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Help! MacBook kind of dead!

R

RJCP

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2011
434
40
My MacBook woke up from sleep and crashed. I had to hard reset it then it wouldn't boot up. I got the chimes but the apple logo wouldn't appear.
I tried rebooting again pressing Alt to go into recovery mode and try to fix any issue with my hard drive, nothing came up.

I then plugged in my time machine drive which as an OSX install partition in it, took ages (over 3 mins to load) and then my main SSD (Samsung 840, 250gb) doesn't show on the disk utility.

Verbose mode doesn't respond either. I'm just letting it try to boot now to see if anything happens.

WTF????
 
RJCP said:
My MacBook woke up from sleep and crashed. I had to hard reset it then it wouldn't boot up. I got the chimes but the apple logo wouldn't appear.
I tried rebooting again pressing Alt to go into recovery mode and try to fix any issue with my hard drive, nothing came up.

I then plugged in my time machine drive which as an OSX install partition in it, took ages (over 3 mins to load) and then my main SSD (Samsung 840, 250gb) doesn't show on the disk utility.

Verbose mode doesn't respond either. I'm just letting it try to boot now to see if anything happens.

WTF????
Click to expand...

SSD failure, I reckon. I plugged in my original 160Gb HDD into the computer and my restore drive via USB and the installation partition loaded in less than a minute and the HDD showed up in the list. I'm re-installing now but can't restore my system because this drive is too small for my current time machine unit.

Some advice needed, guys. Shall I ask for a refund and go with a regular HDD, or for a new SSD? I got the Samsung because they're supposed to be reliable, but I've had it for less than a month and it already failed.

Some input would be appreciated!
 
RJCP said:
My MacBook woke up from sleep and crashed. I had to hard reset it then it wouldn't boot up. I got the chimes but the apple logo wouldn't appear.
I tried rebooting again pressing Alt to go into recovery mode and try to fix any issue with my hard drive, nothing came up.

I then plugged in my time machine drive which as an OSX install partition in it, took ages (over 3 mins to load) and then my main SSD (Samsung 840, 250gb) doesn't show on the disk utility.

Verbose mode doesn't respond either. I'm just letting it try to boot now to see if anything happens.

WTF????
Click to expand...

Try Command-R to get into recovery mode.

Never mind, we posted at the same time. I would get a new SSD.
 
It's less than a month old. Samsung's warranty lasts for 3 years, plus the store warranty which lasts for 1 year, I think.
Warranty isn't really an issue. Just either to get my money back and go with a simple HDD or gamble on an SSD again.
 
RJCP said:
It's less than a month old. Samsung's warranty lasts for 3 years, plus the store warranty which lasts for 1 year, I think.
Warranty isn't really an issue. Just either to get my money back and go with a simple HDD or gamble on an SSD again.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the failure rates, but the odds seem in your favor of buying another SSD that works beyond 3 months.
 
Once I have the new system up and running I'll plug the SSD via USB and check if it's readable and wether or not I can do a disk check, but I don't think so.

When I tried using disk util in my installation drive with the SSD still in the system, it didn't show up at all.
I'm guessing this means complete failure, right?
 
RJCP said:
Once I have the new system up and running I'll plug the SSD via USB and check if it's readable and wether or not I can do a disk check, but I don't think so.

When I tried using disk util in my installation drive with the SSD still in the system, it didn't show up at all.
I'm guessing this means complete failure, right?
Click to expand...

Correct, that seems logical to me.
 
mrapplegate said:
Correct, that seems logical to me.
Click to expand...

Finished reinstalling on the spare hdd. I tried plugging in the SSD via USB and OSX said that the drive wasn't readable on this computer. I then opened disk until and it reads it as a 1Gb Samsung drive. It would even let me erase it. It said it couldn't write on the last block of the drive.

RIP
 
RJCP said:
Finished reinstalling on the spare hdd. I tried plugging in the SSD via USB and OSX said that the drive wasn't readable on this computer. I then opened disk until and it reads it as a 1Gb Samsung drive. It would even let me erase it. It said it couldn't write on the last block of the drive.

RIP
Click to expand...

It happens as you just found out. The next one will be fine I'm sure.
 
mrapplegate said:
It happens as you just found out. The next one will be fine I'm sure.
Click to expand...

mrapplegate (or anyone else, for that matter), new SSD on the way. Should be here on the next couple of days.

I have a question for you (guys): I have my previous system backed up on a time machine drive, but I don't want to fully restore it to the new one as whatever caused the failure of my previous drive could, or could not, be in the file system.

My idea is to clean install Mountain Lion on the new disk and then use Migration Assistant to import some of my stuff.
What can I safely import via migration assistant that won't bring old libraries with it? Is is safe to import my entire user folder?
I can install the applications manually later (which will also do a considerable spring cleaning to my computer).
What shouldn't I copy in order to keep the new installation as clean as possible?

Many thanks!
 
Seeing as you are getting a new SSD it would be best to start fresh in the best way possible and just reinstall everything manually. I used to reinstall the OS and restore from migration assistant via TM all the time.

Only after performing a complete reformat and manually reinstalling was I able to notice that something in my old settings or whatever was throttling my internet, I now get max speed thanks to whatever that was no longer being installed.
 
ianwuk said:
Seeing as you are getting a new SSD it would be best to start fresh in the best way possible and just reinstall everything manually. I used to reinstall the OS and restore from migration assistant via TM all the time.

Only after performing a complete reformat and manually reinstalling was I able to notice that something in my old settings or whatever was throttling my internet, I now get max speed thanks to whatever that was no longer being installed.
Click to expand...

Ianwuk, I have tried doing that in the past but whenever I tried browsing through a time machine backup and tried copy stuff, the folders always had this "prohibited" small icon in the corner now allowing me to copy. How do you override that? I just need to copy my documents and downloads folder, really.
 
RJCP said:
Ianwuk, I have tried doing that in the past but whenever I tried browsing through a time machine backup and tried copy stuff, the folders always had this "prohibited" small icon in the corner now allowing me to copy. How do you override that? I just need to copy my documents and downloads folder, really.
Click to expand...

One way would be to open terminal and type

sudo chmod -R 755

then drag the time machine backup in there so it should end up looking like

sudo chmod -R 755 /path_to_backup/.../.../

then hit enter and you'll have to type in your password

That should give you full read/write/execute permissions to everything in the backup folder which will let you browse and copy them.
 
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