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CAN'T boot from Snow Leopard disc NO MATTER WHAT I DO!!!

X

xxMidgetxx

macrumors newbie
Original poster
What I'm trying to do here is be able to get a windows xp partition on my mac which I have done successfully before. But when I tried to do so again I came across the error which asked me to repair my disc using Disk Utilities. I tried to and when it asked me to use my Os X Snow Leopard disk I tried to boot from it. Then I restarted my mac. When the screen was white an error popped up showing a "O" with a "/" inside of it and then show the ? in a folder.

1. I restart and hold alt and pick the disc from the list showing my hard drive and the disc. What happens is the same, with minus the ? in a folder and then after a minute or two it just goes brings me back to my desktop and everything is back to normal.

2. I also tried holding c

3. Another thing is I used disk utility to verify the disk permissions on the disk itself. It said that the disk was ok, and I looked at my hard drive and basically it told me to use the disk to repair.

For some reason I think its not the disk thats the problem its that my disk is so damage that I can't even fix it. Also another side note that may have caused this issue was when I previously had a windows xp partition. This partition had a blue screen error every single time I went on it and I deciced to delete the partition. 😕😕😕 I'm lost please help.
 
Sorry, I don't completely understand what you're saying. I'm tired and this seems like a bit of a grammatical mess.

What happens after it "just goes to mac"? You mean the icon on the boot screen changes to the apple logo?
 
upaymeifixit said:
Sorry, I don't completely understand what you're saying. I'm tired and this seems like a bit of a grammatical mess.

What happens after it "just goes to mac"? You mean the icon on the boot screen changes to the apple logo?
Click to expand...

Yes it changes to the apple logo then I'm back on mac. I can open up safari all that everything is normal I just can't boot from my Os X Snow Leopard disc. I'm sorry if you still don't understand I don't know how to explain it any better.

Ok I just edited what I just said and just noticed how hard that was to comprehend. But another thing I'd like to add is I have a mbp that is refurbished which I recieved last Christmas and I doubt there should be any serious problems with my hard drive, but clearly after using disk utility my disk is not the problem so it probably is my hard drive is messed up. The only way I can fix it is by repairing it with my disk but how if I can't boot from it.
 
Oh, so your problem it that your computer won't boot from the disk? I may not be getting this exactly right, but I assume that's what you're trying to do. So here is my answer if your problem is booting up with the disk:

It's most likely the disk itself, it may be scratched. It could also be the laser for the disk drive but that's not as likely. I highly doubt anything else is causing it to not start up with the disk. You can test if it's the disk by trying it on another computer.

Other than that, does your computer work fine?
 
upaymeifixit said:
Oh, so your problem it that your computer won't boot from the disk? I may not be getting this exactly right, but I assume that's what you're trying to do. So here is my answer if your problem is booting up with the disk:

It's most likely the disk itself, it may be scratched. It could also be the laser for the disk drive but that's not as likely. I highly doubt anything else is causing it to not start up with the disk. You can test if it's the disk by trying it on another computer.

Other than that, does your computer work fine?
Click to expand...
Alright good you understand my issue 😛. I'm using my computer right now and its working like it has always been. I also think that there might be a problem with the disc but how do I test it on another computer when I only have a mac and a windows computer? I'm starting to think that being that this computer was refurbished that maybe the laser is damaged. Hold on I'ma test a game on here to see if its the laser.

upaymeifixit said:
Oh, so your problem it that your computer won't boot from the disk? I may not be getting this exactly right, but I assume that's what you're trying to do. So here is my answer if your problem is booting up with the disk:

It's most likely the disk itself, it may be scratched. It could also be the laser for the disk drive but that's not as likely. I highly doubt anything else is causing it to not start up with the disk. You can test if it's the disk by trying it on another computer.

Other than that, does your computer work fine?
Click to expand...
I just inserted a game inside my mac and it is installing so I guess the laser is not the problem. Is it my hard drive? I hope not a virus messing up my mac
 
Try set your SL disc as startup in Sys prefs->Startup Disk and reboot.

If you have access to another Mac and your Mac has Firewire, you could also try Target disk mode.

If none of above will help, maybe try other install disc.

You may also zap PRAM - to reset hardware settings to default - and try to boot in normal way (alt or C).
 
666sheep said:
Try set your SL disc as startup in Sys prefs->Startup Disk and reboot.

If you have access to another Mac and your Mac has Firewire, you could also try Target disk mode.

If none of above will help, maybe try other install disc.

You may also zap PRAM - to reset hardware settings to default - and try to boot in normal way (alt or C).
Click to expand...
I have tried changing the Startup Disk to the SL disc and it didn't work. But I'll attempt it again later. But as I said I do not have another mac and what does "zap PRAM" mean. I also have tried holding alt and c.
 
Is the disc you are trying to boot to one that came with the computer? Is the label gray or does it have a Snow Leopard picture on it? Did your computer have 10.6 installed or did you upgrade it with the same disc you're trying to use?
 
