Mac won't boot unless I boot in target disc mode firewired to another mac

I've worked for Apple and I am stumped....all of the genius crew at my store are stumped...and the only thing anyone can recommend is to depot my machine! Here is the situation:
The computer froze up, so I restarted- upon waiting for it to restart, after a long while I received the Slashed Circle at boot. When it was looked at in store, we discovered that when the computer is FireWired to another mac, I can boot my computer through another computer with no problem at all (Booting while holding down T on my computer and Booting the secondary computer holding down Option).
They tried to pinpoint the problem, but the computer still acted the same way (not able to boot on its own, but able to boot through another mac) regardless of the RAM or the Harddrive. What do you guys think is wrong with the logic board that would cause this problem?
[2009 15inch Macbook Pro running Mavericks]
Thanks!
Ash

You have me stumped as well.
When you connected your 2009 MBP as the Target, the display shows the Firewire logo. Correct?
The other Mac is booted and has access to the 2009 MBP HDD. At that point, how did you boot the 2009 MBP? Did the display on the 2009 MBP replace the Firewire logo with a startup display? Where you then able to operate the 2009 MBP independent of the host Mac?
As I write this response, I have other applications running in the background that prevent me from turning off this MBP and testing Target disk mode with my other MBP. Let me know how you did it so that I can run a test tomorrow and perhaps find some answers.
Ciao.

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Mac Mini won't Boot after Target Disk Mode

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Try starting up from the Recovery Partition holding the Option (Alt) key and see if you can Repair your Macintosh HD, as per > OS X: About OS X Recovery

Mac mini won't boot into target disk mode

Hi
I just bought a Mac mini on eBay. I'm not sure of the spec but I think its a G4.
When it arrived I plugged it in and switched on to find the question mark folder appear.
I put in a 10.5 disk but it would not boot from it. [this was a disk I got with another s/h machine though so may not be bootable]
As I could not install from the disk I figured my best bet would be to target disk in and install osx from a powerbook I have here.
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I've also tried pressing what I believe to be the SMU button just behind the connector board to the HD and DVD drive but no luck.
Anybody got any ideas as to whats going on?
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Ok, I can probably get a copy of OSX
The problem is I think the DVD drive is faulty as it wouldn't give me my disk back I tried "eject cd" in OF but it didn't work and I had to open it up with a screw driver and take it out.
If the disk is corrupted is there a way to erase it without putting it in another machine. ie can it be done from OF?
Thanks for your help btw

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Hi:
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2007 iMac won't boot from startup disc

My brother passed away and I inherited his Mid 2007 iMac. Works fine, but all accounts are still in his name and I do not have his passwords. Trying to wipe the hard drive and do a clean start, but unable to boot from startup disc. It was purchased with Snow Leopard, but has been updated to Lion 10.8.3. It appears that there may be a security feature that rejects any attempt to boot from startup disc. Is there another way to wipe hard drive and start clean?

Sorry for your loss ...
The original startup disc will not work on a Mac running v10.8.3.
The fact that you do not have the admin password is a problem because you will need it to repair the startup or restore OS X using OS X Recovery

Flashing "?" - won't boot to system disc

Ever had one of those days? Mine has gone from bad to worse. The final insult involves my MacBook which has taken it upon itself to fail. When I try to start, I get the grey screen for awhile and then the flashing ? appears. Suspecting hard drive failure I tried to boot to the system install disc by inserting the disc and holding C on startup. No dice - still get the flashing ? I also tried booting with Diskwarrior and TechTool Deluxe. No luck - I connected the ethernet port to my G5 and tried Target Disk mode. After a long wait the Target Disc Mode symbol (in white) appeared on the laptop screen but nothing showed up on the G5. BTW - the fan is blowing all the time while this is happening and I hear the occasional soft clunk from the hard drive.
My thinking is that if the drive was defective I should still be able to boot to the system disc. The fact that I can't makes me suspect there is more to the problem.
Suggestions? This Macbook is long off warranty so any repairs are coming out of my pocket.
Tim

