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Level 1

4 points

BIG issues with 10.4x software update today - someone please help !!

Hello,

I have a 17" MacBook Pro, running 10.4 and the beta of Boot Camp (I bought the machine ~ 9/1/2006).

Today, while working normally, I was "pinged" by Software Update that there were updates ready to install. I said "go ahead".

Halfway through, I received a message similar to "Software Update has encountered an unexpected issue, you must restart".

I selected restart. My machine will no longer boot (on the mac side), getting to the final (~100%) "blue line" on start up screen and than hanging.

I have tried many times (and also let it "think" for many hours) to no avail.

I just returned from the local Apple Store "Genius Bar" (a whole other story - not pleasant) where they tried to boot from CD, but the only option is to erase the entire drive and all data to do so. Since I have not backed up my device, I said to not do that. The cause is apparently a known issue with the latest software update of 10.4 with the beta of Boot Camp. (as a "known" issue, I for the life of me will never understand why that was not made clear to the user BEFOREHAND).

Unfortunately, that option is not good for me (shame on me for not backing up my device) as I have years worth of email, all of my music and videos (thousands of songs) and pictures as well as 100% of my cycling training data (which is downloaded via a device whenever I ride) for the last two years.

Apparently, they claim there is no other option (they also do not see any issues at all with having a update that can cause this type of catastrophic failure without some sort of indication of the risks thereof - i.e, "please back up all of your data before installing this upgrade)

I need to find a way to restore my device to working order and recover my data. Apple claims (both in-store and on the phone) that they do not do data recovery nor do they know who does or how to do it.

Does anybody have any ideas/options for me?

1. Advice on how I can work around this (preferably without a erase)
2. If I do have to erase, how can I recover my data?
3. What happens to all of my purchased music/video from iTunes if I cannot recover?
4. How I could find all of my software licenses (which are all in my email, which I can't access) for downloaded applications?
5. How to feel less stupid and borderline sucicidal?....:-)

Thanks in advance for any help or advice....

Geoff

Macbook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Nov 24, 2007 5:24 PM

62 replies

Kencory

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2007 2:59 AM in response to John Luetke

FWIW, it did it to my intel Mac Mini, and I don't have Bootcamp (do have Parallels).

KCC

kiki310

Level 1

0 points

Dec 25, 2007 5:28 PM in response to thedbp

Thank you for your post with detailed steps of how to fix the problem! After procrastinating to upgrade, I finally decided to go ahead with the upgrade from OS 10.4.10 to 10.4.11. Who knew what a nightmarish experience that would be! Upon rebooting my computer, I only saw the gray screen and nothing else... eventually, I decided to shut down the computer. Having not backed up my harddrive for about 2 months, I was VERY upset to say the least. I took my computer in to the Apple store and was dissapointed because they could not address the issue immediately. So, I took matters into my own hands (luckily because we have a second MacBook in the family) and was able to follow your directions, which worked like a charm. *Apple, Steve Jobs... this OS upgrade user experience is unacceptable.*
- A loyal Mac fan since 2002 (was even at the Apple Store - The Grove in Los Angeles grand opening) who is off to set up automated backups

smithrj

Level 4

1,541 points

Dec 25, 2007 5:40 PM in response to ggalat

1. Advice on how I can work around this (preferably without a erase)
Delete Boot Camp, no more updates from Apple after 12/31
2. If I do have to erase, how can I recover my data?
Back up all you can.
3. What happens to all of my purchased music/video from iTunes if I cannot recover?
iTunes will replace purchased items one time.
4. How I could find all of my software licenses (which are all in my email, which I can't access) for downloaded applications?
A 3rd part application.
5. How to feel less stupid and borderline sucicidal?....:-)
Don't know.

smithrj

Level 4

1,541 points

Dec 25, 2007 5:58 PM in response to briken

Hold down the power button for as long as it takes and restart in safe mode.

Ray

smithrj

Level 4

1,541 points

Dec 25, 2007 6:40 PM in response to smithrj

who solved it?

duc1000a

Level 1

0 points

Jan 26, 2008 8:36 AM in response to smithrj

I made the mistake of upgrading my Macbook Pro 2.16 from 10.4.6 to 10.4.11 a couple of days ago. Photoshop and Illustrator would crash on every third save or so and I couldn't get any work done.

I had to install 10.4.6 from my Apple disk that came with the computer. I clicked the Archive and Install button to move the old OS 10.4.11 to a new Previous Systems Folder.

Photoshop and Illustrator are back to normal now.

After I make sure eveything is working right I'll delete the Previous Systems Folder.

Message was edited by: ddjones

Feb 5, 2008 5:46 AM in response to kiki310

I will be up front, I use Win XP and Dell and I don't want to bag Apple and their OS X 10.4.11 and iMac, but this OS X 10.4.11 update does take the fun out of computing. The iMac is my daughter's computer and she uses it at university. She wanted to run the latest Final Cut Pro which required the update to 10.4.11 which I am becoming very proficient at doing.

After the first update to 10.4.11, the iMac turned into a doggie and ran very slow. Click on Flash 8, wait, multi-colour hour glass. Thinking Apple test their updates and that I downloaded a dud, I tried another download and checked the checksum, which appears to be ok (not a 100% sure on the forum post and my results though), this is becoming a Linux update look-a-like.

