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HEEEEELP!!! I am honestly terrified for my Macbook

A

ahippo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2010
15
0
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!!!!!!!

(now that that's out of the way)

Never mind what I was trying to do at the time. It's not important. I forgot about the "Repair Permissions" option and tried to use the "Apply to all enclosed items" on my Hard Drive while it was set at "Read and Write" for all. And It was going for a while. I thought "man this is taking a long time" and so to save time I tried to cancel it. But there was no cancel button. So using the command alt escape I relaunched it... FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU. It was saying a billion different files went kaput. I thought "okay okay maybe I can still salvage this" and restarted the computer.

Now it won't boot.

I wouldn't be heartbroken if I lost all my files on that Hard Drive but I would certainly prefer not to. Any help would be immensely appreciated. One thing is for sure. I need this computer not to be dead. Please tell me it's not dead. Please oh please oh please.

Tell me it's not dead.
 
Put your reinstallation dvd in and boot from it. Then when it asks if you want to erase the hard drive or archive and install. Pick archive and install. It will fix everything and your user account and all (most) of your data should be intact.
 
Even when I put in the original OS 10.5 disc it doesn't work. It just sits at the start screen with the gray background and spinny thing. Do I have the wrong disc? Wait a minute the current version is 10.6 I'll be back
 
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Are you holding down the C key to force it to start from the dvd? Press the C key right after you press the power button to turn it on. Keep pressing it until you see the blue Mac OS X screen.
 
ahippo said:
Even when I put in the original OS 10.5 disc it doesn't work. It just sits at the start screen with the gray background and spinny thing. Do I have the wrong disc? Wait a minute the current version is 10.6 I'll be back
Click to expand...

Did you hold down the Option or C key during startup to boot from the DVD?
 
Wow simsaladimbamba, if I didn't know any better I'd think you're my evil twin, AMDD. :D

(Or spinnerlys, haven't seen him in a while.)
 
I've got the 10.6 disc here but I can't get the 10.5 disc out of my other computer. Is there a force eject?
 
With the Mac off, press the power button while holding down the trackpad button. The disc should eject.
 
I bet an external hard drive is looking a lot less expensive....

Seriously you can get a good one for less the than $100. I had to learn the hard way after my iMac's factory HD finally spun to its death. God I love Time Machine. I wish you the best in your recovery efforts.
 
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Even when I try and boot from the Snow Leopard Install Disc it gives me the gray screen of death.
 
ahippo said:
Even when I try and boot from the Snow Leopard Install Disc it gives me the gray screen of death.
Click to expand...

Gray screen of death? As in it won't load? Try holding down Option at boot then using the arrow keys to select the Snow Leopard DVD to boot from.
 
No the problem is that once I choose it to boot from it still gives me the gray "You need to restart your computer" screen.
 
It shouldn't do that. Are you sure you are starting up from the DvD drive and not the hard drive?
 
That's the one.

It does have a fire wire port but it's 2.0. the only other computer in the house that has fire wire is 1.0. And I don't even have a fire wire 2.0 cable.

I am almost certain I booted from the disc yet the result was the same all 3 times. "You need to restart your computer"
 
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