If this computer is no longer under warranty, try removing the hard drive, then see if you can boot from the install disc.
If so, place the hard drive back inside, making sure all connections are secure. Once the hard drive is in place, try booting from the install disc. If this fails again, you may have a failed hard drive.
~Lyssa

Booting from target disk mode

I have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro on the way with a 500 GB internal HD. My old mid 2007 MBP has a 1T hybrid drive that I would like to install as is in the new machine. Both on latest Mavericks....will the new machine boot up with the 2007 1T hard drive. Can this be tested via booting from target disk mode ?
Thanks

1. Yes.
2. Yes, it can.
(113529)

Core i3 mac not seeing power pc g4 imac in target disc mode

I'm trying to migrate my set up from a power pc g4 imac running a 10.4.11 to a core i3 imac. All the system software and firmware on the g4 imac is upto date and the mac will enter target disc mode. The macs are connected using a brand new 6 pin to 9 pin firewire cable. The iMac core i3 will not see the other mac in target disc mode. When trying the same thing using the migration assistant, migration assistant just hangs with the 'waiting for your other mac to restart'.
I'd really appreciate any help to fix the issue.

Is this the newest model with Thunderbolt? If so then see Thunderbolt 10.6 Help: Transferring files between two computers using Target Disk Mode and Intel-based Mac may become unresponsive in target disk mode.
Have you checked to be sure the drive in the G4 is configured as the Master? If it isn't, then it cannot be seen in TDM.

Tiger won't load in Target disc mode either!

Have had the problem of many in that my G3 iBook won't load the DVD-even though it has a combo drive. Anyway, tried target disc mode on my Tiger installed iMac and still unsuccessful. I think it's the disc itself. The installation goes through the "checking DVD" protocol and then I get an error code. Any clue? I've got a reservation at the genius bar this afternoon at 3pm but would love to solve this one on my own if possible...

It is possible that the combo drive is damaged or the BootX file already on the hard drive is having trouble. Have you backed up your data?

Mac Pro 2008 won't boot from install disc - black screen

Hello,
I recently purchased a new hard drive to replace the original that came with my Mac Pro 2008. I was able to format the new drive using Disk Utility. I am now at the point where I need to install OS X onto the new drive, but the computer refuses to boot from the disc. The disc is recognized by the computer (I can access the disc and am able to use the BootCamp applications, etc.) but I just get a black screen when trying to boot directly from the disc. The computer boots fine otherwise.
I have tried the following:
I have tried using both the gray install disc that came with the computer and the Snow Leopard Install DVD disc.
I have tried booting using the "C" key and the "option" key but still receive a black screen following the chime (I've held these down for several minutes).
I have tried restarting from either install disc using the Bootcamp Assistant.
I have tried running the installation software to get it to restart from the disc.
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Clone should be a must and easy to do and learn (learn by doing! 2)
6800 would 'qualify' as 5x70 series flashed etc and same rule: 10.6.5
In the past there was 10.4.6, 10.5.6, but not 10.6.6 - even though strong need for such a DVD.
10.6.8 DVD would be excellent
Lion or ML - buy, download, make an installer flash card would be what I would do at this point.
Then keep both - dual boot as you learn and test and see what ML does and waht you had that required Rosetta to support PowerPC. See www.roaringapps.com about that.
With Carbon Coyp Cloner - was share, now commercial, great utility been around since 10.2.2 at least - this time 2003. 10 yrs.
You can clone the system folders, you can even selectively choose. You can skip copy of most of your home account and do that separately to another drive if you want.
Clone Windows with Paragon or WinClone and use Windows 7 or 8 DVD to do a system repair (automatic) or to edit the BCD file. It can and should - and all you do is boot Windows 7 DVD w/ only the one drive present and go at it. Piece of cake. But yes, Windows gets fussy if you change or remove or move. BCD to the rescue. A proper program for cloning like Paragon's "Clone OS" meant for going from disk drives to SSDs, knows that and how to do it.
Back to how to clone etc:
Clone
Disk utility has RESTORE which will also clone your system but not the Lion Recovery partition. Oddly Apple did not 'endorse' making bootable clone of the system which works too but most choose Carbon Copy Cloner - it works more consistently; it allows for smart update of the backup volume. Both can backup to a sparse disk image if desired.
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt
Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
Create an OS X Lion Install disc
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html
The DVD is dependent on your hardware. And your hardware changed. The drivers for the 5780 and 6xxx are bundled in the OS and lacking. Minimum build thing.
Put the new drive anywhere you want. Does not matter. Can move it later. Can be drive bay 0-3 or a Firewire external or under the DVD drive.
When you clone pull the old drive and boot from the newly cloned.
After that keep a backup clone around all the time. Takes less than 10 minutes to do a smart update to copy just the changes to keep it current. So you have working copy of the system. I keep Clone "A" that I keep "as was" the system as of last month or whatever (like 10.7.4 before upgrade to 7.5).
Comes easier after doing it once and have all your ducks in a row.

