HD can't be repaired.

[laserhead1]

I have a Macbook Pro Fall-2011. A few days ago it just wouldn't start - as in taking forever - and when the desktop finally appeared it was just plain loading all over again. i started the macbook in single-user mode and tried to repair the HD with disk utility. but it read HD was not repairable, i should backup as much data as i can and format the HD.
i started it up in target disk mode and recovered as much as possible (some things took forever to copy-paste). As for my question - i am a DJ and i rely on the music in my iTunes Music Folder. I could recover everything from A to D (in the iTunes Music folder), but the folder just won't show anything beyond the folder "Diana Krall". so everything from D to Z is lost. i mean - it has to be there. How can i recover these files. Is there any third party alternative to finder's copy-paste. so i can see if it's still there. thanks in advance, Lawrence.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

i should backup as much data as i can and format the HD.

I would recommend backing up as much data as possible and replacing the hard drive. It sounds like your hard drive is dying, and the only fix is a replacement hard drive.

Like a light bulb: once a light bulb goes out, you can't "fix" it. You have to replace it.

I could recover everything from A to D (in the iTunes Music folder), but the folder just won't show anything beyond the folder "Diana Krall". so everything from D to Z is lost. i mean - it has to be there.

No, it doesn't "have to be there." It is quite possible that the music is not recoverable. A failing hard drive can do one of three things:

1) Begin to fail, but allow you to back up ALL your data before it fails completely.
2) Begin to fail, but allow you to back up SOME of your data before it fails completely.
3) Begin to fail, but allow you to back up NONE of your data before it fails completely.

It sounds like you got number 2.

There are professional data recovery services that may be able to extract none, some, or all of your data on that hard drive -- but they are expensive as all get-out (well, that's subjective. Losing a programming project that you've been working 5 years on may very well be worth $500 to $2,500 dollars. A Word document with a recipe you found online? Probably not worth it.). One of them is www.drivesavers.com.

Try this: boot from your OS X Install/Restore CD/DVD, and run a Disk Utility "Repair Disk" from there. This will allow Disk Utility to perform a more thorough repair procedure, since you won't be booting from the failing hard drive and the repair procedure can analyze the entire disk, uninhibited.

It's also possible that your hard drive simply has some directory structure issues or bad node counts (in other words, non-hardware problems) that can be fixed -- although the apparent loss of data (music files from D to Z), if this still exists after performing the CD/DVD repair disk procedure, leads me to think it's hardware and will require a hard drive replacement.