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Please Help!! screen of death, mac version

iFanaddic

iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 24, 2008
842
303
Montréal, Canada
okay heres my issue, i was cleaning my computer getting it all ready for snow leopard. And I must have deleted something because no apps would launch.. they would all jump up and down non stop.

So i decided to reset my computer, I pushed the power button for 3-5 seconds and then turned it back on, the apple came up and then the screen turned gray from top to bottom and I was asked in 4 different languages to restart my computer.. So did that but I always get this message..

I tried booting from the os disk by pressing the letter C when turning on my macbook but and it works fine but theres no "repair" option just an erase and reinstall one.. I dont know what to do please I need help, from someone who knows what theyre talking about..

my apple store is closed for the next month because theyre renovating.. i need to fix this
 
Once you're booted up using the OS-X DVD, open Disk Utility from the menu bar. Select your internal drive's volume (usually "Macintosh HD"), then select the First Aid tab and click "repair disk".

Hope that helps.
 
gr8tfly said:
Once you're booted up using the OS-X DVD, open Disk Utility from the menu bar. Select your internal drive's volume (usually "Macintosh HD"), then select the First Aid tab and click "repair disk".

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Doing it now, if it works you are a genius and ill love you forever lol
 
Do you own Disk Warrior? I have run into problems that Disk Utility wasn't able to fix but Disk Warrior was. I would suggest booting up from a Disk Warrior disk and seeing if that will fix the problem. If you already own this software, this won't be much of a problem . . . . .
 
Try resetting the PRAM, then, if that doesn't work, the SMC.

To reset the PRAM, hold down cmd-opt-p-r while starting up. Keep them down until you hear a second startup chime.

The procedure to reset the SMC varies by machine. See this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

I assume you have a second machine (the one you're posting from). If it's a Mac, start-up your "bad" machine in Firewire Target Disk mode and make a backup of your data - just in case the worse happens. To do this, shutdown your misbehaving Mac and connect it to your other Mac via Firewire. Startup your Mac while holding down the "T" key. You should see the Firewire symbol on the display shortly. If the drive is readable, it should mount as a normal external drive.
 
gr8tfly said:
Try resetting the PRAM, then, if that doesn't work, the SMC.

To reset the PRAM, hold down cmd-opt-p-r while starting up. Keep them down until you hear a second startup chime.

The procedure to reset the SMC varies by machine. See this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

I assume you have a second machine (the one you're posting from). If it's a Mac, start-up your "bad" machine in Firewire Target Disk mode and make a backup of your data - just in case the worse happens. To do this, shutdown your misbehaving Mac and connect it to your other Mac via Firewire. Startup your Mac while holding down the "T" key. You should see the Firewire symbol on the display shortly. If the drive is readable, it should mount as a normal external drive.
Click to expand...

Ill try what you said.. but no i dont have have any other macs in the house im posting this from my iphone

EDIT: It didnt work
 
As previously mentioned, Disk Warrior might be able to fix the disk problem. Two ways of doing this, at this point: Buy the retail box, which has a bootable disk; or buy an external drive (you should have one for backup anyway), install a fresh OS-X and use it to buy and download a copy of Disk Warrior. Run it from the external drive.

edit: Even if you use the first method, you will still need an external drive for your retrieved data.

Even if Disk Warrior cannot fix the drive, many times it can re-create a temporary directory which will allow you to copy critical data. Once that's done, you will have a backup and can reinitialize the internal drive.
 
gr8tfly said:
As previously mentioned, Disk Warrior might be able to fix the disk problem. Two ways of doing this, at this point: Buy the retail box, which has a bootable disk; or buy an external drive (you should have one for backup anyway), install a fresh OS-X and use it to buy and download a copy of Disk Warrior. Run it from the external drive.

edit: Even if you use the first method, you will still need an external drive for your retrieved data.

Even if Disk Warrior cannot fix the drive, many times it can re-create a temporary directory which will allow you to copy critical data. Once that's done, you will have a backup and can reinitialize the internal drive.
Click to expand...

