1.33 12" PB froze on switch to login screen, now won't start up.

audiopollutionaudiopollution
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hey ...



Well, I can't say I'm too unhappy as this machine has, to this point, provided the most trouble-free Apple experience in all of my years supporting the fruit company.



Here's the deal:



Last night I started a large download, switched to the login screen with the fast user switching menu, and left the laptop open so the download would continue. (This is something I do every time I download overnight - and I've never had a problem before.)



I didn't pay attention to the computer after I'd done this.



When I woke up this morning, the computer had the blue background of the login screen, but the user list was not showing. I could hear hard drive activity. It looked like it hadn't quite made it to posting the user list on the screen.



I restarted the computer, which got me the grey screen with the spinner. Now, I'm not too sure, but I assume it has been able to find a system on the disk and has begun loading it as I would have expected a sad mac, or whatever OSX uses to let you know that the HD and/or system is screwed.



Problem is, it stayed on the grey screen for ages. 10 minutes, maybe. I restarted again, and this time I got the grey screen.



At this point, I had to run (literally) out of the house to the car to get to work on time, so I shut it down.



What I'm hoping is that someone here has had the same problem, or can at least point me in the right direction for a possible fix. As it is, this is going to be bugging me all day, and likley all of tonight. heh.



(I have complete backups of my data ... but my girlfriends account has not been backed up. There will be much consternation if her iPhoto library and iTunes library are lost.)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    start it up again, and hold down the cmd+option+P+R until the startup chime sounds three times. I have done this in the past for a similar problem. I hope this helps!
  • Reply 2 of 5
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.



    Well, it booted up, for an oh-so-short amount of time. Enough for me to run Disk Utility and discover that the S.M.A.R.T. monitor was happy to tell me 'failing'. I ran backup on my user account successfully but it became unresponsive shortly thereafter.



    It booted up for my girlfriend this afternoon, when it was cold. So I'm letting it cool completely again and hopefully I can get in long enough to rescue the photos in my girlfriends account.



    Is there anything else I could possibly do?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by audiopollution

    GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.



    Well, it booted up, for an oh-so-short amount of time. Enough for me to run Disk Utility and discover that the S.M.A.R.T. monitor was happy to tell me 'failing'. I ran backup on my user account successfully but it became unresponsive shortly thereafter.



    It booted up for my girlfriend this afternoon, when it was cold. So I'm letting it cool completely again and hopefully I can get in long enough to rescue the photos in my girlfriends account.



    Is there anything else I could possibly do?



    Can you bot it up in "Verbose" mode and tell us where it gets stuck in?



    Command-V Boot using "Verbose" mode (shows all kernel and startup console messages)



    http://www.fif3.com/howto/archives/001983.html
  • Reply 4 of 5
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    This is the text on the screen, after I watch the grey spinning wheel for about 1 minute:



    /etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory

    Feb 23 17:35:57 init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: no such file or directory

    Feb 23 17:35:57 init: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: no such file or directory

    Feb 23 17:36:28 init: can't exec /bin/sh for etc/rc: no such file or directory



    I'm fairly certain the drive is dead. I'm HOPING that there will be some way to access at least some of the data.



    Off to the Apple Service place now.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    Well, it was a dead hard drive. The shitty thing about getting it serviced under warranty is that the old HD would have to be sent back to Apple immediately, so I opted to purchase a replacement drive and have it installed. This means I get to keep the dead drive and take my time to consider sending it to a data recovery center (or attempt to use software to recover it myself).



    Unfortunately, I think it succumbed to the dead motor problem that affects Toshiba drives. If this is the case, it's going to be an expensive recovery.
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