Situation: MacBook 7.1 (mid-2010) won't start up

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Level 1

8 points

Situation: MacBook 7.1 (mid-2010) won't start up

I have a MacBook 7.1 (mid 2010) that won't boot up. It has a non-functioning disc drive. At startup, the Apple logo and spinning circle appear and that's where it stays for hours. I have tried all the online suggestions, and the only one that shows anything other than the logo and spinner is the Safe mode suggestions. But after about a quarter of the loading bar is filled, the screen reverts to the logo and spinner. The content of the MacBook is backed up on an external hard drive, but I have been unable to get that to load. Suggestions?

Posted on Mar 20, 2020 2:56 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HWTech

Level 9

56,138 points

Mar 21, 2020 3:59 PM in response to gregors1

For a laptop this old a failing hard drive is very likely. I highly recommend using Knoppix to check the health of the drive as it may save you lots of time and frustration.

A spinning wheel indicates the laptop is trying to boot from the drive. If the OS was removed you would see a blinking folder with a question mark.

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R. This would the easiest method to install macOS 10.13 High Sierra if it works. Otherwise you will need access to another Mac to download and create a bootable High Sierra USB drive.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

56,138 points

Mar 21, 2020 1:02 PM in response to gregors1

I'm glad you have a backup!

It sounds like you may have a bad hard drive.

You can try running the Apple Hardware Test although it will not catch all drive failures.

If the laptop has had macOS 10.12.4 installed at some point, then you can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to bypass the local recovery partition on the hard drive.

To check the health of the hard drive you can create a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI". The computer may appear to be frozen on the Apple boot picker menu while Knoppix is booting so give Knoppix lots of time to finish booting.

When Knoppix boots to the desktop click on the "Start" menu on the lower left corner of the Taskbar and navigate to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app double-click on the laptop's drive icon to access the drive's health report. Post the complete report here. GSmartControl also has the ability to run the drive's internal selftests. The short selftest takes about two minutes to run while the long/extended selftest can take several hours depending on the size and health of the drive.

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Answer 3

gregors1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 21, 2020 2:15 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the help. I ran both the short and the long Apple Hardware Tests on the machine and both came up "No trouble found". I hit the restart button, and the logo and spinning disc popped up again. Is there a chance that the machine doesn't even have an OS installed? I know that there was an attempt to purge the MacBook before passing it on to me - could that be the issue. and if so, can I do a startup from a flash drive (remember, the disc drive doesn't work)? I might be able to load an OS onto one of those.

Thanks for the help. If we weren't in the middle of mass shutdowns, I'd haul this into the local Apple store.

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Answer 4

gregors1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2020 1:02 PM in response to HWTech

OK! I downloaded Knoppix from Etcher and was able to restore the original files from my backup external hard drive! The MacBook is working like it was before the problems. Thanks for the help! I hope this solves the problems.

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Situation: MacBook 7.1 (mid-2010) won't start up

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