Macbook Pro does not boot - how can I recover files of HD???

My Macbook Pro 2.16 ghz is 1 year and 42 days old. It is used for a few hours a day (on average two). Since lunchtime it has refused to boot up. I have been through the manual, reseated ram, turned my fingers into elastic rope trying various key combinations, and generally fumed and raged. But now I need to get the data from the HD mainly word docs and pdf files over to a Windows machine. What options are available that work? Is there any recovery software that I can load on the PC that will read the mac disk for instance?

Welcome to the Forums!
Ummmm....did you try inserting your Install DVD 1 and booting with the c key held down? That will boot from the optical disc, instead of the hard disk. You'll see the welcome screen, select your language, then from the Utilities menu select Disk Utility. Does your HDD show up in the list? If yes, click it then click Repair Disk.
If the HDD does not show up (i.e. does not mount), post back.
As for your files, there are Mac programs to recover them (Data Rescue II, for example). You'd need to buy the software, install it on a recovery DVD (using a friend's Mac?), and have an external drive (in a Mac OS format, I susect) to recover the data to. I'm not aware of any software on the PC side that will allow you to do file recovery on the Mac.
Sorry for your troubles!
For the future (even if the above steps solve your problem), you should consider an external FireWire HDD and a regular backup strategy (I use SuperDuper, very easy, and having a recent backup = peace of mind!).
Hope this helps...

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Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
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The problem is that the OS is not in any where else of the MacBook Pro than in the HD / SSD. If you replace the Hard Drive, then you will need to Re-install OSX into that hard drive, it's pretty easy.
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4) Erase the content.
(If the Hard Drive contains no data continue with the following jumping the last 3 steps).
5) Select Re-install OSX.
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Follow the steps of everything else (it should take approximately 1 hour to do the whole thing).
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My MacBook Pro does not boot

Dear forum
I need some support.
I have upgraded my MacBook Pro 2.2 to Leopard. Defined a Vista 32 Home Premium (original) Bootcamp partition. Everything has worked fine till yesterday. Now there is no way to boot the sistem anymore. If you select Mac boot it stays with the grey screen forever. If I try Windows boot it tries to go back to Mac and does not start.
No chance to start in safe mode!
I am really disappointed as I need to recover some files and I am not able to find any way.
Can someone support me?
On the other MacBook Pro no issue at all with Bootcamp and same configuration.
Thanks
Luca

What can I do now?
I wish I knew.
If you have Apple Stores and Apple Geniuses in Germany, I would go see one.
Otherwise, at least you can boot from the Leopard DVD. You said you needed to recover some files. I hope the following helps you do so; I have not tried this myself. You will need either a flash drive or an external hard drive, depending on the size of the files. You will also need to be reasonably proficient with Terminal so here are some tips. You open the Terminal from the Utilities menu after booting from the Leopard DVD, just like you did to open Disk Utility. (You might need Disk Utility to mount your flash drive or your external hard drive; I'm not sure.)
Terminal tips:
0. You will see some '\ ' in the following, because a space in a file name has to be escaped. Tab completion (tip 2) will automatically put in the backslashes as needed.
1. The ls command lists files. So, for example,
ls /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/
will list the contents at the root ('/') of your hard drive.
2. *Use tab completion* to save yourself LOTS of typing. For example, to enter the previous example, you could type "ls /Vol[TAB]Mac[TAB]" where [TAB] means the Tab key. Tab completion only works if the file exists. If the tab completion doesn't seem to do anything, it may be because you haven't yet typed enough. Hitting tab again will show all possible completions to what you have already typed.
3. cd changes directories (or folders). So typing
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/marmorix/Documents
will get you to the Documents folder of your home folder (assuming that your short user name is "marmorix"), thus perhaps saving you some typing if that is where the documents you wish to save are.
4. . is the current directory. .. is the directory one up. So if you typed in the cd command of the previous step, then .. is the same as /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/marmorix/
5. cp copies files or directories. The 'p' flag preserves permissions, the 'i' (interactive) flag prevents you from accidentally overwriting files, and the 'r' flag copies recursively. So for example,
<pre>cp -pir . /Volumes/External\ Hard\ Drive/SaveMyDocuments</pre>
will copy everything, including subfolders, in the current directory to a folder named SaveMyDocuments on the external hard drive, if the name of the volume on the external hard drive was "External Hard Drive". (If necessary, you can learn the name of the volume on the external hard drive using tab completion.)
6. Unlike when you boot from the hard drive, the root directory when you use Terminal from the Leopard DVD refers to the Mac OS on the DVD, and so '/', etc. are on the DVD. This is why most of the previous tips referred explicitly to '/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD', which is your actual hard drive.
7. man is how you learn (more than you wanted to!) about commands. For example, man man will tell you about the man command; man cp will explain more about the copy command; and so on.
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This isn't a direct answer to your issue but have you considered installing Wine so you can run the occasional windows app directly in OSX? It's a much more elegant solution IMHO. This avoids restarting all the time with Bootcamp and avoids crashing all the time (and the security risks) with Windows running.

