Tried to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard, now Macbook no longer boots.

MRL


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My Macbook has been working just fine, maybe a little slower than when brand new but nothing too drastic. "I should upgrade to Mountain Lion," I says to myself. Why? Heck if I know. So since you can no longer download the OS from Apple I first buy the disc from Amazon.com to upgrade to Snow Leopard. After it works for a while to install I get a notification saying it can't be written to the disc. It suggests I restart, so I do. At that point it says right from the start that it can't be written to the disc and asks how I would like to boot the system. I choose to boot from the OS (as opposed to the cd with Snow Leopard). Just a few seconds later it shuts down and will not boot. If I press the power button it will try to start, the screen will light up and I get the Wall-E sound and then it shuts off. Great looking paper weight and conversation piece but I would rather it work properly again. Thoughts? :D
 

pigoo3

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Where did you get the Snow Leopard upgrade? What sort of media was it?

- Nick
 
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MRL


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Thanks for your response. I bought it from Amazon.com and it is a legit Apple product. It is in CD form. By the way, the cd is still stuck in the machine. Is there some combination of keys I can press as it tries to boot that will let it stop and allow me to eject the cd? Would that even matter?
 

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Thanks for your response. I bought it from Amazon.com and it is a legit Apple product. It is in CD form. By the way, the cd is still stuck in the machine. Is there some combination of keys I can press as it tries to boot that will let it stop and allow me to eject the cd? Would that even matter?

To eject the disk...you have two easy options:

1. Push the "eject" key on the upper right corner of the keyboard.
2. Reboot the computer...during the reboot...press and hold the trackpad button...and the disk should eject.

- Nick
 
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To eject the disk...you have two easy options:

1. Push the "eject" key on the upper right corner of the keyboard.
2. Reboot the computer...during the reboot...press and hold the trackpad button...and the disk should eject.

- Nick
Can't do #1 because it won't boot up but #2 worked for me, but it still won't boot up. Same thing, startup sound followed by the white screen and Apple logo, but after about 45 seconds it just shuts off.
 

dtravis7


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I would say check the Snow Leopard DVD for fingerprints but you say it's a brand new DVD. I would check anyway just in case.

If it's not the DVD, it could be issues with the Optical drive in the Macbook and also an issue on your hard drive.

Did you do an Upgrade or erase and then install? If nothing else works and the DVD is Scratch and Fingerprint clean, you might boot from the DVD again holding down C after the startup sound, then from the Utilities menu, select Disk Utility and erase the HD and try to install again.

Do you have any Backup of the 10.5 files?
 
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The DVD is fine, no scratches or prints. The DVD is now out of the machine, don't think I can get it back in again since it won't boot up. I'm afraid I would have to force it. I just did an upgrade, didn't erase anything. The instructions simply said to insert the DVD and follow the commands. No, I don't have any Backup that I know of unless it does so automatically. I keep my important files on an external hard drive so I never worried with doing a backup.
 
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MRL


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I think I may have found some answers to my issues here. Apparently this has to be approached as a fresh install and not merely an upgrade. I was able to get my DVD to run and begin the steps but will hold off until I can retrieve my HDD from my office tomorrow in case there are a few things I want to pull over. I'll report back with my results, thanks so much for your help.
 

dtravis7


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That is what my message was pointing to, a Fresh install erasing the hard drive.

Good luck and report back if it goes well!
 

dtravis7


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That is what my message was pointing to, a Fresh install erasing the hard drive.

Good luck and report back if it goes well!
 
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MRL


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Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I've been too busy enjoying my speedy MacBook with Snow Leopard. I'm not sure if it's more from the OS update, the fresh install with nothing extra yet installed/downloaded, or a combination of both but it seems much faster than it was before and I love it. Now I just have to figure out how to (and if I can even...) make the jump to Lion and then Mountain Lion.
 

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