Frozen on re-installation of OS X

[agl126]

Hi guys, really at my wits end here. I'm a student living in Switzerland and I'm afraid my French skills aren't good enough to call Apple Support to sort this out (I learnt this the hard way...)

So the other day my Mac just stopped working. Spinning beach ball of death. So I did a hard reset and then was frozen on the grey apple screen with a perpetual loading signal. I trekked it down to the Apple Store and the 'genius' restored my computer (by erasing everything) and told me to go home where there was wifi and electricity and wait out the couple of hours. So I did that, and everything was fine...then I got to the Mac OS X Installation screen.

It's been on this screen for over 5 hours now, saying that there is around 22 minutes left. I've tried re-starting the whole process by hard-resetting as well as calling Apple support who told me to press Option + R to re-do the whole process that the guy did at the Apple Store. Nothing's worked.

I'm stressed - I have an exam on Monday and my notes were all on the computer. They're gone now - but I'd at least like to have a functional word processor to type things up! Anyone able to give me some advice?

 

[Weaselboy]

When you start with option-r are you getting to the install screen?

Try selecting Disk Utility from the installer screen and run Repair Disk first to see if that helps.

 

[agl126]

Well I've tried repairing the disk but it's coming up with an error (conveniently in French - something to do with nodes?) and won't finish repairing. The disk is in red writing and I think it's telling me to go to the Apple Store to replace my computer. Argh!

 

[Weaselboy]

Well I've tried repairing the disk but it's coming up with an error (conveniently in French - something to do with nodes?) and won't finish repairing. The disk is in red writing and I think it's telling me to go to the Apple Store to replace my computer. Argh!

If disk repair won't complete, that is often a sign of a bad hard drive.

Can you maybe use Google Translate to decipher the error message?

 

[agl126]

Used google translate and the result was "this disk has a hardware problem that cannot be resolved, save as much as possible and consult an Apple provider for further information". Ah God. Thanks for you help. Worst message you can get on a mac.

 

[Weaselboy]

Used google translate and the result was "this disk has a hardware problem that cannot be resolved, save as much as possible and consult an Apple provider for further information". Ah God. Thanks for you help. Worst message you can get on a mac.

Uh oh

Good luck in school.