Hi, my boyfriends mac book has been sitting in our bedroom drawer for months because he got a new work laptop and I had my own laptop... however my laptop broke today so I took out the macbook 13in from early 2009 to use in the meantime.. I let it charge for a few hours and then turned it on.. it started up and seemed fine until it got tothe white screen with the apple and spinning gear.. it was spinning for an hour before I realized it wasn't working... I then tried using option+command+p+r while starting to reboot the system... it worked and I did this 3 times as recommended in a lot of the mac forums... It still wouldnt start! So I started it while holding D to run a hardware check. I did the quick check and then the extended check.. both came out with no issues... Then I tried running in safe mode... but it would still get stuck on the spinning gear/apple logo screen. So finally I started in single user mode and decided to try to manually run a check through the command system.. but there is no command line! HELP HELP HELP! Anything I haven't tried?
HELP! Macbook not starting..
- Thread starter sbicica
- Start date
When I try to put the DVD in and start the mac while holding C the disc just ejects! I'm in single user mode now and running /sbin/fsck -fy but I keep getting the error : disk0s2: I/0 error. and after three attempts the volume could not be repaired.. however after I ran fsck again it said **** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED **** so now I'm running it a few more times but have a feeling I'll get bad news again.. Is there anyway to completely reformat/wipe the hard drive so that it will fix the invalid volume file counts?! I don't have anything on the hard drive that I need to keep so I don't mind losing files or anything
Spawn_Dooley
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Just off the top of my head I'm thinking do you have the correct disc ... Is the label grey? Is this the disc that came with the MacBook when it was brand new?
Or is there a large X on a black label?
The former needs to be the exact disc that was sold with the MacBook and not one from another Mac. Otherwise the installation wouldn't be successful and could result in the disc being ejected. This is because the software on the disc is searching for specific code to identify that there is a compatibility between the disc & the Mac, essential for the Install to continue.
The latter is a Full Retail or Universal install disc that will work across all supported Macs, so as long as the System requirements are met then you can use this type of disc more widely.
What I suggest is this:
Try restarting the computer, hold down the left Option key until you see Macintosh HD on the screen, then let go and insert your disc.
If the Install Disc icon doesn't show, click on the Refresh button and it should show the disc then.
Next you can use your arrow keys (I had to mouse click as my arrow keys weren't being registered) to move over to it and boot to the disc.
When you get the Installer up the Menubar go into the menu and go to Utilities ~> Disc Utility then in the Disc Utilities window, select your MacBooks HD in the left collumn ~> select the Erase Tab in the main window then click on the Security Options button and choose a Secure Erase option ... Zero out is the quickest of them and should be enough to wipe everything clean.
Or is there a large X on a black label?
The former needs to be the exact disc that was sold with the MacBook and not one from another Mac. Otherwise the installation wouldn't be successful and could result in the disc being ejected. This is because the software on the disc is searching for specific code to identify that there is a compatibility between the disc & the Mac, essential for the Install to continue.
The latter is a Full Retail or Universal install disc that will work across all supported Macs, so as long as the System requirements are met then you can use this type of disc more widely.
What I suggest is this:
Try restarting the computer, hold down the left Option key until you see Macintosh HD on the screen, then let go and insert your disc.
If the Install Disc icon doesn't show, click on the Refresh button and it should show the disc then.
Next you can use your arrow keys (I had to mouse click as my arrow keys weren't being registered) to move over to it and boot to the disc.
When you get the Installer up the Menubar go into the menu and go to Utilities ~> Disc Utility then in the Disc Utilities window, select your MacBooks HD in the left collumn ~> select the Erase Tab in the main window then click on the Security Options button and choose a Secure Erase option ... Zero out is the quickest of them and should be enough to wipe everything clean.
i find myself in a situation like yours where my macbook wont boot past the grey apple logo and spinning wheel (altough i was using mine everyday for the past three years) and i also heard of the single user mode to run FSCK. like you said in your original post the command prompt was frozen (i guess i'd call it that way since i cant type in anything) for me too but then you said you ran fsck later on... i would like to know how you get to unfreeze3 the command prompt in single user mode plz
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I'm deployed to Afghanistan and without my reboot disk. My MacBook Pro just began having issue. During the boot up cycle, the Apple logo is replaced with what I can best describe as a do not enter symbol and the spinning wheel. I've tried booting while holding down the option key, the cmd/s, the alt/cmd/p/r. I've come to the realization that the Apple store is my best option; just curious if anyone else has seen something similar or what they think might be the cause.
Spawn_Dooley
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