MBP won't boot - cannot mount root, errno = 19

[tomzorz]

My mid-2009 mbp started to crash/freeze randomly a few times the last week. I ran a disk utility check when I still was able to boot and it said everything was fine. The next day it crashed again, and I haven't been able to boot it ever since – now two days ago. It boots and gives me the prohibitory sign.

Clearing the PRAM & SMC doesn't help, I can't seem to boot in recovery mode or safe mode anymore (just boots to prohibitory sign as well) and when I boot in single user mode I get these screens:

First this for half a minute or so:

Eventually coming down to this error 'cannot mount root, errno = 19'

Which eventually leads up to this unreadable mess:

So, what could this mean? Is my HDD dead or could it be something else? If it's 'just' my HDD, I can put in a new SSD and install my most recent time machine on it, I guess.

Or could the problem be something else? Wouldn't want to replace the drive to end with the same issue ...

Thanks in advance!

 

[treekram]

The problem is likely the HDD. It could also be the cable. The Disk Utility check isn't very thorough - a disk that's about to fail can pass the check. If you have a bootable installer which has Disk Utility on it (or better yet, a HDD with the OS on it), you can try to do Disk Repair on it but chances are that the problem will recur. The only way to know for sure what's going on is to replace the HDD and/or cable with known working parts and see what happens. If you don't have a spare HDD, then you will have to get one (ditto for the cable if the different HDD doesn't work). You might not want to spend money for this without 100% certainty, but the cost of having somebody check this out is likely to be more than the cost of the HDD (I don't think the Genius Bar will do this for a 2009 MBP). Of course, if you have an acquaintance with the spare parts, that would make things easier. One thing you should not do is use your Time Machine disk as your test HDD.

You might just want to go with the SSD anyway, buying it from a retailer that has a good return policy in case there's some deeper issue with your MBP. However, with the 2009 MBP, many models won't work at SATA2 speeds (or at all in some cases). There's a recent thread on this where I share my thoughts.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ssd-for-macbook-pro-2010.2106668/#post-25832278

 

[tomzorz]

Thanks so much for the thorough reply, treekram!
I found the original os x installer cd yesterday evening, booted from it, opened Disk Utility and saw that my Macintosh HD was greyed out, so I ran the Repair Disk process. The process went good for a while, but just at the end (the log actually already showed 'disk is repaired' or sth) I got an endless spinning wheel. So I did a hard reboot, but couldn't get booted again. Then tried single user mode and this time that worked, and so I ran the fsck -fy command (which is basically just the same repair process again, I guess?), successfully, and rebooted – but no way of passing the boot process, again.

I now ordered a new SSD (went for the Crucial MX500), and hope it will bring me more luck!

 

[Fishrrman]

Sounds like the internal drive.
SSD ought to fix that!

Be aware that sometimes the fragile ribbon cable that connects the drive to the motherboard can wear out, as well. Check it carefully while the MacBook is opened up.
If you put a new SSD in, and you're STILL having problems, you could try replacing the cable.
If that doesn't help... well... at nine years old... it's time to start looking around for something new.

 

[treekram]

Thanks so much for the thorough reply, treekram!
I found the original os x installer cd yesterday evening, booted from it, opened Disk Utility and saw that my Macintosh HD was greyed out, so I ran the Repair Disk process. The process went good for a while, but just at the end (the log actually already showed 'disk is repaired' or sth) I got an endless spinning wheel. So I did a hard reboot, but couldn't get booted again. Then tried single user mode and this time that worked, and so I ran the fsck -fy command (which is basically just the same repair process again, I guess?), successfully, and rebooted – but no way of passing the boot process, again.

I now ordered a new SSD (went for the Crucial MX500), and hope it will bring me more luck!

Please report back on how the Crucial MX500 works out. It's new so it would be helpful to know how it works with the 2009 MBP.

https://superuser.com/questions/782494/how-do-i-know-if-my-macbook-pro-supports-sata-iii

This link has information on how to get information on the negotiated link speed. You want "3 Gigabit". (Click on the Apple icon in the upper left to get "About This Mac" mentioned in the link.)

 

[tomzorz]

I've been using my 2009 mbp succesfully again for a couple of days now!

So after replacing the HDD with the SSD (Crucial MX500) I started up from the original installation disk straight away, opened up Disk Utility to do the GUID partition and format thing, and then restored my Time Machine onto it. However, this method brought me no luck. The boot always brought me into Kernel Panic with an error like "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed" ... "Mac Os version: Not yet set".

Instead of trying to fix that I just tried to go a cleaner route – so I wiped the ssd again and installed the original OS X (Leopard) from the old dvd. And this worked, it booted perfectly. So from there I updated to the highest os possible and then used the Migration Assistant to transfer everything over from my Time Machine again. And this works like a charm now!

@treekram Indeed, the report says "the Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit" where the Crucial MX500 sits. Thanks for the help!

 

[treekram]

I've been using my 2009 mbp succesfully again for a couple of days now!

So after replacing the HDD with the SSD (Crucial MX500) I started up from the original installation disk straight away, opened up Disk Utility to do the GUID partition and format thing, and then restored my Time Machine onto it. However, this method brought me no luck. The boot always brought me into Kernel Panic with an error like "Process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed" ... "Mac Os version: Not yet set".

Instead of trying to fix that I just tried to go a cleaner route – so I wiped the ssd again and installed the original OS X (Leopard) from the old dvd. And this worked, it booted perfectly. So from there I updated to the highest os possible and then used the Migration Assistant to transfer everything over from my Time Machine again. And this works like a charm now!

@treekram Indeed, the report says "the Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit" where the Crucial MX500 sits. Thanks for the help!

A quick search shows that there likely was some OS version difference between the Time Machine restore utility you used and the OS version of your Time Machine backup and your solution to the problem was what other people have done to solve it - so good problem solving skills on your part.

Thanks for reporting back on the negotiated link speed. You're the second person who has reported this - so the MX500 looks like it works at SATA2 for these MCP79 computers.