Macbook Pro Will Not Boot And Is Overheating - In Desperate Need Of Help!!!!

[kms124]

I was trying to back up my data on my external hard drive when my macbook pro decided to shut itself down on me. Now im trying to boot it, nothing. I have been trying everything- and even to reinstall the OS. It says I need to erase ALL my data, and I cant! I need to somehow retreieve my data!

So We went out and bought a firewire to hopefully read the drive. Nothing. Now its overheating and we cannot get anywhere. We tried to start it up with the disk, and nothing. It wont let us archive it at all by pressing down the C and holding it to bring us to the boot screen. It tells us to chose a language, and shows the hard drive with an exclamation point and says the Operating system installed is newer, and that we cannot install a new one because it is older unless we want to delete all the files.

We have been trying everything... and nothing seems to be working! I have no idea what is going on, my Macbook pro is less than a year old, and I never had this problem before. It was working fine last night, and all of a sudden I try to back things up, it dies on me.

I am mainly concerned because I have extremely important files and client projects on there. If anybody knows anything about this, please tell me!

It is the slightly older Macbook Pro model, if that is any help. My dad also has a Macpro and has none of the symptoms mine has. He also tried to firewire the boot at startup and my machine apparently was holding his down until he disconnected.

I just want my data, that is my main concern.


Please! Any help is appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[yellow]

put it in the fridge or freezer, pull it out and boot from the installer DVD and then run Disk Utility from the Utilities pull down menu (after you chose a language at the boot menu). Once Disk Utility is up, repair the disk (not permissions). Does it throw any errors?

 

[kms124]

It does not give that option... it gives two options and requires the drive to be erased. It says nothing about repairing the disk or anything.

 

[yellow]

There's no pull-down menus in the toolbar?

 

[kms124]

It will not let me get to the screen now- it just keeps shutting down on me.

 

[yellow]

did you put it in the fridge or freezer for long enough? Minimum 30 minutes.

And if you have any 3rd party ram, take it out and put your original ram back in.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

If you have an apple store near by Drive Genius 2 might be able to help (they sell it in the store) . I hate to tell you to spend more money but my data recovery skills for OS X are non existent.

Alternatively you could try extracting the drive and putting it into its own enclosure. Perhaps something is messed up on your logic board, although unlikely (sounds like a dead drive).

 

[kms124]

Its alright, Im just a Graphic Designer, I know nothing about why it is doing the things it is doing all of a sudden. The money isn't an issue, as longs as it can guarantee that I can get my data back.

I bought my MAC at best buy and have a three year warrantee, but I have no idea if they can back up files and what not.

Another thing, which I am not sure of it if has an effect. I recently had a SPECK case for my Pro, and I took it off a few days ago and noticed near where the elongated oval button that glows white, it is all dented outwards as if it were smushed together. Otherwise, I never had this issue. I have a feeling it has to do with Time Machine. It just froze up and shut down. I am not experienced with applications and software other than Photoshop and all those designing programs, and my Dad has always been with PC's and I guess the connections are quite different when it comes to restoring data.

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Is it the fan?

I had an IBM Thinkpad die on me recently. It would not start-up; it would turn on, show a black screen that said "fan error"; and shut down.

When you said it is over-heating, that is what I thought of first.

 

[mikes70mustang]

dont put it in the freezer unless you want condensation and mac death. Take out your harddrive. Put in enclosure, transfer files. Easy as that.