After the 2nd and 3rd update, grey (or gray) screen with an different hour-glass (now I know why they call it an hour glass). After 60 minutes of inactivity (I wasn't sure if it was doing a massive update), I rebooted and it came to life. The Apple - About this Mac indicated it was update to 10.4.11, but it was very slow. The Task Manager, ooops, the Activity Monitor looks ok. I have no idea what it is waiting for. I turned off the Air Port and used a direct connection to my router, not a slightest bit a difference.

The post for this error on this forum is Nov'07 and now it is Feb'08. Where is the fix? I have a lot of time for this iMac (unfortunately, a heck of a lot lately) and would like to see a fix for 10.4.11.

For the time being, I will stop at the 10.4.10 update (thanks to the posts).

By the way, I just updated my Dell with a second 750GB Sata drive (internally) and it took me 2 minutes. I didn't even need a screw driver as the drive fits neatly into a removable (screw-less) disk holder. Now if anyone has tried to do the same update to their iMac, they will know what I mean. Sorry, I did say I wasn't going to bag the iMac. The iMac Intel is a brilliant machine.

Feb 25, 2008 5:46 PM in response to duc1000a

I too recently updated to 10.4.11. And halfway through, I received a message similar to "Software Update has encountered an unexpected issue, you must restart".

I selected restart. My machine will no longer boot (on the mac side), getting to the final (~100%) "blue line" on start up screen and than hanging.

I have tried many times (and also let it "think" for many hours) to no avail.

I just returned from the local Apple Store "Genius Bar" (a whole other story - not pleasant) where they tried to boot from CD, but the only option is to erase the entire drive and all data to do so. I had to select this option as the system only install also hung-up. Fortunately, or so I thought I had backed up my music and other files before heading to the Apple Store.

After logging on a home with a nice clean system I again was asked to upgrade which I did. No crashes so I though OK. Only everything hangs or crashes, large file copies or downloads, or find results also crash the machine. And my backed up copies were incomplete. I contacted iTunes and they showed me how to get most of my files again, but it would only work one time they said, but of course the machine hangs while downloading.

I am out money, time and patience. Apple please help!!!!!!

Feb 25, 2008 5:48 PM in response to Fenderaddict

Oops, just noticed the model and system select options below.

Feb 26, 2008 9:36 AM in response to Fenderaddict

I had a similar problem (I think) with my eMac. It gets through the blue bar and then stops. I was able to boot in single user mode and run a fsck, with no problems. I am going to try an archive and install once I get a copy of the tiger install CD. It won't recognise the Cd's that i got with the computer (10.2 I believe.)

Apr 14, 2008 6:26 AM in response to ggalat

I have bought a notebook a few weeks ago, and it has 4 gb of op. mem. But stupid windows that was in set detect only 3 gb. (x32 Windows home edition) And it’s absolutely wrong marketing.
<Edited by Moderator>

May 23, 2008 7:58 PM in response to rectalogic

Yesterday I downloaded 10.4.11 and shortly there after my computer froze. I turned it off and tried turning it back on again and it will now only show me the folder with the flashing question mark in it.

Yes, I had Boot Camp installed. However, I did not have a Boot Camp partition. I deleted that a while ago to get some more space on my HD.

I tried your solution but I cannot find my HD. It is no more. I ran the hardware utility and everything checks out. Disk Utility has been gathering disk information for the past hour now....(not working)

I am now questioning what I should do next. Unfortunately, I only backed up about half of my information on an external HD. Some people have claimed that it may just be a crashed HD but I am putting full blame on Apple since I am obviously not the only one with this issue.

I might try to hook up my brick with a working MacBook to see if I can retrieve any data that way but I feel my efforts will be futile.

Any other suggestions?

BDAqua

Level 10

240,035 points

May 23, 2008 10:00 PM in response to mcarmstrong14

A warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

Please start a new topic, I have some ides/suggestions, but this topic is pretty crowded...

http://discussions.apple.com/post!default.jspa?forumID=752

You'll get more help too, not many look in solved topics for people needing help! 🙂

Jun 14, 2008 12:39 PM in response to duc1000a

I did the update today without knowing about the bug. Now Windows XP won't start up in boot camp. This is really annoying. Mac OS X boots fine.

So. Are you saying that you managed to downgrade from 10.4.11 to 10.4.6 without having to reinstall all the other applications? What about Boot Camp? Is this an option I select from the utilities available on the install disk?

Otherwise, what if I upgrade to 10.5? Will this fix the problem without me having to redo the whole Windows installation? There is a lot of data, most of it is backed up but still a pain to restore.

Jul 1, 2008 10:08 PM in response to ggalat

Hmmm...I have tried to reboot using the OS X (10.4.7) disc which came with my iMac a year ago to no avail. So I tried doing the same thing with my orginal OS X (10.4) disk which came with my iBook G4 years ago. The problem is that once I startup with the Tiger disk in the drive and let go of the C, option, or control key, the disk pops out and the grey screen just cycles.

I have tried restarted holding the option key (still hangs on the gray bootup screen), tried holding the C when restarting (ditto). I (thankfully) have updated copies of my necessary files (except 1 or 2) on my trusty old iBook G4. So I am wondering how the heck to reboot my machine to OS X (10.4.7 or 10.4, I've also tried using my original Tiger disk which came with my iBook)?? Any help (please use simple language I don't speak computer very well) is greatly appreciated.

Message was edited by: shanadee1977

BIG issues with 10.4x software update today - someone please help !!