MacBook Pro OS Upgrade Froze, Won't Boot

[megamichan]

My MacBook Pro was running OSX 10.4.8 and I was upgrading to 10.4.9 while keeping my email windows open to check my mail last night. The progress on the upgrade was nearly done, but it was staying in the same spot for half an hour. At this point, my programs began to freeze up, so I shut down the computer with hopes to get back in and restart the upgrade....

The MBP won't boot now. I've tried holding Shift after the chimes at startup, as well as some random combinations because I'm more familiar with accessing the BIOS on a PC... I've never had this situation with a Mac. I also tried to let it sit for a while in case it was getting its brains scrambled by the sudden restart. The only disk I found to try and boot from is my 10.4.6 installation disk that came with the MBP, but I don't want to install because I worry that it will erase the data on my hard drive.

How can I force boot my MBP so that I can get in there and finish installing 10.4.9 so I can go on my way?

EDIT: I tried to see if I could install OSX 10.4.6 onto my LaCie external hard drive, but it won't allow me to... it says that it can't start from that volume. I also checked to see if I could back up the old system data and install 10.4.6, but even deselcting all of the extras that come with the install, I'm still about 2GB shy of what I need to be able to install the OS. I also repaired the permissions, and the disk said that there were no errors to repair on the disk when I tried a disk repair.

Suggestions appreciated! I need to get two websites up and a rough cut of my documentary done by the beginning of next week.

[makehen]

I have the same problem.

I was using Software Update to install and left the computer terminal (I don't believe I had any other software running) to take care of other things.

I came back and Software Update said there had been an installation problem. I didn't reboot and successfully downloaded the full installer for 10.4.9 but OS X wouldn't open the disk image. So I rebooted.

Big mistake. First it hung on shutdown (I foricibly turned it off via the power button after 15 minutes) and now it hangs on the gray pinwheel at boot (no matter how long I wait).

Boot from the Install disk, everything checks out as fine and Disk Utility reports the OS as being 10.4.9. Other than that, I have only been able to boot to Windows (on Bootcamp).

[makehen]

ps - I have a MacPro and not a MacBook.

[megamichan]

After a lot of trouble shooting, I was able to install OSX 10.4.6 from my installation disk and have it back up my old system data. It was claiming that I still needed to free about 5BG, but I found that the "Install" button was no longer grayed out. So I gave it a shot, and even though my login profile images were missing, I was able to boot and get to all of my files! I immediately backed up everything and re-upgraded, without a hitch this time. The only problem is that I know have very little free space on my hard drive, and I'm trying to find where the old system data was backed up. I think I may have found it, but I'm not sure if it's safe to delete it yet.

[makehen]

I just got a chance to try Single User Mode and it reports that launchd is missing (errno 88). It looks like I probably have to reinstall OS X as well >.<

[terrycojones]

Same thing here, word for word, including the single user boot..... Argh.

MacBook Pro, 1GB, completely standard setup.

[bobw]

Anytime you do a System Upgrade, you shouldn't have any programs running.

[simbalala]

Anytime you do a System Upgrade, you shouldn't have any programs running.

And never touch the machine while it's running the optimization at the end of the update. That's the cause of most problems, you can mess up the prebinding routines and cause file deletion.

http://daringfireball.net/2004/12/software_update