Macbook pro won't boot

[fletcher1980]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find the specific problem so apologies if this is duplicate.

I have a macbook pro which i shut down after an automatic security update. now it won't boot...

I get get the initial tone, the screen comes on with the apple logo and the hard drive starts making the right noises and the cd drive spins. then the egg timer thing appears and that it, nothing after that.

I desperately need to fix this as am flying out tomorrow for my sisters wedding at which i'm 'official' photographer and need the laptop for the photos!!

please help, any advice of what i can do would be great, obviously there's no time to take it anywhere to get mended.

Thanks so much,
Fletch

 

[drichards]

Hold down shift while booting to go into safe mode. When you're in there, repair permissions with disk utility, download the 339MB update package from apple.com and install it again. I think that should do it for you.

 

[clancemasterj]

The same thing happened to me. The operating system has gone corupt. Pop in your os x install disk and "archive and install." If your lucky it will keep all your files and programs in place. This was the only solution the mac geinus could find. I hope all goes well. (try drichards fix first... Mine is more of a last resort. If it is the same thing that happened to mine, when you start the mac is shows the apple, then the spinning wheel and then the screen goes black. You can also run disk utilty from the leopard install disk.)