My Macbook won't boot up past the logo and loading wheel. Help please?

You need to reinstall OS X.

If you are using Snow Leopard:

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive

Do the following:

1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

Boot from your Snow Leopard 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 Utilities menu. 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.

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.

2. Reinstall Snow Leopard

If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.

Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

If you are using Lion:

Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive

Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.

Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.

Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

Sorry to tell you but more then like your drive is bad or became corrupted in some way.

Drive corruption does not happen on its own. There is always something that makes the drive corrupted, like the drive is failing.

Saying all that you have no other option then to take it in to be fixed.

What you could do is if you know someone with a Mac computer is take the drive out of the system and connect it to a working Mac computer by a SATA to USB adapter and copy your important files to the working Mac. At least that way you can save your work. But do not keep trying to start it as the longer you try to make it work the worse a failing drive will get. To the point it will not function at all and then all your files will be gone.

Best wishes and good luck.

Are you doing this on startup:

Booting From An OS X Installer Disc

1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.

2. Restart the computer.

3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.

4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.

5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Heathertron wrote:

Oh god, I've been turning it on and off loads in an attempt to get it to work. Do you think if I take it in that they will be able to restore my files for me? I am really no good with computers. Thanks.

You would need to talk to them about that. But I doubt it. Apple is not in the file recovery business (please don't get mad at me for saying that. Other people have been in the same situation as you and when they took their computer in to be fixed they end up getting the computer back with NO data. Apple actually makes you sign a waiver to that affect before they will do any work on it).

Like I said in my previous post you would need to get the data off first before you take it in to be fixed or replaced the hard drive yourself. That is "IF" it is the hard drive that has failed.

If you or someone you know replaces the hard drive then you would have the old drive and may be able to get the data off it. If you take it to an Apple repair center you could ask them for the original hard drive back but I don't know there policy on that. And they may first try wiping the original drive and reinstalling the OS on it before they replace it. That would certainly remove all you files.

Yes you are between a Rock and a very Hard Place.

All I can do is wish the best of luck.

Heathertron wrote:

I have just done that and it installed not even a quarter of the way and then it stopped, it won't go any further. Also, the hard drive entry selection and status of hard drive never appeared before it. It just asked for language and went straight into installing. Starting to think not much more can go wrong.

If you keep fooling with that system you can kiss your files Good Bye. If they aren't gone already.

Most likely that's because you didn't read my instructions carefully. After you select the language and click on Continue you have to wait for the menubar to appear on the screen, not click on the Install button.

If you cannot repair permissions then either you've selected the wrong disk or your hard drive does not contain an OS X system on it or there's a problem with the permissions set for your hard drive.

When you select your startup volume in the DU sidebar, look at the status area near the bottom of the window. What does it tell you?

Maybe nothing, but before you do:

Select Terminal under the Utilities menu. At the prompt enter (carefully):

chown root:admin /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"

Press RETURN.

Nothing but what you saw. Are you able to repair permissions now?