My macbook will not boot past apple loading screen

Yesterday i turned my computer off before going to class, when i got back i was not able to get past the loading screen. I havent had any problems at all, many people have been saying that their macs start freezing then they have to manually shut down the computer. This usually means the hard drive is bad. but i have not had any of these problems. I am also not able to boot into safe mode. When i go into disk utility my hard drive shows up but is in grey, when i try to repair it it shows that its working but stays in the same spot for hours, i finally shut the computer down after 5 hours of it loading in the same spot. I have tried all of the commands suggested on the forums but have had no luck. I am also running lion but since their is no cd for lion would i use my snow leopard cd or the cd that came with my macbook in 2009. Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance!

You can take the drive out of the computer, use a $20 IDE/SATA to USB adpater to another Mac
You can see if you can read the drive directly to gain access grab files, run Disk Utility and perhaps it can repair it.
If you can't read the drive then there is DataRescue for a whopping $99 but it will read any deleted (but not scrubbed, encrypted or overwritten) data for recovery. Least that way you can get your files back.
Once your data is off, Zero Erase the whole thing, install 10.6 on it with the other Mac.
When installed in the sick mac, the hardware firmware will read the new EFI firmware, load it and you'll have the boot keys back again ON THE SECOND BOOT, it doesn't load on the first.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

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MacBook Pro Will Not Boot Past Apple Loading Screen At All.

I am having a major problem with my MacBook Pro and it just wont boot past the apple loading screen at all
I have tryed al lot of ways to fix this and it just wont work
It does not go into safe mode, it does not boot from cd, the PRAM thing wont work, verbose mode or the comand + s mode wont work
I tryed clean install but it wont boot from dvd, also it will not boot in any other way
It was working perfectly last night and i just shut it down and it does not work know.
My friend was also trying to install Lion from his account but the .dmg for it did not open so we quit and that night i used it for my essay and finished and then i turned it off and next day in the morining it don't work
HELP ME PLEASE

You can take the drive out of the computer, use a $20 IDE/SATA to USB adpater to another Mac
You can see if you can read the drive directly to gain access grab files, run Disk Utility and perhaps it can repair it.
If you can't read the drive then there is DataRescue for a whopping $99 but it will read any deleted (but not scrubbed, encrypted or overwritten) data for recovery. Least that way you can get your files back.
Once your data is off, Zero Erase the whole thing, install 10.6 on it with the other Mac.
When installed in the sick mac, the hardware firmware will read the new EFI firmware, load it and you'll have the boot keys back again ON THE SECOND BOOT, it doesn't load on the first.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Mac does not boot past white loading screen and disk cannot be repaired?

So when I turn on my Macbook Pro and it does not boot past a white screen with the Apple logo, loading wheel and progress bar. When the progress bar completes, the Macbook shuts down and when I open it again the cycle is repeated. I have opened it in Safe mode and it still showed the same thing. So I opened it in Recovery Mode and had Disk Utility verify and repair Macintosh HD. As it turns out, Disk Utility said Macintosh HD is beyond repair and I need to back up my files and reformat the whole Mac. Unfortunately, I have never used Time Machine since I started using the Mac and I obviously cannot use it now since startup does not even get past the white screen.
How do I reformat the Mac when it does not even go beyond the white screen during startup? My Mac did not come with any recovery or installation disks. Are my unbacked up files gone for good?
Thanks.

PochAstudille wrote:
How do I reformat the Mac when it does not even go beyond the white screen during startup? My Mac did not come with any recovery or installation disks. Are my unbacked up files gone for good?
Since you are able to get into Recovery Mode (Command+R), you can erase/format your Mac via Disk Utility.
Your files/data might be OK. One way to get your data off since you have no back up would be to have another Mac and connect the two via a Thunderbolt cable or even an ethernet cable (I think), then restart your 'bad' Mac into Target Mode by restarting and pressing the T key. Then go onto the 'good' Mac and see if you can copy the data files you want over to it.

Imac g5 will not boot past apple logo

Two weeks ago it started up perfect with no problems , last night i turn it on , it's pixelated and will not go past the apple logo , i reset the pram, i made sure it was running on the OS , i tried to boot of of disk warrior ,nothing worked. I started it in verbose mode the pixels went away and it got hung up on airport link down in enl . I have a picture of where it got hung up , i will try and post it...okay guess i can't do that. I bought this from a friend who had pre loaded the programs i wanted so i do not have start up discs i have a copy of osx and a copy of tiger (i believe) (original programs) i am not sure what os is running on here, but if it helps its not a newer version and i run garage band 8 on it.
iMac

How to show us a screen image. Avoid personal identification.
command + shift + 3 Will take entire screen. You hear a click.
command + shift + 4 Lets you decide what to take. Mouse pointer changes. Move mouse to upper left corner of desire image. Hold down left mouse key where to start image. Drag mouse to lower left of where you want to stop image. Release mouse.
You will get a picture n.png file on the desktop.
On the forum input panel you will see the camera icon.
click on camera icon.
another window will appear.
Make sure you have selected the from your computer tab.
click on Browse button
An open file panel appears. Select the file.
After selection a file, I have this screen showing.
You will have to click on Insert Image. You may have to scroll down to see Insert Image button.

