Kernal Panic in Mac OS X [Solved]

Belruel

I am getting the multilingual kernal panic message on startup, this happened after my mac froze and I did a manual shutdown.

I am on a Macbook Pro running Leopard.


I have stupidly not done a system update for a while.

I do not have my leopard startup disk anymore, but I did backup a bootable copy to my external harddrive (or so I thought) but holding down C on startup while my external harddrive is plugged in does nothing (is this the correct command?)

Holding shift on startup does nothing.

I can startup in single user mode, but it hangs after "system uptime in nanoseconds:" and I cannot reach the command line to run fsck.

If I startup holding option I can get to my windows partition (where I am right now) and that works just fine.

I do not think this was caused by a hardware issue because of the circumstances around how it occurred, and because my windows side works just fine.

I do have third party RAM in, but it has been installed and working fine for over a year at least.


I spent hours last night looking up this problem and ways to fix it, but this is my first time having to troubleshoot my mac seriously, and I am a bit lost.

I am wondering if upgrading to snow leopard would work (an update only costs around $30). And if doing so would wipe my harddrive.

I just got back from a trip and uploaded my photos, and I would hate to lose them, is there a way I can get them off before trying to reinstall/install anything?

help

admanb

It's the 'option' key to pick a startup volume.

You can do a full re-install (or system settings clearing upgrade) without formatting the hard drive.

bowen

The upgrade shouldn't wipe your hard drive, it didn't to the one I have here anyways. What were you doing that caused the panic, do you remember?

Belruel

I was browsing the forums, and scrolled down the page. my computer froze and stayed that way for over 10 minutes (this is rather rare for my mac). I was running late for dinner with my boyfriend's parents so I just held down the power button until it powered down. When I got home from dinner and tried to turn my mac on I was faced with the kernal panic message.

I have tried holding option with my external harddrive plugged in and nothing happened, does that mean that when I backed up a bootable copy it went wrong/I messed up and it's not what I thought it was?

So just to clarify (because I am a bit frazzled right now) if I buy snow leopard and install that, i won't lose my data? My photos and programs (like photoshop) will be fine?

also, I won't need my old leopard disk to upgrade for any reason, right?

FF

You're best bet would be to buy Snow Leopard and start up from it. From there you can open Disk Utility and have it take a look at your drive (in the Mac). You should be able to run verify/repair disk and/or verify/repair Permissions. As long as you don't click erase you'll be ok.

Depending on the output of the above verify/repairs you may just have to restart, or upgrade/re-install, or worst case is your hard drive took a poop. But you have your backup, so, notsobad.

Nope, no old disk required.

Belruel

You guys are golden.

I'll hope I don't have to lose everything since my last backup, but if so, life goes on.

If I do end up not being able to get my photos/whatever off, what sort of options (if any) would I have in trying to recover that data?

adytum

Depends on what happened to the drive, how much you're willing to spend, and how technically skilled you are.

If the hard drive isn't gone, you can pull it, throw it in an external enclosure, and use another computer to pull off the files before you [theoretically] need to reformat.

Belruel

I don't have easy access to another mac, so I will hope my hardest that I can just run a repair.

Viscountalpha

You also might be able to get a mac friendly repair shop to copy off the files for you.

Belruel

That is a good idea, if I do end up needing a new install I'll look into that for sure.

HannahH

When you have it fixed, seriously consider getting a time machine backup drive - they sell one that is wireless...

Belruel

if I had the money for that I would. sadly, I am a bit low on money right now.

I just got back from buying snow leopard, wish me luck.

Linden

HannahH wrote: »

When you have it fixed, seriously consider getting a time machine backup drive - they sell one that is wireless...

I'd argue that the capsule really isn't worth it. Given that you already have an external drive, adding a backup to that shouldn't be a major obstacle, and it'd probably be a lot cheaper.

Belruel

I can't repair my mac HD, it is greyed out on the side menu and when I try it tells me it can't repair it.

So I figured I would try to install the update, but when I go to do that it only shows my windows partition, not my mac HD.

I am exceedingly frustrated.

Belruel

and now the snow leopard disk won't weven stay in the drive, it keep ejecting.

this is the worst

HannahH

Disk Warrior may be your next step.

proXimity

Well, you said you have a windows install, under bootcamp, I'm assuming? Boot to that, and you should be able to access your Mac partition (I believe bootcamp comes with hfs drivers?) Back up from there, then reformat the whole mac side. If you can't access the mac partition, try downloading the MacDrive trial and see if that works.

Belruel

Ugh I simply don't have the money for that. (diskwarrior)

I may just have to use my windows side until I can get a job and throw some money at this.

I have never taken my mac to a repair shop other than the genius bar (to replace a fan), anyone have any sort of idea how much money they would charge to have someone else deal with all this mess?

