Topic: Mac OS X Leopard: Won't boot any suggestions?

[spott]

Well, after 2.5 years of no problems with my Macbook Pro, I woke up yesterday to a machine that wouldn't boot... after I spent the first part of yesterday freaking out, I started to scour the Mac forums to find a solution.  The first thing I did was boot into single user mode (CMD +S) when the computer boots and the Mac chime rings, I executed the fsck -fy command to try and repair the drive, followed by a reboot.  Then I started the machine in Verbose mode (CMD +V) so I could see where the problems we existing and hanging up in the boot process... I was getting hundreds of mDNSResponder errors and the machine still didn't boot (it would just hang and log error after error).

Should I go the Archive and Install route, or perhaps there some command line stuff I could do (I'm not afraid) to get this thing working again.  Of course, I have no backups (woo hoo!) and I REALLY need to get this thing back up and running. 

Thoughts, suggestions, prayers?
 
*edit: (1) The Macbook has 37.2 GB free but I'm worried that won't be enough space, I've got a 1TB USB drive that I'd like to back up my profile(s) if possible... is this even doable?  (2) Does the archive and restore process *just* restore the operating system and leave the profiles alone?*

[spott]

Ok, so the first thing I did was boot into the Leopard DVD (hold C while the machine is booting with the Leopard DVD in the drive) and I'm making a backup 'clone' of the drive

http://macfidelity.de/2007/08/10/how-create-a-clone-backup-of-your-hard-drive/

Backup didn't work (couldn't read the source drive) it was a brand new USB drive... probably since it is formatted FAT32

[scb]

so it did boot in "single user mode" as you said or it won't boot at all?

any clicking noises coming from the internal drive?

[spott]

It booted in single user mode, got the cmd prompt... didn't notice any clicking noises.  I just booted from the DVD ran the disk utility and tried repairing permissions and rebooted.

Didn't work 

Back to the single user mode I guess

Ok, rebooted... back into single user mode, ran /sbin/fsck -fy and /sbin/mount -uw /

** /dev/rdisk0s2
** Root file systems
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
** Checking Extents Overflow file
** Checking Catalog file
** Checking multi-linked files
** Checking Catalog hierarchy
** Checking Extended Attributes file
** Checking volume bitmap
** Checking volume information
** the volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

Then I ran fsck -fy again

** /dev/rdisk0s2
** Root file systems
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
** Checking Extents Overflow file
** Checking Catalog file
** Checking multi-linked files
** Checking Catalog hierarchy
** Checking Extended Attributes file
** Checking volume bitmap
** Checking volume information
** the volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK

Then I rebooted into the OS X Leopard DVD (held C while the computer booted), and then ran the Repair Disk Permissions in the Disk Utility (again)... The results from the Disk Utility  said "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK".  It really looks like the Disk Utility is doing the same thing as the  fsck -fy command?

I don't want to reboot and have it hang again.. but I might reboot into Verbose mode and see what the story is (why it's hanging), thoughts?

Ok, I rebooted into Verbose mode and got the same thing

steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 ntpdate[66] can't find host time.apple.com
steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 ntpdate[66] no servers can be used, exiting
steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 ReportCrash[61]: Saved crashreport to Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ReportCrash_2008-10-18-193556_steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 using uid: 0 gid: 0 egid: 0

then the following just repeating:

steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 DirectoryService[145]: Launched version 5.5 (v514.23)
steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 ReportCrash[52]: Saved crashreport to Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ReportCrash_2008-10-18-193556_steven-spotts-macbookpro-15 using uid: 0 gid: 0 egid: 0

[spott]

I didn't try any of this...

I saw on one of the Mac forums that someone was having a similar issue, will this go to the GUI and let me create a new profile (keeping the other profiles intact)?

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=94971

1. boot to single user mode
2. mount the drive as read/write with the command:
/sbin/mount -uw /
3. Remove the .AppleSetupDone file with the command:
/bin/rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
4. Reboot
shutdown -r now

Then, use the GUI to set up your initial user.

