Major problems Mavericks install attempt

[jm-empi]

I am using a 2010 imac with wired keyboard, running mountain lion and decided to upgrade to mavericks. Backups complete so no data issues here. Upon installation I got the typical install failed, disk damaged. Here's what I've tried...

In Disk utility

1TB WDC #123456
iMac HD

-When I highlight the 1TB line and verify, I get partition appears ok, repair disk I get partition appears ok.
-When I highlight the iMac HD line and verify, I get error, disk needs repaired

Of course when you are on a sub line repair disk is grayed out. Is there a way to repair this?

Also tried...
-Load safe mode (hold shift on startup).... doesn't work, mac shuts down after progress bar starts.
-Restore from backup, connected to time capsule with ethernet cable.... time capsule backups are visible but no destination drive is available.
-Restore from internet by command+control+R... doesn't work, just boots to the osx installer.

I do not have recovery disks

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Weaselboy]

Can you command-r boot to the recovery partition?

Not command-option-r but just command-r. That should boot the the recovery partition on the drive and let you repair the Macintosh HD partition.

 

[jm-empi]

No it won't boot to recovery, just tried again, no luck. It boots to the osx install screen.

 

[jm-empi]

I plugged in an old hard drive into my enclosure and hooked it up. The restore from backup dialogue now shows the enclosure drive as a destination - however it's too small to restore to. The internal 1TB is not shown as a destination.

I guess my not-so-old drive must not be good enough for mavericks which after reading for hours on this seems to be a common thing. This is odd since I pulled it out of the mac and it shows up fine on my PC in my enclosure. I am able to read and write to it.

Before I go get a new hard drive, is there anything I'm missing? Something I haven't tried?

 

[Weaselboy]

I plugged in an old hard drive into my enclosure and hooked it up. The restore from backup dialogue now shows the enclosure drive as a destination - however it's too small to restore to. The internal 1TB is not shown as a destination.

I guess my not-so-old drive must not be good enough for mavericks which after reading for hours on this seems to be a common thing. This is odd since I pulled it out of the mac and it shows up fine on my PC in my enclosure. I am able to read and write to it.

Before I go get a new hard drive, is there anything I'm missing? Something I haven't tried?

It really sounds like your drive died. I don't think it is anything about Mavericks that kills hard drives, I think it is just that if you have a drive on the edge of dying an OS install is very stressful on a drive and just pushes it off that last cliff to its death.

While booted from the external drive can you use Disk Util to reformat the internal?

 

[jm-empi]

If by reformatting the internal drive you mean using the erase function in disk utility... then no, fails to erase and says it can't unmount the drive. I haven't really booted from the external drive, it's just a storage disk. I mentioned it only to prove that a destination drive was available.

I've read a lot about mavericks sending drives over the edge. I know most say software can't destroy a drive but it's hard to ignore the large number of people who's drives failed with a common denominator, mavericks.

FS 1TB hard drive, 8 months old, works well with PC only

 

[jm-empi]

Do I need to restore to my new drive in the enclosure or can I put it in the mac first and restore to it there. In other words, after I install the new drive in the mac, will the osx installer start again?

 

[Weaselboy]

Do I need to restore to my new drive in the enclosure or can I put it in the mac first and restore to it there. In other words, after I install the new drive in the mac, will the osx installer start again?

It sounds like you can still book from the recovery partition on the old drive correct? You can install the new drive then boot from recovery on the old one and point the install to the new drive.

 

[Alrescha]

Of course when you are on a sub line repair disk is grayed out. Is there a way to repair this?

If by reformatting the internal drive you mean using the erase function in disk utility... then no, fails to erase and says it can't unmount the drive.

In both of these cases it appears that you are trying to run Disk Utility and manipulate the partition that you are booting from. You must boot from something else (recovery partition, external media, etc.) in order to repair or erase the boot volume.

A.

 

[jm-empi]

In both of these cases it appears that you are trying to run Disk Utility and manipulate the partition that you are booting from. You must boot from something else (recovery partition, external media, etc.) in order to repair or erase the boot volume.

A.

I think I understand the problem... I don't have a recovery partition. Therefore I am always trying to repair the partition I am booting in.

I have a new hard drive now, how do I go about restoring from the time machine backup and creating the proper partitions?

 

[satcomer]

I think I understand the problem... I don't have a recovery partition. Therefore I am always trying to repair the partition I am booting in.

I have a new hard drive now, how do I go about restoring from the time machine backup and creating the proper partitions?

I always found that using the Termimal Command Apple made called Creating a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks makes a proper Recovery partition.

 

[jm-empi]

I am having no luck with this at all. Let's dumb it down to my level.
I have a new hard drive.
It is in the mac.
I am connected to my time capsule via ethernet cable
Now what??

When I power on, I get a folder with question mark, makes sense, no operating system.

Command R does nothing
Command Option R does nothing
Option brings up startup disk options but only shows my new useless drive.

Any ideas?

 

[Weaselboy]

I plugged in an old hard drive into my enclosure and hooked it up. The restore from backup dialogue now shows the enclosure drive as a destination - however it's too small to restore to. The internal 1TB is not shown as a destination.

I am having no luck with this at all. Let's dumb it down to my level.
I have a new hard drive.
It is in the mac.
I am connected to my time capsule via ethernet cable
Now what??

When I power on, I get a folder with question mark, makes sense, no operating system.

Command R does nothing
Command Option R does nothing
Option brings up startup disk options but only shows my new useless drive.

Any ideas?

Back earlier (post above) you mentioned an old drive you could boot to. That sounded like you were in the recovery utility on that drive?

