Unable to boot into Macintosh HD

A

atommother

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My Macintosh HD has been replaced by "OS X Installer" for some reason. I can start the OS X Installer normally, but when it asks to choose a drive to install to only my external shows up, not the internal drive.

I have Bootcamp set up, so I can access the files on "Macintosh HD" normally and have created a backup using HFSExplorer.

Any suggestions in undoing the OS X Installer and booting normally into Macintosh HD (perhaps using terminal or something)?

Thanks.
 
Boot into Single-UserMode and perform fsck -fy and keep running it until it says "** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK". Then to get out of Single-User mode just type the word: reboot . See if that helps repair the drive.

Plus you could use your startup OS X installation disk and run Disk Utility (found in the menu items right before the final install process) on it.

Good Luck.
 
Yep, I did both of those. When performing "fsck -fy" it says everything is okay. However, when performing "/sbin/mount -uw/" it says "the device is write locked." I think this is the main problem: the device is write locked.

As for running Disk Utility, it says the drive can't be repaired and to save files and format it.

There's gotta be some way of disabling the OS X Installer from mounting immediately on start up, possibly through a number of commands in Single User Mode.
 
If you typed that mount command as you showed, then that won't work properly - watch the spaces.
It should be "/sbin/mount -uw /" - there should be a space between the w and the last /

I also find it curious that the fsck passes the hard drive, but Disk Utility does not...?
FSCK tests the booting drive, but Disk Utility tests whatever hard drive you choose.If your internal hard drive is not the boot drive, then fsck is testing whichever drive is your booting drive. Don't leave your external hard drive attached during these tests.
Why do you have your OS X installer DVD inserted? If you don't want that to start your Mac, then eject it by holding your mouse button down during a restart. The DVD should eject soon after the screen lights up.
 
Yes, there was a space in "/sbin/mount -uw /" - I typed it incorrectly in the previous post.

Yes, Disk Utility attempts to repair it three times, but it fails, while the FSCK test passes without a hitch.

My external hard drive was disconnected during the this time.

I don't have a DVD inserted for installer. I accidentally started up an OS Installer image on my original main Snow Leopard partition. The setup was continuing normally, but it asked to choose a drive to install to. At this point, it was asking to install to a drive where the installer was mounted and run. So that, of course, was not going to work. And it's been stuck ever since.

So, at this point, when I hold command prior to start up, I only see OS X Installer and my Windows HD partition.

This could also explain why FSCK is passing the test as it's testing the OS X Installer which has no problems. Probably also the reason why "/sbin/mount - uw" states the device is write locked as the OS X Installer image was not writable to begin with.

I'm currently running Snow Leopard from an external drive, and running Disk Utility on it. Repairing the internal drive (Macintosh HD) always fails.

Is there any way to prioritize the boot sequence by having Macintosh HD start first instead of the OS X Installer mounted image? Any way to unmount the OS X Installer image and mount Macintosh HD using Single User Mode or some other means?
 
I would go back into Single-User mode and mount that drive in single-User mode. Then would issue the command:
Code: 
sudo nouchg /Volumes/"Name of Drive"
(replace "Name of Drive" with the name of your hard drive). See if that helps. Remember so will have to add your Administrative password when asked since this is a whole startup drive.
 
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