Hard drive won't boot into safe mode

My mid 2010 Macbook Pro has suddenly decided to not boot up after installing BitDefender and running a scan.
I installed it on a whim when I saw minor malware that hijacked Safari, and decided to run a scan. While I was working on Photoshop, the scan must have finished because all of my windows disappeared and I was left with my desktop and the spinning gray loading at the bottom of my screen. I waited 20 minutes, realized it wasn't going anywhere and force shut down the Macbook by power button.
Now, I cannot successfully get it past the grey apple loading screen. Attempting to boot into safe mode still leaves it at the same screen. Tried to reset the PRAM, still can't get past the loading screen. I still have my OS disk, however it is Snow Leopard and my current is Mavericks and I'm unsure if it is a wise idea.
15 inch mid 2010 Macbook Pro running OS X Mavericks, how dead in the water am I and how much would this cost me to "fix"?

Use the original Snow Leopard installation disk and start the MBP as if you were going to reinstall the OSX.  Early in the process you should see a menu bar on the top of the display.  Click on UTILITIES and from the dropdown menu select Disk Utility.  Run Disk Utility>First Aid, Verify and Repair.  If it is not successful, the HDD will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

Similar Messages

  • Won't boot into safe mode

    My 2012 iMac 27" was randomly rebooting itself, while in Sleep. I assumed this was due to the cheap 32 GB memory I bought, but before I could change it back to the original memory, to test, the Mac booted into Safe Mode (I assume - a progress bar showing at the bottom of the boot screen, below the Apple logo), and did not get further than a half the way, and then shut down. I swapped the memory to the original 8GB. I tried booting again, no buttons held down, as then it wouldn't get further than a quarter of the way. Further attempts to boot do not work, even when holding down Option to choose the boot disk, pressing Shift for Safe Mode, or Option-S for Single User Mode. I assume it's trying to boot in Safe Mode, but failing?
    I also tried using a good Mac with the bad Mac as the Target Disk boot mode - the good Mac does not see the bad Mac...
    I have an external DVD drive, but that isn't an option as I can't go into boot drive select mode. What are my options, apart from sending the iMac back?

    Booting into the Recovery HD should allow you to effect repairs - that's the point of it, so it's a bit concerning that it won't allow you to. The Recovery HD is a partition on the internal drive that should allow you to effect repairs to the Macintosh HD, albeit part of the same physical disk.
    I'm no expert, but I'd be concerned that the hard disk is on the way out. Do you have backup of everything - Time Machine or a bootable clone, perhaps?
    Maybe have another try with Command+r. If it fails I'm not sure what would be the best next step - it depends if you have a full and up-to-date backup of your disk so that you can restore.
    One of the options of the Recovery HD is to allow you to re-install the OS, which won't delete your data.
    The more extreme step would be Internet Recovery which would involve erasing everything and re-installing via the internet.
    Worth reading this carefully before proceeding: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
    Disk Warrior from Alsoft (not cheap) is another possibility for recovering damaged disks, although it's not a guaranteed solution.

  • OS hangs at grey startup screen, won't boot into safe mode

    I rebooted my G5 this morning and when it came back up, it hung on the grey screen with the Apple logo and the spinning 'gear' progress bar. I tried rebooting several times, but that didn't help. I tried booting from the install DVD (which it did) and ran disk utility (both verify & repair on the start up drive and on permissions. It claims to have found permission errors and fixed them.) I hunted for answers online and tried to boot into safe mode, which did not work.
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  • Mac Pro won't boot into safe mode

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    Here's the few lines right around the boot attempt:  at 1pm on 12/31 I tried to boot into Safe mode, then seeing that it was taking forever, I left, and came back on 1/2. It was in exactly the same spot so I rebooted normally. Does this give any clues?
    12/31/12 1:03:48 PM
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/Resources/helpd[ 15597]
    MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/kv/kvWwTJ6jGyu2tiPpClXO8++++TI/-Caches-//mds
    12/31/12 1:03:48 PM
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/Resources/helpd[ 15597]
    MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/kv/kvWwTJ6jGyu2tiPpClXO8++++TI/-Caches-//mds
    12/31/12 1:03:48 PM
    /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/Resources/helpd[ 15597]
    MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/kv/kvWwTJ6jGyu2tiPpClXO8++++TI/-Caches-//mds
    12/31/12 1:04:05 PM
    authexec[15601]
    executing /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax/Contents/MacOS/uid
    12/31/12 1:04:05 PM
    authexec[15603]
    executing /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax/Contents/MacOS/uid
    12/31/12 1:04:05 PM
    authexec[15606]
    executing /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax/Contents/MacOS/uid
    12/31/12 1:04:07 PM
    authexec[15608]
    executing /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax/Contents/MacOS/uid
    12/31/12 1:04:23 PM
    com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[395]
    ([0x0-0x5535530].com.titanium.OnyX[15559]) Exited: Terminated
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    com.apple.kextd[18]
    /Volumes/Clone internal disk: kextcache has had enough tries; not launching any more
    1/2/13 8:33:27 AM
    kernel
    npvhash=4095
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    /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock[7534]
    spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=12 label=com.apple.Finder flags=2
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    1/2/13 8:33:27 AM
    kernel
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    1/2/13 8:33:27 AM
    kernel
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  • Macbook Pro won't boot into safe mode or via bootable USB key

    Hi,
    Am running OSX Lion latest version on my Macbook Pro 4,1 and can't get the thing to boot from any source.  Always get's stuck at the grey screen with apple logo.  Have tried all the following...
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    ds store wrote:
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  • Hard drive won't boot into OS but all files are intact

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  • Hello to you all, my Macbook Air won's boot up and upon diagnosis, i realized my startup disk is full to 99% even with 2GB Hard Disk space. It wont also enable me boot into safe mode too. Please help as all my work documents and project files are on HD

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  • Can't boot into safe mode or prompt login window, need help.