If so, attach that old drive again and option key boot to recovery on that drive. From there use Disk Util to format the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then restore from the TC to the new drive.

 

[jm-empi]

It would not boot from the old drive in the enclosure. Pressing the option key brought up the boot menu/drives and the enclosure one (old) was not there after waiting for a while. So I put the old drive back in the mac again and booted from it. I put the new drive in the enclosure and commenced to do a format, which is what I have failed to do up to this point causing most of my headache.

I am now able to find that drive in the restore destination list which is now making so much sense. I am now restoring from the time machine backup to the new drive in the enclosure. Once that's done (10 hours from now) I will put the new drive in the mac and hopefully be off and running. I will post back after that. Thanks for sticking with me on this!

 

[jm-empi]

Well it took only 5 hours. The restore worked perfect, I was using the mac for a few things, downloaded yosemite because maverick isn't available I guess. I though I was good to go, it was working as good as before. So I install the new hard drive into the mac and I get the folder with the question mark again

I tried holding the control key to bring up the boot menu and there is nothing listed there. All other startup commands do nothing.

 

[Weaselboy]

Well it took only 5 hours. The restore worked perfect, I was using the mac for a few things, downloaded yosemite because maverick isn't available I guess. I though I was good to go, it was working as good as before. So I install the new hard drive into the mac and I get the folder with the question mark again

I tried holding the control key to bring up the boot menu and there is nothing listed there. All other startup commands do nothing.

So you restored to the new drive in the enclosure and that worked fine? When you say it worked, do you mean you were running the new drive from the external enclosure, then when you moved it to to internal it would not work?

 

[jm-empi]

Yes that is correct. New drive was working from the enclosure, I did a dance, then put it in the mac and now nothing again.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yes that is correct. New drive was working from the enclosure, I did a dance, then put it in the mac and now nothing again.

So now you have Yosemite on the new drive?

Yosemite does not show recovery with an option key boot, but rather requires a command-r boot to see it. With the new drive in the iMac, what do you get with a command-r boot?

 

[jm-empi]

No, sorry, I only downloaded the Yosemite installer, I didn't install it.

With the new drive in the imac and pressing Command R I get nothing at all, just the folder+?

I put the old drive back in again with the thought of trying again. I reformatted the new drive and proceeded to restore from backup on time capsule. This time I tried the maverick installer again, and of course since I formatted the drive, it's recognizable and I am currently installing to the new drive in the enclosure - not from backup. Once this is done, what should I check before I put the new drive in the mac again?

 

[Weaselboy]

No, sorry, I only downloaded the Yosemite installer, I didn't install it.

With the new drive in the imac and pressing Command R I get nothing at all, just the folder+?

I put the old drive back in again with the thought of trying again. I reformatted the new drive and proceeded to restore from backup on time capsule. This time I tried the maverick installer again, and of course since I formatted the drive, it's recognizable and I am currently installing to the new drive in the enclosure - not from backup. Once this is done, what should I check before I put the new drive in the mac again?

I kind of out of ideas, if you can get things working fine in the external but not internally, that points to perhaps a bad drive cable causing these issues.

 

[jm-empi]

So I finished installing mavericks on the new drive in the enclosure. Works fine, I'm able to use the computer normally. I tried rebooting from the enclosure a couple times to make sure it worked and all was good. I put the new drive back in the mac again and... I get the folder+? still. I just don't understand what the difference is.

The mac sees the old drive but not the new one when installed which leads me to believe that the drive cables are ok.

 

[Weaselboy]

So I finished installing mavericks on the new drive in the enclosure. Works fine, I'm able to use the computer normally. I tried rebooting from the enclosure a couple times to make sure it worked and all was good. I put the new drive back in the mac again and... I get the folder+? still. I just don't understand what the difference is.

The mac sees the old drive but not the new one when installed which leads me to believe that the drive cables are ok.

As I understand what you were saying earlier, it did not complete read the old drive correct? You were only able to get to recovery from that drive when mounted internally?

 

[jm-empi]

I have never been able to get to recovery mode. It simply does not work with either drive installed or not. Command R does nothing.

I am only able to access the old drive when installed in the mac on account that with the new drive installed makes the mac useless. I can see the old drive in the enclosure when connected to my PC.

 

[Weaselboy]

I have never been able to get to recovery mode. It simply does not work with either drive installed or not. Command R does nothing.

I am only able to access the old drive when installed in the mac on account that with the new drive installed makes the mac useless. I can see the old drive in the enclosure when connected to my PC.

I am really confused. So no drive will boot while mounted internally?

But if you boot to the new drive in the external enclosure, you can see the old drive internally?

I'm still thinking with a known good drive that boots external but not internal, it points to a bad cable. If you boot from the external and can just see the internal, that is not the same as being able to boot to it in terms of data over the cable is my thinking.

I'm just trying to follow a process of elimination here and the cable to me would be the next step.

I hate to see you just throwing money at this though. Might be time for a visit to an Apple repair center.

 

[jm-empi]

The old drive is visible internal but mavericks thinks it's damaged and I can't go back to mountain lion because it's stuck in the maverick's installer.

I think you're on to something with the cable and I have read of more than a few instances of seagate drives having this issue. However, the problem I think is more in the point of connection with the seagate brand. If it were a bad cable or connector the old drive should have the same issues. I know that SATA is a standard but like I said, I'm not the only one with this.

Since getting to an apple repair center is a couple hours round trip for me, I think I'll just buy a small gb western digital to prove or disprove my theory.

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Could the fact that the drive is SATA 3 be an issue?