Belruel

proXimity wrote: »

Well, you said you have a windows install, under bootcamp, I'm assuming? Boot to that, and you should be able to access your Mac partition (I believe bootcamp comes with hfs drivers?) Back up from there, then reformat the whole mac side. If you can't access the mac partition, try downloading the MacDrive trial and see if that works.

yeah I have bootcamp. I don't know if I can touch my mac HD from my windows side, but I'll go google around and see if it is possible.

HannahH

so when you put the sl disk in the drive, and try to boot into it, what happens - please give more detail than it ejects - what keys are you holding down to boot into the dvd?

Belruel

It let me into it once, but didn't give me the option to install on my mac HD, so I figured I would try one more time.

So I shut down, then hold down C as I start up, I can hear the disk spin a bit, then it spits it back out at me. Over and over again. Even when I startup in windows it spits it back at me.

HannahH

Hmm - sounds like you may have bigger issues than just the drive. Take the sl disc, wipe it to make sure there are no marks or anything like that, and try booting again.
When you say 'it let me into it once', do you mean you were able to boot from the sl disc once? If so then my suspicion is you make not be pressing the 'c' key at the right time in the boot sequence. Are you sure you are doing this right?

Belruel

Relatively sure, I tried both holding C down when pressing the power button, and also not pressing it until after the 'booong'. then I let go a few seconds after the apple symbol appears.

HannahH

try doing the same thing, but with the 'option' key.

Belruel

disk popped out again while using option. the disk has a few minor scuffs now from going in and out of my drive, but nothing major.

I am messing around with macdrive right now, but it doesn't seem to be able to see my mac drives, and isn't even recognizing my external hard drive.

I'm going to go get something to eat and then give this whole mess another go.

retrovm

if it's panicking on boot, it's either bad ram or a bad hard drive; KP'ing is almost always hardware related. if your HD is greyed out on the lefthand side in disk utility, then the drive is likely failing dude.

retrovm

yeah, definitely hard drive then. just rereading your posts with the not-showing-up OSX partition etc. for the love of god DON'T boot it up again; you're damaging more and more data every time since the disk is on it's way out.

make an appointment and take it to the genius bar, they can refer you to data recovery places. if you're out of warranty, they can give you a quote on what it will cost for you to have the drive replaced. when i worked there labour was in the realm of ~80 bones, the drive itself was around 100. if you're handy you can do it yourself.
http://www.ifixit.com/

Belruel

awww hamburgers.

all right, I'll scrounge up my pennies and take it to the genius bar.

my mac works perfectly fine in bootcamp, should I avoid even using that?

Wheezer

Hey, in case you didn't find it in your googling, there's a free utility than can read your files from the OS X side while in bootcamp: HSF Explorer

I use it to copy the occasional file I need in windows without resorting to a USB drive, but maybe you can get some of your non-backed up files safe before your computer in for repairs?

FF

Wait what? It could just be the boot partition for the OS X volume got screwed up. I wouldn't call it the hard drive just yet.

What I would do is, first, take your backup somewhere that has a computer, plug it in and verify that your backup is good. If your backup is good (and current enough) I would save whatever info from your Windows partition (if there is any). From there (once you've made triple sure you're not missing any data) I would do an Erase & Install on your laptop.

If the install goes fine, try putting Windows back on there. If that goes fine start loading content back on. If that still goes fine, your hard drive probably had some bad blocks or the startup partition went nuts. If you start getting errors during the OS X install, or Windows partitioning or anything else. Well, then yeah, your hard drive is probably on it's way out.

I'm not saying this is something that you should absolutely do before taking it to an Apple store, but it's what I would do before going and spending money. I'm cheap like that

Belruel

Wheezer wrote: »

Hey, in case you didn't find it in your googling, there's a free utility than can read your files from the OS X side while in bootcamp: HSF Explorer

I use it to copy the occasional file I need in windows without resorting to a USB drive, but maybe you can get some of your non-backed up files safe before your computer in for repairs?

I'll check this out for sure

t FF- yeah what a bunch of odd errors and circumstances, huh? haha

I'll check all that before taking it in (I am cheap too)

thank you so much to all you guys for helping me. hopefully I can fix this today

Belruel

oh gosh, using hfsExplorer I am now in my Mac HD.

let's see if I can pull my files off.

Belruel

after weeks of avoiding my computer, I'm going to throw away a few more years of my life on this.

I have managed to get my most important data from my mac side, and now I am trying to get my snow leopard disk to stop ejecting whenever I try and start up from it.

any advice?

I insert the disk, and then power down from my windows side, when I start up holding C, it shows me a white screen for a while, then spits the disk out and goes back into the kernal panic message. I can put the disk back in, and try the mess over again, with the same results.

Wheezer

Try holding alt/option during boot, same result?

ben0207

Did yoiu ever get this fixed OP?

Belruel

I finally gave in and took it to the genius bar, had to wipe my harddrive, but everything is working like a charm now.

thanks for all the help guys, I was able to pull off the most important things before the drive was wiped.