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Macbook Pro has has grey screen after booting

I have a Macbook Pro running Mavericks. When I boot it up it goes to a grey screen with a circle that has a line through it. I have read this page and tried all of the steps. Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support. The only thing I can get the computer to do is boot into target disk mode. When I attach it to a computer and use disk utility to try to repair, erase, or partition I get an error that says Couldn't unmount drive. When I verify the disk it says it's ok. Has anyone experienced something similar to this? If so, please help.

Posted on Jun 4, 2015 12:43 PM

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8 replies

Jun 4, 2015 1:10 PM in response to claptonrox

So, then, you cannot boot the computer to the Recovery HD? Then my guess is the hard drive has failed. What is the exact model of MBP that you have? If it's 2011 or later you might try this:


Install OS X Using Internet Recovery


Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.


Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.


Partition and Format the hard drive:


  1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
  2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
  3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.


This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

Jun 8, 2015 9:09 AM in response to Kappy

Internet recovery mode did not work. But I tried something else and was able to get the computer going. I took the hard drive out of the computer and mounted it on another computer. I then verified the disk with disk utility and it said it was OK. Next I plugged it into the computer it came out of with usb and turned the computer on with the option key pressed. This allowed me to select which drive to boot from (which I'm not able to do with the HD in the computer) it booted from the OS X installation with no problem. I then put the hard drive back in to the computer and now I'm back to the grey screen with a circle crossed out.

Macbook Pro has has grey screen after booting

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