BIG problem

Ozwald · #1 June 29th, 2009, 09:17 AM

Hi there,

After a series of crashes, forced shut downs and other things, it seems that my MacBook has given up on life.

At first when turned on, it would become stuck on the loading page (where it says "starting Mac OS X"), but now it boots up and ends up on a UNIX command line. I can see the following on the command line; disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED). I understand that this means there is a problem with the hard drive, I have tried reparing it through the command line using "/sbin/fsck -yf" but I've had no joy.

I don't know what to do! There is no way out of the command line! Is there any way to boot from a disk via the command line? I figured I could try that in order to repair the hard drive via the Mac OS X install disk. If that isn't possible, is there anything else I can try? Or is my Macbook dead?

Any help with be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Ozwald · #2 June 29th, 2009, 10:07 AM

Sorry to bump, but this is an urgent problem! Another thing; when I enter 'exit' or 'reboot' to try and get out of the command line, I get a whole list of error messages - at the end of the error messages it says "exited abnormally: Bus error".

Is there ANYTHING I can do? There are a lot of important files on the laptop (I know I should regularly back up!)!.

DeltaMac · #3 June 29th, 2009, 10:19 AM

It's simple to boot from your OS X installer disk. Just insert that disk. Restart, while holding the C key. You will then boot from that disk. and you can choose Disk Utility from the menus, probably the Utilities menu.
With your other problems, that may not work.
A good next step is to try Disk Warrior.

Sorry to say, I've replaced a LOT of hard drives in MacBooks.
Look forward to whatever happens - then replace the hard drive with new.
The GOOD thing: the MacBook hard drive is simple and quick to replace.

Ozwald · #4 June 29th, 2009, 10:25 AM

It's not letting me do that. I'm typing with one hand whilst holding down c on the laptop with my other! It's been on the grey screen (the start up screen with the grey apple) for a few minutes now!

Edit: I did what you said, after the grey screen the command line came up yet again. I got the following error; "SAM Multimedia: READ or WRITE failed, ASC = 0x11, ASCQ = 0x00". That message appeared 9 times, followed by the original error I had in my first post, and then a load of others, which I believe are details of the crash that caused all of this.

DeltaMac · #5 June 29th, 2009, 10:29 AM

If you hold your power button for about 5 seconds, your Macbook will be forced to shut off. Then, press that power button (and release), then hold the C.

Ozwald · #6 June 29th, 2009, 10:30 AM

I did what you said, after the grey screen the command line came up yet again. I got the following error; "SAM Multimedia: READ or WRITE failed, ASC = 0x11, ASCQ = 0x00". That message appeared 9 times, followed by the original error I had in my first post, and then a load of others, which I believe are details of the crash that caused all of this.

DeltaMac · #7 June 29th, 2009, 10:42 AM

Just so you're sure about this -
Is the installer DVD in the drive now?
Does your MacBook shut off OK after you hold the power button?
Are you holding the C key after you press the power button (no other keys, and holding the C at the time you press the power button)

A really-failed hard drive can cause the failure to startup with ANY other device. If this symptom continues, and you can't get past that - time to just replace the hard drive. Put your old hard drive in an external case, which you can then use to attempt recovery.

Ozwald · #8 June 29th, 2009, 12:11 PM

Looks like I'll have to replace the hard drive then

. The MacBook shuts off fine when I hold the power button, and I was holding only c. Tried it enough times now to know it's not gonna work.