i just typed an entire post and when i went to post it it said i wasnt signed in and disappeared. so this is my second attempt. 
- a few months ago my computer started shutting down without warning at about 20% battery. i tried the smc reset with no change.
- i d/l mountain lion from app store which really takes a toll on my battery so it is basically continuously connected to power source unless its off. and over night when we arent using it.
- i put my cameras sd card in the slot a few days ago and it froze my computer. i couldnt force quit or restart or anything. just the nonstop spinning wheel. so i forced shut down with the power button.
-restart to same thing. full minutes between clicks. spinning wheel. looked up a few things and read about the clam something malware scanner thing and painstakingly downloaded that. cant hurt, right? it came up with 3 xvid files not sure where they came from but deleted those and left the computer be while we went grocery shopping. when we returned the computer was running fine.
-next day my 4 yo daughter is watching netflix while i am making dinner. she comes in to tell me the computer died so she plugged it in. didnt think anything of it. went in, pressed power button and went outside for about 30 minutes before dinner. walked past the computer to see it was black. assumed it was in sleep so touched the track pad and realized it was powered off. pressed the power button again. chime. spinning gear....and a progress bar came up. thats new...then it shut off.
-dd then tells me that when the computer died she pressed a bunch of random buttons to try to turn it back on....GREAT!
-press power button again (Whatjusthappened?) and same thing.
-remembered about holding option on startup from when i had my hd partitioned with windows. which i deleted forever ago and just had time machine on now.
-3 options came up. hd, recovery, and hd2 (time machine)
-chose recovery and chose a random old file from time machine to use to rewind the computer to before the button happy kid got to it.
-it did its thing and said it needed to be restarted. SUCCESS! i did it! YAY!! restarted it and then........the needs to be restarted screen came up again and then....kernal panic crap. *****. ok...it said MAC OS VERSION: NOT YET SET
-ooooooh, i chose a file from tme machine from BEFORE the mountain lion. thats GOT to be the problem...redid that with the first file backup AFTER the upgrade and let it do its thing again. needs to be restarted...ok....
-restarts and my admin and other user icons come up. WOW i actually fixed it! choose my admin and sign in...seems ok...wallpaper comes up...good...desktop images come up...good...then nothing else. the apple bar at the top wasnt there and the icon bar that pops up at the bottom wasnt there... damn.
-try another restart...no idea how to do that without the apple icon so i did a hard shut down holding down the power button. waited a couple minutes and turned it back on. started back up ok...choose my admin, sign in...going ok...now the apple bar IS at the top! YES! its ok NOW!!!!
-nope.
-the wallpaper is flashing from the picture i have to a blank grey screen. and still no icon bar at bottom of screen. UGH!
-shut down AGAIN and restart in recovery and try dick utility. verify hd2 (time machine) its fine. verify hd...wont work. says it needs to be repaired. try to repair and says i need to backup and reformat or something? there is also an option under the hard drives that says disks and then disk 1 - mac os x base system. i dont know what that is. didnt touch it. partition 1 is my time machine and partition 2 is my OS and whatever that i use. it says partiotion 2 is not mounted (dont know what that means) and "owners enabled: no" partition 1 is mounted.
-no idea what to do, at this point im willing to lose everything and reinstall mountain lion and start over. as long as the damn thing works...go to that option in recovery and it says this disk is locked.
what now? what does it all mean? is it beyond help? can someone please put their arm around me and tell me its all going to be ok??? please! :'(
- a few months ago my computer started shutting down without warning at about 20% battery. i tried the smc reset with no change.
- i d/l mountain lion from app store which really takes a toll on my battery so it is basically continuously connected to power source unless its off. and over night when we arent using it.
- i put my cameras sd card in the slot a few days ago and it froze my computer. i couldnt force quit or restart or anything. just the nonstop spinning wheel. so i forced shut down with the power button.
-restart to same thing. full minutes between clicks. spinning wheel. looked up a few things and read about the clam something malware scanner thing and painstakingly downloaded that. cant hurt, right? it came up with 3 xvid files not sure where they came from but deleted those and left the computer be while we went grocery shopping. when we returned the computer was running fine.
-next day my 4 yo daughter is watching netflix while i am making dinner. she comes in to tell me the computer died so she plugged it in. didnt think anything of it. went in, pressed power button and went outside for about 30 minutes before dinner. walked past the computer to see it was black. assumed it was in sleep so touched the track pad and realized it was powered off. pressed the power button again. chime. spinning gear....and a progress bar came up. thats new...then it shut off.
-dd then tells me that when the computer died she pressed a bunch of random buttons to try to turn it back on....GREAT!
-press power button again (Whatjusthappened?) and same thing.
-remembered about holding option on startup from when i had my hd partitioned with windows. which i deleted forever ago and just had time machine on now.
-3 options came up. hd, recovery, and hd2 (time machine)
-chose recovery and chose a random old file from time machine to use to rewind the computer to before the button happy kid got to it.
-it did its thing and said it needed to be restarted. SUCCESS! i did it! YAY!! restarted it and then........the needs to be restarted screen came up again and then....kernal panic crap. *****. ok...it said MAC OS VERSION: NOT YET SET
-ooooooh, i chose a file from tme machine from BEFORE the mountain lion. thats GOT to be the problem...redid that with the first file backup AFTER the upgrade and let it do its thing again. needs to be restarted...ok....
-restarts and my admin and other user icons come up. WOW i actually fixed it! choose my admin and sign in...seems ok...wallpaper comes up...good...desktop images come up...good...then nothing else. the apple bar at the top wasnt there and the icon bar that pops up at the bottom wasnt there... damn.
-try another restart...no idea how to do that without the apple icon so i did a hard shut down holding down the power button. waited a couple minutes and turned it back on. started back up ok...choose my admin, sign in...going ok...now the apple bar IS at the top! YES! its ok NOW!!!!
-nope.
-the wallpaper is flashing from the picture i have to a blank grey screen. and still no icon bar at bottom of screen. UGH!
-shut down AGAIN and restart in recovery and try dick utility. verify hd2 (time machine) its fine. verify hd...wont work. says it needs to be repaired. try to repair and says i need to backup and reformat or something? there is also an option under the hard drives that says disks and then disk 1 - mac os x base system. i dont know what that is. didnt touch it. partition 1 is my time machine and partition 2 is my OS and whatever that i use. it says partiotion 2 is not mounted (dont know what that means) and "owners enabled: no" partition 1 is mounted.
-no idea what to do, at this point im willing to lose everything and reinstall mountain lion and start over. as long as the damn thing works...go to that option in recovery and it says this disk is locked.
what now? what does it all mean? is it beyond help? can someone please put their arm around me and tell me its all going to be ok??? please! :'(
