Where do I go from here?

[nhod]

My 2009 27 iMac running Lion is sticking at the loading screen so I went into recovery mode to check out disk utility. My boot partition can’t be repaired, but the HD itself appears to be fine. I’m unsure of how to proceed here.

Appreciate the help.
Nick

 

[treekram]

I needed to bring out my 2007 MacBook with Lion to make sure I know what you're seeing. It will help (help me, at least) of up can clarify something.

If I go into Recovery, I see the HDD (or SSD, if applicable) and the main HFS+ partition. The HDD/SSD has a size (in GB), then the brand and the model number of the HDD. The main HFS+ partition, for me, is the typical "Macintosh HD". So when you refer to the "boot partition", do you mean the HDD/SSD or the "Macintosh HD". And when you refer to the "HD itself", you must the mean whatever the other one is (HDD/SSD or main HFS+ partition).

More important, when you say it "can't be repaired", are you saying that the "Repair Disk" button is greyed-out? Have you tried pressing the "Repair Disk" for the other entity you have that "appears to be fine"? If you haven't, you may want to wait on that. Do you have a current (or current enough) backup?

What do you have - a HDD or SSD? How old is it?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Do you have any kind of backup drive?

What I would do in a case like this:
1. Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup on an external drive (both of these apps are FREE to download and use for 30 days)
2. Boot from the cloned backup
3. Run Disk Utility from the cloned backup and "aim it" at the INTERNAL drive.
4. See if DU can detect repairs and then fix them.

If DU reports errors that it can't fix, I'd then do this:
1. Again, boot from the external cloned backup
2. Open Disk Utility and ERASE the internal drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled.
3. Open CCC (or SD) and RE-CLONE the backup drive BACK TO the internal drive.
4. See if the internal drive then boots and runs better.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but if I had only a 2009 iMac, I think I'd start shopping for a replacement. Either new or "Apple-refurbished".