Leopard not loading, but Vista is

[cpaddock]

Hi there,
I recently dropped my Macbook Pro. I turned it off and tried rebooting. I got the normal startup Mac chime, then the normal silver apple, but it stayed on the silver apple for longer than normal.

After a few moments on the silver apple, the apple was replaced with a prohibitive sign, like the Ghostbusters symbol, but no ghost. It won't do anything after that.

However, if I can still get the screen that prompts me which Operating System to boot up in when I hold down alt/options when booting up. I can select Windows (I have it partitioned using Bootcamp), and even run the machine on Windows just fine, with no decipherable limitations or issues.

Any ideas what might be going on, or how I can fix this? Seems like a software problem. Would I just try reinstalling Leopard? If I do, will I lose my partition, and or all my software installed on the Mac partition?

Thanks!
Chris

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

You can try performing an "Archive and Install" procedure from the Leopard install DVD. This will preserve user accounts, applications, documents, etc., but install a new system in the /System folder.

After that, run Software Update to bring your system back up-to-date.

 

[djackmac]

I recently dropped my Macbook Pro. I turned it off and tried rebooting. I got the normal startup Mac chime, then the normal silver apple, but it stayed on the silver apple for longer than normal.

Any ideas what might be going on, or how I can fix this? Seems like a software problem. Would I just try reinstalling Leopard? If I do, will I lose my partition, and or all my software installed on the Mac partition?

So the drop couldn't have nothing to do with it? Last I knew drops are a main cause of hardware issues and I see dropped machines daily. A good bet the read needle bounced off a part of the platter holding the OSX volume as a result of the shock from the drop. Run disk utility from the installer to check the drive. Probably be a good idea to run Apple Hardware test to make sure the hardware has no failures.