MacOS – Repair or recover drive from Mac OSX recovery mode

bootdata-recoveryhard-drive-recoverymacos

My main HDD is failing to boot. (Neither Normal nor Safe mode). Single User seems to work.
I can only boot from Recovery Mode or DVD.

The scenario was the following:

  • Computer was asleep (lid down).
  • Lifted the lid then connected USB mouse.
  • Mouse nor trackpad nor keyboard responded.
  • Closed the lid, removed the USB mouse then opened the lid again.
  • Trackpad and keyboard responsive once again, but after trying to close some programs computer freezes.
  • Shutdown computer by pressing power button for 10 seconds.
  • At restart computer doesn't boot anymore.

When booting in verbose I noticed the following:

...
...
USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 000000009833 0x5ac 0x8403 0x9833
disk0s2: I/O error.
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Write] [PBlkNum 2] [FSLogMsgID 61471212] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [FSLogMsgID 61471212] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
jnl: unknown-dev: update_fs_block: failed to update block 2 (ret 5)
jnl: unknown-dev: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0)
Kernel is LP64
com.apple.launchd                       1          com.apple.launchd
com.apple.launchd                       1          com.apple.launchd
***
com.apple.launchd                       1          com.apple.launchd
** /dev/rdisk0s2 (NO WRITE)
** Root file system
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-557-393)
jnl: disk0s2: replay_journal: from 13043200 to: 3971072 (joffset 0x15502000)
disk0s2: I/O error.
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Write] [PBlkNum 2] [LBlkNum 2] [FSLogMsgID 1396728806] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevMode devfs] [MountPth /dev] [Path /dev/disk0s2] [FSLogMsgID 1396728806] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]
jnl: disk0s2: update_fs_block: failed to update block 2 (ret 5)
jnl: disk0s2: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs_mount: journal_open == NULL; couldn't be opened on Macintosh HD
mount_hfs: Invalid argument
FIP USER Space POST: Integrity test failed!
BootCacheControl: could not unlink bootcache playlist /var/db/BootCache.playlist: 30 Read-only file system

After that it just gets stuck and never gets past that.

I booted in recovery mode then tried verify and repair disk with disk utilities put is seems to be OK. However Macintosh HD cannot be mounted.

Tried fsck_hfs from Recovery Mode terminal then got Macintosh HD cannot be repaired.

I'll want to know if there is anyway to rescue the system without reinstalling Mac OSX or at least a way to recover some filesfrom the drive before reinstalling Mac OSX.

Best Answer

This may be a little more effort but I have had some success with a tool, Spinrite, that works below the level of to OS and file system. It runs on PC hardware. I have heard it work on Tivo and IPod drives which other file systems.

More the drive onto a pc if possible with a Sara or USB connection and run Spinrie on it. Level 4. Once done move it back and try to boot. It's $90 and a few hours work but may give you a chance at recovery

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