First Mac Emergency!

[OrangeCuse44]

A little while ago i tried to install the new 10.4.9 update and the iPhoto update. The iPhoto update installed fine but the 10.4.9 kept having an error in its attempts. So I decided to wait until tomorrow to try again but went to restart my Macbook because my torrent programs (xtorrent, transmission, and azeurus kept immediately quitting) would not open. So i selected a system restart, my MB shut everything down fine then when it rebooted the apple logo appeared along with the chime, the screen turned the blue color it does right before it says booting mac osx, but that message never popped up. Instead, i just see my mouse arrow (i can move it around) and every 30 seconds or it will disappear and the small circular loading icon will spin and the process keeps repeating itself. My MB just wont boot up! Please any suggestions are much appreciated!

 

[mad jew]

Try holding SHIFT at startup to get into Safe Mode.

 

[OrangeCuse44]

Holding shift does nothing....

Do I need to take it to an apple store...i have applecare

 

[ElectricSheep]

Try holding down command-V at startup to boot with verbosity. You may glean some useful information from the text that scrolls by the screen.

After that, see if you can boot into single-user mode by holding down command-S at startup. This loads only the very core of Mac OS X, and nothing else.

 

[andy89]

I had this problem years ago on an iMac G3.

What I did was:

1. Boot it into firewire hard-disk mode (hold t on startup until purple thing appers)

2. Then plug it into another mac or pc using firewire, copy your crap off it.

3. Reinstall mac os.

4. Copy your crap back on.

If it does it again you know its your crap messing it up, so copy parts aross and reboot until you find the offender.

Otherwise your good to go.

 

[the7dwarfs]

I'm having the exact same problem, also on a macbook. As andy89 says I think our best bet is to backup and re install. Luckily I was planning on doing a fresh install soon anyway, this just forces me to do it sooner rather than later.

 

[Telp]

Instead of reinstalling, trying putting the original CD in and holding "C" down, and then go to Disk Utility and repairing. It worked for me.

 

[the7dwarfs]

Instead of reinstalling, trying putting the original CD in and holding "C" down, and then go to Disk Utility and repairing. It worked for me.

That was one of the first things I tried and it did repair something, however it wasn't enough to get the machine booting again unfortunately.

 

[PatrickF]

I had this problem years ago on an iMac G3.

What I did was:

1. Boot it into firewire hard-disk mode (hold t on startup until purple thing appers)

2. Then plug it into another mac or pc using firewire, copy your crap off it.

3. Reinstall mac os.

4. Copy your crap back on.

If it does it again you know its your crap messing it up, so copy parts aross and reboot until you find the offender.

Otherwise your good to go.

It's not really necessary to copy your stuff off via target Firewire disc mode. When you install OS X you should get an option to archive and install. This will back up all your data and install a new copy of OS X.

Of course, it may be safer to back up all your data first, but it's not a required step if you can't do this.

 

[OrangeCuse44]

Took it to the store and they did a repair using install disks and im back in business. The only thing that i lost were preferences like cleardock, fan control, and flip for mac...but 3 easy downloads and its like nothing happened. Apparently it was only a partial system update that did me in. Thanks for the replies.