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    MBP won't start, keeps rebooting

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by niemassacre, Jan 1, 2008.

  1. niemassacre

    niemassacre Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey guys, got a strange one for you this time:

    So about a week ago, Adium started acting up. Whenever I tried to launch it, it would freeze the computer as it tried launching. So I moved the preference flie to the trash and it started working fine. When I tried to empty the trash, it said that some of the files couldn't be deleted. I went into the folder and deleted every file I could find - all .plist. Then I tried to delete just the folder (called ByDefault), but that said there was still something in it that couldn't be deleted. So I figured something was up with the nodes or something, and put in my Mac OS Leopard disc to try to repair the hard drive.

    I let the Repair Drive function run overnight. When I woke up, it said that it had failed trying to fix something - I forget what, though. Now, however, I can't even get the Mac OS partition to boot up - the Apple logo will show up, and I'll get the spinny wheel, but then it'll just reboot with the reboot sound and keep going through that loop. I've tried holding down S (I hear that's single-user mode or something) as well as shift (safe mode?), but no dice. Any ideas? I'm currently using my Windows partition - I can't say I ever though I'd be using Windows because my Mac partition crapped out...

    Anyways, any advice would be greatly appreciated! I've backed up fairly recently with Time Machine, and I think I should still be able to get what info hasn't been backed up via target mode, but, of course, I'd prefer just getting this working again ;)
     
    niemassacre, Jan 1, 2008
    #1
  2. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

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    You could format it.
     
    Thomas, Jan 1, 2008
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  3. trueintentions

    trueintentions Notebook Evangelist

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    :p I'm preetty sure he doesn't want to reformat it...

    Try resetting PRAM, and if that doesn't work, try reinstalling Leopard.
     
    trueintentions, Jan 1, 2008
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  4. Xander

    Xander Paranoid Android

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    So use Time Machine to restore the system. Boot from the Leopard DVD, click the arrow, choose Utilities from the Menu Bar and select Restore System from Backup.

    Mac OS X 10.5 Help - Recovering your entire system
     
    Xander, Jan 1, 2008
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  5. niemassacre

    niemassacre Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the tips guys. I would prefer not to reformat - I'll restore from TM if need be. I was just looking for any tips as to something I could try before resorting to that. I'll try resetting the PRAM, just in case that would work. If not, I'll just use TM (Xander: thanks for that tip, I forgot to mention that I was planning on doing that when I got back to my drive).
     
    niemassacre, Jan 2, 2008
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