Can't get past startup grey screen or progress bar.

Running late 2011 Mac Book Pro. Recently added a SSD which runs software and the HDD for user data. All was running fine with data migration etc. Running Yosemite all updated. 16GB Ram.
Was using photoshop and it grey screened. Have tried lots of different things-
Won't boot in safe mode or verbose mode.
Ran fsck -fy in single user mode.
Changed RAM and ports.
Won't boot from the HDD which still has the operating system or from OSX Install which is on an external drive.
Ran a recovery boot up with download from Apple.
Ran a hardware test (extended and normal) with no errors.
Cleared PRAM and SCM.
Won't give me the option to boot from time machine back up.
Tried to to boot from recovery partition.
Would not mount as an external drive but could only daisy chain through another hard drive so not sure if it doesn't mount or wouldn't when daisy-chained.
None of this has worked and leads to either a grey screen or progress bar stopping halfway.
Unable to get an appointment at the Genius Bar and don't want to take it to a premium reseller as would rather Apple look at it first.
I know it must be a hardware issue but don't know what hardware!
HELP!

Rwilliamt wrote:
Running late 2011 Mac Book Pro. Recently added a SSD which runs software and the HDD for user data. All was running fine with data migration etc. Running Yosemite all updated. 16GB Ram.
Was using photoshop and it grey screened. Have tried lots of different things-
Won't boot in safe mode or verbose mode.
Ran fsck -fy in single user mode.
Changed RAM and ports.
Won't boot from the HDD which still has the operating system or from OSX Install which is on an external drive.
Ran a recovery boot up with download from Apple.
Ran a hardware test (extended and normal) with no errors.
Cleared PRAM and SCM.
Won't give me the option to boot from time machine back up.
Tried to to boot from recovery partition.
Would not mount as an external drive but could only daisy chain through another hard drive so not sure if it doesn't mount or wouldn't when daisy-chained.
None of this has worked and leads to either a grey screen or progress bar stopping halfway.
Unable to get an appointment at the Genius Bar and don't want to take it to a premium reseller as would rather Apple look at it first.
I know it must be a hardware issue but don't know what hardware!
HELP!
Time Machine is not a bootable copy - that is normal.
Apple hardware test can miss issues, see if it can run in loop mode (cmd+L) if you want to try to provoke an error - sometimes they appear to be temperature related, so start cold & allow it to warm up.
I'm unclear on the external disks & bootable OS's you tried, try to check that these disks also boot another Mac. A 10.10 installer on a USB stick should work on other Macs, but occasionally they can fail to support booting so you need to rule that out if you have other USB sticks.
I think an Apple store would be a good idea, it seems like the Mac is failing to boot from any OS's on different media, normally indicating a fatal flaw on the mac itself.
Also see if it fits into any of these…
https://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

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No hair dryer. What you need to do is make sure the PRAM battery is new. It is a coin shaped battery on the logic board. Radio Shack sells them.
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Upon trying to start up my laptop, got nothing but the apple logo, grey screen and spinning gear. I tried several things to resolve the problem on my own (hardware test said it could not verify the disk/could not start up from the OS X install disk/reset the power mgmt. unit/disconnected all peripherals)and finally went to the Apple store. Genius bar said they were able to start up from their hard drive and suggested that I buy an external hard drive, go home, start up again and back up all files. I bought a My Book. Got home and same thing happened: Apple logo and spinning gear. I am an Apple user of 18 years, but have not had to do much in the way of diagnostics. Have tried fsck routine today that I found on another posting here today. If the Genius guy got it going, I assumed that I could too. I was wrong. Any advice would be appreciated. It looks like this is the end of the road for my Powerbook, but I'd like a shot at recovering data.
Message was edited by: Debbie Wach

Hi Debbie/Gregg -
I may have missed something but can't you just put a new hard drive in your laptops? You may not be able to recover your data but it doesn't mean the end for your computer. The same thing happened to my TiBook and I put a new 120Gig hard drive in and it's had a new lease of life.
I bought a new internal hard drive along with an external enclosure and connected it up to my computer and from there cloned it. Then I transferred the external into the TiBook and put the old drive into the external and I use that as an external now. I realise your hard drives are dead but you could use another computer to so the same thing and just install the OS on it.
I bought this -
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=452
Then followed the instructions here -
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Ti-DVI/HD-Replacement/33/6/
Once your new hard drive is installed you may be able to try and repair the old one in the external enclosure?