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I am fairly new to Mac's, so I greatly appreciate the help in advance....
Quick synopsis of problem:
Was using my new Macbook Pro, purchased 6 mos. ago... only had Safari open, Closed lid, went to dinner...when i came back, opened the lid... would not wake up, pressed power button and it went into Disk Utility mode.
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Let me also add that I just tried to boot the Macbook Pro's OS on the Macbook Air by starting the Air and holding down the 'Option' key.
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it showed the Pro's hard drive labeled: "Recovery - 10.9"
i don't have a good feeling about this..... the Air is obviously communicating with the Pro, but it seems that Pro's Hard Drive might be done...
any thoughts, ideas, solutions...??? thanks again

HELP: MacBook Pro does not boot at all

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Snow Leopard (with all updates)
Yesterday when leaving my office I just closed the cover on my MacBook. When I later opened it again the front white lite was steadyly on (dim) and the computer did not react to anything.
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<Serial Number Edited by Host>

Hi, Now, I am not sure if i can help you, but at least i am "glad" too see that i am not the only one with this problem. The same problem i have/had in December, so i took my Mac Book Pro after trying the same as you did to the Service, only to hear from them that i must buy a new LogicBoard, ok, i did this & it was then replaced, but after picking it up from Service 1 Month later, it was working, but only for 2 Hours, so i went back to the service again complaning about this problem, & all that i heard again from them was..." Your LogicBoard is not working, you must buy a New LogicBoard"... This i cannot not understand or accept after spending so much money for repairs, (2 Times in such a short period) After speaking with Apple, i was only told that this is not normal, & that i must go again to the Service where i was before & speak with them about it.

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Dale Weisshaar wrote:
After performing the surgery, I turned on the MBP with my Snow Leopard install DVD. After a while reading the DVD, the MBP spits out the DVD and displays the folder with the question mark.
Are you holding down the small case letter c the whole time. Keep holding it till the install screen comes up.
Did that, still tried to boot (sounded like the drive was reading), and still got the folder with the question mark, and the DVD was ejected.
Also, it has to be a retail disk of Snow Leopard. A machine specific disk that came with another Mac will not work. You need the universal copy.
Right, my MBP came with 10.4 originally, so this was a retail disk.

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MacBook Pro does not boot

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Welcome to Apple Discussions!
To monitor the fans along with other things, you can download the widget "iStatPro" from the Apple site. But given the problems you are experiencing, you might also want to run the Apple Hardware test (on Install Disc #1 of the discs that came with your computer) and check that none of the thermal sensors have failed. The left I/O board is near the esc key, and it sounds like there is a relay activating which is shutting down your MBP. Has your MBP been running hot other than when you closed the lid?
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Go step by step and test.
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Macbook Pro does not boot - how can I recover files of HD???

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