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macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 23, 2005
2,391
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My Macbook Pro's HD corrupted this morning, and unfortunately my time machine backup drive is both outdated and inaccessible at the moment. The thing is, it wasn't the entire HD that became corrupt, just the Mac partition. I have Boot Camp on there, and can access all my files on the Mac side.

Is it possible to reinstall OS X using those files? Without having to manually do anything, is there a way to transfer those files to a fresh partition and have OS X magically work? What would be the best way to do this?

Thanks!
 
You can do a normal install of OS X over your Mac partition and it should leave your files intact on the Mac partition side. I would back up your files regardless before doing anything because the worst should always be expected and precautions taken. A regular install is more like an "upgrade" to the OS. A clean install is when you wipe the partition or entire drive, leaving nothing behind. I would only recommend the latter should nothing else work and again, remember to back up first. Doing the normal "upgrade" type install has saved my bacon on various occasions.
 
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