Disk warrior is a 100$ plus i have to wait while its being delivered.. There must be one method that doesnt require me to buy a program..? right? all i care about is my data, i dont wanna lose it all!
 
iFanaddic said:
Disk warrior is a 100$ plus i have to wait while its being delivered.. There must be one method that doesnt require me to buy a program..? right? all i care about is my data, i dont wanna lose it all!
Click to expand...

You don't need to wait for delivery if you buy it on-line and download it. Yes, I believe it's around $100.

The problem is gaining access to your drive. If the directory structure is damaged, there's no simple way of getting to your data. If Apple's Disk Utility's First Aid can't fix it, the next step is Disk Warrior.

I don't remember if Disk Warrior has a demo or trial - you'll have to check that out.

Since you will need an external drive anyway, I'd suggest getting one and installing Snow Leopard on that. Boot on the external drive's install and see if it will even mount your internal drive. Sometimes, OS-X will mount a damaged drive in read-only mode (it'll give you a warning message that it's damaged, etc.). If you get to that point, then you can grab your data, copy it to your external drive, then start fresh on the internal (repartitioning it should fix any corruption it might have - unless, there's a physical problem with the drive).

In fact, if the drive is mountable in read-only mode, you might be able to migrate from it during your SL installation on the external drive ("migration" is part of the installation setup). That'll essentially put you back to where you were (all apps, settings and data are migrated to the new drive), but with a clean install of SL. If you get to that point, then you can [hopefully] reinitialize the internal drive and "restore" the external to the internal (using Disk Utility from the install DVD). "Restore" is Disk Utility's way of "cloning" drives, but can be used for other things as well.

You'll end up with a mirror of your external on the internal drive. Use "Startup Disk" (System Preferences) to select the internal drive and you should be good to go. You can then decide whether to keep the image copy on the external; erase it and use it for Time Machine; or both - resize the SL install partition and use the freespace to create a partition for Time Machine. That all depends on how large a drive you get, of course.

Hope this helps. It's a bad situation to be in, but I think one of these solutions will help.
 
gr8tfly said:
You don't need to wait for delivery if you buy it on-line and download it. Yes, I believe it's around $100.

The problem is gaining access to your drive. If the directory structure is damaged, there's no simple way of getting to your data. If Apple's Disk Utility's First Aid can't fix it, the next step is Disk Warrior.

I don't remember if Disk Warrior has a demo or trial - you'll have to check that out.

Since you will need an external drive anyway, I'd suggest getting one and installing Snow Leopard on that. Boot on the external drive's install and see if it will even mount your internal drive. Sometimes, OS-X will mount a damaged drive in read-only mode (it'll give you a warning message that it's damaged, etc.). If you get to that point, then you can grab your data, copy it to your external drive, then start fresh on the internal (repartitioning it should fix any corruption it might have - unless, there's a physical problem with the drive).

In fact, if the drive is mountable in read-only mode, you might be able to migrate from it during your SL installation on the external drive ("migration" is part of the installation setup). That'll essentially put you back to where you were (all apps, settings and data are migrated to the new drive), but with a clean install of SL. If you get to that point, then you can [hopefully] reinitialize the internal drive and "restore" the external to the internal (using Disk Utility from the install DVD). "Restore" is Disk Utility's way of "cloning" drives, but can be used for other things as well.

You'll end up with a mirror of your external on the internal drive. Use "Startup Disk" (System Preferences) to select the internal drive and you should be good to go. You can then decide whether to keep the image copy on the external; erase it and use it for Time Machine; or both - resize the SL install partition and use the freespace to create a partition for Time Machine. That all depends on how large a drive you get, of course.

Hope this helps. It's a bad situation to be in, but I think one of these solutions will help.
Click to expand...

My problem is fixed thanks to everyone who tried to help..

I ended up calling apple (cuz im a noob when it comes to computers) and they helped me even though my warranty is over.. The lady told me to insert leopard, archive everything and when this was done my computer would be back to normal and I would only have to pop in snow leopard to upgrade.. Worked like a charm
 
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