Macbook Crashed (Urgent Help, School related)

[odahumanity]

Hi there, I have a paper due soon and my mac crashed, please read on and give some tips;

I have a mid-2011 MacBook and it has been trusty and never giving me any trouble for 2 years!

Just today I took a picture of myself using PHOTOBOOTH and then the computer froze for 5 minutes... being the impatient **** that I am I held down the POWER BUTTON.

Now whenever I turn on my computer there is a FLASHING FOLDER ICON WITH A QUESTION MARK

I went into the "INTERNET RECOVERY" and tried to find a time-machine backup, there was none. I tried to go into "DISK UTILITY" but there was no option to "repair" only "Verify" was highlighted... I went into "install OSX" and there was no option for anywhere to install it.

what do I do?

is the hard-drive dead or something?

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I do not have the install disk anymore

 

[GoCubsGo]

That means the system is unable to find the OS. Did the 2011 come with install discs or is there a recovery partition?

 

[odahumanity]

thanks for replying so quick Jessica! I'm panicking here!

I can't remember if it came with install disks, and if it did, I don't have them anymore.

Also, I do not see a recovery partition.

what do I do?

 

[GoCubsGo]

Run it into Apple but I hope you have a backup. There is really nothing you can do without a recovery partition or install discs. If the OS cannot be found, that's all I know to do.

 

[odahumanity]

****

I live in the middle of nowhere with no transportation

 

[justperry]

****

I live in the middle of nowhere with no transportation

Try this, hold the Option key at startup until the boot manager arrives, see if your Macintosh HD is there, click on it and see if this works.

Sometimes but rare the Volume looses it's blessing, if that is the case you'll see the question mark.

 

[odahumanity]

I already tried that and it appears it is not...

 

[justperry]

I already tried that and it appears it is not...

The disk should repair/run fsck when started up in Single User mode, you can do so by holding Command-S at startup.

You could also do so by entering:

fsck -y

in Single User Mode.

 

[rivettmj]

Is the machine your posting this from a Mac? If it is, then you can try booting the dead macbook in target disk mode to recover your files...

 

[odahumanity]

Yes I'm posting from my mac,
I don't care about my files I just need to get this laptop working so I can do my school-work! I do online schooling and its ALL on the computer...

I uploaded some pics, I hope you can see them?
https://plus.google.com/111908698023618210098/posts/6f67FMY4Wk6

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when I try to reinstall ther is no hard-drive to choose from

but on those other pics you can see that it SEES my hard-drive it knows how many files there are? and folders? etc....

what is "disk0" is that the hard-drve? and what is that other image the "mac osx base system"

 

[justperry]

Yes I'm posting from my mac,
I don't care about my files I just need to get this laptop working so I can do my school-work! I do online schooling and its ALL on the computer...

I uploaded some pics, I hope you can see them?
https://plus.google.com/111908698023618210098/posts/6f67FMY4Wk6

You choose to try to repair the Recovery HD which you are starting from, you can't do that, also, your HD is not visible.

You should try what I said above in my last post.

Edit: Click on Disk0, see if the repair button is available when you choose it.

 

[odahumanity]

I can't believe it died on me

oh the horror

so that's it?

 

[B...]

I can't believe it died on me

oh the horror

so that's it?

What? Did it just die or...

 

[justperry]

I can't believe it died on me

oh the horror

so that's it?

Sorry, It can't be dead, you are running Recovery HD from the HD, read my edited above post.

What? Did it just die or...

I edited My post, you didn't see I said it was dead, but it can't be dead because he is running it from the Recovery HD

 

[odahumanity]

when I click Disk0 there is no option for repair

what do I do to get this working again, I don't care if it's a brand new install, wipe everything.

 

[justperry]

when I click Disk0 there is no option for repair

what do I do to get this working again, I don't care if it's a brand new install, wipe everything.

I already "told" you this two times, see below.

The disk should repair/run fsck when started up in Single User mode, you can do so by holding Command-S at startup.

You could also do so by entering:

fsck -y

in Single User Mode.

 

[odahumanity]

I already "told" you this two times, see below.

When I start up the computer and hold command s it just goes back to the flashing folder icon

Am I doing something wrong? Do I hold the - as well? I am hold command and "s"

Nothing I've tried a dozen times??

 

[AlexMaximus]

sounds to me its the boot record..

