If someone would be so kind as to help, I would greatly appreciate it as I'm going out of town this week and I really need my Mac. I have an older Macbook Pro with the last version of Tiger (as I recall) and Windows XP via bootcamp. I can boot to the Windows side, but can't boot to Mac. I get through to my desktop and can see my dock on the bottom and the very top bar but I have no icons and the spinning circle keeps going around and around until I get a blue screen, which then returns back to the desktop, spinning circle, etc. in an endless loop. I have referred to this posting (http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot) and here's what has happened:
1. SMC reset - Nothing changed
2. PRAM reset - Nothing changed
3. Safe boot - the safe boot loops too without going to the desktop
4. Hardware test - Everything checked out okay
I also did the command s at startup and checked /sbin/fsck fy and everything came back as okay
5. Boot from install disk. Boot from the disk that came with your Mac. Hold C while booting. Select Disk Utility from top bar and repair permissions and verify the disk. Reboot normally and see if it works now.
~This is where I now have a question. When I hold c, I get a select language screen, then a welcome to MAC OS X Installer screen, then the license agreement screen and then a select a destination screen. I never see a disk utility screen as mentioned above. Also a the select a destination screen, I see a yellow exclamation mark and the note, "You cannot install MAC OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click options to change settings. A newer version of MAC OS X is installed." When I click options, the archive and install is selected. So,my questions are
a) Am I going to lose everything if I continue from this screen? I think I have most everything backed up, but I'd prefer not to trust that. Will I have different options on what I'd like to do? All the posts I see about doing this step, seem to have other options that don't appear on my screen
b) Are the discs I'm installing from, an older version than what I have on my machine? They are what came with my system.
c) Is there a way to just try to repair the operating system so that I don't lose everything?
d) I see people discussing repair permissions, etc., but I don't know how to get to that? Can you advise...
e) Is there something else I should try?
I've had my system for awhile, but have only had hardware failures that were covered under warranty, so I have no experience working with laptops or Mac operating systems. I truly appreciate any help you can offer.
1. SMC reset - Nothing changed
2. PRAM reset - Nothing changed
3. Safe boot - the safe boot loops too without going to the desktop
4. Hardware test - Everything checked out okay
I also did the command s at startup and checked /sbin/fsck fy and everything came back as okay
5. Boot from install disk. Boot from the disk that came with your Mac. Hold C while booting. Select Disk Utility from top bar and repair permissions and verify the disk. Reboot normally and see if it works now.
~This is where I now have a question. When I hold c, I get a select language screen, then a welcome to MAC OS X Installer screen, then the license agreement screen and then a select a destination screen. I never see a disk utility screen as mentioned above. Also a the select a destination screen, I see a yellow exclamation mark and the note, "You cannot install MAC OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click options to change settings. A newer version of MAC OS X is installed." When I click options, the archive and install is selected. So,my questions are
a) Am I going to lose everything if I continue from this screen? I think I have most everything backed up, but I'd prefer not to trust that. Will I have different options on what I'd like to do? All the posts I see about doing this step, seem to have other options that don't appear on my screen
b) Are the discs I'm installing from, an older version than what I have on my machine? They are what came with my system.
c) Is there a way to just try to repair the operating system so that I don't lose everything?
d) I see people discussing repair permissions, etc., but I don't know how to get to that? Can you advise...
e) Is there something else I should try?
I've had my system for awhile, but have only had hardware failures that were covered under warranty, so I have no experience working with laptops or Mac operating systems. I truly appreciate any help you can offer.