I have a 10-month old MacBook (250 GB hard drive w/ 4 GB RAM) whose performance has been declining for a month or so now. In addition to becoming very slow (booting and running), I had to uninstall my Windows partition after a repeated error message. Three days ago it wouldn't boot past the gray screen but I finally got it running again after reinstalling OS X 10.6 from the Install DVD. Thankfully I didn't lose any files and it was even a little faster.
Yesterday the gray screen problem re-emerged but all of Apple's troubleshooting procedures (found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570) didn't work and the OS re-installation failed repeatedly.
I tried burning a disk image of the internal HD to a freshly GUID-partitioned and Apple-formatted 500GB Iomega external hard drive to save my files but that also failed. I was able to install OS X 10.6 on the external drive but the computer refuses to boot from the external drive. Again, it gets stuck at the gray screen and none of Apple's suggestions produce results.
Any ideas on a next step before I have to erase the internal drive (and lose my files) and re-install the OS? All my critical files are backed up online and elsewhere but there are files worth trying to salvage before I erase the internal drive.
UPDATE: I am re-attempting the disk copy of the internal drive (to the external) with the "erase destination" option selected and it seems to be working, I'll know in a few hours or so. Doesn't explain why the external wouldn't boot but it will hopefully save my files and allow me to do a clean erase and install on the internal drive.
Yesterday the gray screen problem re-emerged but all of Apple's troubleshooting procedures (found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570) didn't work and the OS re-installation failed repeatedly.
I tried burning a disk image of the internal HD to a freshly GUID-partitioned and Apple-formatted 500GB Iomega external hard drive to save my files but that also failed. I was able to install OS X 10.6 on the external drive but the computer refuses to boot from the external drive. Again, it gets stuck at the gray screen and none of Apple's suggestions produce results.
Any ideas on a next step before I have to erase the internal drive (and lose my files) and re-install the OS? All my critical files are backed up online and elsewhere but there are files worth trying to salvage before I erase the internal drive.
UPDATE: I am re-attempting the disk copy of the internal drive (to the external) with the "erase destination" option selected and it seems to be working, I'll know in a few hours or so. Doesn't explain why the external wouldn't boot but it will hopefully save my files and allow me to do a clean erase and install on the internal drive.