Macbook Pro Yosemite boot loop

[Leo Virolainen]

So my old-ish macbook pro running yosemite (I think it is) crashed today, and after shutting it down with the power button, it just went nuts and is booting itself up on a continuous loop.

It doesn't play the mac startup sound and when it gets to the screen with the apple logo and the load bar, it goes black, then starts up again.

I'm no mac wizard and am running out of ideas on what to do. Please help!

 

[honestone]

First, what exact Mac model do you have?

Secondly, have you been making any backups to an external device?

Third, have you ever done any disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs?

From what you are stating, it is pointing to an issue with your internal driven, and the "stuff" on it.

 

[Leo Virolainen]

I'm not at all sure of my Mac's exact model, and it's kind of hard to find it out as I can't access the serial number, but I'm sure it's quite dated, I'd say from around 2008-2011

And no, I do not have any backups on an external device (which is super dumb of me, I know)

I also have not done any disk cleanups or other maintenance.

I tried booting it while holding down
Option: didn't work
Shift: did something but didn't resolve the problem
Option + Command + R + P: Did what it was supposed to do but it didn't help either.

I have now started it up while holding down the Command and R buttons, and it is doing the internet recovery thing with the animated globe icon and loading screen under it. Says it'll take 12 hours.

 

[honestone]

12 hours? Seems WAY too long! Hopefully, none of your important stuff will be damaged. That's why you need backups!

As for disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, doing such things on a computer is the same as doing such things for an automobile. There are certain "basic" things one should do with a car, and the same is true for computers.

Good luck!

 

[Leo Virolainen]

I'll be damn sure to backup my stuff if and once I get my mac into operating condition.
Thanks!

 

[Leo Virolainen]

Damnit, didn't help. I got it working for about 15 minutes by bashing random keys on the keyboard (miraculously) and then it just crashed, I booted it, and it went back into the boot loop.

I'm beginning to believe that there is nothing to be done to save my files and I have to wipe the hard drive. D:

 

[honestone]

12 hours, and basically no help? There is one more thing you can try, but it will require the use of another Mac (friend, relative, etc.), and hopefully that other Mac has some powerful Disk Maintenance/Repair software on it.

I suspect your Mac has a Firewire 800 port on it. If the other Mac has one also, then your machine can be booted in Target Disk Mode. What (hopefully) will happen is that your Mac's internal drive will appear on the other Mac's desktop, thus allowing access to it from that other Mac. I suspect Disk Utility will not completely resolve your issue, so if that other Mac happens to have either Disk Warrior (the best( or TechTool Pro on it, either of those can be used to try and repair the drive. In that way, maybe you can save some (or all) of the information.

By the way, what device are you using to make those posts?

 

[honestone]

Please describe "I got it working for about 15 minutes by bashing random keys on the keyboard (miraculously)". Also, what happened right after the 12 hour "repair" completed?

There is one more thing you can try, assuming your internal drive is not completely "kaput", but close to being "on its last legs". For this, though, you'll need to have Yosemite on a flash drive. What you can do is purchase both a new internal drive (SSD would be ideal), and also an external drive case which your internal drive can fit it (I suspect that will be a 2.5" external case). You would first remove the old drive, and install the new one. Then, install the old drive inside the external case.

Next, using the Flash Drive boot your Mac via that drive, and install Yosemite onto your new internal drive. Once that is done, reboot your Mac from the new drive, and use Disk Utility there to try and "save" the external drive.