MacBook Pro only Boots up into the Recovery partition ?

Hi out there in the Land of All Knowing
Can anyone help ?
All of a sudden MBP will only start up into the Recovery Partition ?
When it first start you see a Grey Circle with a band across it ( like no entry sign ) then it just boots
into the RC, as mentioned above.
I did a DU check on the HD and it comes up fine, running 10.8.4 or 5 ( can't remember ).
Anyway does anyone out have a solution Please
Steve ( UK )

The drive has either failed to the point the hardware can't find the OS or the OS has gotten so corrupted that it no longer functions.
From that Mas OS X Utilities screen open Disk Utility and post a picture of the top level item selected on the left and the partition tab so we can see what the partition layout looks like.

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First of all, I have to ask, why to you "need" to install a fresh copy of OSX?
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Try internet recovery, perhaps erase the entire hard drive and reinstall ML.
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I installed Lion and everything works fine, except for one thing: whenever I power-up, I start up in the recovery partition. That doesn't actually bother me a lot, but it prevents my wife from using the computer if it's powered off.

Pram reset did the trick. Oddly, I've had my Pro for several years now and this is the first time I remember having to zap the PRAM.
My son (an Apple tech) was nearby today and told me that PRAM Reset (command-option-P-R all held down just before the chime and released after the chime) is the canonical solution for odd boot behavior.
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Perhaps if I had had a choice of bootable disks I might have been able to switch between them and make the problem go away. But I only had one bootable disk to choose from.
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I reinstalled osx 10.8.2 from recovery disk, now verify disk says my hard drive is there but wont boot into it regardless which partition i select to boot into , everytime it boots me into the recovery, i need help!

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Your rushing and not making much sense.
Your machine was running like garbage, so you tried to reinstall 10.8---did you do this or not?
Disk Utility says your drive is ok, that's good.
But when you boot it keeps booting Recovery HD, so perhaps the firmware has made a mistake, it can forget.
You held the option key down to boot into Startup Manager, why didn't you select OS X for the boot volume?
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attemtping to ireinstall osx from recovery partition bar is full on install screen, but im now at -6hours remaining
So now your reinstalling OS X like you set out to do before, it does take some time as it has to download from Apple's servers.
If your Internet connection is slow and/or Wifi is slow then it will take awhile.
So you should have the Flashing Question Mark and Reinstall Only OS X covered.
You should be able to boot the machine, but your performance issues may be something else and still remain.
Why is my computer slow?
Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/?p er_page=50

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Go read the topic with 71 pages about the Macbook Pro and SATA II. It is more than likely due to the latest firmware update that Apple released than crippled MANY hard drives.

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Why does my MacBook Pro not boot up with the Snow Leopard Disk?

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Hello,
I've read a few discussions about MacBooks only booting in Safe Mode, but my circumstances are a bit different.
Yesterday I installed a new piece of RAM. The installation was careful and went well. When I went to restart the computer, however, it would not load after the gray screen with the apple appeared. So I restarted it in Safe Mode and it worked fine (abeit there is no sound, can't use the disc drive, etc.)
The interesting part is that while in safe mode I clicked on the apple in the top left corner, clicked "About This Mac," and it appears that the computer accepted the new ram (I originally had two 2-gig sticks [4 gigs total], and I swapped out one of the sticks for the new 4-gig stick [therefore I have 6 gigs total]). So the computer recognizes the new RAM, which is good news, but I've still got a problem.
I've tried rebooting several times, and have even tried the Apple Hardware Test, but it froze shortly after I started the test (the same thing happened about 4 times).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Here's the specs of my Macbook:
MacBook Pro, mid-2010 edition
Mac OS X, version 10.6.8
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor
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The RAM you received was bad, return it. That brand of RAM seems to pop up a lot here as a problem for Mac's.
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Maximum Memory
8.0 GB
Memory Slots
2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM
Amazon and eBay are not good sources of top tier reliable and tested RAM, your just going to be spending more money returning it.
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I got my laptop June 2011, so it's not that old. I just want to know what this problem could be. I don't know if it's the connection from the screen to the computer, the hard drive, the logic board or something else. I'm really worried that it's something major, so any help is greatly appreciated.
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This is a GPU problem. It's normal that you see that the problem is random, but the fact that your Mac is only starting up in safe mode indicates that your Mac can only start up if the VGA driver is used. Moreover, if you open Console, you should start seeing "GPU Debug Info Start", which indicates a GPU failure.
As you have a backup, take the MacBook to an Apple Store or reseller. In the case of the MacBook Pro, the GPU is soldered onto the logic board, so the whole logic board has to be replaced, being a very expensive repair.
If a post solved your question or helped you, mark it as solved or helpful before posting a reply. Doing this, you will avoid that your own post is marked as solved or helpful. You won’t receive any point if you mark your own post as solved or helpful. Also, you won’t be rewarding the user who solved your question and you will help other users find the answer if you mark the correct reply

Macbook pro only boot with R key

I have a problem with a macbook pro .
I have snow leopard and after running onyx my computer only boot with the R key pressed , I have tried option-command-PR , reset SMC , repair permissions without success .
I have an external apple led cinema but with or without the error continues .
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Why did you try booting with the R key pressed? From what I recall that key simply resets the screen settings, and shouldn't have anything to do with your system starting or not. I would remove it from the external display until we can get this resolved.
I'm wondering if it has something to do with your NVRAM. Try booting with this key sequence cmd-opt-n-v.

