What if you boot from the system disk and just reinstall the OS? Good luck
Saturday, August 14, 201012:14 PMDan [email protected] >Harry, > >The symptoms -- will boot in safe mode, won't boot in regular mode -- >suggest (to me, anyway) that the problem is not that the drive hardware >is shot but that some piece of software, presumably part of the >operating system, is missing or corrupt. > >I'm hoping someone knows the order of the boot process well enough to >recommend disabling or deleting certain preference files that might be >culpable. For example, if I knew that the brief interval between the >spinning cog and the first appearance of the cursor was when the OS >checked, say, network settings, I could concentrate my search for system >software culprits in the area network-related prefs. > >However, now I've made matters worse, as I often do in my trial-and- >error efforts to fix things. I noticed that after restoring from Time >Machine I had a new folder in my MBP hard drive's root directory: a >folder named "private". Inside that folder were several other folders >with names like "tmp", "prefs" (those aren't actual, but names like that >that sounded like heavy-duty system stuff). Any halfway intelligent >person would know better than to mess with something called "private" >but to me that's like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I trashed >that folder to see what would happen. (But I did not empty the trash, >knowing that I might want to retrieve that folder later.) Big mistake. > >Now I can't boot even in safe mode. It hangs at the spinning cog. Thus >my new question: Anyone know how to retrieve files placed in trash but >not emptied on a volume that can't be booted to? I can boot from an >external hard drive and see all the files on my MBP hard drive, but >can't find that "private" folder or one called .Trash -- and yes I have >used the option to find invisible files. If I could find that folder I >would move it (and files within it) back to the root directory and I >suspect I would be at least back to being able to safe boot. > >It's rather a pain to go through these kinds of messes, but I must say I >do find them enormously instructive in the end. > >Dan Crutcher > >On Aug 14, 2010, at 10:26 AM, Harry Jacobson-Beyer <[email protected]> wrote: > >> How about a new hard drive? >> >> Saturday, August 14, 201010:14 AMDan [email protected] >> >>> Yesterday the hard drive on my MacBook Pro went AWOL -- directory >>> scrambled so badly that Disk Utility couldn't repair it, hard drive >>> volume wasn't being mounted, no drive found at startup, etc. But drive >>> was visible in Disk Utility and I was able to re-partition it and >>> restore from my Time Machine backup of the night before. >>> >>> After restoration, all files and apps and system seem to be in place, >>> but I can't boot up in anything other than safe mode (shift-boot). If I >>> try a regular start up, not holding down any keys, it displays the gray >>> screen with the apple and the spinning "cog" for a while and then goes >>> to an all-blue screen and hangs there. If I safe boot, I get a normal >>> start up, but of course without extensions loaded. >>> >>> I've tried the usual fixes: zapping pram, repairing permissions, >>> verifying the disk, etc., but still get this blue-screen hang on a >>> normal boot. Anyone have any suggestions for fixing this? Does anyone >>> know exactly what's going on in the system boot process at the time that >>> the blue screen appears? (In a normal boot the blue screen only displays >>> for a second or two, then the cursor appears, then the desktop. In my >>> case I get the blue screen and never get to the cursor.) >>> >>> Thanks. >>> >>> Dan >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> MacGroup mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> MacGroup mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup >> >> > > > > >_______________________________________________ >MacGroup mailing list >[email protected] >http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup > _______________________________________________ MacGroup mailing list [email protected] http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup
