) - I get a grey panic screen which says "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off, then press the power button again"
there seems to be no way I can get into the disc to allow me to delete Lion and replace it with Snow Leopard

HT1338 My macbook came with snow leopard, if I upgrade to Lion will I be able to use my restore disks in the future and if I do use my disks that brings me back to snow leopard, Will itunes remember I purchased Lion or will I have to purchase a second ti

My macbook came with snow leopard, if I upgrade to Lion will I be able to use my restore disks in the future and if I do use my disks that brings me back to snow leopard, Will itunes remember I purchased Lion or will I have to purchase a second time ?

At this point, you can no longer download Lion (10.7) from the App Store, only Mountain Lion (10.8) - make sure all your applications are fully compatible if you decide to upgrade.
Yes, you can restore 10.6 using your restore disc should you wish to - and the App Store (not ITunes) will have a record of all your purchases, since it's linked to your AppleId.
Matt

Anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

anyone clean their mac using the disk utility using the repair disk permissions??

No. Threads don't hurt anything. If your computer is not functioning properly perhaps you need to try some basic maintenance. Let's start by having you do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Next, try booting into Safe Mode then immediately restart normally. Safe mode is going to take a while so be patient. It's slow.
Next, create a new user account. Log out of your account then log into the new account. Try using iPhoto and the publishing button. Do they work now?
If you still have a problem, then do the following. If you don't want to go through the above then just start with the following and forget the others above.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Disk utility can't repair disk, back up and restore files......I need help, I'm worried I'll lose all my photos, files etc

Mac started hanging up while streamlining a kids show. Restarted and got the screen with the apple and the circle. restarted with control-option p and r. Ran disk repairitem got the following results;
invalid index key,
it rebuilds catalog b-tree,
volume repair complete,
updating boot support partitions for the volume as required,
Error disk utility can't repair disk
I'm then prompted to back up all files, reformat the disk and restore backed up files.
Obviously need help here as I think I'm in danger of losing my files, photos etc if I don't do this right.
Can anyone help
Steve

You might want to back up the disk as soon as possible, do the repair, then back it up again. First time will have the issues that Disk Utility can't fix, however, you'll have the data saved. Then, once you get things repaired, make a new backup, and go from there.
If you're going to use a hard drive directly connected to your iMac for backup, this is what I mentioned earlier: http://twelvesouth.com/products/backpack/ Great way to use space behind the iMac without adding something else to the desk top. You can buy it through Apple online/stores or Amazon, and there are probably other sources too.
For external hard drives, I like those sold by OWC at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/ as many of them use Oxford chip sets, wihch work well with macs (I've used several for years with no issues). Most pre-packaged drive/cases have a 3 year warranty, although you can buy a case and add your own hard drive. I like Western Digital Scorpio Blacks that have a 5 year warranty.

Currently cannot burn a dvd or cd post install of snow leopard. Various errors to some times just ejecting the disk with no reason. System was fine prior to upgrading to snow leopard.

Currently cannot burn a dvd or cd post install of snow leopard. Various errors to some times just ejecting the disk with no reason. System was fine prior to upgrading to snow leopard.

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E:
Firmware Revision: ZA0E
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Disk utility unable to repair disk. What next?

Disk utility unable to repair disk. What next?

I encountered the same problem. After verify disk, I got the message to repair the disk. But it was unable to complete the repair. Rather than purchase Disk Warrior, I tried something else.
What I did was reinstall the OSX (this iMac is still on Leopard). I backed up everything, naturally, before doing the reinstall. I chose the "Archive and Install" option, along with "Preserve Users and Network Settings". This method moves existing files to a folder named "Previous System" and imports existing user accounts, network settings, and home folders into the new OSX.
After the successful reinstall, I ran Disk Utility. It checked AND repaired Permissions. It verified that the disk was fine and no longer needed repair.
If this didn't work, my plan "B" was to reinstall the OSX again, this time with the "Erase and Install" option. Fortunately, I didn't have to go to plan "B".

Stuck in Lion installation *LIMBO* - disk damaged, disk wont repair, disk is locked, wont revert back to snow leopard

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Stuck in Lion installation LIMBO - disk damaged, disk wont repair, disk is locked, wont revert back to snow leopard