JK Brown
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Attempted upgrade to Snow Leopard, but failed.

I want to upgrade from Leopard 10.5.8.I bought the Snow Leopard CD from Apple a few months ago. Installer ran for maybe 8 minutes, then said it "cannot change the" contents/data* "of the hard drive". *I don't remember the exact word.  I had to use boot from CD and the keyboard eject to get the CD out. Now my MacBook Pro won't boot.  It gets stuck on the grey screen, then after several minutes it shuts down.  I bought the laptop used 2 years ago, and don't have a Leopard disc. What can I do? 

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jun 27, 2012 7:31 PM

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JK Brown

Q: Attempted upgrade to Snow Leopard, but failed.

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  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Jun 27, 2012 7:42 PM in response to JK Brown
    Level 8 (49,522 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 27, 2012 7:42 PM in response to JK Brown

    There is not much you can do about this without the original software installation DVD. Your best alternative is to contact Apple and determine if you can secure one for your MacBook Pro.

     

    You will need the computer's serial number; since you cannot boot look for it on the case exterior (MacBook Pro: How to find the serial number). You will also need to spend a nominal amount for support and more for the DVD if one is even available. You may be better off bringing the MacBook to an Apple Store and paying them to install Snow Leopard. Make an appointment here: http://concierge.apple.com/reservation/us/en/techsupport/

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 27, 2012 10:15 PM in response to JK Brown
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Jun 27, 2012 10:15 PM in response to JK Brown

    Tough without the Install disc, but some things to try...

     

    Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...

     

    /sbin/fsck -fy

     

    Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.

     

    (Space between fsck AND -fy important).

     

    Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...

     

    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

  • by Neville Hillyer,

    Neville Hillyer Neville Hillyer Jun 28, 2012 7:24 AM in response to JK Brown
    Level 4 (1,877 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 28, 2012 7:24 AM in response to JK Brown

    I have very little experience of this particular problem but others here may be able to comment upon the following advice:

     

    1. Shut down - hold power button for several seconds if necessary
    2. Disconnect all devices eg external drives, printers etc - keep only display, keyboard & mouse
    3. Disconnect any Ethernet cables.
    4. Boot in Safe mode - hold Shift key immediately it starts until you get a grey Apple logo

    I based the above upon:

     

    1. "Instead of seeing the Finder or the login window after startup, your computer may stop responding and the display may only show a persistent gray screen" from http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

       

    2. "A Safe Boot deletes the dynamic loader shared cache at (/var/db/dyld/). A cache with issues may cause a blue screen on startup, particularly after a Software Update. Restarting normally recreates this cache" from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564