cannot reinstall leopard on mbp. stuck at white scree

immalex

Registered
Ok. so i have a macbook pro, running on leopard.(i think, dont know if its leopard or snow leopard).
Anyway, when i try to reinstall, i put the retail leopard disc in, pressed install mac osx, and pressed restart. Then it will just be stuck in the white screen forever! i tried pressing the option key, but it only shows Macinsosh HD and not the leopard disc.
taking it back to apple store is not an option for me, the warranty expired just months ago.


please help me reinstall my macbookpro.
 
Boot with the install disk and then wait for the chance to get to the fake Finder windows and run Disk Utility to repair the disk and repair the permissions. If if still doesn't install you might have to re-wipe the drive To install 10.6.
 
Boot with the install disk and then wait for the chance to get to the fake Finder windows and run Disk Utility to repair the disk and repair the permissions. If if still doesn't install you might have to re-wipe the drive To install 10.6.
thanks for the quick reply. i booted with the install disk, but it just wouldnt go past the white screen , its just stuck there.
 
Tell us which Macbook Pro you have, and what OS X version is listed on the Leopard installer DVD label...

Why do you need to reinstall OS X? Are you having some kind of problem?
 
i dont know which macbook pro i have, but its the 2009 model.
current version is 10.5.8
the disc version is 10.5

i tried both my vista and leopard disc. both shows up when i press alt.but it takes like 30 seconds for them to show up.
vista disc=boot successfully.
leopard disc=freezes when i choose the leopard disc.
 
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A 2009 MacBook Pro will probably not boot with a 10.5 installer DVD - too old. You would need one with a version higher than what that originally shipped with. The oldest version that shipped with a 2009 Macbook Pro would be OS X 10.5.6
The best OS X disk is the original restore DVD that came with your MacBook Pro. It will be a set of two DVDs - grey in color.

Why do you need to reinstall OS X?
 
do you think installing snow leopard will work?
oh, and the reason i want to reinstall my macbookpro is because i am going to college in few weeks and would like to start out fresh.
 
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Of course Snow Leopard will work. Your MacBook Pro will run very nicely with Snow Leopard.
What happened to your original restore DVDs?

I think that reinstalling OS X just 'to start out fresh' sounds like something a former Windows user would say as justification for reinstalling Windows. But, not a good reason with OS X unless you're having some kind of problem with your Mac.
 
:// now i get this error after wiping the drive and installing snow leopard

"the installer could not copy the necessary support filies"
 
That message usually means that you have a bad installer disk (try cleaning that DVD surface), or the DVD drive is not reading the disk properly. With your other problems, that seems more likely. You can try cleaning that drive - Blow into the slot with a can-o-air, or try a cleaning disk in the drive, or both...
Is your Snow Leopard a commercial disk (White, with a Snow Leopard on the label), and not a copy? You can also try burning a copy of that Snow Leopard DVD - a copy sometimes will work, when a 'real' disk refuses.
 
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