Safe Boot Doesn't Work

[epeters98]

My computer won't start up normally. I've already had this once, and I fixed it easily by booting in in safe mode. This time that doesn't work. When the chime sounds, I start holding the shift button. It looks as if it's going to start into safe mode, but when I keep holding it, the apple logo on the screen quickly flashes with a circle with a cross through it. It does this a couple of times, and sometimes instead of the circle, it flashes a folder icon with a "?" inside it. This happens a few times, then my computer just tries to start up normally.

Please help.

epeters98

 

[JediMeister]

If your computer will not start up in safe mode that means the OS is damaged to a point where reinstalling will likely be the only fix. See here for applicable troubleshooting steps.

 

[ezramoore]

This generally means that your Mac has experienced a Kernel Panic while starting up.

This usually means there is some sort of hardware problem (incompatible hardware plugged in or installed, bad HDD, etc.) but it can be software related as well.

This link explains and has some troubleshooting steps. Don't worry about the reference to older versions of OS X.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1411#symp2

By the sound of it, since you're also getting the OS not located symbol (folder with a ?) you probably have a bad hard drive.

Sometimes, depending on the hard drive failure even booting to the system installation disk will fail unless the drive is unplugged.