Dead macbook.

Bryse Eayo

So.

I had to hard restart my Macbook as it locked up when I tried to open a file. Now when I boot into either OSX or windows it just shows a black screen with a blinking cursor for half a second and then just a black screen.


I've been using Contribute CS4 which is the buggiest piece of shit program I've ever seen Adobe put it's name on. Maybe that's has something to do with it.

But I need this computer back ASAP.

OSX 10.5.6
Aluminum MB 2.4ghz

ZackSchilling

How do you know you're really trying to boot Mac OS X? Have you tried starting while holding Option and selecting the partition you want?

Can you start up off of a DVD? Get the discs that came with the computer and startup off of Mac OS X install disc 1.

Bryse Eayo

Shift booting won't work.

Yep I can get to the partition chooser. When I click on either windows or OSX the screen freezes then it goes black..

Bryse Eayo

Well got it to get tothe disk utility.

Give me an error when trying to repair:

Invalid Node Structure
Invalid B-tree node size
Invalid Node Structure
Invalid B-tree node size
Volume Check Failed

Good times.

ZackSchilling

You hold down C to boot from a CD/DVD. You're saying that that also doesn't work, you get the same black screen?

One thing to check, how sure are you that it's really a black screen and not a working screen with the backlight off? Get a flashlight and shine it at the screen at a good angle (or through the apple on the back).

Try resetting the SMC:

1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
3. Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
4. Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
5. Press the Power button to restart the computer.


Edit: Ok, so it is the hard drive. If you have no backups and want to try and repair this, you'll need Disk Warrior.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

Bryse Eayo

ZackSchilling wrote: »

You hold down C to boot from a CD/DVD. You're saying that that also doesn't work, you get the same black screen?

One thing to check, how sure are you that it's really a black screen and not a working screen with the backlight off? Get a flashlight and shine it at the screen at a good angle (or through the apple on the back).

Try resetting the SMC:

1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
3. Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
4. Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
5. Press the Power button to restart the computer.


Edit: Ok, so it is the hard drive. If you have no backups and want to try and repair this, you'll need Disk Warrior.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

Yep. It's on it's way.

Contribute can go die.

Bryse Eayo

Uhh before I do this can someone explain what I'll need to do? Does Disk Warrior have a diagnostic that will figure everything out?

ZackSchilling

Well, you'll need to run DiskWarrior on the drive somehow. You can do this a lot of different ways.

If you buy the app in a store, you'll get a DVD you can start up off of to run repairs. I assume you took the download option. This poses a slight problem since the download version can't be burned to a bootable DVD without another Mac and some doing.

Do you have an external hard drive with a few gigs of free space or another Mac?

Bryse Eayo

ZackSchilling wrote: »

Well, you'll need to run DiskWarrior on the drive somehow. You can do this a lot of different ways.

If you buy the app in a store, you'll get a DVD you can start up off of to run repairs. I assume you took the download option. This poses a slight problem since the download version can't be burned to a bootable DVD without another Mac and some doing.

Do you have an external hard drive with a few gigs of free space or another Mac?

I have the hard drive formatted to NTFS... And def no other mac.

It really can't be done with windows? That just made my night interesting.

ZackSchilling

YOur best bet is going to be to shuffle files off your external HD, boot the Mac off of the install DVD, reformat the external drive and install Mac OS X on to it. Then you'll be able to boot from that and use it to run DiskWarrior.

Alternatives: Older iPods with Firewire can be used as bootable disks for Macs. Got one of those you might be able to borrow and install OS X on?

Bryse Eayo

Well.

Did all that got some data off that i couldn't lose, looking good, wiped the partition, tried to install...

Unknown Error. Can't install OSX. Please contact manufacturer. What the fuck?

FF

You may have to erase the entire disk, or possibly (though I doubt it) zero the drive. Sounds like the OS X installer is having problems finding the right format to install on.

freshmasterfresh

It sounds like the drive itself might be the problem. Have you tried contacting Apple yet? You might need to let them replace the drive. Hopefully you're near an Apple Store and they don't have their heads in their asses. It should be a ridiculously fast swap for a new drive. With that chassis, it should take a matter of minutes.

ZackSchilling

Bryse Eayo wrote: »

Well.

Did all that got some data off that i couldn't lose, looking good, wiped the partition, tried to install...

Unknown Error. Can't install OSX. Please contact manufacturer. What the fuck?

Is this a USB disk? OS X might just not like it. It happens. If it's Firewire and being rejected, who knows. Did you format it as HFS+ Journaled with a GUID table?

You don't know another soul with a firewire-equipped Mac who can help you out?

Brodo Faggins

If you have an aluminum MacBook, it's definitely under a year old, which means it's still under warranty. Give 'em a call.