Imac will not boot past Apple Logo

My imac will not boot after the good chime and apple logo (i don't even get a spinning wheel). I have held the option key down and selected the OS 10.6 disk with the same result. I was able to erase the drive and reinstall OS 10.6 using target mode and another computer. In target mode I can boot the other computer from the IMac HD but not the IMac. Have also tried holding the shift key and booting into safe mode with the same result. Additional note: I reset the PRAM and the SMU. At first on PRAM reset it would take 45 seconds for the machine to chime again, after OS reinstall and SMU reset, PRAM reset chimes within 10 seconds.... any help would be appreciated...

Kind of late but your solution helped me remember what once worked for me, a few years back.
Started iMAC in Target mode Used a firewire cable to a MacBook Pro
Started the Macbook Pro using the option Key and then restarted with the iMac as the Hard drive
Then I updated to 10.6.8 and allof the other updates.
shut down and rebooted and everything was fine.
But first I did quite a few other things before the update such as
It all started with a DiskWarrior finding overlapped files, I have been around the block a time or two so after it found three overlapped files, I shut down diskwarrior started up disk utility did a restore of the messed up drive to another external drive,
of course this copied overlapped files and all to the new external drive It took 24 huors or so, to back up the drive once it was done, I also tried a few times to correct the overlapped files to no avail,
so then I started the iMac up in target mode used the MacBook to format and erase the original drive, used the 10.6.3 DVD installer to install onto the hard drive, using the macBook DVD. After I was finished with the install to the iMAC,,,,,,,,,,this is where I got the three beeps like bad ram So idid the PRAM and SMC to no avail.
The operating system was evidently not new enough so once I did what i said at the begining of this post all went well.
Sometimes It is tough to remember some of the stuff that you learned several years ago.
and tired hard to forget.
I hoped this post does not scare away to many people, I was just about done with this computer until I read your post, one of several dozen, and it all came back to me.
Thanks a Bunch
I hope this can help others
themacprofessor

B/W G3 will not boot past the startup screen

It boots all the way through to the last step - "Login Window Startup". It will not boot in Safe Mode, PRAM reset, etc. No Joy. It has sat and spun the colored wheel of death for hours.
Any suggestions?

Boot from the Install CD by holding down the C key at startup. Do not install or even choose a language. Choose Disk Utility from the Installer Menu. Select your Hard drive and click "Repair". If anything is fixed, rerun again until it has no errors. Then run "Repair Permissions" once. Its many messages can generally be ignored.
If it will not chime a second or third or fourth time in response to the
Command Option p r
keys held down at startup, anecdote says that the PRAM battery is likely to be dead.

G4 will not boot past start up screen

My G4 froze (while in Explorer, again). Ran Apple Disk Utility - which failed (1 volume - HD - needs repair). Then ran Disk Warrior to rebuild and optimize the HD - all the reports were ok, lots repaired, etc. Check with Apple Disk Utility again - disk verifies as ok, no problem - BUT - the same problem persists - the machine will not pass the start-up screen (Starting Mac OS X). I am running 10.4.11
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? Or, am I stuck doing a fire wire target disk mode to peel off any essential data followed by a system reinstall. For what it is worth this happens too much with this beast - I`ve had two HDs, replaced the RAM etc.
Anybody have a clue?
Message was edited by: Evan Lloyd

An update - after running the Apple hardware test (disk) it seems as though there is a memory problem detected at startup. This would be in the installed 168 pin DIMM (not the more easily accessible upgrade slot. As memory can cause a variety of problems I will proceed to replace this and see if this fixes the problem. This is not the first time I have had memory problems - although it was previoulsy the SO-DIMM 144 pin card.

IdeaTab A2109A will not boot past Lenovo Splash screen

Tablet was charging over night, early in the morning I heard a couple of beeps, and thought it was my phone. After waking I turned on the Tablet and first saw a green circle with 100%, then after trying the power switch again, it booted to the Lenovo splash screen with the audio and color bar, but will not boot to the operating system.

I gave up and sent the Tablet into Grapevine, Texas under warranty.

Iphone will not boot past apple logo, reset doesnt work

Hello...
i replaced the the LCD screen on my iphone 3g and all i get when i power it on is the apple logo and a swirling progress bar that doesnt move, this loops every 5 or so minutes but does not progress to the password screen.....
Please anyone..???

