09-28-2007, 09:12 AM

My housemate has a MacBook which until this week has performed flawlessly. This week, she stumbled into a website which peppered her screen with pop-up windows. Alarmed, she removed the battery without shutting the machine down.

Now, when she switches it on, nothing happens after the chord sound. The screen lights up white but otherwise is blank. She fears that she may have messed up her hard disk and lost everything on it. I sadly agree. What can/should she do next?

- Rich

09-28-2007, 09:48 AM

Get your friend to see if the machine is still under warranty. If so take it STRAIGHT to a genius bar and get them to examine it! After all, you paid for the service!

If not take the hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure... link it up to another mac, and try and boot from it externally... if this doesnt work, boot the mac normally and then try and copy the data across from the external.

Once you have the data "backed up" bang in the install discs and reinstall OS X.

This is a longshot but it might just work for you!
Good luck to your friend!

09-28-2007, 07:49 PM

Sounds like to me one of your system files is corrupted. I forget which option you can use to reload your system and keep your configuration. Someone else will hopefully come along and verify this.

09-29-2007, 03:17 AM

If it is just a corrupt system file, you can fix it by simply reinstalling the Operating System. Boot from the restore cd that came with the computer (put the disc in, reboot the machine, hold down the "c" key as it's booting), then walk through the options to do an "Archive and Install". Archive and Install should be the default option, and it will leave all of the user files intact. If the installer doesn't see a hard drive, take it to the Genius Bar or call AppleCare.

In the future if popups go crazy, hold down option+command+esc. This will bring up a "force quit" screen where you can kill the browser without having to shut off the computer. A sudden power loss is one of the worst things that can happen to a hard drive.

09-29-2007, 09:49 AM

Reinstalling the system is a bit harsh if the person hasn't done a backup of her files. If your housemate has DiskWarrior that would get her MB back to normal, I think.

Pulling the battery out while the MB is running is the same as for a desktop and getting a power outage while using it. The only way I found to get the iMac up and running is popping in DiskWarrior and rebuilding the directory.

I tried Safe Boot mode, resetting the PRAM and VRAM, trying to start in Open Firmware and resetting the VRAM in there (Intel Macs don't have firmware so your friend can't try that) and nothing would work.

Maybe someone else has this knock-out Terminal command...

10-02-2007, 06:37 PM

Read this... It might help!

http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/my_mac_wont_start.html

10-02-2007, 07:20 PM

Thanks to all who responded.

Holding Shift or Command-S should, but don't, boot in Safe or Single-User mode, respectively. After either, if I wait long enough, the otherwise blank screen gets a flashing file folder with a big question mark. The next step obviously is to find the OS-X CD-ROM (which got buried when my housemate last moved) and boot while holding the "C" key to do an Archive and Install. I'll post back when we've tried that.

10-02-2007, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by richpasco

Thanks to all who responded.

Holding Shift or Command-S should, but don't, boot in Safe or Single-User mode, respectively. After either, if I wait long enough, the otherwise blank screen gets a flashing file folder with a big question mark. The next step obviously is to find the OS-X CD-ROM (which got buried when my housemate last moved) and boot while holding the "C" key to do an Archive and Install. I'll post back when we've tried that.

Ok... hope to hear back from you soon.

10-07-2007, 08:48 AM

My housemate found the Mac OS X install disk, and I booted from it. We got past Introduction and License, but in the third step, Select Destination, it says: "Select a destination volumne to install the Mac OS X software." And then the list below it is blank, empty. This suggests to me that the hard disk is not recognized at all, which implies a hardware problem. Anything else to try before sending it in for service?

10-07-2007, 08:57 AM

P.S. I invoked "Disk Utility" and the only disk listed was the DVD drive with the Mac OS X install disk in it. The hard disk was not listed at all.

The instructions said, "To repair a disk or volume, select is icon in th elist on the left and click Repair Disk." But the hard disk was not listed. :-(

Since the Eject icon was greyed out (apparently OS X won't let me eject the disk from which it booted), to eject the CD I powered off the machine and held down the Eject button on the keyboard as i re-booted.

10-08-2007, 05:41 PM

At the local Apple store, David at the Genius Bar agreed that the hard disk was fried. Since the machine was out of warranty, he suggested we go to the local Best Buy and get a new hard disk. $115 bought a new 120 GB Western Digital SATA drive which took me five minutes to install, replacing the original 80 GB Seagate. We are now installing OS X onto it "from scratch."

David said that there are independent data recovery services who will try to get the data off the old disk for a price. My housemate says there wasn't enough data on it to warrant that, but she is now in the market for an external hard disk as a backup drive. :-)

10-08-2007, 05:44 PM

All in all it sounds like good news. And having an external backup drive is a very smart move on her part!