Macbook Pro 2009 not booting day after Yosemite

[Jackson167x]

Good morning,

I recently (as in yesterday at 12:00 AM) upgraded a late 2009 MacBook Pro model (aluminum construction) to Yosemite. I upgraded it from 10.3 to Snow leopard via install disc. Then downloaded mountain lion via the app store and upgraded then to OS X Mavericks and then Yosemite.

Yosemite worked for about 12 hours before things started to slow down. I restarted the pro to see if it would help. Alas it brings up the apple logo and loading bar and only gets half way before stalling and never moving a muscle.

Please see attachment picture.

I have tried resetting the Systems manager controller. I tried running the snow leopard install disc but my optical drive is broken. I used a external optical drive and tried booting with Snow leopard but still there is nothing but the loading bar and apple logo.

When that didn't work I researched more and tried starting up in singer user mode with Cmd + S but nothing different happened.

Frustrated and out of options. What can I do?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Love to know how you got it to run 10.3.

On a serious note, is it the original hard drive?

If so, it's a 5 year old drive on a machine that isn't good on hard drives (a notebook - none of them are good on hard drives.)

My guess is it (the hard drive) has failed.

EDIT: That's not an '09, it's older. Possibly an early '08. So the hard drive is even older.

 

[Jackson167x]

It is the original hard drive with around 120 GB of free space left. If it is the hard drive would you happen to know what the best option is to recover its data.

 

[DeltaMac]

Boot to the recovery partition - Restart, holding Command-R

You'll see Disk Utility in the list in that recovery window, so select that, and open. Run Repair Disk. If that finds no problems, Quit Disk Utility, and then just continue on with reinstalling OS X. The download and reinstall may take an hour or two, so just let it continue. If your hard drive is working OK, that should take care of your issue.

I'm sure you didn't go through Snow Leopard, then Mountain Lion, then Mavericks, and finally Yosemite. The App Store would only have offered you Yosemite, unless you have previously downloaded those from the App Store, which would then show those installers in your Purchased Apps list. But, no need to get those first, as your Snow Leopard would go direct to Yosemite in one install with no intermediate installs necessary.

 

[cjmillsnun]

I hope you have a backup of some kind.

You might be lucky and be able to get the data off that HD, but don't count on it.

 

[Jackson167x]

Boot to the recovery partition - Restart, holding Command-R

You'll see Disk Utility in the list in that recovery window, so select that, and open. Run Repair Disk. If that finds no problems, Quit Disk Utility, and then just continue on with reinstalling OS X. The download and reinstall may take an hour or two, so just let it continue. If your hard drive is working OK, that should take care of your issue.

I'm sure you didn't go through Snow Leopard, then Mountain Lion, then Mavericks, and finally Yosemite. The App Store would only have offered you Yosemite, unless you have previously downloaded those from the App Store, which would then show those installers in your Purchased Apps list. But, no need to get those first, as your Snow Leopard would go direct to Yosemite in one install with no intermediate installs necessary.

Because of fear that the MacBook pro would not handle the OS's I went from OS to OS via the app store. As I upgraded the pro got slower and slower in opening and closing applications.

Tried Cmd+ R for the partitions 5 times and still it shows the apple logo with the loading bar.

Thank you guys both for the input.

 

[DeltaMac]

How long did you wait?
Could take more than 10 minutes - give it 1/2 hour or so, maybe waiting it out will allow your Mac to start up.
(If an hour goes by with no change, then it's likely safe to give up on that boot.)

 

[Jackson167x]

How long did you wait?
Could take more than 10 minutes - give it 1/2 hour or so, maybe waiting it out will allow your Mac to start up.
(If an hour goes by with no change, then it's likely safe to give up on that boot.)

Worked. Thank you. Currently on the Disc Utility. Ran permissions executed Repair Disc. TONS of Open error 5 input/output error. Repair Disc relayed it cannot repair HD that I need to backup as many possible files and then erase disc and restore files.

The verification process appears as it will take awhile. I will post back as soon as this course of action finishes.

Thanks again.

 

[DeltaMac]

Keep in mind that a "verification" is also performed when you choose "Repair Disk"
If Repair Disk reported problems, then "Verification" will not be of any advantage to you - and, if the hard drive is failing, verification may make file recovery from that drive more difficult.
Replacing the hard drive is not difficult, and you could certainly consider replacing with an SSD, which will make your MacBook Pro feel like a new and more speedy machine.

 

[Jackson167x]

Keep in mind that a "verification" is also performed when you choose "Repair Disk"
If Repair Disk reported problems, then "Verification" will not be of any advantage to you - and, if the hard drive is failing, verification may make file recovery from that drive more difficult.
Replacing the hard drive is not difficult, and you could certainly consider replacing with an SSD, which will make your MacBook Pro feel like a new and more speedy machine.

The Disc Utility repair failed. I then tried to reinstall from the snow leopard physical disc. The previous attempt at reinstalling failed because I was not in disc utility mode. This time it worked and loaded until the HD drive was reported to be "locked"

Please see attachment.

Is this evidence that the hard drive has failed? Is the data on the HD completely lost?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Jackson167x]

Attachment.

 

[DeltaMac]

I will usually recommend that, at this point, you should stop attempting "repairs", as that may be counter-productive.
Replace your hard drive (or even better, replace the hard drive with an SSD), and place your existing hard drive in an external case. You may be able to get all the files that you need by installing a fresh system on the new hard drive/SSD, then trying to migrate your files/apps to the new system from the old hard drive when it asks for that.
A flaky drive such as yours might take quite a long time for that file transfer - sometimes will need several hours. Heat is not your friend here, so keep the drive cool, if you can. I have tried wrapping the drive in ice packs - ziplock bags are a big help here!

 

[cjmillsnun]

I will usually recommend that, at this point, you should stop attempting "repairs", as that may be counter-productive.
Replace your hard drive (or even better, replace the hard drive with an SSD), and place your existing hard drive in an external case. You may be able to get all the files that you need by installing a fresh system on the new hard drive/SSD, then trying to migrate your files/apps to the new system from the old hard drive when it asks for that.
A flaky drive such as yours might take quite a long time for that file transfer - sometimes will need several hours. Heat is not your friend here, so keep the drive cool, if you can. I have tried wrapping the drive in ice packs - ziplock bags are a big help here!

Agreed. It definitely seems like that hard drive is dying.

OP. My recommendation. Switch off that Mac. Do not switch on until you have replaced the drive. Then do as suggested above, put the old drive in an enclosure and recover your data. Go for the most critical data first.

 

[Jackson167x]

Evening guys,

Genius bar techs had no luck with the macbook pro as well. The upgrade of Yosemite ultimately revealed the flaw in the original hard drive. Future goal will be to transfer as much as the original hard drive's data.

Thanks for all your help guys.