Mac won't boot into OSX

[Touchwood]

I have taken on a MBP that the owner installed Windows on using Bootcamp.
They then tried to re-size the Windows partition with Disk Utility. This has resulted in the Mac only booting into the Windows installer.

No key options will work. (Single-User, Safe, Startup Manager, etc.)

This appears to be instruction held in the MAc hardware, as, replacing the hard drive with a fresh installed OS has no effect.

Any suggestions?

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Common problem. He likely broke the Windows boot sector and the OS X EFI boot sector. You didn't give us much info to go on... like which version of OS X is installed or which Mac he has, year and model. However, first try to reset the PRAM - NVRAM to see if you can then get the machine to boot to OS X by holding down the Option key on startup. See the following Apple KB link to learn how to do the reset. If that doesn't work, he may to wipe the hard drive and reinstall OS X.

 

[Touchwood]

OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), MacBook Pro 2008 15".

As I stated in my original post, none of the key options are functioning. I've tried all of them.
Even a new hard drive with a fresh install of El Capitan has had no effect.
I need a way to flush out any Windows installation instructions that are being held in the hardware.

 

[chscag]

I need a way to flush out any Windows installation instructions that are being held in the hardware.

I don't know how you're going to do that if the machine can't do a NVRAM reset. I'm assuming from your answer above that you tried to boot from an external hard drive? It's beginning to look like you may also have a hardware problem in addition to a messed up boot sequence. The 2008 15" MacBook Pro machines were problematic because of overheating and graphics chipset failure (nvidia chipset).

 

[ferrarr]

Do you have another mac, so you can boot that mac into Target Disk Mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201462

 

[Touchwood]

Tried it.... No key options work!

 

[harryb2448]

Hand it back. Sounds like the owner struggles with the computer. Have killed OS X by the sound of things.

 

[ferrarr]

What model year MBP? What Windows OS version?

 

[Touchwood]

As I previously stated, 2008 15", Windows 7

 

[ferrarr]

The only other thing I would suggest is to change the keyboard or try a USB keyboard to see if the keys will work.

 

[Touchwood]

Done that!

 

[pigoo3]

You could try purchasing a Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) install DVD. This will allow you access to Disk Utility…then you can reformat the HD…install 10.6…then upgrade to the OS you need/want.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...073ad0e6e1b6dd31da1e64d6f5dfb5d693fd79469e4b0

- Nick

p.s. I know that you mentioned in post #1 that you replaced the HD with an HD with a fresh install of the OS. The DVD route just something to try.

 

[Touchwood]

I can't access the DVD drive on startup. No key options work!

 

[pigoo3]

I can't access the DVD drive on startup. No key options work!

What do you mean you can't access the DVD drive (no key options work)? What has been tried to verify this?

- Nick

 

[Touchwood]

When booting, the Mac will not boot from anything except for the installation of Windows which fails due to disk format errors.
Any attempt to start up from another boot system is ignored. The keyboard options (C, cmd+s, alt, cmd =r, etc) are none functional.

 

[pigoo3]

When booting, the Mac will not boot from anything except for the installation of Windows which fails due to disk format errors.
Any attempt to start up from another boot system is ignored. The keyboard options (C, cmd+s, alt, cmd =r, etc) are none functional.

Yes understand this. Have you actually inserted a bootable DVD OS install disk? Don't recall seeing this mentioned in the thread so far. If you did do this…what OS install DVD was it?

- Nick

p.s. Some of the key combos mentioned don't do anything useful in this situation. Which is why some of them don't work.

 

[pigoo3]

Also. What Mac OS version was last installed on this computer?

- Nick

 

[ferrarr]

Try "Control"? Just another option.

 

[ferrarr]

Not knowing the history of this MBP, could this have been used or tried?