MacBook Pro not booting, disk locked and can't install OS X

[jeffreywp66]

Looks like I posted this in the wrong section earlier. Let's try this again. Here's the problem ...

1. I was working and Xcel kept closing.
2. So, I did a hard restart. Nothing. No response.
3. Then i did that again while holding down Command + R.
4. When I was taken to Disk Utility, I tried to reinstall my OS ONLY, it indicated both disks are locked. (2 partitioned drives)
5. I read online about turning on Journaling but that option is greyed out.
6. Other things I read sounded really complicated and out of my depth.
7. I DO NOT want to erase the disk if possible. (FYI, this was my niece's laptop before she died. She partitioned it which I do not know what to do with.)

Would appreciate any insights someone may have. I called a repair place after calling Apple, but they were closed. I had to leave a message. This was after speaking to an Apple Care rep who gently scolded me for having Lion on my machine and not one of the recent updates. He tried to help but wasn't sure what to do with my older, early-2011 machine running Lion 10.7.5. He got stumped with both disks being locked. Then gave me the number for a repair place.

I do not have Time Machine enabled. I have a terrabyte drive that I copied some folders and photos too but that was 2-3 months ago at least. So, I'm trying to resolve this without erasing my drive if possible.

 

[Fishrrman]

Hmmm...
Are you telling us that it's a 2011 MacBook Pro running 10.7.5?
Is it a 13", a 15", or a 17" ?

If it has 2 drives inside, that would indicate that the DVD drive has been removed and a second drive was added?

If it boots to internet recovery, that would indicate that the computer is bootable (even IF NOT from either of the hard drives). i.e., the motherboard is ok.

You need at least one "bootable source" from which you can get up-and-running again.

Since you already have an external drive (to which you copied some folders), you MIGHT be able to install a clean copy of the OS onto it and make it bootable.
HOWEVER -- the drive MUST be formatted to the Mac OS (HFS+ with journaling enabled).
You can't do this on a drive that is in "Windows format".

IF the drive IS NOT formatted for the Mac, you have options:
1. You can erase it to HFS+ with journaling enabled, but you will lose what's already on it. Do you have a second drive (USB flashdrive will do) to which you can copy stuff that's on it?
2. Or, you could use a second external drive (again, a flashdrive of 16gb or larger will do), use Disk Utility to erase that to HFS+, and use that as "the target drive" for what follows:

What to do next:
1. Boot to internet recovery (as you did above)
2. Have the external drive or flashdrive connected
3. Open the OS installer and "point it" at the empty drive. See if the internet recovery installer will install a "fresh copy" of the OS onto the external drive (or flashdrive).
4. IF the install "goes through", it may then reboot automatically to the external drive. If it doesn't do so automatically, you can do this:
a. Power down all the way off
b. Press the power on button
c. IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and keep holding it down until the startup manager appears
d. Use the pointer to select the external drive and hit return.
e. This should reboot you to the external drive, which now requires setup.

I would go through the initial setup process, and establish an administrative account so you can get the MacBook up-and-running.

IF you can get this far, get back to us for more help. The next step will be to "work on" the internal drives to see if they can be fixed up right.
But you need to get properly booted up first.