Macbook Pro 2.16 core duo won't boot up

Thanks. Do you know if I can do this via a USB disc drive? As my internal superdrive doesn't work.

My fear is it's the HDD or the logic board, however I am also wondering if it might be the graphics card.

Unfortunately the usb Apple external superdrive that I borrowed for the exercise is not compatible with my Macbook Pro. I will try to do it via another Mac (using remote installation or target firewire mode) tomorrow.

In the meantime after I got home, having had the MBP off for a while, it booted up all the way. I opened Disk Utility and started a Repair Disk and then it cut out again - black screen and hangng HDD.

Rebooting into Safe Mode onl gets me as far as a third of the way along the progress bar before it cuts out.

I was able to reboot into Single User Mode and through various Googled instructions ran the fsck command several times to varying effects. This has led me to conclude that there is a problem with the system structure on my start up disk. Solutions for this include mostly trying to restore the HDD, which is what I will hopefully do tomorrow. I have also ordered a new HDD in case a replacement is in order.

Thanks for that link. I decided not to try it straight away as I thought even if I could get the external superdrive to work, at some point during the installation it would re-set itself and then I would be stuck in the middle of an install. Didn't want to risk it.

Anyway some success. I turned on my MBP this morning and it booted up normally. I thought that it would crash at any moment so i quickly ran a Permissions Repair in Disk Utlity. It completed this task and stayed on. In fact it has stayed on all day without cutting out, but I have gone through the process of reinstalling Snow Leopard anyway. (At first I was not sure whether to try my original 10.5 installation discs or the Snow Leopard disc, went with the latter to save time).

So in order to reinstall Snow Leopard without a working internal optical drive I had to create a bootable USB drive using a Mac Mini at work. This took several attempts as there are nuances in the process. This link was the one that ultimately led to success.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/apple-in-the-enterprise/how-to-create-a-bootabl e-usb-to-install-os-x/

(Originally I tried using the Mac Mini in firewire target mode but this does not seem to work with my MBP with its version of Snow Leopard.)

Once I had the USB drive set up I booted my Mac with it and at the appropriate moment I used Disk Utility to erase my old HDD before proceeding with the install.

NOW I am at the stage of the install where it is asking me if I want to transfer my information from a Time Machine backup. I have a recent time machine backup of my MBP from about 7 days ago.

So my next question is, should I restore from this TM backup, or will this reintroduce any file problems that I developed on my HDD? Will it give me the option of transferring my user files without corrupting the fresh new install of Mac OS?

Thanks for the tips. What I have done so far, I've reinstalled 10.6.0 and I have copied select things over from my recent TM backup - most applications, my user files except library. After I have taken the opportunity to rationalise my music collection I will transfer that over. Is there a way of transferring all of my application preferences (Firefox, System preferences, Dock, startup items etc)?

I checked my HDD in Disk Utlity and the S.M.A.R.T. status says it is verified. I also ran a verify and repair permissions and there were only about 3 or 4 permission repairs - much fewer than before. Given this should I still take the opportunity to zero out the drive?

I still have my new HDD coming which is 3 x bigger so I think I might put it in anyway. But I guess it would be good to determine whether the current one is indeed faulty or if it might make a good back up disk.

While I am here - and this may be going way off piste for the thread - I am wondering what practical tips people might have for setting out a clean system and keeping it easy to manage in the future. EG I read about people making partitions and wonder if that's a good idea for keeping OS and my personal stuff separate. I always tend to go with the flow and have never paid much attention to the health of my system beyond regular permission repairs.