[EpicInUtah]

So I did the install today...well I attempted it. When it finished downloading and started installing it gave an error, said it couldn't install and my hard drive was damaged and needed to be repaired. Now it just loops me back into the mavericks install when I restart and when going into disk repair the option to repair the hard drive is greyed out and I can't click it...help!?!?!?!

[Just_Me_D]

Try shutting your computer down completely, and then restarting it and then try again.

[EpicInUtah]

Yeah, tried that lol

[arekcl]

So I did the install today...well I attempted it. When it finished downloading and started installing it gave an error, said it couldn't install and my hard drive was damaged and needed to be repaired. Now it just loops me back into the mavericks install when I restart and when going into disk repair the option to repair the hard drive is greyed out and I can't click it...help!?!?!?!

Didn't they just have a recall for the drives on MacBook Air? Not sure what you have but you may want to check on that.

[EpicInUtah]

Running a late 2012 MacBook Pro i7 Quad core

[warcraftWidow]

Running a late 2012 MacBook Pro i7 Quad core

Then it should still be under warranty even if you don't have AppleCare? I'd contact Apple.

[EpicInUtah]

Must be late 2011 now that I think a out it cause no warranty. Got it a little more than a year ago

[warcraftWidow]

You may have to pay to get it fixed then. But I'd still try calling Apple or making a Genius Bar appointment.

[anon(4698833)]

You can try resetting your PRAM and SMC and then try to install again.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3819550

[EpicInUtah]

I had to put my comp in target disk mode after hooking it to a other MacBook with FireWire. I was then and to move all my files over to the other computer and format the hard drive. Then I installed mavericks on my computer through the other computer while in target disk mode and moved all the files back. Pain in the **** but it worked

[warcraftWidow]

I had to put my comp in target disk mode after hooking it to a other MacBook with FireWire. I was then and to move all my files over to the other computer and format the hard drive. Then I installed mavericks on my computer through the other computer while in target disk mode and moved all the files back. Pain in the **** but it worked

Glad to hear that it worked and thanks for updating in case someone else had a similar problem.
A suggestion for the future would be time machine backups and/or a bootable disk image from a program like Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper.

[Jack Yan]

Fast forward to 2014 and I have had exactly the same problem with Yosemite. Unfortunately, formatting the HD is not an option as each time I attempt this via Disk Utilities, it says the volume is locked. I’ve tried installing via the recovery tools on to the HD, and it’s greyed out. I can, however, use safe mode to give me a terminal prompt.

I suspect the only option is to switch out the HD physically now, but if there are other ways without resorting to surgery, I would love to hear them.

[EpicInUtah]

Yikes, not sure what to tell ya about that...I did however swap out my HDD recently with a SSHD which was very easy and made my computer a bit snappier. Good luck!

[Jack Yan]

Thanks, EpicinUtah! At 4 a.m., I finally solved it. I had tried pressing Option when the computer restarted many times to get to Recovery HD as a boot option (as well as the command-R, command-S, command-V, etc.!) before I posted (which I think was five or six hours in!), but by a fluke it worked. Booted from the Recovery HD, which meant that the original HD was unlocked, allowing me to erase it, and get Mavericks back—then, since the computer had no apps, upgraded to Yosemite from there (so nearly a clean install). Wow, an epic 12 hours, but I got there!

[samuel123]

Well, that's not much of a big deal if it is related to some software issue because if the file system has got damaged then it can be repaired by using the disk utility. sometimes you may also have to format the drive after that you can recover the data from the time machine or any other. If you are not finding the backup then you can use the Mac data recovery software which is effective and easy to use. You can know more at my profile.