Problems restoring Locked Hardrive.

[Romulex]

Hi,
Im fairly new to this website and really needed some help with an issue I have been having.
Last week, I installed Mac OS High Sierra on my iMac simply because I thought it would be best for my desktop. At first the computer wasn't too bad, ran a little slow and I just assumed that it was the software adjusting to the computer, but I later came to terms with that upon rebooting my computer, it would load the booting up bar that you would see below the apple logo when turning on the computer then the screen would go black and crash.

After checking Single User mode and Disk Utitlity, they both say that I need to clear space and to unlock my drive. I did some of my own research attempting to find an answer which eventually lead me here with a similar situation someone else had, but on OS X Mountain Lion. That person wanted to erase their hardrive, but I want to salvage the files on my hardrive as they have importance to me.

I've attempted to run a Safe Boot, PRAM reboot, Single User mode commands, and a number of other options. If anyone else has any advice or an answer to what i'm attempting to achieve, it would greatly help me out.

My main goal out of all of this is to be able to still be able to use my hardrive with the files on it without having to erase it in Disk Utility.

Thanks,
- Rom

 

[Fishrrman]

Tell us more about your computer.
What year was it made?
Which model?
What OS version were you using previously?

Do you have any way to boot the Mac "to the finder" right now?

 

[Romulex]

Tell us more about your computer.
What year was it made?
Which model?
What OS version were you using previously?

Do you have any way to boot the Mac "to the finder" right now?

I apologize for the issue, but in my personal attempts to fix the computer, I accidentally whipped the drive. Unfortunately, I lost all of my personal files and resulted in me, today, having to reinstall all of my software and attempt to use old backups made a while ago to salvage my work. I apologize for any concerns.