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I shutdown my computer for some reasons with power button (cold shutdown). Unfortunately, my OS i.e.,mavericksis gone at the moment and I have no backup from the Data and settings of that Hard drive partition.
I have the mavericks installation DVD, and tried to repair the disk with Disk Utility but it didn't work. getting the following message:

Disk utility stopped repairing 'Macintosh HD`, Disk utility cant repair the disk, back up as many of your files.....'

I have 2 partitions on my hard drive including Macintosh HD which my OS was installed there, and Mac Store that contains my own data.
I tried to reinstall and recover the OS on the same drive i.e,Macintosh HD in order to keep the settings (password, usernames,) and information of my hard drive (However,later I should do the clean install). To do this, I selected the Macintosh HD disk, and clicked on install , but I am getting an error saying

The content of disk can't be changed. OSX couldn't be installed on this disk.

So I wanted to ask

1. Is there anyway to get my previous OS to work (I need my passwords and Data in Desktop,documents and download folders)?

2. Even if 1 is not possible, how can I backup the Data of that partition i.e,Macintosh HD?

3. Is it possible to extract my saved passwords on Firefox as well?

Thanks for your help.

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  • You really should have stopped at the first error. Remove the drive, put it in a USB enclosure. Install a new drive to the Macbook. Set up fresh install, add recovery tools, plug in the old drive - then you're in a position to start trying to rescue the old drive, without making things worse.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 8:37
  • is there any way to use a USB portable OS and boot from that to back up my hard drive? @Tetsujin
    – SAH
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 8:41
  • You'll need a second drive to recover to anyway, so you gain nothing by booting from USB. You need to avoid any process that will try to write to the damaged drive.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 8:43
  • I have an External USB hard drive which is half empty. does it work? @Tetsujin
    – SAH
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 8:44
  • If you can boot to a full OS & recovery tools. You'd still be safer with the damaged drive out of the machine until you're ready to examine it.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 31, 2015 at 8:47

1 Answer 1

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Problem has been solved, Just thought it may be useful for others.

1. Is there anyway to get my previous OS to work (I need my passwords and Data in Desktop,documents and download folders)?

Maybe, But I don't know yet. But anyway, it is better to clean install the OS again to make your computer faster.

2. Even if 1 is not possible, how can I backup the Data of that partition i.e,Macintosh HD?

Yes, basically I installed mavericks on a USB thumb drive. Next I log in my new OS and copied everything I needed to a external Hard drive. Then I formatted the whole MAC HDD and then clean installed the OS there. Now it is working well.

3. Is it possible to extract my saved passwords on Firefox as well?

Yes, Once I installed the Mavericks on a thumb drive, I went to user folder, library/application support and then found Firefox folder and copied my profile . After I inistalled the OS on MAC HDD, I installed firefox and then pasted that profile in the same place. All of my passwords and bookmarks are there.

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