Try holding down the Option key on boot. If you have a backup drive somewhere that would be ideal, but it should work fine if not.
 
The disc is white and it shows the leopard itself. With :apple: ontop. It came with my computer and my computer is Refurbished Mac Book Pro 2.66 gh 320gb 9600 gt. I don't know but I'll attemp to try to boot from it again if it doesn't work then I don't know what the problem. Also it says mac version 10.6.3. (No backup drive no other mac in my household)

Even though I have 10.6.3 theres 2 updates I hope those updates are the reason why I wasn't able to boot from my disc 😛

I tried it again. It showed the apple sign then showed an error and then showed the ? in the folder. I really don't know wtf is going on but this is starting to piss me off. All I'm trying to do is repair my disc so I can get boot camp to work on this mac then play games which can't be played on this P.O.S mac.

Please it can someone figure out whats wrong it still doesn't work.
 
I still don't get why you need to use this disk so badly.

When the computer is started insert the disk and see if it mounts. If it doesn't, it's probably the disk, if it mounts, it may be your computer.
 
upaymeifixit said:
I still don't get why you need to use this disk so badly.

When the computer is started insert the disk and see if it mounts. If it doesn't, it's probably the disk, if it mounts, it may be your computer.
Click to expand...
I told you in order to repair my disc I need to use disk utilities on my installation disc which will then allow me to use boot camp and install windows on my mac. Boot camp doesn't work and ask me to repair my disc which is why I want this disk to work so badly, but even worse I can't even boot into single drive mode whatever its called or even safe-mode same thing I get that error and the apple sign repeatedly so I have to force shutdown. Also the disk mounts which I have also said in an indirect way before saying that I used disk utilities to check if it was the disc that was messed up. I think I need apple to help me with this.
 
Only one, what comes to my head, is that's your DVD drive or SL disc itself. One of those is possibly bad.
Did you ever booted your Mac succesfully with this SL disc? If it's 2009, it should came with gray install discs with 10.5.x and SL disc should be "Drop In" IIRC (i could be wrong).
If you got those discs, try to boot from Disc 1.

To repair your HDD, you can also use fsck - see this link about PRAM above, there's well explained how to use it (without booting from DVD).

Third what you can do, is to clone your SL disc onto USB drive and try to boot from this drive: http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
 
I'm willing to try option three, but the sad thing is I have a 1gb usb 😛. Anyways I've tried fsck and same thing the error pops up and idk it probably showed me the random ? in a folder. Another thing to add that my disc has always worked until suddenly I just deleted my boot camp partition and then everything started to mess up. I can't go into safe-mode but for some reason I can install games on disc etc, watch movies. But I bet iti'll show the ? in folder if I use a usb.

How do I use my "AppleCare" I might as well tell contact them and get my hdd replaced or something of the sort because this is not working.
 
xxMidgetxx said:
I'm willing to try option three, but the sad thing is I have a 1gb usb 😛. Anyways I've tried fsck and same thing the error pops up and idk it probably showed me the random ? in a folder. Another thing to add that my disc has always worked until suddenly I just deleted my boot camp partition and then everything started to mess up. I can't go into safe-mode but for some reason I can install games on disc etc, watch movies. But I bet iti'll show the ? in folder if I use a usb.
Click to expand...

Have you tried repairing disk permissions from disk utility while it's booted up? Try that first and then try partitioning the disk for bootcamp.

xxMidgetxx said:
How do I use my "AppleCare" I might as well tell contact them and get my hdd replaced or something of the sort because this is not working.
Click to expand...

Why do you think it's your HDD? WHo told you that? You seem to be very stuck with the idea that it's your HDD. Your HDD would be the last thing that's causing this problem.

Anyway, if you have AppleCare you can just call 1-800-MY-APPLE and they will take care of you from there.
Check if you have AppleCare.
 
xxMidgetxx said:
Another thing to add that my disc has always worked until suddenly I just deleted my boot camp partition and then everything started to mess up. I can't go into safe-mode but for some reason I can install games on disc etc, watch movies.
Click to expand...

I meant your SL Install Disc (DVD), not your HDD 🙂 Did you ever booted succesfully from it?
 
Not so fast

Glad you are up and running again, but unless you are severely abbreviating the tale of your visit to the Apple Store your problems are not solved. Can you now boot from the disk that came with your machine or not? That's what you said the problem was. Was the shipping disk the problem, e.g., did you take your disk with you and when it would not start your laptop, did you get a replacement? If so, do you now have a good Bootcamp partition and a working Win 7 installation, which is what I gather started this off?

Here's why I'm asking: Threads like this one show up in query responses (Google and others) when folks are trying to fix problems on their own (much as you did). Final posts like yours above don't close the loop. Like many, you received some pretty good help from complete strangers so please, finish your part and tell them what the fix is.
 
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