Greg,
You can try searching the Internet for a 3rd-party company that will repair iPods and iPhones.
Hardware issues caused by disassembly or unauthorized service are not covered by the iPhones warranty. This webpage: http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/ provides more details about the iPhones warranty.
You can also find answers to Frequently Asked Questions about iPhone service here: http://apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/
-Jason

Single-User Mode Copying Files/System Does not Boot Past Apple Logo Screen

I have a Macbook 2.0GHZ, 2GB RAM, that recently tried to download a secuirty and keynot update. Following the download the system will no longer boot past the Apple Logo Screen with the spinning wheel. I do not have access to a OS disk yet or to a firewire cable either. I've have seen posts from others that describe how to use traget disk mode to reinstall the secuirty update manually and then they can boot their computer. Safe mode will not work. I did boot into single-user mode and run the disk utility there and it says my HD is OK. Since I do not have a firewire or an OS Disk, I am wondering if there is a way to copy those files i need to a USB pen stick then install them onto the computer via single-user mode, considering this is the only way I can boot and manipulate the machine at this time. If this is not possible please let me know so I can find a way to scrounge up a firewire cable or disk. Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Ted K

Thanks to Limnos and BDAqua I know you guys have helped others with these kind of problems from the other posts I read. I just want to list what I did exactly in case anyone wants to try to do this with a usb drive or does not have access to a boot disk or firewire cable.
1: Install security update on a pen drive
2: Boot in single user mode, CMD-S on startup
3: /sbin/mount -uw /
4: mkdir /Volumes/usb (usb can be any name, name of usb drive or anything you want)
5: ls /dev (you need to get the drive listing for the usb drive to mount it appropriately, it should be disk#s# but this is close to what the HD and Cd drives are listed as so you may need to list once before you put the usb stick in and once ater. I had issues inserting the usb drive in single-user mode and it would freeze up the root drive)
6: /sbin/mount_msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/usb (this mounts the usb drive, i had to use msdos because of how my usb drive was formatted, you may need to check your usb drive format, hfs is the apple format for usb drives but it did not work for me)
7: cp /Volumes/usb/SecUpd2009-001Intel.dmg (this copies the files from the usb drive to the root drivel, at this point you no longer need the usb drive)
8: hdiutil mount /SecUpd2009-001Intel.dmg (this mounts the disk image)
9: cd /Volumes/"Security Update 2009-001" (after i mounted the image this is how it appeared in the Volumes directory, you might need to do ls /Volumes to get the name, the quotes are important to get the whole file directory changed)
10: installer -pkg SecUpd2009-001Intel.pkg -target / (this installs the acutal update, i used the SecUpd2009-001Intel.pkg and it worked though I think you might be able to use "Security Update 2009-001" with quotes as well.)
11: reboot
i hope this helps anyone looking to do this. Thanks again to those who helpes and all the other posts that had information that helped me identify and then fix my issue! I still love my mac.

Laptop will not boot past the grey screen bootup screen

Hi,
I have started up my machine today and its displaying the grey screen and is not booting any futher.
The machine is only 2 Months old, its a :
2.8GHz Intel Core i7
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB
512GB SATA HDD
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display
Any ideas?, It was fine yesterday now nothing
Thanks.
Ron

Try this article.
Mac Os X: Gray Screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Macbook Pro will not boot past apple logo/spinning gear

Earlier this evening I was installing the aperture 3.0.2 and iMovie 8.0.6 updates onto my MBP and the system refused to install the Aperture update so I decided to shut down and restart the mac and when I saw the familiar Apple logo spinning I was distraught to see it would go no further. I then did what ay learned apple user would do and reset the PRAM and let it chime 4 times, just to be safe, and I restarted holding shift - the grey bar finished but it still would not load. I luckily have a Carbon Copy Clone of an old hard drive for this machine before I upgraded (much too outdated to copy back over - I would lose Final Cut Studio 3 and Aperture 3 etc...) which I was successful in booting into (and am using now) to do a disk utility > repair permission and repair disk. Both had no errors and I was sincerely confused. I attempted to boot it once more before I started to freak out. Needless to say I freaked out. I booted in single user mode and ran the checkdisk within that TWICE before typing exit and it did the rest of the verbose boot which then hung on "AirPort: RSN handshake complete on en1" This is the end of what I know to do - so with that I hand it off to you... any help is appreciated a and will definitely be attempted.
-Lucas

The drive had over 350GB available. Yes I suppose I would be able to but I am unable to locate one. If someone is certain a OS replacement install would fix things I am willing to go buy one...

