hyonhyon85

Q: Accidentally deleted /var folder, now recovery utilities not responding to trackpad/keyboard!

So I did something completed stupid, and now have a big problem.

 

I accidentally deleted /var folder and emptied the trash!!

Now my MBP is stuck at the grey start up screen with the apple & spinng wheel and won't start up..

 

The weird thing is, now when I enter recovery utilities, everything displays fine except I cannot click anything! The mouse pointer moves but won't respond to clicks! Same with the return on keyboard. Arrow keys work to move among 4 options on os x utilities (time machine/ reinstall/ online help/ disk utility) but when I hit enter, no response! The trackpad & return key works fine up until the point where the mbp asks which language to run the recovery utilities.

 

All my data is backed up online, and now I just want to reinstall os x and start using my mbp again!

I tried reinstall with an installation disc by holding down 'c' on start, then I hear the installation dvd spinning for 3 seconds, then it would start ticking and won't do anything else for a few minutes until I force shutdown.

 

Please!!! Can anyone help me?? How can I reinstall os x??  I would really appreciate!!

 

Thank you Thank you Thank you in advance.

 

 

-Michelle

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 10, 2013 1:48 PM

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Q: Accidentally deleted /var folder, now recovery utilities not responding to trackpad/keyboard!

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  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Apr 10, 2013 2:11 PM in response to hyonhyon85
    Level 9 (69,956 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 10, 2013 2:11 PM in response to hyonhyon85

    Apple support articles:

     

    Startup Gray Screen

     

    Startup Issues - Resolve

     

    Since you obviously have access to another computer, maybe you can fix the problem using Target Disk Mode.

     

    Target Disc Mode


  • by ludov04,

    ludov04 ludov04 Dec 30, 2014 9:32 AM in response to hyonhyon85
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 30, 2014 9:32 AM in response to hyonhyon85

    I know it's late but maybe it will help other people.

    I ran into the same issue and none of the solutions listed by apple helped.

     

    I booted into single-user mode and I read the log in /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/private/var/log/system.log, it was full of errors like theses

     

    Dec 30 18:03:28 MacBook-Air locationd[352]: libcoreservices: _dirhelper: 454: mkdir: path=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000sm00006d/C/ modes[2]=0700: No such file or directory

    Dec 30 18:03:28 MacBook-Air.local locationd[352]: could not create persistent store directory (Input/output error)

    Dec 30 18:03:28 MacBook-Air locationd[352]: libcoreservices: _dirhelper: 454: mkdir: path=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000sm00006d/C/ modes[2]=0700: No such file or directory

     

    The system actually tried to create directories in /var/folders but the directory /var/folders did not exists, so I created it:

     

    Under single-user mode:

    mount -o update /

    cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/

    mkdir var/folders

    mkdir var/folders/zz

    reboot

     

    And it booted just fine !


     

  • by gtpatwork,

    gtpatwork gtpatwork Oct 29, 2015 2:06 PM in response to ludov04
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2015 2:06 PM in response to ludov04

    Colleague accidentally deleted a folder /var/folders...ludov04s post helped us to run under single user and find a permission issue ...then mounted the file system for update added the perms needed and voila worked like a charm ...thanks ludov04 !!!!

  • by dbp303,

    dbp303 dbp303 Jun 21, 2016 5:51 AM in response to ludov04
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 21, 2016 5:51 AM in response to ludov04

    I had the same problem and tried your method, but it did not work.

     

    Then I tried to delete the var/folders folder.

     

    And the recreated the var/folders and var/folders/zz folders

     

    This did the trick, and it worked.

     

    Thanks for the help.