Hard disc corrupted on upgrade to lion - cant repair with disc utility

[Tomh2]

Recently upgraded my MacBook to lion. There was clearly some problem during installation as it failed stating the hard disc needs repairing with disc utility. Disc utility can't fix it. I have got quite a bit backed up via MobileMe/backup utility but am sure I will loose stuff if I just erase and reinstall. I've tried to create a disc image from disc utility (to an external HD) but the volume macintosh HD can't be unmounted. I've tried forcing it from the command line but neither "sudo" nor "unmount" are recognised!

Suggestions very gratefully received.

 

[Satcomer]

Try the fixes in the Apple article Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck and see if these tips can help. Then seriously consider replacing the hard old internal hard drive.

Plus read the thread post HELP! My Data!!--How Disk Warrior and Cloning Saves You to see if this helps.

 

[Tomh2]

Thanks

Reports **the volume mac os x base system appears to be ok**

The disk volume that is a problem is macintosh HD - how do I get fsck to check that volume?

 

[djackmac]

You may just need a stronger directory structure utility like Disk Warrior. But make sure you have a complete backup before trying anymore disk maintenance, because if the Hard drive is dying, you are lessening your chances of getting your data each time one of these utilities cranks away on a possibly bad drive.