MacBook Pro will not boot from Apple Logo Screen - No HD recognised

Hi all,
I encountered a problem booting my mid 2010 MacBook Pro yesterday. I currently run OSX Mavericks.
The computer has been great for the last 4 years and has never encountered any major issues. Yesterday I dropped it on carpet while sitting on the couch (it was a VERY small impact) and I continued to use it for a few hours. I did a safari update that night also. I then closed the lid which would have put it to sleep. My flatmate asked for a file later that night, I took his USB and stuck it in my computer, THEN opened the lid. The computer never booted up (It was stuck on the apple logo with the spinning thing underneath it). After doing this for a minute or so the computer would turn off. After multiple attempts the same thing happened.
I read many posts on this - I am assuming that the problem occured because I brought it out from sleep with a USB in the side. I have taken the following steps to attempt fixing the problem -
*safe boot - no luck
*reset PRAM - no luck
*recovery mode boot - getting disk errors.
In recovery mode boot I cannot reinstall a new OSX version because there is no internal HD disk mounted. It only gives me the option to install OSX to the Recovery HD, which is locked.
Using Time Machine backup wont work as there is also no Internal HD detected to load to.
In Disk Utility it no longer has 'Macintosh HD' - It is further labelled 'disk0s2'. I cannot verify, repair OR erase this disk.
Can someone PLEASE assist with what I might be able to do. I need to somehow mount/unmount/detect my internal HD. I am happy to detect it and format it as I have Time Machine backups on an external HD.
I am no mac genius although I do learn quickly. If I can get assistance It would be very appreciated. I have a feeling I can sort some issues out using Terminal although I need command assitance?!?
Apologies for the long post although I want to outline everything I have done to attempt to isolate the problem.
Thank you all in advance.

Does your flatmate have a Mac as well?
If so, you could always get a 8GB+ USB stick, download Mavericks using your Apple ID and use DiskMaker X to create a bootable installation disk on the USB stick. Then boot using the USB stick (hold down the option ey whilst booting to select it) and try to reformat your drive using Disk Utility and, if you're able, reinstall OS X on your machine and then restore from backup.
The only hitch may be that your hard drive is dead and that you need to install a new drive. You'll know once you boot from the USB stick, though, if you can format the drive or not.
Good luck,
Clinton

Macbook will not boot, stays on gray screen no apple logo

I was in the middle of watching some streaming content in netflix when my macbook froze. I tried to force quit, but to no avail, so I forced shut down. When I press the power button to reboot, I hear a couple of clicking sounds like the fan is trying to start up, but it doesn't. The screen remains on the gray screen and the apple logo never appears (no apple startup sound either). I do not hear the fan running.
Other possible factors:
-I know there are some software updates waiting, I just haven't had the chance to.
-A few days ago I did get a message that virtual memory or maybe it said hard disk (I can't remember) memory is close to being full. I trashed a whole lot of stuff, but did not get around to clearing my trash yet.
Any ideas?

To those of you reporting these problems, are your MacBooks from 2006, roughly?
The reason I ask is, there are reports of 06 MacBooks having AirPort card issues (which I think may relate to a bigger issue, perhaps in the logic board), and my 06 Mac mini has also just recently died on me. Which, to my understanding, uses some of the same hardware as an 06 MacBook.
To elaborate furhter, my mini had a problem with the Wi-fi card at first. It would work fine for 20 minutes, then it would die. This would happen regardless of what operating system I was running (OS X, Windows, Linux), so I'm positive it was/is a hardware issue. More recently, after disassembling the mini, just to take a look for any physical problems, the computer was doing the exact thing described in this post.
Upon start up, I would get the chimes, but would recieve nothing after that. The hard drive would not spin up, and with a CD inserted, the drive would spin, but nothing would come of it. After tinkering some more, I tried removing the CD drive from the computer, so only the hard drive was plugged in, and voilla, the computer booted back to the OS X install. Also, if I were to unplug the hard drive, and have only the CD drive connected, I was able to boot to a CD.
This tells me it's a logic board/power issue, and the same thing may be affecting you.
My educated guess is your hard drive is fine, and all your files are safely stored on the disk, however, for whatever reason, there's not enough power to run BOTH the CD drive and the HDD.
If you feel up to it, disassemble your MacBook and try removing the HDD, or the CD Drive if possible, and see if you get anywhere. It may be easier to remove the HDD and try booting to a CD. However, I'm not familiar with how the insides of a MacBook are laid out.
Hopefully this helps.
-Chris.

M2nd gen will not boot past apple logo

i also cant get it into recovery or dfu mode.

i got it into dfu mode, restored it, and it just says waiting for ipod for the last 30mins, and the progress bay on the ipod is full.

My macbook will not boot past apple loading screen

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