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SirDrew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
6
0
Brisbane Australia
My wife just gifted me a MacBook pro which unbeknown to her I quickly ruined and desperately need help to repair! Being a veteran PC user I thought I knew what I was doing...but apparently not.
The symptom is that when I try to boot up I just get the apple logo and an eternally spinning cog. I am sure that the problem was created by me when I was trying to set up user accounts. I recall unchecking a box (disable guest account rings a bell but could have been something else) which I thought at the time might have a regrettable outcome. If (like with safe mode on PC) I could get back to that screen I could back track and fix the problem but alas the Mac safe mode does not appear to allow me to do that.To compound the problem, in an effort to repair the OS I managed to get a Snow Leopard cd stock in the D drive which now beeps in tune with the spinning cog.....my wife is now starting to ask questions about the strange beeping noises and why I spend so much time in the shed with my new computer.....any help is appreciated.
 

duervo

macrumors 68020
Feb 5, 2011
2,465
1,232
I would try this:

(from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1533)

As soon as you hear the chime after you power the system on:

Press Eject, F12, or hold the mouse or trackpad button - Ejects any removable media, such as an optical disc.

I prefer pressing on the bottom part of the trackpad (until you feel the "click") and hold it there.

That should hopefully get the DVD out of the drive.
 

njean777

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2009
313
0
^this also


Umm did it come with snow leopard? If so hold down option when starting up (with the disc in the drive) to see the disk, if that doesn't work you may have to take it to apple as you may have a broken dvd drive.
 

SirDrew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
6
0
Brisbane Australia
Cd is out!!!

Thanks duervo!!!!! the beeping is history!
The Snow Leopard Cd is my daughters. My Mac did not come with any instillation disks so I assume that the master software is stored in a separate partition on the HD
 

SirDrew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
6
0
Brisbane Australia
I followed your link to Apple support and decided that my best option would be to re install the OS by pressing control R (Recovery) and following the prompts, the OS turned out to be X Lion.It appears that this option downloads a new OS directly from Mac however the options for where I want to install the software are grayed out, as is the Install button and cannot be selected (the options are Recovery HD and Macintosh HD

By the way, thanks for the link...It will be very useful in the future I have no doubt.

----------

I have just noticed that it says "Disk Is Locked" can anyone tell me how to unlock the disk given that I cannot access the OS?
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
Thanks duervo!!!!! the beeping is history!
The Snow Leopard Cd is my daughters. My Mac did not come with any instillation disks so I assume that the master software is stored in a separate partition on the HD

Is it a brand new MBP, if it is it will not boot from Snow Leopard.

Do you still have the problem, and do you already have Data like photo's Music and so on on it and you want to keep.

If not, restart and hold Command-R to get into recovery mode and reinstall OS X, it is already on the MBP.

Edit: See you just posted before me.
What do you mean by disk is locked, when does this show up.

And, you have to choose Macintosh HD
 

Pyromonkey83

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2009
325
0
There are a couple possible solutions to your issue.

OPTION 1 - Repairing Disk Permissions:

1. Turn on computer and hold down the option key

2. Boot form the Recovery Drive

3. After it downloads Lion and prepares for the install, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility on the top bar menu

4. Find your hard drive on the left side and select the partition under it (Should be names "Macintosh HD" if you haven't changed it)

5. Under the "First Aid" tab, click "Repair Disk Permissions"

6. Look in the window and see if it fixes anything, if not, move to the next option.

OPTION 2 - Reinstalling/Formatting:

If you are fine with reinstalling, follow these steps:

(NOTE: Follow steps 1-3 above if you haven't already)

1. Find your hard drive on the left side and select it (note that this is the disk itself, not the partition)

2. Go to the "Erase" tab and erase the Hard Drive (Select Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format)

3. Go back to the main installation window and you should now be able to select the Hard Drive that was previously "locked"

Good luck!

EDIT: Thank you runebinder for pointing out that I forgot to say which format to put it in!
 
Last edited:

runebinder

macrumors 6502a
Apr 2, 2009
904
121
Nottingham, UK
There are a couple possible solutions to your issue.

OPTION 1 - Repairing Disk Permissions:

1. Turn on computer and hold down the option key

2. Boot form the Recovery Drive

3. After it downloads Lion and prepares for the install, go to Utilities -> Disk Utility on the top bar menu

4. Find your hard drive on the left side and select the partition under it (Should be names "Macintosh HD" if you haven't changed it)

5. Under the "First Aid" tab, click "Repair Disk Permissions"

6. Look in the window and see if it fixes anything, if not, move to the next option.

OPTION 2 - Reinstalling/Formatting:

If you are fine with reinstalling, follow these steps:

(NOTE: Follow steps 1-3 above if you haven't already)

1. Find your hard drive on the left side and select it (note that this is the disk itself, not the partition)

2. Go to the "Erase" tab and erase the Hard Drive

3. Go back to the main installation window and you should now be able to select the Hard Drive that was previously "locked"

Good luck!