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  • Mdworker deny mach-lookup. But macbook won't boot in safe mode

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    There is a bug in fsck_hfs that is affecting a bunch of people.  Basically as your comptuer starts in safe mode, it runs a file system check (fsck) against your hard drive, it gets to a certain point and... just sits there.  No one knows why outside of apple.
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  • Intel Mini will only boot into safe mode - hangs on ANY Mac OS volume

    I have an Intel Mac Mini... the core2duo 1.83GHz or whatever.
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    Message was edited by: maxtechsystems

    Very strange, and getting stranger !
    Ok... so, from safe boot mode, I installed Windows XP Pro using the boot camp assistant.
    Everything installed perfectly. I started up from Windows, and put in the Mac Mini recovery disc, in order to load the drivers. The Boot Camp software started with Auto Run, and I clicked through to install everything. The drivers start loading...Windows reacts positively, with the system tray announcing "new hardware installed" every 30 seconds or so. Airport/WiFi IS working (in Windows), as it detected my router/network...this is where it gets F'ed up - when the installer gets through with the drivers, and installs the boot camp software for Windows - the system reboots, goes through the usual Windows startup...the desktop background appears, but no icons or start menu - then it reboots again...same thing, again, over and over in a loop.
    Went back into OS X (safe boot mode). Installed reEFIt (a bootloader utility), to see if maybe I can bypass the Mac OS/Boot Camp bootloader. No luck. Install worked, but still had the same issues.
    For the heck of it, I try installing Linux Mint 8. The live CD starts up OK, but only as far as the boot menu. I tried the installer first - after the splash screen, it hangs on a plain gray screen (w/o the normal linux installer language selection menu - just solid grey).
    I tried running the live CD w/o the installer - the actual OS. Same thing - after the splash screen, it hangs, only it's a black screen this time. If I use verbose mode, it still seems to hang on the WiFi card.
    Here's the strangest thing yet - Ok, remember, it wouldn't boot normally into ANY Mac OS volume - including the installer DVDs - only in safe boot mode...
    So, I try the "hackintosh" IPC osX86 10.5.6 DVD - it boots into the installer with NO problem, WITHOUT safe boot mode ! I tried installing it unsuccessfully. I forget now which options I choose, if any, though I may try it again later and pretend it's just a non-apple PC with the same specs as the Mini (or try just the "base system", and the bootloader - then run the official Apple updates)
    This last thing really makes me think it has something to do with the EFI/bios - however, I've only been able to find info on how to update it, not replace or restore it - and it's only from a working install, not forced from a flash drive or CD (plus when I do try the installer from safe boot mode, it says it's current and unneeded).
    I still haven't changed the hard drive. After almost successfully installing Windows, I made the assumption the -hardware- was OK, and reassembled everything.
    Currently, I'm trying a direct installation of Windows XP Pro SP2 with which I'll try installing the drivers WITHOUT the boot camp software, to see if the WiFi (Airport card) and everything else is indeed working OK (remember too that the system passed ALL the ASD 3S116 tests).
    So anyway, that's the current status. Any new ideas anyone ?
    Thanks.
    Message was edited by: maxtechsystems

  • Yosemite install won't boot into any mode

    Really sorry if this has been covered before but I spent a good time searching and couldn't find any existing posts with symptoms to the same extent.
    I've got a 2008 iMac 27" and have the latest version of Yosemite installed (10.10.1 I guess). I upgraded to Yosemite probably 2-3 weeks ago and everything has been fine. Then yesterday when I woke it up from sleep it effectively froze - no mouse or keyboard input. So I did a reset by holding down the power button, and when I turned it back on it went to the apple logo boot screen with a progress bar that gets to just below 50% and stuck there. I've restarted quite a few times and left it running up to six hours and still it doesn't boot.
    Now this is similar to the issue here - OSX Yosemite won't boot after install on mid 2010 iMac - except I am unable to boot into any mode, and the only startup keys accepted are the P-RAM reset. It won't boot into recovery mode (command+R), safe mode (Shift), startup drive select mode (Option), diagnostics mode (D)... nothing
    I've booked into a Genius Bar appointment when the Apple stores reopen after Christmas, but I'm hoping that is a last resort and to be honest I'm unsure what they can do for me except to say it's a lost cause.
    Are there any suggestions on what could be happening and why it's ignoring the startup modes? I would have suggested the keyboard not being recognised except the P-RAM command works perfectly, so it's obviously seeing it. I'm a little scared that because it won't let me into a boot device menu (which must operate independent of any HDD) then there's an issue ahead of that in the boot sequence, so possibly the motherboard is shot...
    Sorry if I seem a little desperate. I had a HDD crash two years ago to the day (great Christmas present Apple) and it kind of puts a dampener on things.
    Happy holidays and I'm grateful for any help that anyone can offer

    Hello there, semerton.
    Great job on troubleshooting the issue on your own so far. The following Knowledge Base aritcle offers some additional steps to try for resolving your issue:
    Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support
    Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
    Cheers,
    Pedro.

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