Let's get this straight:
- your internal drive is corrupted, and you DON'T have a backup, but still...
- you seem to refuse the notion of actually getting an external drive to which your files might be rescued and restored to?
How do you expect to get ANYWHERE until you accept that you need another drive for the MBPro that can get it bootable again, and after that, go to work on it recovering your data?
That's why you seem to be flopping around, treading water, and getting nowhere.
Here's what you need to do:
1. Get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, pick one that's cheap, they all function the same way)
2. Get a "bare" drive to go into it from the vendor of your choice (I like newegg.com)
Once you have the drive and dock, you need to get it initialized with a good copy of the OS.
Hook the dock up to the MBPro.
Put the drive into the dock.
Boot the MBPro from the System DVD
As you progress through the Installer, at the appropriate moment "aim it" at the docked drive and let it do its thing.
When done, reboot holding down the OPTION key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the Startup Manager appears.
Click on the icon for the docked drive and hit "return" or "enter"
The Mac will now boot from the docked drive.
Go through the "new account" setup. Set it up with the same username and password as you're currently using.
When the time comes, you might _try_ to import your user data from the malfunctioning internal drive in the MBPro. This probably won't work, but give it a try anyway.
If it's able to import your applications and account info, you're in good shape!
If it doesn't, don't despair, keep working.
Once you've created a new account, you might consider updating your software via software update (note: could take a while, but afterwards you'll have an up-to-date "clean" system on the docked drive).
If you get this far, you can NOW think about "attacking" the problem drive with the right tools.
But that's a subject for another posting.
- your internal drive is corrupted, and you DON'T have a backup, but still...
- you seem to refuse the notion of actually getting an external drive to which your files might be rescued and restored to?
How do you expect to get ANYWHERE until you accept that you need another drive for the MBPro that can get it bootable again, and after that, go to work on it recovering your data?
That's why you seem to be flopping around, treading water, and getting nowhere.
Here's what you need to do:
1. Get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, pick one that's cheap, they all function the same way)
2. Get a "bare" drive to go into it from the vendor of your choice (I like newegg.com)
Once you have the drive and dock, you need to get it initialized with a good copy of the OS.
Hook the dock up to the MBPro.
Put the drive into the dock.
Boot the MBPro from the System DVD
As you progress through the Installer, at the appropriate moment "aim it" at the docked drive and let it do its thing.
When done, reboot holding down the OPTION key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the Startup Manager appears.
Click on the icon for the docked drive and hit "return" or "enter"
The Mac will now boot from the docked drive.
Go through the "new account" setup. Set it up with the same username and password as you're currently using.
When the time comes, you might _try_ to import your user data from the malfunctioning internal drive in the MBPro. This probably won't work, but give it a try anyway.
If it's able to import your applications and account info, you're in good shape!
If it doesn't, don't despair, keep working.
Once you've created a new account, you might consider updating your software via software update (note: could take a while, but afterwards you'll have an up-to-date "clean" system on the docked drive).
If you get this far, you can NOW think about "attacking" the problem drive with the right tools.
But that's a subject for another posting.
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