Help - MacBook won't reach login screen

[atherishadow]

Whenever I try to boot my MacBook, it chimes and shows the apple logo & loading gear like normal, but then the screen goes blue briefly as if everything is fine (sometimes the mouse even appears) but then returns to the loading gear (without an Apple logo). This continues without end, a brief blue screen and then the loading gear again.
I tried safe booting, zapping the PRAM, fsck, and the Disk Utility repair to no avail. Trying to verify or repair the permissions in Disk Utility stops with a nondescript error. When I try booting in verbose mode, it gets to the login application startup and shows 2 apparent errors:

"(Error) Import: importer;0x88fe00 importer start failed for 89 (kr:268435459 (ipc/send) invalid destination port)"

and something containing "(/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder) no such file or directory"

For reference, this is a MacBook running OSX 10.5.4.

Any help is appreciated, I hope I don't have to do a reinstall. Thanks in advance!

 

[RoninXI]

Well archive and install is not the end of the world, I have had to use it and barely notice I did anything it is close to where it was before. Since /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder is a system folder it would be replaced.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9030751
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8752478
those talk about it but both are for accessing the disk after boot not during boot up.

 

[atherishadow]

Will Archive and Install make me lose personal files? There's important school-related files I need that are on the MacBook, and I need to try to get them off first if doing an Archive and Install will delete them.

 

[phuqit]

Boot from your OS disc

Put the OS disc (or the system Disc 1, that came with your Mac) into the disc drive, restart, holding the "C" key down from the time you have a black screen before the tone sounds, until after the "apple" shows and the spinner appears. Then you can let go of the "C" key. When you get the install OSX screen, choose the language, then when the menu bar appears at the top, go to "Quit OSX Installer" in the first drop-down menu on the left, and click it. You will then get a screen that gives you a choice to "boot from disc." Select that button. Choose the disc icon, NOT the HDD icon, to boot from. Run Software update after it boots and you should be back to where you were before the hang.

 

[JediMeister]

@ phuqit: I can't make sense of your steps, it looks like you're telling the OP to boot up to the disc, exit the installer, and the boot up the disc again to run updates?

@ the OP: Archive and install, either preserving users & network settings or not will still leave your files on the computer, the difference is how hard it will be to retrieve the files. Preserve users & network settings will keep your files and settings and automatically leave your home folder accessible from the hard disk. Non-preserving still leaves them on the computer, but the files (inside your home folder) are relocated to the Previous System folder in the root directory of the Macintosh HD and things like your wireless network, desktop background, System Preferences are forgotten. This has steps to recover data if you forget to check "Preserve users and network settings." The choice to preserve/non-preserve is toggle-able on the Select a Destination screen of the installer. After selecting the Macintosh HD, you'll probably get a warning that you can't install without changing the installation options, and be prompted to click on the Options button on the same screen. This is where you can select either Archive & Install or Erase & Install. Under the Archive & Install selection is the checkbox for preserving or not. Before you do the Archive & Install, however, it would be prudent to connect your MacBook with another Mac via Target Disk Mode to pull off either your home folder or Documents/Music/Pictures subfolders. Once you get this issue resolved, its time to think ahead and consider backing up with either Time Machine, SuperDuper!, or Carbon Copy Cloner or any combination thereof so that IF your OS craps out you aren't up the creek without a paddle.

 

[phuqit]

No--the reboot is NOT from disc.

Sorry it wasn't that clear, but after you boot from the disc and get it running, you shut down, then reboot normally and then run the software updates to get back to your prior state of operation.

 

[maxxxmo]

Sorry it wasn't that clear, but after you boot from the disc and get it running, you shut down, then reboot normally and then run the software updates to get back to your prior state of operation.

Will this method preserve all my files? My macbook is stuck in "loading" screen after the chime, before login. I have some really important files that i need later on.