I got a 2011 Macbook Pro. Just about a week or two ago I was using it and then it just shut down even though I had the charger plugged in. Have another PC and the began looking around. I have done about everything that I can think off and after a while I finally found out how to boot into the Disk Utility. And well behold I need to repair my disk. I go to verify Disk It then proceeds to seay "Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk." and I do. Then I get in red Letters "INVALID NODE STRUCTURE" and then "ERROR: DISK UTILITY AN'T REPAIR THIS DISK...DISK, AND RESTORE YOUR BACKED UP FILES." So from what i have found out I basically hav e the only option to open up my mac and then take out the HD and mounted to get the files. I don't really know how to go about this option so I am backing up my system to restore which is the other option a clean install. So I went out and bought a "My Passport" portable stroage 1 TB which should be more than enough right? Only have a 500GB and had only about 200 GB used. BY THE WAY I AM ONLY TRYING TO GET THE PICTURES AND VIDEOS AS IT WAS MY MAIN PURPOSE OF USAGE. IF ANY ONE KNOWS HOW TO GET THOSE OFF I WILL BE HAPPY WITH THAT EVEN IF THE MACBOOK BECOMES A BRICK. I JUST WANT THE PICTURES AND VIDEOS AS I NEVER BACKED THEM UP....SMART IDEA. So I formated the external HD with the following settings int the disk utility. For the format I use MAC OS Extedned ( Journaled) and then a GUID Partition Table. I have tried and tried but I end up getting this notice "unable to create back up *name of file*.dmg (input output error) So with this am I doing something incorrectly? I get this message after about an hour. Does this mean that the drive can't even be backed up b/c of corruption? Also time machine and all of that ain't an option as I never did that. I have my Iphone so I was able to save the pictures that were in the Photo Stream but i have a whole lot others on that HD. Basically I just have my macbook that turns on onto the grey screen and then shuts down, i can't start i safe mode either. I have that external HD 1 TB, and my windows PC. Any workable solution to this? Also if anyone could explain if the process of taking out the HD a hard one and how likely am I to damage the Mac if I open it? Or does that message mean that I can't even back up and I've lost my data? Also not sure how to use disk warrior and all that. Also i've read that I can schedule a Genius appoitment? What exaclty is that and would that be of any help to recover my data? Anything would be helpful.
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Macbook Stuck On Gray Screen How To Back Up.
- Thread starter mirojero
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I would give disk warrior a try. These programs can often recover disk problems. The programs aren't free, but if your data is important the cost isn't that great. The disk warrior type programs are usually on bootable DVDs, so you don't have to take the HDD out of your Mac.
And for goodness sake make backups! Never ever ever have only one copy of your important stuff. Disks will fail eventually no matter what. Do not depend on a single copy.
If you had started out with backups you wouldn't be in such a mess.
P.S. Use paragraphs when posting; lots of people will see the wall of text and not bother to read it.
And for goodness sake make backups! Never ever ever have only one copy of your important stuff. Disks will fail eventually no matter what. Do not depend on a single copy.
If you had started out with backups you wouldn't be in such a mess.
P.S. Use paragraphs when posting; lots of people will see the wall of text and not bother to read it.
Yeah, paragraphs and no lines of caps would be better.
It sounds like you are really flustered about this, and also not very technical. This is a mix that will end with you formatting the wrong drive or doing more damage than it is worth.
Find a local small shop that knows MBs a little. You don't need an expert. They will quickly be able to ascertain if the problem is bad HD or just bad partition - and save what they can. In many instances, all the data.
I am guessing you have something on the drive you don't want seen by someone else, else you would have called someone right away. Find someone you can trust, have them do the work while you watch, and voila.
There is no reason to destroy the MBP to do this. Relax. Damage is done, and fixing it will take calm patient motions.
It sounds like you are really flustered about this, and also not very technical. This is a mix that will end with you formatting the wrong drive or doing more damage than it is worth.
Find a local small shop that knows MBs a little. You don't need an expert. They will quickly be able to ascertain if the problem is bad HD or just bad partition - and save what they can. In many instances, all the data.
I am guessing you have something on the drive you don't want seen by someone else, else you would have called someone right away. Find someone you can trust, have them do the work while you watch, and voila.
There is no reason to destroy the MBP to do this. Relax. Damage is done, and fixing it will take calm patient motions.
Thanks for the advice well no not really it's just that we have our daughter's pictures since she was born which are irreplacable. And well as far as a Mac goes no not really technical but I am pretty good when it comes to PC's which doesn't help much. I've taken some courses in Fedora which I gues sis like the mac os and I looked around and wasn't aware I could boot into what would be the terminal for mac.
So what I did was I simply booted up to diskutility and formated that harddrive and then rebooted into the terminal. Finally i just mounted the harddrive thru the terminal and navigated to all the folders where our pictures were and copied the folders onto the harddrive. Only took a couple of hours and folders not hard to find. So I got our pictures and videos.
The answer was so simple I've should've slowed down and looked but yes I was in panic mode because those are irreplacable.
Thanks for the help and now just need to reinstall mac os but that should be abreeze. thanks again.
So what I did was I simply booted up to diskutility and formated that harddrive and then rebooted into the terminal. Finally i just mounted the harddrive thru the terminal and navigated to all the folders where our pictures were and copied the folders onto the harddrive. Only took a couple of hours and folders not hard to find. So I got our pictures and videos.
The answer was so simple I've should've slowed down and looked but yes I was in panic mode because those are irreplacable.
Thanks for the help and now just need to reinstall mac os but that should be abreeze. thanks again.