MBP Lion OSX reinstall

[ghostmeat]

Yesterday my Macbook Pro had the classic "won't boot" problem. After about 7 or 8 turns in the Disk Utility, I repaired the disk successfully. Afterwards, it would still only boot to the Utility instead of loading the HD. I'm currently in the process of reinstalling the OS (Lion 10.7) for the second time because I read elsewhere this can help the problem. Last night I left the install on overnight and when I woke up, the message read "could not download additional components." I don't know what happened but when I restarted, it was back to square one.

I've been using Macs for about 4 years now but I'm still not very good at fixing problems with them. Could anyone offer any advice what to do to fix my booting issue? If this second try of the OS install doesn't work, what should I do? I'm not so worried about losing my files, I just want my MBP to be working properly again, hopefully without having to pay someone to repair it for me. I'm fairly confident this is just a software issue rather than a hardware issue.

Thanks in advance

 

[Voca]

Yesterday my Macbook Pro had the classic "won't boot" problem. After about 7 or 8 turns in the Disk Utility, I repaired the disk successfully. Afterwards, it would still only boot to the Utility instead of loading the HD. I'm currently in the process of reinstalling the OS (Lion 10.7) for the second time because I read elsewhere this can help the problem. Last night I left the install on overnight and when I woke up, the message read "could not download additional components." I don't know what happened but when I restarted, it was back to square one.

I've been using Macs for about 4 years now but I'm still not very good at fixing problems with them. Could anyone offer any advice what to do to fix my booting issue? If this second try of the OS install doesn't work, what should I do? I'm not so worried about losing my files, I just want my MBP to be working properly again, hopefully without having to pay someone to repair it for me. I'm fairly confident this is just a software issue rather than a hardware issue.

Thanks in advance

Sounds like a software issue.
Get a clean copy of 10.7 or 10.8 from someone and try to reinstall again. technically, the install and setup shouldnt take more than an hour - its straight forward. From the OSx install disk/start screen you can re-format your drive and also check if you are connected to the internet, if any components need to be downloaded. Not the case with 10.8 ML

 

[Weaselboy]

Yesterday my Macbook Pro had the classic "won't boot" problem. After about 7 or 8 turns in the Disk Utility, I repaired the disk successfully. Afterwards, it would still only boot to the Utility instead of loading the HD. I'm currently in the process of reinstalling the OS (Lion 10.7) for the second time because I read elsewhere this can help the problem. Last night I left the install on overnight and when I woke up, the message read "could not download additional components." I don't know what happened but when I restarted, it was back to square one.

I've been using Macs for about 4 years now but I'm still not very good at fixing problems with them. Could anyone offer any advice what to do to fix my booting issue? If this second try of the OS install doesn't work, what should I do? I'm not so worried about losing my files, I just want my MBP to be working properly again, hopefully without having to pay someone to repair it for me. I'm fairly confident this is just a software issue rather than a hardware issue.

Thanks in advance

It actually does sound like a hardware problem. Most likely your drive is failing. Unless you did something to the OS to cause this, it does not just spontaneously stop booting all on its own.