Really need help, Back up.

Hi, I tried to update my macbook witch work fine until the restart came and the macbook shut its self down right after the gray apple logo. So I started it up again, no luck. Tried the start up disc, repair disk. It said it cant fix it or something not sure. So I booted of a 3 Month old back up. At the desktop I get a message:

"Disk Repair"
The disk "Mac HD" was not repairable by this computer. It is being made availble to you with lmited functionality. You must back up your data and reformat the disk as soon as possible.

So How do I back up the HD of my macbook when I booted up from my External HD. And what is the problem with my Macbook?
Thanks

Well, since you already have a backup that you're booted off of. Just grab any files that have been added or changed since the last backup and move them over to the external.

It's possible that your internal hard drive is going bad. Run the Apple Hardware Test to make sure it's healthy.


If it is indeed OK, you should be able to boot from your System Discs and erase the internal hard disk and install OS X. Then, use the Migration Assistant to pull your data over to the fresh install from the backup drive.

I get anything from the internal HD I cant drag anything out of the nternal HD, the back up I am running from is 4 months old so I really need to save the data.

I'm having a similar problem; however, when I try to run Apple Hardware Test by holding down the "D" key with the install disc in the drive, the computer just starts up normally (off the CD). Is there an alternate way to access Hardware Test?

I just tried to repair disk, HD, off the start up disc and got this:
First Aid failed

Disk Utility stopped repairing "Mac HD" because the following error was encountered:

The underlying task reported failure on exit

What dose this mean?

How can I copy everthing from the Internal HD to an External HD when I'm booted off a External HD?

Please Help.

ta70s said:

I just tried to repair disk, HD, off the start up disc and got this:
First Aid failed

Disk Utility stopped repairing "Mac HD" because the following error was encountered:

The underlying task reported failure on exit

What dose this mean?

Click to expand...

Sounds like the hard drive might be bad. Try the Apple Hardware Test as I mentioned earlier, so we know what we're dealing with.

sevenhelmet said:

I'm having a similar problem; however, when I try to run Apple Hardware Test by holding down the "D" key with the install disc in the drive, the computer just starts up normally (off the CD). Is there an alternate way to access Hardware Test?

Click to expand...

There should be two discs. Make sure you're using disc one. Also, hold the Option key down instead and choose the disc as your boot device. If the disc doesn't appear, it's either damaged or the wrong one.

I did the Extended Hardware Test and got: NO troubles found

Then I performed the repair disk utility and got: The underlying task reported failure on exit, again.

Then Utilities, start up disk but could not select the Internal Hard Drive.

What is the problem? How can I save the data on the drive.

Also Is there a way to boot my iMac from the MacBook?

ta70s said:

I did the Extended Hardware Test and got: NO troubles found

Then I performed the repair disk utility and got: The underlying task reported failure on exit, again.

Then Utilities, start up disk but could not select the Internal Hard Drive.

What is the problem? How can I save the data on the drive.

Click to expand...

Try doing a filesystem repair:

Basic Mac OS X Troubleshooting Guide said:

When booting up your computer hold down the Apple Key & the S key and it will boot into single user mode. When the text is done loading on the screen type in /sbin/fsck -f and hit enter.
When that is done if it fixed things then do the check again to make sure it is cleared
When finished with that type in exit and it will start the computer in normal mode

Click to expand...

ta70s said:

Also Is there a way to boot my iMac from the MacBook?

Click to expand...

Yes, you can do Target disk mode, but you'll need a special cable.

After I typed /sbin/fsck -f in I got:
** /dev/rdisk0s2
** Root file system
** Checking Journaled HFS lus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
Keys out of order
(4, 30911)
** Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
** The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired.
/dev/rdisk0s2 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8
:/ root#

Also in Disk Utility the volume Machintosh HD is not writen in black but in light gray. What does this mean? Please Help!
Thanks

I don't know that you're going to be able to recover that drive without some more powerful tools. You might want to give Paragon's Rescue Kit a try, not sure if it's still in Beta, but it was free at one point.

If not, your best bet would be something like DiskWarrior, although it's not cheap.

So I just booted from the External HD and tried Disk Utility on the Internal HD. I could only select Verify Disk Permissions & Verify Disk. So I clicked Verify Disk Permissions and got Permissions verification complete. Then I clicked Verify Disk and got: The Disk "Macintosh HD" could not be unmounted.
What dose this mean?
Thanks

OK, So I used the Back Up wizard on the Paragon Rescue Kit disc witch I burned. Now when I look in the partion in the External HD witch I backed up to I have a load grey Img_0_ things with exec in green on them. What are these?
Also now I have a back up what do I do?

Many Thanks