MacBook Pro won't boot up past gray screen?

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Level 1

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MacBook Pro won't boot up past gray screen?

Okay, so I was running chrome and iTunes and spotify. Spotify was playing and Avast! Detected an infection and moved it to the chest. I quit chrome and opened up a Steam game called Garry's Mod, but it wouldn't open no matter how many times I tried it. So I tried to open chrome again and it bounced but didn't open. Tried to open system preferences and it opened but didn't show a window and wasn't responding. So I tried to restart but it wouldn't restart, so I force shut it down. Then it wouldn't go past the gray screen.

So I restarted the PRAM. Didn't work. Tried booting into safe mode. Didn't work. When into single user and checked the directories I think. Didn't work. Called apple and repaired permissions and that didn't work. Then I downloaded OS Mavericks and reinstalled it. Didn't work. So I'm redownloading to see if it might work if i do it again. Otherwise, he said I'd have to completely restore and lose my data, which would suck. I don't have a backup unfortunately.

What I'm wondering is if there's anything you think I could do that just might fix this?

Or, is there anyway to save my data if it won't boot up and I don't have a backup? I have lots of writing and music I really would not like to lose.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), 8gb RAM. 750 GB hard drive

Posted on Feb 28, 2014 7:59 PM

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Answer 1

Dibenkorn

Level 2

405 points

Feb 28, 2014 8:50 PM in response to Bsnuffer

Your disk may be sick or dying. As you surmised the top priority at this point is to make a copy of your data.

First, check the health of the disk. Boot in Recovery Mode (Boot, Command-R). Run Disk Utility. Click on the upper left disk icon. Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”? If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced. Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD” and Verify Disk. If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk. If it shows errors in red then you have found a problem to address once the system is backed up. Do not attempt software repairs until you have secured the data. Post back with the results of this test.

If the disk will not show up at all in Disk Utility to run these simple testes then it is probably already dead. A trip to an Apple store to confirm that would be in order.

If you have an external disk drive you can use as a backup drive then do so. If not I’m going to council you to purchase a drive you can use to replace your internal drive if need be. The silver lining is this new drive will be much faster than the old one. Google “Seagate 1 TB SSHD”. You should find a drive for about $100. Google “USB 3.0 enclosure”. That should cost $10 to $20. When they arrive plug the drive into the enclosure.

Assuming it is still breathing you can recover the data without booting from the sick disk.

Reformat the external disk Boot in Recovery Mode. Start Disk Utility. Plug in the new disk. Select it’s disk Icon (the second one down, left justified). Select the Partition tab.

Partition Layout > Single Partition

Name: Emergency Recovery 1 (or whatever name you wish to use)

Format: Mac OS Extended (journaled)

Options… > GUID Partition Table > OK

Apply

Select the Restore tab.

Drag the old system volume (Macintosh HD) to Source.

Drag the new disk volume (Emergency Recovery 1) to Destination.

Click on Restore.

If that will not complete post back for another emergency data recovery method.

If the backup succeeds use the First Aid tab in Disk Utility to select the old volume (Macintosh HD) and Repair Disk. If it repairs with a green OK message, will it boot normally?

Post back for further instructions. How to proceed will depend on what has transpired to that point.

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