Missing FileVault and OSX issues

Years ago I relocated our user accounts from the internal HDD to an external drive and also have then under Legacy FileVault. Our iMac's internal HDD has crapped out and did so while both I and my wife were logged in (filevault images were open and in use). When the iMac boots it just sits on the Apple screen with the gray lines going around and around.

When I attach the external drive with our user account data to my Macbook it will mount and when I open it I see the user folders. The kids folders show their spare images and I can mount and open them with the password for them. When I open my folder or my wife's, they are empty nothing in them. Help!

My only guess is since the computer stopped working and turned off while those images were "mounted"/open some how they are still open??. How can I get them closed so I can access my user data?? Help!

This is a mid-2007 24in iMac running 10.7.5. The internal HDD has gone bad will not boot, TechTool surface scan shows 7 errors. I was able to use Clonezilla to clone the disk to another. The clone will mount on my Macbook and allow me to see and access what is on. When I try to boot off the clone it does the same as the bad internal drive - sits on the Apple screen with the gray lines going round and round.

Gpart scan cannot find an OS on the internal drive but does see the three partitions:
FAT32 EFI
hfs+ "OS" disk
hfs+ Recovery - which will boot

Any ideas?

You've likely copied all the errors to the clone. Do you not have a clone made prior to the hard drive errors?

What follows is what I would try - have not had to do this as I have not had a failed drive without a backup in 15 years or so.


Boot to the recovery partition which you say will boot - Open up Disk Utility in the Utilities menu and try a repair of the drive.

If that's a no go, also from the Recovery partition, I'd try to install 10.7 onto the external clone - directions.

Once that's done, if it still will not detect your existing home folders, you may need to head back into System Preferences and point the user accounts to the location on the external drive where they are located.

Have no idea what ramifications using FileVault is going to have on all of this - highly recommend once you get back up and running that you turn it off.

Thank you for the reply.

On the clone I was able to run Disk Utility and it fixed errors and now tests fine. Still will not boot. I also ran Disk Warrior on it - it did it's work and still will not boot.

Ran the re-install of Lion off the recovery partition while the clone was connected via USB to the iMac. It ran started the process and then did a reboot and it did a panic asking to power off the computer then power it back up. Each time I did this would do the same thing - just panic and ask for a power cycle. So I moved the clone disk with the re-install over to my macbook and it booted and is now doing the rest of the Lion install