Help: HD corrupted, backing up files.

[freakonaleash92]

hi, i was just about to install windows 7 when boot camp said that some of the files cannot be moved. i opened disk utility, and to my dismay, it claimed that "the volume macintosh HD is corrupted and needs to be repaired"

now, i know what that means explicitly but i'm more worried about the implications. as i type this, i am making an .dmg of my entire mac onto an xtl hd, and i was thinking, format drive, get files from .dmg, badabing, badaboom. but that got me thinking, is it so if i move my files that are already corrupted onto the xtl hd, and bring them back onto a reformatted drive, will that not make the problems go away? what is the best choice of options now? i can't use time machine due to a lack of space on the xtl hd (i wondered why it needs more than was used on my mac, but whatever)

i'm currently in the second year of the IB program and alot of important files are on this computer, any help would really, really be appreciated! i hope something can be done.

thanks in advance! cheers.

 

[spinnerlys]

I advise against the DMG route, as that might complicate things. What if the DMG gets corrupted?

Better use Carbon Copy Cloner for cloning your internal HDD to an external one.

You can also repair the disk via Disk Utility started from the installer DVD.

 

[maflynn]

I'd recommend using CCC or Time Machine to copy your files to an external disk.

 

[freakonaleash92]

since CCC copies every file, even at the block level, does that mean that the unmovable file would remain so, therefore keeping the problem?

thanks!