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User profile for user: Covenant
Covenant Author
User level: Level 1
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MacBook stuck at gray screen during start up

Lately my 2008 model MacBook has been freezing up. When I shut it down, it starts up just fine, however, the last two times I've shut it down, it gets stuck at the gray screen during start up. The first time, I was unsuccessful with a Safe Boot, however I was successful using Command Option+PR to reset my NVRAM/PRAM. It has been working fine for the past two days, but it froze again this evening. I tried Safe Booting, removing peripherals, resetting the NVRAM/PRAM and I even was able to repair the disk and the permissions, but still, I am unsuccessful during a start up.

When I did try to "Perform an Archive and Install installation of Mac OS X", it said my computer was not able to install 10.5 (I run 10.6) because it did not meet the system requirements.

As a final effort, I tried doing another SafeBoot, this time viewing the status. It has been stuck at a console screen that reads "disk0s2: media is not present...." for about ten minutes now, if that helps at all.

Any advice on how to fix this would be highly appreciated. And yes, I have read the Gray screen article 🙂

Zach Irwin

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2), iPhone 8GB iMac G5 with iSight iPod Nano 2nd Gen

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 8:16 PM

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 8:30 PM

Your hard drive may be damaged or requires reformatting. You might try this to start:

Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

If you still are unable to restart or if DU cannot repair the drive or the SMART status is not "verified" then you can try reformatting the drive to see if that fixes the problem, otherwise you will have to replace the drive.

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.)

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

And, you cannot do an Archive and Install of Leopard over a Snow Leopard installation. You have to reinstall using the Snow Leopard installer.
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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Oct 5, 2010 8:30 PM in response to Covenant

Your hard drive may be damaged or requires reformatting. You might try this to start:

Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

If you still are unable to restart or if DU cannot repair the drive or the SMART status is not "verified" then you can try reformatting the drive to see if that fixes the problem, otherwise you will have to replace the drive.

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.)

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

And, you cannot do an Archive and Install of Leopard over a Snow Leopard installation. You have to reinstall using the Snow Leopard installer.
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User profile for user: Covenant
Covenant Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Oct 8, 2010 3:54 PM in response to Kappy

Okay, a couple of things just happened.

In the middle of repairing the disk, it said Volume Repair complete. It was then verifying something when all of the sudden it stopped and there were no volumes in the sidebar. I decided just to reboot and then do the partition/erase thing. In the middle of erasing the partition, it stopped, and the drives disappeared. This has happened twice now. The message I am getting is "Volume Erase failed - Volume Erase failed with the error: Disk object invalid or unable to serialize"

My SMART status was Verified as well. The Hard Drives no longer appear in the side bar. I can only view them when I reboot, restarting to bring up Disk Utility from Snow Leopard also does not work.
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User profile for user: Covenant
Covenant Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Oct 10, 2010 8:06 PM in response to Covenant

Well I went to Apple and they said the hard drive did indeed fail and that they could replace it for $217 :O . I ended up getting the name of a company, Driver Savers, who can actually take music and files off of your hard drive, but their minimum price was $500, and I would still need $220 for the new drive on an old computer that might do this again.

I'm just going to get the new MacBook. Thanks for all your help Kappy 🙂
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MacBook stuck at gray screen during start up

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