2009 mbp oxs utilities window

[Foggydog]

Hello all.

I tried doing a search but couldn't find the proper thread to post this in.
I have a 2009 MBP, 2.66 GHZ, Intel Core 2 Duo. 320 Gig hard drive.
I have it upgraded to 8 gigs of ram, and am running 10.9.5 Mavericks.

A few days ago, I booted my computer, and got an OSX Utilities window and could't get any further. I thought my HD crashed, but checked it out, and the Utilities said it was OK. Then I downloaded Mavericks again and reinstalled and my Computer started just fine.

So my question is, What could have possible caused this to happen, and is this an early sign that I could have more problems ahead?

I drive a semi, so getting to an apple store on short notice just isn't going to happen.

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Pete

 

[jruschme]

Hello all.

I tried doing a search but couldn't find the proper thread to post this in.
I have a 2009 MBP, 2.66 GHZ, Intel Core 2 Duo. 320 Gig hard drive.
I have it upgraded to 8 gigs of ram, and am running 10.9.5 Mavericks.

A few days ago, I booted my computer, and got an OSX Utilities window and could't get any further. I thought my HD crashed, but checked it out, and the Utilities said it was OK. Then I downloaded Mavericks again and reinstalled and my Computer started just fine.

So my question is, What could have possible caused this to happen, and is this an early sign that I could have more problems ahead?

I drive a semi, so getting to an apple store on short notice just isn't going to happen.

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Pete

It sounds like you ended up in Recovery Mode. Normally, you'd get there by holding down Option+R at boot or by holding Option and then selecting the recovery partition.

Barring a stuck keyboard, I'd say that something happened prevented your Mavericks partition from being booted and that the reinstall cleared it up.

By any chance had you done a PRAM reset just before the incident?

 

[Foggydog]

It sounds like you ended up in Recovery Mode. Normally, you'd get there by holding down Option+R at boot or by holding Option and then selecting the recovery partition.

Barring a stuck keyboard, I'd say that something happened prevented your Mavericks partition from being booted and that the reinstall cleared it up.

By any chance had you done a PRAM reset just before the incident?

Thank you jruschme for replying. I thought this was completely lost.
I honestly have no idea if i pressed the wrong button. I just know that upon startup, I got the OSX utilities window. And just what is a PRAM reset? I never heard of that.
Thanks for your replies, Pete