[scb]

when you say the machien won't boot, what exactly happens?  freezes?  flashing question mark?  what?

[spott]

I'm sorry, I guess it boots... but the OS won't load (my bad on the explanation). 

If I do a traditional boot, I get the chime and it just hangs in the grey screen with the Apple logo with the spinning gear (even if I let it sit there for 30 minutes or an hour).

- I can't boot into Safe Mode (just hangs in the grey screen)

But I can....

- I can boot into Single User Mode and get a cmd prompt
- I can boot into Verbose Mode and I see a whole bunch (100's) of error messages (see above)
- I can boot to the Leopard DVD

[bluntforcetrauma]

diskwarrior might help.

You might have some fragmentation.  Some directory errors, diskwarrior boots up just like the OS holding down the " c" and booting from the CD.

[spott]

I saw that...

http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/details6.html



I'm guessing it's worth the $100.00?

My concern is:

If You Are Purchasing DiskWarrior

Repairing your usual startup disk requires that you start up from another disk. In order to use the download copy of DiskWarrior, you will need to start up from another disk with Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5.x installed. You will then need to run a copy of DiskWarrior from a disk that is not the disk you are repairing. (The DiskWarrior download does not include the Apple System files necessary to create a startup CD.)

If you cannot use the download version of the software (i.e. you have only one internal hard drive and this is the drive you wish to repair), please order directly from our sales department or from one of our resellers to be sent the software on CD.

If you order via the secure server, you will be sent a CD, but delivery of your CD will take approximately three to four weeks, depending on your location.

[bluntforcetrauma]

check your local MAC store.  In store or online.  I went to the apple store here in Tampa, fl and they had it.  They might have it onlinestore.

I have used it successfully. It saved some external Hard drives with all my recent audio on it.  It cleaned it up and got it poping back up on the desktop.  I also just installed creative suite 3.3 and then ran diskwarrior to clean things up to make things run smoother.  diskwarrior has saved my butt many of times.

Although if you boot your computer and you are getting the grey screen with " mac" and a " ?" diskwarrior wont boot up with that type of screen.  Probably a motherboard circuit problem.

[spott]

+T thanks for the thoughts....

I'm guessing Disk Warrior is worth a shot, I'll make the trip to Hartford tomorrow, it's really strange... I can boot into single user mode and navigate the hard drive in the command prompt but nothing else seems to work.  The grey screen is with the Mac logo and just the spinning wheel (no question mark).

---------------------------------------------------

*edit* - I tried the (official) Apple Forums and tried getting some info... people we're quite helpful but it seems this is definitely a result of using 'Main Menu' to clear cache and stuff like that (I learned my lesson). 

[scb]

Backup didn't work (couldn't read the source drive) it was a brand new USB drive... probably since it is formatted FAT32

the source drive is your internal drive, so the format of the one you were copying too wouldn't matter in that case.  but if it failed reading from your internal, my guess is the internal drive has a hardware failure

if disk utility said there were no problems, i wouldn't go out spending 100 bucks on disk warrior yet.  if disk utility said there were issues but it couldn't fix them, then I'd say go for it

but for 100 bucks, you could replace the internal drive

no strange noises coming from the drive like it's a hardware failure?

[spott]

I did an archive and install last night and everything is up and working....  all my profile data (for both profiles) is secure and in place.  So I'm formatting the external drive now and about to run a backup (like I should have done YEARS AGO).  Thanks again.

[scb]

good to hear it is working

you don't use time machine?

[nic]

I have a similar issue with a co-workers ibook g4 - not Leopard though, Tiger.
I'm beginning to think it may be a bad capacitor issue on the logic board (unfortunately, the ibook g4s were never covered in the replacement program Apple had for the ibook g3, imac/emac g4 a couple of years ago).
I havent tried booting into verbose or single user mode though...I'll try that tonight.

you don't use time machine?

I've yet to get Time Machine to actually work...it keeps locking up during the "preparing" phase...