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HELP: macbook won't boot past the apple logo, tried numbers of methods all to no avail

Hello all, this afternoon my macbook (MBW 7.1, Lion) won't get past the apple logo with the rotating stuff and the loading bar stuff underneath the logo.


Here's several troubleshoots i have done for the past 6 hours:

  • i tried to boot while holding cmd+F, cmd+S, Shift key, etc but all to no avail.
  • i went to the black screen where you can do the "fsck -fy" thing yet still to no avail (fyi the screen said that my disk could not be repaired; tried the fsck for a couple of times more still ended with the same result).
  • I also tried inserting OSX disk (which is from my previous MBW 6.1 Snow Leopard, i bought the 7.1 secondhanded preinstalled with Lion from its previous owner) but after a couple of minutes, the screen shows the "You need to restart to computer..." sentence – those written in 5 languages.


I hope anyone would help me and the rest of those who still encounters the same problem with no avail, by replying to this thread.

Should anyone suggesting me to go straight to the service center (in my place we only have reseller stores which also do hardware fixing), I WILL, take my MBW to the service center but not in the near future (as it is sadly not available in in my city so i have to schedule the visit only in weekends probably) but by starting up this discussion, i only hope for any alternatives that can probably be done by myself without having to go to the service center (which hopefully saves me a LOT of money as well 🙂)

Thank you very much!

MacBook (13-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 10, 2013 8:43 AM

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3 replies

Jul 10, 2013 5:10 PM in response to uberwomensch

won't get past the apple logo with the rotating stuff and the loading bar stuff underneath the logo.


The at boot fsck drive repair can't fix the issue, your going to have to erase and install everything.



If you don't have a recent copy of your data off the machine.


Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive



If you do now, then hold command option r keys down on a Ethernet connection to your router and use Disk Utility to erase the entire drive (move the slider one spot to the right to fix the bad sector issue) and then quit and install the OS X version it gives you, then upgrade again via AppStore.

How to reformat a used Mac


Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's



If you don't have Internet Recovery (like no globe appears when you hold command option r keys at boot,) then start with your 10.6 install disks and Software Update to 10.6.8 then do the AppStore OS X upgrade.

How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6



If you have a TimeMachine or bootable clone, you can use Migration Assistant to transfer users/programs from that.


However it's best to start with a new user and only transfer files as those won't brick the machine again.

HELP: macbook won't boot past the apple logo, tried numbers of methods all to no avail

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