Help: grey screen with progress bar at startup, no success repairing in disk utility

I got my MacBook pro in December 2011 and never had an issue with it until this same thing happened in February 2013.
Basically, what happens is the computer starts to run really slowly, so I forced shut down. When I tried to power it back on, I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off. I tried to some research to figure out how to fix it myself (grateful for my ipad as a back-up computer) but I'm afraid I'm stuck now.
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So, before I do the walk of shame back into the Apple Store, can anyone offer a guide for saving my stuff and repairing my hard drive myself? And, if I have a worst case scenario on my hands, how expensive will it be to buy/install a new hard drive?...or just how to prevent it from happening in the future? Thanks in advance.

Klt10415 wrote:
I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off.
The fsck drive check at boot is failing to fix your drive, gets stuck and the hardware shuts down the machine if a OS isn't loaded in time.
"disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files."
Yep, it will either have to be replaced or zero erased and completely reformatted and everything installed again.
Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's
How to reformat a used Mac
I never set up Time Machine
However, there are pictures on there that I'd really like to salvage.
That's ok, the TimeMachine likely would have backed up the corrupted data and fail to properly restore anyway.
Since you can boot from RecoveryHD, that means you can install OS X on a blank external powered drive and boot from it and access the internal drive for your files. Or as a last restort install Data Rescue ($100) and that can read even deleted files off the drive bypassing the file system etc.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive

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It would help to state in your post which remedies you tried that didn't work.
Start here > OS X Lion: If you see a gray screen at startup
If nothing there helped, try Starting up in Safe Mode
Safe Mode deletes some system caches that may help.
A Safe Mode boot takes longer than a normal boot so be patient. Once you are in Safe Mode, click Restart from the Apple menu.
If a Safe Mode boot didn't work, since your Mac has OS X v10.7 installed, restart your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys so you can access OS X Recovery built in utilities. The startup disk may need repairing.
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Hello ther cnickers,
It sounds like the initial install of Mavericks went ok, and you have been using it for a while, but now cannot boot to your desktop and are stuck at a gray screen with an Apple logo. I would recommend a couple of things here:
First, try performing a Safe Boot to see if that will load up for you. If so then leave Safe Boot and restart from the Apple menu to try and get to your deskop:
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.
From: Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
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Disk Utility 12.x: Repair a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Print this help page so you can refer to it later. (You don’t have access to Disk Utility Help when you restart up your computer in the next step.)In the Disk Utility Help window, choose Print from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear).
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Click Disk Utility, and then click Continue.
In the list at the left, select the item you want to repair. (Be sure to select an item that’s indented to the right in the list, not an item at the far left.)
Click First Aid.
If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, back it up and replace it. You can’t repair it.
Click Repair Disk.If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you’re done. Otherwise, you may need to do one of the following steps.
If Disk Utility reports “overlapped extent allocation” errors, two or more files occupy the same space on your disk, and at least one of them is likely to be corrupted. Check each file in the list of affected files. If you can replace a file or recreate it, delete it. If it contains information you need, open it and examine its data to make sure it hasn’t been corrupted. (Most of the files in the list have aliases in a DamagedFiles folder at the top level of your disk.)
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Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
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Before reconnecting an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
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Shut down your computer, wait 30 seconds, and then hold down the shift key while pressing the power button.
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Step 4
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Step 5
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Step 6
Boot into Recovery again. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
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If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

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Can't get past startup grey screen or progress bar.

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