Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Macbook Pro Not Booting.

by Mar 16, 2012 9:39PM PDT

Hi,

Please help. I am having a very strange issue.

About a day ago I was using my macbook pro (mid 2010 13 inch) and it suddenly just started to not respond and I was forced to switch of my mac using the power button. When I tried to boot, it got stuck on the apple logo and I also tried safe boot which was taking too long (so I was forced to switch it off again_. Now, all of a sudden , When I press the option key, 'Macintosh' not longer shows as a boot option however 'Windows/bootcamp' and "Recovery' show.

When I boot up of my external hard drive with Lion installed, I can no longer see the Macintosh partition of the hard drive and in disk utility it shows the Macintosh partition - blacked out and 'unmounted'.


Wanted to boot using Apple Hardware Test, but can't find my copy of it and not sure whether I could download a copy or not. However I do have a copy of Lion that is bootable.

I have even tried replacing the hard drive with about 5 other 2.5 inch hard drives and each time I am unable to erase and partition the hard drive in disk utlility when I try to install Lion. When I click erase or partition it says unmounting and then it stays like that indefinitely.

Not sure what to do. Is it possible to get the mac to boot again and get the data OR resin tall on another HDD. Any help would be much appreciated?

Thanks so much in advance. Sorry if my post is too informative. Just wanted to include all the details

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
- Collapse + Expand Details
- Collapse -
Answer
So out of curiosity
by Mar 16, 2012 9:57PM PDT

So out of curiosity, if you try and boot the bootcamp or recovery partitions, do those work?

- Collapse -
No, Can't Boot through Bootcamp....
by ac1818 Mar 17, 2012 8:27AM PDT

But I think I can boot into recovery.

- Collapse -
In that case
by Jimmy Greystone Mar 17, 2012 9:24AM PDT

In that case, you have a bad HDD cable. Only ever seem to see that in the 2010s for some reason. Thinking there was just a couple of bad batches that made their way into units.

Anyway, good news is, this will be a cheap repair. The cable itself is probably about $20, and given it takes about 5 minutes (if that) to put in, any reputable place will probably cut you some kind of break on the labor fee. You might even be able to find one to buy yourself on ifixit.com. You'll need at least a PH0 screwdriver, PH00 is better, but PH0 will work. Other than that, it's four screws and pulling up a bit of cable that's glued to the top case. Use your finger to get rid of any residual glue that's left behind, and just put the new cable in like the old one was.

Of course if there's any kind of warranty on this unit, let it be someone else's problem to fix.

- Collapse -
Thank Will consider trying a new HDD cable But..
by ac1818 Mar 17, 2012 10:28AM PDT

Thanks so much.

Did you experience this problem before, because I think you maybe right? There is no warranty left on it.

However how do you think the original hdd mac partition disappeared and had problems as seen in the paragraph of my post?

- Collapse -
Yes
by Jimmy Greystone Mar 17, 2012 12:26PM PDT

Yes, I've run into this issue many times before, and since you say the problem persists across multiple HDDs, it's either that cable or the MLB, and if it's the MLB you may as well start looking for a new laptop if it's OOW. However, one of these cables is a very reasonable financial risk to take. If it doesn't work, you're only out a relatively small amount of money.

- Collapse -
Just going to see a technician now
by ac1818 Mar 17, 2012 1:17PM PDT

Thanks for your response. very helpful
I think it might be the hdd cable, mostly because Lion boots up of my external hard drive. Do you agree?

Thanks

- Collapse -
Thanks Jimmy so much for your help.
by ac1818 Mar 17, 2012 10:02PM PDT

I managed to replace the hdd cable myself with one from another mac and it fixed the problem. Could of been a loose connection or a bad hdd cable, either way it works now.

Thanks so much

Back to MacBooks forum

CNET Forums

Operating Systems
Software
Electronics & Gadgets
Hardware
Tablets & Mobile Devices
General Help
Brand Forums
Roadshow Autos
Off Topic

Other Forums

Forum Info