Just make sure you choose Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format if you do an erase.
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
There are a couple possible solutions to your issue.

..........
..........
EDITED

EDIT: Thank you runebinder for pointing out that I forgot to say which format to put it in!


One way or another he can't do all of the above, if you read his last Post he says it is locked.


Just make sure you choose Mac OS Extended Journaled as the format if you do an erase.

And GUID.

But, he can't the disk is locked.
 

Pyromonkey83

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2009
325
0
One way or another he can't do all of the above, if you read his last Post he says it is locked.




And GUID.

But, he can't the disk is locked.

The locked disk should be able to be fixed through Disk Utility by formatting the drive itself. There is no way to lock a hard drive through hardware, only through software. The drive erasure and formatting should take care of the problem if it isn't a disk permission issue.
 

natesymer

macrumors newbie
Nov 19, 2012
24
0
New Jersey
This happened to me, for some reason the disk is mounted read-only.

Try doing:
Code:
mount -o update /
Then you should be able to fsck_hfs it.
 

duervo

macrumors 68020
Feb 5, 2011
2,465
1,232
Probably just clicking on the wrong thing in Disk Utility (i.e.: Clicking on the whole drive, instead of the partition that they want to erase.)

The Installer will tell you the disk is locked if you're selecting the whole drive that includes the partition you want to erase, as well as the Recovery partition. Since they have booted into Recovery mode, I suspect that the system is booting off of the Recovery partition, which would place a lock on the physical drive (and the Recovery partition itself.)

Here is a screenshot to help.
 

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  • diskutil.jpeg
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SirDrew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
6
0
Brisbane Australia
So Far So Good

I was amazed at the amount of quality responses I received to my post overnight......my sincere thanks to all.
As it is a relativity new MacBook, and there are no files of any significance on the HD, I followed the instructions for reformatting. The screenshots were fantastic and made the whole job a piece of cake (as we say in Australia)....the drive was unlocked and I am now in the process of downloading a fresh copy of OS X Lion with 1.5 hours to go. I will let you know when it is all done and working (please don't leave me until it is all working!).

Thanks again to all
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
I was amazed at the amount of quality responses I received to my post overnight......my sincere thanks to all.
As it is a relativity new MacBook, and there are no files of any significance on the HD, I followed the instructions for reformatting. The screenshots were fantastic and made the whole job a piece of cake (as we say in Australia)....the drive was unlocked and I am now in the process of downloading a fresh copy of OS X Lion with 1.5 hours to go. I will let you know when it is all done and working (please don't leave me until it is all working!).

Thanks again to all

After the installer is done it will restart from new, then follow all the onscreen instructions and it will log you into your User Account, from there you can make new Accounts in Users and Groups, you are the Admin of the Computer and can easily make new Accounts, it should not go wrong this time.

If there are any questions, just get back here on MR, there are plenty of knowledgeable Users here.
 

SirDrew

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2012
6
0
Brisbane Australia
Eureka !!!!!!

We are back up and running! It took 3 hours to download the OS but we got there in the end :0)
Thanks again to everyone who took the time and had the patience to help, it's people like you that that make MR rock! You have turned a bad experience into an enjoyable learning exercise and if you all lived a little closer I would take you down the pub for cool ale on me

Many thanks.....
 

runebinder

macrumors 6502a
Apr 2, 2009
904
121
Nottingham, UK
We are back up and running! It took 3 hours to download the OS but we got there in the end :0)
Thanks again to everyone who took the time and had the patience to help, it's people like you that that make MR rock! You have turned a bad experience into an enjoyable learning exercise and if you all lived a little closer I would take you down the pub for cool ale on me

Many thanks.....

Excellent news :)
 

justperry

macrumors G5
Aug 10, 2007
12,553
9,745
I'm a rolling stone.
We are back up and running! It took 3 hours to download the OS but we got there in the end :0)
Thanks again to everyone who took the time and had the patience to help, it's people like you that that make MR rock! You have turned a bad experience into an enjoyable learning exercise and if you all lived a little closer I would take you down the pub for cool ale on me

Many thanks.....

Dammit;)

Good it's solved, enjoy your Mac.
 

trikky

macrumors regular
Nov 10, 2011
225
1
We are back up and running! It took 3 hours to download the OS but we got there in the end :0)
Thanks again to everyone who took the time and had the patience to help, it's people like you that that make MR rock! You have turned a bad experience into an enjoyable learning exercise and if you all lived a little closer I would take you down the pub for cool ale on me

Many thanks.....

...and as for why you're spending so much time in the shed, just tell the trouble and strife that you were watching porn. She'll understand. :)
 
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