Old MacBook Pro boots no further than the apple image and the ball spins aimlessly as if it cannot detect the hard drive
My old MacBook Pro displays the apple image on start up then hangs with the ball spinning continuously. Seems it cannot detect the hard drive. Can I start up holding down certain keys to bypass the problem. Running snow leopard and don't have a start up disk.
Try the procedures in this support article;
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
You may also use the original install disk. When you get to the point where the menu bar shows on top of the display, select Utilities. The open Disk Utility from the drop down menu and try to repair the disk.
Ciao.
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do I need startup discs to upgrade hardware on MacBook Pro or can I restore the hard drive from from a Time Machine backup?
Ok, well go and grab a small 2.5" hard drive enclosure so you can put the new drive in & temporarily use it like an external hard drive.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper and make a bootable clone of your current HDD on the new HDD.
Once that's done you can test the clone by booting from it. To do this hold Optioni while booting to select the external (new) drive. If everything looks ok, you can go ahead and swap over the HDD's.
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The largest capacity HDD that you can install is the HGST 1.5 TB HDD:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J28001/
Any 2.5" 9.5mm thick SATA HDD will fit and operate in your MBP, regardless of capacity.
Ciao.
Message was edited by: OGELTHORPE -
MacBook Pro can no longer see the hard drive
I've got a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, 15-inch.
Okay, so I was chasing the nazis out of North Africa in Call of Duty 2 when the game froze. Command-Option-Escape was unresponsive, so I held down the power button to shut the whole thing down. When I brought it back up, I got the flashing folder icon.
After yelling a few words I shan't repeat here, I booted off the installation DVD, then started up Disk Utility to try to repair the disk. However, Disk Utility only sees the DVD; it doesn't see the hard drive at all. Neither does Startup Disk or System Profiler. (The hard drive would be under the ATA section in System Profiler's menu, right? It only shows the DVD drive.) If I try to go ahead with the OS X installation, at the "Select a Destination" screen, where the list of disks should be is disturbingly blank. So according to every method I've tried so far, it's as if my hard drive has been entirely disconnected.
This was my Christmas present, and I was hoping to get at least two years out of it, not two weeks. Anyone have any idea how to get this beautiful machine back on its feet again? I'm familiar with Unix and not afraid of using the command line, but I'm not sure what to try there.
15" MacBook Pro C2D Mac OS X (10.4.8)Okay, second question: How does this forum software work? According to the thread list, someone named MacWizard has replied to this thread, but I can't see it.
MacWizard, if you could email your reply to spearbrave at gmail point c0m so I can read it there, I'd appreciate it.
15" MacBook Pro C2D Mac OS X (10.4.8) -
Macbook Pro keeps freezing after replaced the hard drive
hi there,
recently, my macbook pro (15" 2.53 ghz, 4gb ram, 250gb hdd) hard drive crashed, having no warranty left, i went through all of the troubleshooting but nothing worked. i took it into futureshop and they tried the diagnostic and concluded that the hard drive crashed, and they told me to find a new hard drive in their store and theyll replace it for free (because it only takes a few minutes). i found a 500GB 2.5" SEAGATE hard drive in the store, and they fit it in for me. then i took it home and installed the O/S myself.
IT WORKED GREAT!!!!! but my other hard drive was too corrupt to save any of the data, so i had to start from scratch :/
after about a week or so, my mac gradually starting freezing up more and more, and i was worried because that was the initial problem i had.
its been about a month and a half since the first freeze, and im sick of it! about 4 or 5 times a day, the thing would just stop everything its doing, and the mac wheel would spin for about 30 seconds or so froze,, and then go back to normal.
whats confusing is that when im on skype and the mac freezes, i can still talk to the person from voice to voice, but EVERYTHING else just stops lik my itunes and the words im typing.
SO PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS ISSUE ITS KILLING ME!!!!
i am willing to do anything or even replace my hard drive again just to fix this problem, so please your help would be greatly appreciated!
THANKS !!!Hi r,
Why not bring it back to the place you bought the HD and have them test it? If it is the HD, many places will give you a new HD if it has been under a certain time period (often 30 days), otherwise you may have to send it in to Seagate for a warranty replacement. -
HT1338 My macbook pro(2010) is not reading the hard drive, but the hard drive works through the USB?
Hi everyone,
My Macbook pro(2010) is not reading the internal Hard Drive. At first I thought it to be a hard drive gone bad, so i bought a new hard drive. My macbook is still not reading the Hard Drive. I am able to use the original hard drive through a external(USB) connection. Also, when the macbook turns, there is a redelling sound. Can anyone offer me any suggestions to what the problem might be?It sounds like the internal cable connecting the HDD to the logic board is improperly connected or faulty. An appointment at an Apple genius bar might be a good option. The repair should not be too expensive.
Ciao. -
HT1338 my macbook pro has no room on the hard drive
I seem to have filled up my hard drive 320 GB, is there a easy way to get back some space?
You should have at least 10% of the total space on your startup volume as free space. So, if it's 320GB, about 30GB or more would be a reasonable amount of free space. That's not any kind of rule, but a guideline. Here's the reason...
Mac OS X uses the free space on the startup volume for temporary files, such as the "swap files" used by virtual memory, and various other temp and log files. Applications use the free space for things like cache files, to help speed up operations. When the free space gets too low, the remaining free space more quickly becomes fragmented into tiny pieces, spread all over the hard drive. It become increasingly more inefficient to access the available free space, so the Mac may seems to bog down.
