I was wading through this mess early east coast time on a Saturday, so most of my west coast-based colleagues were still asleep. Luckily, a couple Twitter friends from The Unofficial Apple Weblog ( and ) were online, and freely offered plenty of advice. This Apple press community is top-notch, folks.

At their suggestion, I plunked down $100 for ( Macworld rated 5 out of 5 mice ) to see if it could repair what Disk Utility couldn't. Of course, since I could only download the software, I couldn't attempt to boot by my Mac from a DiskWarrior disk. Instead, I needed to run the software from another Mac--my Mac mini--and boot the MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode.

I booted the MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode (which you enter by holding down the T key during startup). That mode, which works on Macs with or ports, makes your Mac's internal drive accessible as an external drive to another computer. Of course, my MacBook Pro sports a FireWire 800 port; the mini instead has a FireWire 400 port. So I needed to go to the Apple Store to pick up the appropriate cable to connect them.

I made a Genius Bar appointment, since I figured that couldn't hurt.

When I got to the (jam-packed) Apple Store early, I asked a rep to point me to the FireWire cables. Spoiler alert: The Apple Store no longer FireWire cables; I guess it's all about Thunderbolt. Since I had a few minutes to spare before my Genius Bar appointment, I swallowed hard and sauntered down to Radio Shack and picked up the cable I needed for a cool $35. ( sells similar cables for about $5. I didn't want to wait for shipping.)