OS Mavericks won't boot without using safe mode

My macbook pro won't boot up when its not in safe mode. It gets to the apple screen and then freezes but I can move the mouse around. Safari also won't open even when it is booted in safe mode.

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in this comment. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to gather information about the state of your computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it on this page. However, you should be cautious about running a program at the suggestion of a stranger on a public message board. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them.
Here's a summary of what you need to do: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait about a minute. Then paste some other text, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.
You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only run the test in safe mode, proceed anyway.
If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the script twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, just run the script as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in your browser, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
clear; shopt -s extglob; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s:\n\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='User %s%%\t\tSystem %s%%'; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ "$a" -eq 0 ]]; }; R () { o=; [[ "$r" -eq 0 ]]; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=$(sed 's/^ */ /' <<< "$o") && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pc () { o=$(egrep -v '^[[:blank:]]*($|#)' "$2"); Pm "$1"; }; Pp () { o=$($PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'); Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o="${o##+( )}"; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; id | grep -qw '80(admin)'; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType | sed '8!d;s/^ *//'; o=$(system_profiler SPDiagnosticsDataType | sed '5,6!d'); [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm "POST"; o=$(pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*CP/CP/'); grep -q 'No th' <<< "$o" && o=; Pm "Thermal conditions"; o=$(pmset -g sysload | grep -v :); grep -q '= [^GO]' <<< "$o" || o=; Pm "System load advisory"; o=$(nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'); Ps "boot-args"; o=$(ls /L*/L*/Dia*/*.panic | wc -l); Ps "Panics"; o=$(ls /L*/L*/Dia*/*.c* | tail); Pm "System crash logs"; o=$(ls L*/L*/Dia* | tail); Pm "User crash logs"; o=$(syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|SATA W|timed? ?o' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""; print}'); Pm "Kernel messages"; o=$(df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'); [[ $o -lt 5120 ]] && Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/Pageo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( $(sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d') ); [[ ${s[4]} -lt 90 ]] && o=$(printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}) || o=; Pm "Total CPU usage" && o=$(ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'); Pm "Max %CPU by process (name, UID, %)"; o=$(kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1); Pm "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; R && o=$(sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'); Pm "Loaded extrinsic daemons"; o=$(launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'); Pm "Loaded extrinsic user agents"; for d in {/,}L*/{La,Priv,Sta}*; do o=$(ls -A "$d" | egrep -v '^(\.DS_Store$|com\.apple\.)'); Pm "$d"; done; o=$(find -L /S*/L*/E* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,Keyb,Mail,P*P,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$d/Info.plist") || ID="No bundle ID"; egrep -qv "^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|\.hpio|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID" <<< $ID && printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done); Pm "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; o=$(find /u*/{,*/}lib -type f -exec sh -c 'file -b "$1" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$1"' {} {} \; -print); Pm "Unsigned shared libraries"; o=$(launchctl getenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES); Pm "Inserted libraries"; o=$(find {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d); Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=$(scutil --proxy | grep Prox); Pm "Proxies"; o=$(scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'); Ps "DNS"; R && o=$(sudo profiles -P | grep :); Pm "Profiles"; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; Pc "hosts" <(sed '1,10d' /etc/hosts); Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=$(sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook); Pm "Login hook"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed 's/\..*$//;s/-[1-9]$//'; o=$(find ~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $ | wc -l); Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=$(system_profiler SPFontsDataType | egrep "Valid: N|Duplicate: Y" | wc -l); Ps "Font problems"; o=$(find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist ! -exec sh -c 'plutil -s "$1" >&-' {} {} \; -print); Pm "Bad plists"; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign ($) or a percent sign (%). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the script will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important, so don't worry about it.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for your password. The script will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator rights.
The script may take up to a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. There is no indication of progress until it's done. Wait for the line "[Process completed]" to appear in the Terminal window.
You can then quit Terminal. The output of the script will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. All you have to do is paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V again. Please don't copy anything from the Terminal window.
If any personal information, such as your name or email address, appears in the output, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
When you post the output, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." That's because the forum software falsely identifies something in the post as a violation of the terms of use. If that happens, please post the output on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the output of the script. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Terms of Use of Apple Support Communities ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Lombard won't boot off System disc

