MacBook Pro 17" 2.33 ghz (early 2007). Received the following errors:

• Invalid node structure.
• The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.
• Volume repair complete.
• Updating boot support partitions for volume as required.
• Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk, reformat and restore.

I reformatted and tried restoring Lion via TimeMachine. But I kept getting Installation failed, Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer, The installer could not validate the contents of the "base system".

Next I tried erasing and reinstalling from my OS X disks (Tiger 10.5) without success.

Next I tried installing a new HD, 3 to be exact (500 gb 7200 rpm). The drives load, I formatted them Mac Extended (journaled) GUID partition / S.M.A.R.T = verified.

I tried the following installations with no success:

Tiger (10.5) = Disk utility showed my 500gb HD as 3TB

1. Leopard = wouldn't complete installation
2. Lion online (via previous purchase at Mac App Store). At one point I got it to download but it wouldn't install.
3. Time machine restore to lion. No success because it couldn't find my Recover HD.

Before I go out and spend $600 on a Mac Mini, PLEASE let me know if there is something else I can try.