Mac Pro stuck on spinning grey apple on startup

😐 I have the same problem and my Mac Pro was working perfect before i tried to roll back the latest Safari update cause i do not like it, I used a program, can't remember the name but still i no the computer was perfect and it won't let me update Safari now because it's not their at all, so i can't connect to the internet and it won't boot from the CD...i think i ams suppose to hold down C at start up ? running Mountain Lion and help would be good

Thanks :-)

Hold down C (for CD) at Startup and it is supposed to boot from the CD/DVD in the drive.

If you hold down Option instead, you get a parade of Icons for each bootable Volume in your Mac.

If you have a 10.6.0 DVD, and are using the 5770 or 5870 display card, you have no display driver, because the driver came in about 10.6.4.

I just had this same problem this morning. After reading forum posts and having a mini heart attack thinking my hard drive was broke and was going to lose all my stuff (yes i should back up more often!!) i took my laptop down to the apple genius bar.

The issue is down to a harddrive problem, The genius bar was able to access my harddrive and run the verify permissions check which came up with faults. After a repair permissions on the hardrive and an anxious wait computer booted on restart.

Genuis guy said i that hadnt worked it would mean hardrive fault and bye bye data!!

Contrary to the Genius and using Repair Permissions that is not the cure or loss of data necessarily.

Clone your drives.

Use Lion Recovery and/or an emergency boot drive for maintenance and use Disk Utilty and other tools.

Data Rescue 3 and a 2nd recovery drive.

A drive using its spare sector blocks is a sign of drive possibly failing.

Most issues are software and just need to reformat the drive, and may need to zero the drive.

If your computer boots to a gray screen with the spinning gear try using this article.

support.apple.com/kb/TS2570.