Hi,
I have a problem that I wonder if any of you mac experts can help me with.
My problem is the computer will not boot from a system disc (any system disc) from the CD drive.
I have a Lombard Powerbook that has been running OS 8.6 (I know, I am way behind !) 192 mg RAM (64 in the lower, 128 in the upper from OWC), 4 Gb Hard drive.
The computer runs great in 8.6 - seldom crashes - however, all I have been mainly using it for is word processing.
When I try to load from any OS system disc (not the original Lombard disc, but any OS disc - 8.5, 9.2, Panther) holding down the C key, the CD drive runs for approximately 20 seconds, then stops, and on the screen I get a picture of a blank folder with a question mark - the Lombard is not reading the CD drive for some reason and won't boot from it. After a short wait OS 8.6 loads from the Hard drive.
I bought the computer on e-bay 4 years ago, and this has always been a problem - I just have been to busy in the past to deal with it.
Is there a simple command other than holding down the C key when restarting that will safely (remember I am a novice) allow me to bypass the hard drive and boot from the CD drive ?
I have done the following, which have all been unsuccessful at resolving this problem, and am out of ideas.
I have taken out all virus software from the system folder, cancelled all non-OS extensions and made sure the password extension is turned off.
I have zapped the PRAM.
I have taken out the (upper) RAM chip to be sure that it wasn't the problem - no difference.
Chosen the CD drive in the Startup Control Panel.
Checked to see if the system and finder are locked - they're not.
The CD drive may be the problem, but it runs software CDs fine, and it is the correct drive for the Lombard.
Any suggestions ? I would appreciate any ideas that people have.
Thanks.
Steve
Powerbook Lombard Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Steve,
You have performed a lot of troubleshooting which is helpful. There are several causes for a no-boot to CD...
1. Corrupted PRAM: You have addressed that.
2. Peripheral/external device preventing boot: Disconnect ALL peripherals.
3. Damaged or incorrect CD: The Lombard will not boot any CD earlier than OS 8.6, so the original Powerbook G3 Series Bronze Keyboard CD (has OS 8.6) or a retail MacOS 8.6 CD or newer will boot the Lombard. If you have a machine-specific OS 8.6 > 9.2.1 CD that has a computer name on it like iMac, iBook, Power Mac, etc, it will not boot your Lombard (there are a few exceptions.
Assuming you have no other problems, the Panther/10.3.x CD should boot unless you tried with only 64MB in the lower slot...then it may not boot...a Jaguar CD will, but not sure about Panther.
4. Bad drive: I don't know if an optical drive that performs normally when running an OS from the HD can also have the problem of not booting a CD. If you can find another Lombard or Pismo, swap drives and test.
5. The options for booting to a CD on the Lombard are the 'c' key, selecting the volume in the Startup Disk control panel, or the 'delete-option-command-shift' keys on restart...this forces a bypass of the HD.
6. It doesn't matter what is on the HD when trying to boot a CD; it can have a working OS or it can be empty.
Try this: If you have a supported CD, put the CD in the drive and shut down (not restart). Now press the power button and hold down the four keys for a PRAM reset...command-option-R-P...wait for two startup chimes, release the keys and immediately press the 'c' key.