So, freeing up more space would probably help as an immediate fix. If you get an external hard drive, you can off-load data that you don't often use to the external drive. On my iMac, my entire iTunes library's iTunes Media folder is stored on an external drive.
Also, in case there is existing data corruption on the hard drive, run Disk Utility. Select Macintosh HD (or whatever your startup volume is called) in the Disk Utility sidebar. Run Verify Disk. If any error is reported, it should be addressed as soon as possible. You can post back if this happens to get more info. -
My MacBook Pro was stolen less than a week ago, and I'm not sure if the hard drive was wiped, if it was wiped would I still be able to find it with the findiphone app? Or would it be untraceable after it was wiped? I had alot of special things on my laptop, and I would hate it if I didn't find it, so I'm hoping it wasn't wiped and I will be able to find it soon, HELP ME IF YOU CAN PLEASE! ANYTHING HELPS!
If that drive was erased, you should have received a confirmation email.
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I have the G Drive 1 TB (GEN4 1TB) external drive purchased in 2010. I need to connect to my new MacBook Pro. I'm using the external drive for media storage of my video editing projects. Will a 800fw to thunderbolt adapter cable work? I understand that using a USB port connection is not fast enough for video editing. I read somewhere the G Drives don't connect well to MacBook Pro.
thanks
larryI doubt this can be relocated or moved so you might want to just repost in the macbook pro area.
MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
Can you afford a new Thunderbolt case and cable? any case with FW800 is going to be slow 72MB/sec and less, and any new 1TB drive is capable of 75MB/s minimum up to 125MB/sec.
Thunderbolt storage can of course when setup properly reach 100's of MB higher using multiple drives.
Use what you have for a system backup or for secondary backup storage.
you might be able to take the drive - most cases allow you to open and swap drives - and use this:
G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mini High-Speed Portable Hard Drive
or this:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/HB137VC/A/g-technology-4tb-g-raid-professional -high-performance-dual-drive-hard-drive?fnode=5f -
MacBook Pro 2010: Flashing folder w/? on not responding to startup keys & I'm trying to install a new hard drive, can anyone help?
Thanks. It started up com that disk but when I went to install it had an error message (didn't get to write out what it said). So I attempted to restore from time machine but it said there was no space, even though it's a new (replacement under warranty) HGST 1TB HD, so I did what I think was right and tried to partition the disk but it now says 'Partition faild...POSIX report...cannot allocate memory'. im not sure what to do, and I'm trying to remember how the previous hd was installed and formatted for use but that was over a year ago now. Should have erased the hd first or something?
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Imac will not boot up, chimes with apple logo and beach ball spin??
imac will not boot up, chimes with apple logo and beach ball spin?? after installing adobe flash and up graded apple softeware
If your iMac came with or is running Lion, startup holding either the Command-R keys or the Option key and select the recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to repair the Macintosh HD.
see > OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery
If your running Snow Leopard or earlier OS X, pop in your Install DVD and startup holding either the Option or C key, then open and use Disk Utility to repair the Macintosh HD.
see > Mac OS X - Using Disk Utility to Repair a Disk -
3 yr old macbook pro boot up problems
Hi, I bought a 13” macbook pro 3 yrs ago.. Its running the latest version of Lion.
I have a boot up problem.
Initially the boot up sound will go off and get stuck on a white screen.
I’ve left it on for 30mins….it took me to a disk disk utility screen…
I’ve clicked on repair disk….after about 15mins
Its saids
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume
Invalid B-tree node size
The volume could not be verified completely
Then I restart….now… not only does it get suck on the white screen, but the boot up sound keeps repeating
Im currently living in Hong Kong, what should I do now, and if it requires repairs…how much would It cost.
Thanks,
WBI don't know what happened. It is not a common occurrence. It can be caused by power outages, abnormal shutdowns, software glitches, etc.
I would think seriously about a backup strategy for the future:
Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver. -
My iMAC is a 2011 3.4 GHz intel i7 based with a 27in display. A year ago, I bought a Microsoft win pro 7 64-bit english OEM OS to install over a newly assembled AMD PC. I never installed it. Now, I want to put it on my iMAC using either Apple Bootcamp or Parallels. The win 7 OEM package has a lot of verbage about using an OEM preinstallation kit (OPK) and that it must be preinstalled on the hard drive. Is it OK to install this win7 version following the Bootcamp instructions.?
K6JPJPlease post in the Boot Camp (not Bootcamp) forum I'm sure someone there can answer your quesiton if no one here is able to.
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Macbook Pro Boot Issue, White Screen with Apple
Having a similar issue with my macbook pro. When I press the power button, a white screen appears with an apple icon in the middle and a small cirle on the bottom that is like a timer. I thought that the computer might be downloading something, but I left it on for hours and the computer didn't get out of that mode. I have tried several things such as the installation cd, first aid repair, but both said repairs weren't needed and that the drives were fine. Any suggestions on why the computer is doing this? It's been several days and I shut if off, leave it off for an entire day and when I turn it on, the same screen with the apple appears and nothing else.
Any ideas are appreciated!
Thank you!Hi Claudiat :
You could try a SMU reset, which may solve your problem,
from Apple:
MacBook, MacBook Pro
If the computer is on, turn it off.
Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
Press the Power button to restart the computer.
More info here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
-Robert -
I have a white MacBook and I just changed out the hard drive with a 500GB. When I turn it on I get a file fold with a ? In the middle that flashes. What do I do next?
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
(Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
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