Repair or reinstall Mac partition I have a hard drive that is having problems on a Mac that doesn't use Time Machine or another complete backup system. I get this error when trying to repair the disk:


  Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.


I have all the stuff I want backed up, but I'm curious if there is anyway to rebuild/repair it? I booted with a Ubuntu live CD and ran badblocks to check the disk with 0 errors, so hopefully that means the drive isn't going bad. 

It seems I've repaired windows partitions before, so it seems weird that a Mac partition would be so fragile that there was no way to repair it.

If there is no way to just fix the partition, 
can I just boot into the Maverick System Recovery and erase/reinstall, or do I have to boot from the original leopard DVD and then upgrade?
It all depends on what is going on with the drive and unfortunately there is really no good way to tell.

I have been using Diskwarrior for YEARS and it is still my go-to disk repair tool. Drive Genius is pretty good too. I have both but always start with Diskwarrior.

These tools MIGHT be able to repair the volume issues, but it might be quicker, easier and cheaper (?) to just bite the bullet and do what the disk utility says: reformat and reinstall.