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Macbook Pro no longer starting after failed upgrade to 10.6

Hi,


My wife was trying to upgrade our 2009 Macbook Pro from 10.5 to 10.6, and the installation failed in the middle. She tried to restart the computer and now the grey screen appears with the apple, then the progress indicator comes on and spins, and then after a minute or two the computer shuts down. Every time.


I tried clearing the NVRAM by holding COMMAND + OPTION + P + R at startup. I hear the computer start and then re-start, so I think the NVRAM was cleaed, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything.


I put in an OS X Leopard upgrade disk, and held the "C" key at startp to open the Disk Utility. I tried to verify the hard disk but got an "invalid node structure" error. The Disk Utility would not allow me to click on "Repair Disk." I tried verifying the disk a few more times just for fun, and got invalid node structure each time except once, when I got "invalid key length."


Next I tried re-starting in Verbose mode. This time it got to a certain point in the start-up process and then just stopped. It didn't shut down, but hasn't moved any farther for 20 or 30 minutes or so. The following image shows what is on the screen now.


User uploaded file

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15"

Posted on Jun 15, 2014 5:44 AM

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10 replies

Jun 15, 2014 3:06 PM in response to jallen300

Small update... I was trying to re-install OS X 10.4 and go to the point to select the destination volume and the selection space was blank -- no hard disk showing up. A little googling seems to indicate that's a pretty bad sign.


I think I'm going to try to restore my hard disk from my last time maching backup now, though I'm not thrilled with that option as we haven't backed up on time machine in almost a year.


Any other thoughts for anything I can or should try?

Jun 15, 2014 3:34 PM in response to jallen300

Ok, another update. I tried restoring from my November 2013 time machine backup. I booted from the OS X Leopard upgrade disc and held "C" and then chose "Restore from backup" under "Utilities." I ran through the process to restore from Time Machine, and it seemed to follow step to step correctly, but after only about a minute or two of processing it told me that the restore was complete and that the computer would then restart. The hard drive was pretty full, so it seemed like it all happened too quickly to really have restored the whole hard drive.


When the computer restarted, it booted straight to the DVD again since it was still in the drive, so I went to Disk Utility and tried to verify the hard disk. This time it ran right through 6 or 8 things and immediately told me that the drive seemed to be working fine. That's the first time I got a positive response like that when trying to verify the disk, so I had some hope.


I then shut down and restarted, ejecting the disc by holding the mouse button, and then, instead of getting the apple on the grey screen, I'm now getting a flashing folder with a question mark!! I guess that means the computer can't find any startup software?


Any thoughts on where to go next? Thanks!


-Jeff

Jun 24, 2014 2:31 AM in response to BDAqua

Nope, CMD+s does nothing different -- I just see the blank grey screen for a little while and then eventually the blinking folder with a question mark appears. I tried booting to verbose mode too (CMD+v) but with the same result. Strangely, when this whole process started, I was able to boot in verbose mode, so I'm thinking maybe the process of trying to restore from the Time Machine backup has blanked out the computer's brain without replacing it with anything?


Would it help if I tried to boot again from one of the OS X discs I have? I could access the terminal from there, and try the same commands if that would be useful? Or I could try again to restore from my Time Machine backup on an external drive?


If the hard drive is dead or severely corrupted, can I just format it clean and then restore from my Time Machine backup? At this point I think I'd be happy with a solution like that if it were possible.


Thanks again for the advice BDAqua. I really appreciate it!

Jun 24, 2014 8:44 AM in response to jallen300

Would it help if I tried to boot again from one of the OS X discs I have? I could access the terminal from there, and try the same commands if that would be useful?

Try Disk Utility of the Install Disc.



1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)

Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.

3. Click the First Aid tab.

4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.

5. Select your Mac OS X volume.

6. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."


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

Jul 6, 2014 6:06 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks again BDAqua, and sorry for the long delay between reponses. The computer's been out of sight and out of mind for me the past few weeks, but my wife reminded meabiut it this morning.


So I tried the repair disk function within disk utility on the install disc, and everything seemed to be ok. I got a message in green that says "the volume Jeffs OW Mac appears to be ok." And then "Volume repair complete." I also noticed that the capicity of the drive appeared to be 119.69 GB and the available space 119.61 GB, which I guess meant the drive was completely empty but working.


So I tried once again to restore from my time machine backup, and wonder of all wonders, it worked this time! Two hours of restoration later, I'm writing to you now from the restored computer, and my wife is thrilled (and thinks I'm a genius!). So thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to walk me through the steps! I really appreciate it!

But now we're afraid to try again to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Do you think there's any reason trying again would throw the computer into another state of confusion, flux, and ultimately disaster, or should I just give it a shot? It's a 2009 Macbook Pro 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, running OS X 10.5.8. Perhaps it just can't handle the new software?

All the best, and thanks so much again!

Jeff

Jul 6, 2014 10:32 AM in response to jallen300

I'd leave well enough alone right now, see if it's reliable running 10.5.8... I still think there's a problem we haven't found yet.


10.6.x is supposed to run with 1 GB of RAM, but in my experience it wasn't satisfactory with 3 or 4 GB of RAM.Is it this MBP?


http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .26-aluminum-13-mid-2009-sd-firewire-800-unibody-specs.html


Only one close to 2.2 GHz I can find for 2009 MBPs, 2.2 was a 2007 model.

Macbook Pro no longer starting after failed upgrade to 10.6

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