Help! MacBook Pro only boots in Safe Mode and runs extremely slow (bonus: happened in Brazil and there are no Apple stores here - I need you guys!)

It's a MBP mid 2010. Last year it had some problems and an Apple authorised shop changed the HD and upgraded the OS from Snow Leopard to Lion. After that it seemed fine. Recently it started getting very slow and apps (e.g. Chrome, Flash) would crash. At some point it seemed stuck so I gave it a hard shutdown - bad idea. After that it would only boot in Safe Mode. I ran repar disk and repair permissions from the Disk Utility and it booted normally again but extremely slow. I upgraded to OS X 10.8.2, but didn't solve it. I tried booting with Command D to have a hardware diagnostic - it wouldn't boot and now it only boots in Safe Mode.
All data is backed and I have an external HD (but not an OS X Disc). Ready to anything. Help please!
Utility Disk Logs
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Group differs on “Library/Java”; should be 0; group is 80.
Permissions differ on “Library/Java”; should be drwxr-xr-x ; they are drwxrwxr-x .
Repaired “Library/Java”
Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent” has been modified and will not be repaired.
Permissions differ on “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/CoreGraphics”; should be lrwxrwxrwx ; they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Repaired “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/CoreGraphics”
Permissions differ on “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources”; should be lrwxrwxrwx ; they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Repaired “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources”
Permissions differ on “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/Current”; should be lrwxrwxrwx ; they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Repaired “System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/Current”
Permissions repair complete
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking file systemPerforming live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.
Verifying and repairing partition map for “ST9500325AS Media”
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
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Checking the EFI system partition’s size
Checking the EFI system partition’s file system
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Reviewing boot support loaders
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
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The partition map appears to be OK

See this for incompatible log in items
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS4348
Also you can perform #1 and #2 as these occur before Safe Mode, so you just reboot again with Shift key if you need to enter Safe Mode again.
At this point it sounds like your hard drive is dying or some sort of other hardware issue which I can only advise this.
Try to install OS X on a external drive and boot from it, if it's fine then you know your internal boot drive is dying.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
You can replace your internal drive yourself.
OtherWorld Computing is pretty good about providing drives and tool kits to perform that function yourself.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's

Macbook Pro not booting up all the way, weird problems

Last night I was using my Macbook Pro, closed the lid then came back later and when I opened the lid it wouldn't wake back up. Shut it down by holding the power button, then tried booting it back up. You can hear the CD/DVD drive spin up, (got my copy of X-Plane in there) but nothing else happens. Keyboard backlights never turn on, display stays dark, and the sleep light never lights up all the way either, just stays dim. Leave it for a few minutes, then close the lid and the sleep light gets bright like the computer is awake, and you can still here it running.
Sounds like classic SMC issues right? Well tried resetting that several times, no luck. Reset the PRAM while I was at it as well, no luck. Really not sure what's wrong now.
Macbook Pro was purchased spring '08, can't remember all the specs off the top of my head but it was the top-of-the line processor, 2-gig of ram, the nvidia 8600 video card. I've heard that there have been some issues with that card however I'm not yet convinced that this is a video issue. Software update ran just a few days ago, so I'm running whatever the latest version of mac os X is. (10.5.??)

Here's a link to the NVIDIA program:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
There is a specific test they run to diagnose this problem. If it pulls the right error code, you get a free logic board replacement. Print out a copy of the article and take it along--oddly enough, there are still a few Apple guys that don't seem to be familiar with this program.
So far I have not experienced the NVIDIA problem myself, but I have read a number of posts about it. Some people have reported multiple problems--some so severe that their Mac won't boot up enough to run the test. However, since your Mac sounds unusable the way it is, you may as well make an appointment at the genius bar and see if you qualify for a replacement logic board. That could cure many things.
Good luck!

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Your Mac is suffering from kernel panics.
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Allan

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Highwaytohells wrote:
Hi,
I own a Macbook pro 13 inch since about 3 years and
snip
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It is broken, take it to the Apple Store for repair.

MacBook Pro only Boots up into the Recovery partition ?

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