The way you describe it, it sounds to me like the system or yourself has somehow shot the boot record. Now your system cant find the OSX any more and you can not boot at this moment.
It looks like you have no hardware problem and the HD is ok.
If you had the original disk you could repair your system. Without it, it is difficult next to impossible without any backup or disk or apple store, assuming you have no backup partition on your hd or any other external hd.

If you have a second computer, (obviously you have posted here) you can go and search the internet to either buy a new OSX disk replacement at apple, look on ebay, craigslist or you use "other" sources.
I have heard rumours, there are rare cases of people, that put OSX images on torrent platforms...
If you consider that, you would still need either a double layer DVD or a USB Stick with 8GB or more to perform a new installation using the repair option during the installation process. It can be tricky though, because you would need the exact same OSX version you are using right now.
Make sure you do your homework on google reading, before you start installing a new osx. Check out youtube as well, many DIY videos on how to recover OSX...

Good luck to you!!!

 

[justperry]

The way you describe it, it sounds to me like the system or yourself has somehow shot the boot record. Now your system cant find the OSX any more and you can not boot at this moment.
It looks like you have no hardware problem and the HD is ok.
If you had the original disk you could repair your system. Without it, it is difficult next to impossible without any backup or disk or apple store, assuming you have no backup partition on your hd or any other external hd.

If you have a second computer, (obviously you have posted here) you can go and search the internet to either buy a new OSX disk replacement at apple, look on ebay, craigslist or you use "other" sources.
I have heard rumours, there are rare cases of people, that put OSX images on torrent platforms...
If you consider that, you would still need either a double layer DVD or a USB Stick with 8GB or more to perform a new installation using the repair option during the installation process. It can be tricky though, because you would need the exact same OSX version you are using right now.
Make sure you do your homework on google reading, before you start installing a new osx. Check out youtube as well, many DIY videos on how to recover OSX...

Good luck to you!!!

The OP said he has a mid 2011 MBP, which does not exist, if it is late 2011 his MBP did not come with disks, if early yes, they did.

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When I start up the computer and hold command s it just goes back to the flashing folder icon

Am I doing something wrong? Do I hold the - as well? I am hold command and "s"

Nothing I've tried a dozen times??

No, you did it right, it's the Command and S button, hold as long as a black screen arrives with text, but if that is what you did then there is no reason to do it again.

Edit: Which model do you have, a mid 2011 MBP does not exist.

 

[justperry]

when I click Disk0 there is no option for repair

what do I do to get this working again, I don't care if it's a brand new install, wipe everything.

If you click on disk0, what info is there on the disk, like to know how big it is, if its near to what your HD capacity is then for sure the HD is not dead.

I have seen this before and it seems to be hard to get out from.
Maybe an Internet recovery will work, Internet Recovery is different from Recovery, Hold Command-Option-R to get into IR.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I had this exact problem last year with my mid-2009. It could be the hard drive cable. If so, then your data is still there, and nothing is wrong with your hard drive. Get it to an apple store or an authorized service provider and they can fix it right up

 

[justperry]

I had this exact problem last year with my mid-2009. It could be the hard drive cable. If so, then your data is still there, and nothing is wrong with your hard drive. Get it to an apple store or an authorized service provider and they can fix it right up

This can not be the cable, he is starting up from Recovery HD which is located on the HD.

 

[KUguardgrl13]

This can not be the cable, he is starting up from Recovery HD which is located on the HD.

I was referring to the original issue with the question mark folder on startup. I had the same issue after a hard restart. Basically the hard drive and the logic board aren't recognizing each other. A new hard drive cable will fix that, at least it did for me.

 

[justperry]

I was referring to the original issue with the question mark folder on startup. I had the same issue after a hard restart. Basically the hard drive and the logic board aren't recognizing each other. A new hard drive cable will fix that, at least it did for me.

You don't seem to understand, he started from Recovery HD which IS located on the HD, if the cable was broken he CAN'T startup from Recovery HD!

 

[KUguardgrl13]

You don't seem to understand, he started from Recovery HD which IS located on the HD, if the cable was broken he CAN'T startup from Recovery HD!

I am answering the ORIGINAL post. Before OP tried to access the recovery HD or anything. I had this exact same issue. The logic board is unable to access the hard drive because something has happened to the cable in the hard restart. Apple was able to fix it by replacing my hard drive cable. Please, OP, get it to an Apple Store or an authorized service provider, and I promise that unless something else is wrong this is a very easy fix. They fixed mine except for an underlying sleep issue that caused me to restart it. Have them look at that freezing issue while you're at it.