Mac loading in OS X Utilities

[ScenicJaguar101]

Hey,
My mac will now only load in OS X Utilities on startup. I've looked online for tutorials/fixes, but nothing has worked, and I have a lot of important info, and my last backup was like 2 years ago.
When I go into Disk Utility to try to repair my disk, I get this error:

What do I do now to fix this?



Thanks,
Jackson

 

[BrianBaughn]

What model Mac do you have?

 

[ScenicJaguar101]

What model Mac do you have?

its an iMac from like 5 years ago

 

[BrianBaughn]

Diskwarrior could possibly fix it but I don't recommend spending $120 on it to find out.

There's nothing that I can think of that you can do with what you have. Options to try that i can think of are:

• Start your Mac in Target Disk mode and try to access and back up your files with another Mac.
• or...
• Get an external USB drive, install macOS on it, startup your Mac from the external and try to access and back up your files that are on the internal drive.

If one of those is successful you can then try to format and reinstall macOS on the internal drive.

Perhaps others will have more ideas.

If you don't have an SSD in your iMac this may be the time to get one. You could get an SSD and an external USB housing or cable, try the second method, then swap out your internal for the SSD.

 

[ScenicJaguar101]

Diskwarrior could possibly fix it but I don't recommend spending $120 on it to find out.

There's nothing that I can think of that you can do with what you have. Options to try that i can think of are:

• Start your Mac in Target Disk mode and try to access and back up your files with another Mac.
• or...
• Get an external USB drive, install macOS on it, startup your Mac from the external and try to access and back up your files that are on the internal drive.

If one of those is successful you can then try to format and reinstall macOS on the internal drive.

Perhaps others will have more ideas.

If you don't have an SSD in your iMac this may be the time to get one. You could get an SSD and an external USB housing or cable, try the second method, then swap out your internal for the SSD.

Ok, thanks.

 

[Fishrrman]

This is why the smart Mac user ALWAYS keeps a SECOND external bootable drive handy.
For "I can't boot!" moments -- exactly like the one the OP is having now.

OP:
You need a way to boot the Mac externally.
Then get up-and-running to the finder.
And then... "work on" the problem with the internal drive.

Easiest way to do this would be to boot to internet recovery and then do an install onto an external drive. It can even be a USB flashdrive if it's 16gb or larger.
Then, set up your "external booter" with a simple user account.
Now you can work on the internal drive without booting from the recovery partition.

I would first try to mount the internal drive in the finder.
If that doesn't work, you might have to re-initialize (erase) it.
But this will wipe out the data that's already on it.
What you try depends on how much you value what's on the failing drive right now...

 

[ScenicJaguar101]

This is why the smart Mac user ALWAYS keeps a SECOND external bootable drive handy.
For "I can't boot!" moments -- exactly like the one the OP is having now.

OP:
You need a way to boot the Mac externally.
Then get up-and-running to the finder.
And then... "work on" the problem with the internal drive.

Easiest way to do this would be to boot to internet recovery and then do an install onto an external drive. It can even be a USB flashdrive if it's 16gb or larger.
Then, set up your "external booter" with a simple user account.
Now you can work on the internal drive without booting from the recovery partition.

I would first try to mount the internal drive in the finder.
If that doesn't work, you might have to re-initialize (erase) it.
But this will wipe out the data that's already on it.
What you try depends on how much you value what's on the failing drive right now...

Ok, will try that, thanks.