Macbook continues to fail to install Mavericks

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Level 1

3 points

Macbook continues to fail to install Mavericks

Ok so to start, I have a strong feeling my macbook is on the verge of dying. It crashes after about an hour of use, won't charge, has a broken disk drive and just seems to by on its last legs. Today I was trying to install windows 7 via bootcamp and it was in the middle of partitioning my drive for windows. I had set 100gb for windows leaving 250 for my actual mac OSX when suddenly the darn thing crashed in the middle of it. Upon rebooting, the 100gb I had set for windows had become unavailable and the partition didn't appear in the disk utility. After searching the internet for a way to bring it back, I wound up rebooting and holding command + r to bring up the boot screen and I selected disc utility. I deleted Macintosh HD and attempted to reinstall Mavericks so that I could start from a clean slate, and hopefully fix the crashing problem as well, but now it is stuck in a sort of infinite install. It will attempt to install and get to some point on the progress bar before saying that it failed to install and to restart the computer and try again. I have literally nothing to actually boot into other than the OS install screen and have a feeling this is the end for this laptop because after it stopped charging, apple refused to repair it and give it a warranty (due to visible damage to the outside case) and wanted $300 to do anything, meaning I could take it home after paying and have no guarantee it would work. Because of this I feel that if I brought it apple with this problem, they wouldn't do anything to it unless I was willing to pay more than its worth. I do hope that the Apple community can help me because I have nothing left to try. The laptop is a Macbook late 2010 (last plain Macbook made) with 4gb ram 350gb HDD and I believe a 2.66 ghz intel processor and it was running the newest version of Mavericks. I really hope that somebody can help me because losing the laptop completely would be such a waste

MacBook, iOS 7.1, Mavericks, late 2010 macbook

Posted on Jul 20, 2014 6:44 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 20, 2014 6:53 PM in response to ZachBella

1. Do you have Time Machine backups?

2. Have you run Apple Hardware Test to find any failing hardware? A 2010 laptop should not be failing barring abuse.

3. Can you boot from an external drive or have the ability to create USB based OSX installation for an external boot?

How to identify MacBook models

The last one unfortunately does not have Firewire. 😟 (otherwise Target Disk Mode could also have been very useful).

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Answer 2

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 20, 2014 7:09 PM in response to Loner T

Sadly, no I do not have a time machine backup. How would I run an apple hardware test? Keep in mind I am stuck on the boot menu and have access to only a few programs. As far as my mother says, she never dropped the laptop, but there is visible damage around the magsafe port (explaining why it doesn't charge), but other than that is was really not treated well over the years. My mom is literally incapable of caring for apple products like everyone else in my family, but its not like she dropped it daily, just slightly more wear and tear than an average macbook. Lastly, I DO have the capability of making a usb based install because I am typing this from an iMac, though I'm not entirely sure how to make a boot usb. Also I appreciate your quick response and truly hope you can help me 🙂

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 20, 2014 7:16 PM in response to ZachBella

1. Please do not blame your mother. 😉

2. If you power up the Macbook and hold the D key, it should run hardware diagnostics. Also see Using Apple Hardware Test

3. If you have a 8GB or higher USB flash drive, using Command+R on your iMac and installing OSX on the external drive will let you use it as an external boot.

See OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant or if your Mac came with System Restore disks, than you can use these to boot the Macbook. These disks are 'grey' disks.

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Answer 4

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 20, 2014 7:28 PM in response to Loner T

I am working on getting a mavericks boot usb, since the dvd drive is busted and I can't use a disk to restore. and I will do try the hardware diagnostics. I'll report back with my results

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 20, 2014 7:41 PM in response to ZachBella

One suggestion, the iMac may have an Optical drive, which you can use to build a bootable USB from. You may want to also look at Installing OS X Snow Leopard from a USB flash drive.

This will give you both capabilities Mavericks or SL.

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Answer 6

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 8:33 AM in response to Loner T

Well, I'm at a loss. I booted the macbook while holding the "D" key and nothing happened, it just went straight to trying to install mavericks again. I also created a bootable install Mavericks USB that started to install mavericks, but presented me with an error halfway through.

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 8:44 AM in response to ZachBella

Based on this... Startup key combinations for Intel-based Macsyour 'D' key should work.

You may want to reset SMC and PRAM - About NVRAM and PRAM

It is possible that a partial installation of Mavericks (which includes a reboot) is causing the machine to loop.

Do you have an external Superdrive or a CD/DVD Optical drive, as well as the original disks which came with the Macbook?

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Answer 8

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 8:49 AM in response to Loner T

Sadly I do not have an external optical drive, though I CAN get one. As it stands, I am attempting to turn my Snow Leopard disk into a boot usb. Hopefully this will work because this was the original OS and I can upgrade from there, though I will try to reset my SMC and PRAM right now. When I look at my Mac HD in the disk utility it says that around 13gb is taken up out of the 250 available, but when I started to reinstall it was completely empty at 250 (minus the missing 100gb from Bootcamp) so I feel that it has partially installed some part of the OS and crashed for some unknown reason.

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 9:01 AM in response to ZachBella

If you iMac has a built-in CD/DVD (which you seem to have since you are turning SL into a USB), you can also use Remote Disc.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5287

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Answer 10

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 9:39 AM in response to Loner T

My mac is still copying the install files to my usb, but I enabled the disk sharing. Any idea I can access a disk from the boot screen?

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 9:46 AM in response to ZachBella

If you power up the Macbook and hold the ALT key during power up, there should be CD icon (from your iMac) that you can see.

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Answer 12

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 10:45 AM in response to Loner T

I now have a laptop again! I am working on getting it upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mavericks and will let you know when I get it. I can't tell if I am still missing 100gb or not, but I assume that I am, and if I still am any help would be immensely appreciated. Either way thanks for the help to this point!

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Jul 21, 2014 11:07 AM in response to ZachBella

Before you upgrade to Mavericks, I suggest you backup your Windows/Bootcamp to an external drive using Windows backup. The disk partition for the backup should be formatted as NTFS.

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Answer 14

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 11:26 AM in response to Loner T

Kinda unsure what your saying. My windows 7 install is a disk that I converted to a USB. As it stands I think I might have been mistaken on the size of my HDD but I haven't been on Snow Leopard for a while so I'm unsure. There is currently only one partition and my windows bootcamp never got setup so nothing was lost and nothing to backup

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Answer 15

ZachBella Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 21, 2014 12:27 PM in response to Loner T

Welp this laptop is getting on my last nerve. I opened the install mavericks file downloaded from the App store and it restarted to install it, but got an error halfway through it. It REALLY doesn't want me to have mavericks, but I had it before!

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