Unresponsive Macbook Pro 2009

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Level 1

43 points

Unresponsive Macbook Pro 2009

Hello. I have a Macbook Pro that I bought in 2009 that has worked fine since then. I now have a newer Macbook for my work, but I use this old one for other things.

Recently it started to be very slow and now it's almost completely unresponsive.

I can start it in recovery mode and I see the "OS X Utilities" menu, but then nothing works. I click on "Disk Utility" or on the apple symbol and nothing happens.

Is there any way to erase the hard drive and hope it works again?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Dec 22, 2023 1:00 AM

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Answer 1

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Allan Jones

Level 10

83,296 points

Dec 22, 2023 6:43 AM in response to NotAnExile

Recently it started to be very slow and now it's almost completely unresponsive.

That sequence sounds like a failed hard drive motor unless the drive filled up.. If it was not full, wiping the drive will not resurrect it.

I would try a Safe Mode boot (Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support). If the computer starts, that leans the possibilities to the "too full" issue. In Safe Mode, you may be able to delete some unneeded files to free u space on the drive.

You can also physically remove the drive and use a bare drive adaptor to attach it as an external on your other Mac and retrieve files.

If Safe Mode does not boot, I vote "dead drive."

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Answer 2

NotAnExile Author

Level 1

43 points

Dec 25, 2023 9:07 AM in response to Allan Jones

Thank you very much for these suggestions. After a lot of trials I found that it works with a mouse, just not with the trackpad (that I had been working with all this time). But now that it’s in safe mode, all I can do is try to reinstall OX Mavericks and every time I try, I get a message saying that it’s “temporarily unavailable”. Three days of “temporary”!

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Unresponsive Macbook Pro 2009

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