Command-R Disk Repair Failed

[John Greer]

My son's MacBook Pro hung and would not reboot. White screen, then turned off.

Command-R repair got many, many errors - then finally said:

Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many files as possible, reformat the drive and restore your backed-up files.​

Wouldn't you know it, my son has no backups other than the ones on this damaged disk. Before I format the drive and reinstall Mavericks, how do I get his backup zip file (and as many other data files as I can) off of the damaged HDD and onto my USB flash drive? I do not see any way to mount the drive and copy stuff off...???

 

[Weaselboy]

If you can't even mount the drive, you are not going to get anything off it.

You might take a shot at something like Disk Warrior.

It sounds like the drive is bad and a format and reinstall is very unlikely to help.

 

[John Greer]

Solved. See this.

 

[simonsi]

You've formatted and restored back to the same HDD??? Thats like dodging a bullet, reloading and having another go....for the sake of the $100 involved I'd never trust the same HDD again, and Son needs a better backup strategy, he might not be so lucky next time.

 

[maflynn]

I also highly recommend that your son embraces a better backup strategy, drives not that expensive but data is ill-replaceable.