Format issues- won't boot from OSX disc

Help!
I've been having some issues with my iBook G4 recently (it seems every program will randomly quit unexpectedly and it's generally rather slow) so I was thinking I would just wipe the drive and start afresh.
But I can't seem to boot from the OSX install disc. There's an option in the disc itself to restart and that didn't do anything and pressing "c" while restarting still starts things up normally. I've tried zapping NVRAM, PRAM, I went through OF and did reset-all and set-defaults (I'm not even sure if that was necessary- I'm desperate!) and nothing will work.
Help, please!

In order to erase your internal hard drive, you have to be booted from something else. I think you could do this from another Mac in FireWire Target Disk Mode, but I have never done this myself.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Is there a reason you don't want to use FireWire?
The biggest problem still seems to be that either your disc or your optical drive is not working properly. Even if you do succeed in erasing the drive, there is still the problem of reinstalling the OS. I think there are methods of doing this with FireWire Target Disk Mode, but I have just never done it myself, so I hesitate to give any instructions.
If you can, you might see if you can borrow an external optical drive and see if you can boot using that. If so, you can erase and reformat your internal drive using Disk Utility and reinstall the OS that way. If an external optical drive won't work, there may be a problem with your disc.
Good luck!

Problem with start up - won't boot. Tried safe mode, recovery mode etc.

Have also Tried Single user which just shows "error loading kernelcache" and before this reads "loading kernel cache file '\com.apple.recovery.boot\kernelcache'... And then read error ok? goes to grey screen with apple logo and no entry symbol? Any advice?
Tried all the online resources and have fond little help. Have not downloaded or Changed any settings...
Happy 2014!

iCloud does not back up a Mac. "MacKeeper" is a scam. Apparently you have no backups at all, which means that you're in immediate danger of losing your data, if it hasn't already happened.
If you want to preserve the data on the startup drive, and it's not already backed up, 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, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is not fully functional. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
1. Boot from the Recovery partition or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) Launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
2. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
3. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.

Won't start past apple logo, won't boot from install disc

mbp penryn 2.4 core 2 duo won't boot past apple logo. Running mtn lion 10.8... inserted Snow Leopard install disc, held down C key, only get a grey screen.Recently installed new HD, (seagate 750 Hybrid), upped ram from 2x2 to 2x4. All has been running very smoothly (and much cooler) for the past 3 weeks. Then this, prompted apparently by the mac going to sleep w/o being plugged in. Ran battery down, I suppose? Happens frequently.
Any suggestions?

ds,
"You might have ruined the RAM by handling it and touching the contacts.
Once you put new good RAM into the machine, reset SMC and PRAM then boot it up."
On the odd chance that I did ruin my ram I replaced w/ 4gb brand new ram, reset SMC and PRAM, then attempted to boot. Still a grey screen. Also re-attempted to put mbp into target mode, but no luck there either, nor with ejecting the Snow Leopard install disc via option/trackpad method, both on startup and while running, and no luck there either. I have a second Penryn mbp that I could salvage for a spare part if I knew what the problem might be. So far I get the idea from your responses that my machine SHOULD be rebooting, but for some reason isn't.
If this helps:
I hear, consistently on attempting startup, fans powering up, then two short whirrs as if a drive head is moving, then when the fans quiet down after 30-45 seconds, another short but different whirr, then only quiet fans and a grey screen.
Thanks in advance for any reply.

Mac won't boot unless I boot in target disc mode firewired to another mac

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