Hi, Ronni, Thank you very much, indeed. That worked. Silly me, my brain slipped a cog and I thought that holding down the 'S' key WAS doing a Safe Boot.
It is surprising that just changing the energy settings caused such a rumpus. A question slightly related to my previous problem: several people have written on the WAMUG list about setting up another bootable OS on their Macs. I had the impression that to be a bootable OS, it had to be on the primary disk and also not a partitioned disk, but I got the impression they were talking about a secondary disk. Is this possible? My Mac Pro has 3 disks - one has the Boot Camp partition plus some things stored there. I forgot to mention this, but I presume it is the reason I was able to boot into Windows. The other disk is completely empty and I use it as a scratch disk for graphics. If I partitioned this one, could I put another OS on it? Anyway, thanks again for the terrific help. Pat On 02/10/2011, at 4:14 PM, Ronda Brown wrote: > Hi Pat, > > You don’t mention starting up in ’Safe Mode’? > If you boot into Safe Mode Shift Key), the system will perform a > file system consistency check using the "fsck_hfs" tool. > > Hold down the Shift key from the moment you hear the startup "bong" > to the moment the "spinning gear" appears. > Expect this startup to take longer than usual. > Don't be alarmed if the fans whirl loudly during the "spinning > gear" display. > Eventually you will be presented with the Safe Boot login screen. > > Log in as the administrator and change the System Preferences > > Energy Saver settings. > > Cheers, > Ronni > > 17" MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Quad-Core i7 “Thunderbolt" > 2.3GHz / 8GB / 750GB @ 7200rpm HD > > OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard > OS X 10.7 Lion > Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance) > > > > On 02/10/2011, at 12:54 PM, pat wrote: > >> The patient: Intel Mac Pro, three and a half years old, running OS >> 10.6.8, 300 GB startup disk with 160 GB free. >> >> (Sigh) The patient was performing well yesterday afternoon until... >> >> I opened System Preferences and changed the Energy settings to 3 >> hours each (they had been set for shorter intervals. Then did a >> Restart. >> >> There was the usual startup chime, the pale grey screen with the >> apple, then a blue screen. There it remained. The little windmill >> cursor appeared at intervals and went away at intervals. The blue >> screen flickered a bit, like it really was trying to start up. >> >> Remedies I tried: >> Starting up holding the S key - no change. >> Starting up holding the C key (the external backup disk, not Time >> Machine, was attached - it is supposed to be bootable) - no change. >> Starting up holding the option key (there is a Bootcamp partition). >> Yes, I can boot into windows. (Arrrgghhh). >> >> While in windows, I opened the cd tray and put the Snow Leopard disk >> in, then tried a restart holding the C key again. Used the SL disk >> to repair permissions - there were only about a dozen repairs, all >> having to do with System/Core Services/ Remote Management. Also >> clicked Repair Disk. The message said the disk was OK. >> >> Tried another restart - no change. Started up on the SL disk again, >> repaired permissions again - the same items were 'repaired.' >> >> Used an old laptop to access Apple support, worked through the >> Express Lane. Resetting the SMC sounded promising, so I went through >> the steps of that, but no change. That was a far as I could go with >> Express Lane without paying for a phone consultation. >> >> Unfortunately, I don't have a current copy of Disk Warrior, or I >> would have tried that. >> >> So I am really hoping WAMUG members can help. >> >> Pat > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/ > wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
