[micdaflip]

I was fiddling with my MacBook Pro one week and was running Drive Genius from a DVD to evaluate and perform basic routines; i.e. repair permissions, run defragmentation, etc. However, my dumb ass decided to close the lid thinking that the processes would still run. Not so much on that, the computer stopped working and went to sleep. When I reopened the lid, I had to restart the computer and rerun the tests. Now here's the kicker, I closed the lid when I was in the middle of a defragment session. I know the warning before defragmentation began said that loss of data could occur if there is a loss of power.

Now, when I start my MBP I cannot load in OS X, just into Windows Vista when I hold the alt key down during boot, which is what I'm on this very moment. I would like to install OS X again since I do have a time machine backup of the system and could start where I left off. However, when I try to run the installation from the DVD my hard disk drive cannot be found, by the installation itself or by disk utility. I've tried reformatting and deleting the partition; however, disk utility states that it cannot delete and create a new partition if a Windows partition currently resides on the drive. Also it says that it cannot format because there was an error.

I've read in other forums that it may be a faulty hard drive and I should possibly replace it. I think this is not the case with my computer, because if that was the case I would not be able to run Vista. Besides I've run a boat load of diagnostic tests via Drive Genius and the results all came back with successful outcomes.

So that said, what shall I do?

[Rumor]

Archive and install from the Leopard (or Tiger) dvd perhaps?

[zack13532]

He already said that the DVD doesn't recognize the volume. I may be wrong, but doesn't Drive Genius have a partitioning tool? Many third party partitioning tools can do what you want to above (reformat just mac partition). Another thing you might wanna try is booting into single-user mode (power on computer, hold command + s) and using fsck. Do this by using the key combo above while turning on your computer, then wait for the screen to display a command prompt. Type "fsck -yf" (without the quotes) and wait for the process to finish. Use the same command until no more errors are found. When you're done, just type exit. Not a guarantee that it will work, just something to try.

[micdaflip]

It is true, Drive Genius has the capability to repartition. However, for some odd reason it cannot repartition the drive; it simply states there are some errors and the drive must be "repaired." That is what confuses me, for I don't see the correlation here. Drive Genius (since it is booted outside the partition) should be able to wipe the drive. I shall try one more time for giggles; if not, then I will try zack's method.

I'll post the results.

[ghporter]

When you boot from the DVD, will Disk Utility on the DVD see the drive? (It's under the Tools menu.)

[thechidz]

why were you defraging a mac? macs dont need defragging like older windows machines do. just repair your permissions every once in a while

[ghporter]

Among other things, OS X doesn't defrag free space, which is pretty important if you want to do things like install Windows through Boot Camp. Further, repairing permissions really isn't needed unless you have a problem that implies a screwed up permission... You're right that Macs don't need defragging the way Windows computers do, but it's not as cut and dried as you make it seem.