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Infinite Boot Install Loop

J

Jutzy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 19, 2010
5
0
Hi guys, new here.

A friend of mine recently got a macbook early 2009 model off another friend, and she gave it to me to format and reinstall.

She said to me that she wanted WINDOWS only. so i did, in the process i deleted the 200 mb EFI partition, she then said that she wanted MAC on there too.

I inserted my 13" recovery cd for my macbook pro, apple logo shot up and i was able to get into the installer, however i couldnt recover (as it was only the recovery cd for MY laptop not the macbook), i then proceded to insert a leopard disk into the drive, expecting to see the same thing apple logo then to installer - nope, just started doing an infinite Boot loop.

I zapped the PRAM for 2 chimes, then it did the same thing again :S - even tryed 5 chimes - still nothing

i then tried talking to a mate about it but because he is not so advanced with mac he couldnt realy help me, however he did suggest to drive copy the 13" disk to an external hard disk boot from that and then insert the leopard cd... it worked however i was unable to get the leopard dvd to install :(

we attempted to play around in the utilitys with terminal, however the OPEN command does not exist and neither does sudo -a

i have tried everything, im realy lost and my friend is going to KILL me :(

If you could help me out in my situation that would be greatly appriciated.
 
OK the restore disc for your Mac won't work on hers. You've figured that much out.

Now from what I understand you then tried a retail Leopard disc is that correct? Did you mean Snow Leopard (10.6)? I ask because a retail Leopard (10.5) disc will not boot an Intel Mac.

BTW your friend shouldn't kill you, you did what she asked and then changed her mind. You're only trying to help... for free no less.
 
Okay well I now know that, unfortunately I have a non legit version of the snow Leo, I insert that and I receive a kernel panic screen telling me to restart :(

Honestly I'm confused now :(
 
Something to try just to get things back on track. Connect your Macbook to her macbook with a firewire. Turn her's on in target mode...basically start yours, then once it's booted, start hers while holding down the 'T' key. You'll see the firewire symbol on her screen (hopefully), and her internal drive will be mounted on your system as an external firewire drive. Now use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive over to her drive and make it bootable.

When complete, unmount her system from yours (drag her drive to the trash to eject it), and disconnect the firewire cable. See if hers will boot now.

If it does, you can use Boot Camp to install Windows on it's own partition.

Hope this helps,

Brian
 
is there another way of doing it - firewire is not realy an option at the moment - my macbook pro is kinda out of service for a few weeks - the girlfriend has it, and the mac partition needs to be repaired :( if i havent got it working within a few weeks i will try that method however.

Thanks.
 
So, the friend she bought it from doesn't have their original disc that shipped with the system? Cause if they do, that would be a good way to go. You can always upgrade to SL if it wasn't pre-installed later.

Beyond that, with the options you tried, and the issues you've had, I would say let the Genius bar take a look if there is one nearby.
 
bmcgonag: I have done the firewire copy, however it just hangs at the apple logo and spins with a circle... oh my! -

Oh wait- now it booted into mac- HORAH! its very slow would i be able to use a SnowLeo dvd to reinstall mac or would it still do the same thing of just bootlooping?

EDIT: - Its still bootlooping when i go to install Snow Leopard or Leopard! :( *sadface*
 
Jutzy said:
bmcgonag: I have done the firewire copy, however it just hangs at the apple logo and spins with a circle... oh my! -

Oh wait- now it booted into mac- HORAH! its very slow would i be able to use a SnowLeo dvd to reinstall mac or would it still do the same thing of just bootlooping?

EDIT: - Its still bootlooping when i go to install Snow Leopard or Leopard! :( *sadface*
Click to expand...

Sounds like you definitely have a hardware issue.

On that Firewire drive, did you start off of the Firewire connected drive?

Was it faster than starting up from the internal drive? If so, then you may have a bad HDD internal.

The first boot does usually take a little longer, because of the difference in hardware from one machine to the next.

If it still boots slowly, and runs slow after the first boot, then you'll definitely want to start trying to deduce hardware issues.

Wish I could be more help.
 
it booted up and now its running faster!

i still had to delete alot of stuff from the drive now it runs good good!!!

but still, if i want to do a install of os X the infinite boot loop is back!

im scared i will be unable to upgrade this laptop when the next version of OS x comes out! - or if i do ill have to do a Target firewire clone again!
 
I like to keep a 1TB external drive partitioned with copies of each major release on it. I try to do it after a fresh install. I will clone from my internal drive to the partition. That way I have a good clone of a fresh install, just in case something goes wrong.

I have 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, and will hopefully add 10.7 next summer. Personally a clone install is the way to go.
 
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