OK, so, if this isn't totally bizarre, I don't know what is!
My best friend, who like me, is an Avid primary Mac user decided to
install Mountain Lion yesterday. So, he went to the app store with my
help, and we bought and downloaded ML with his Apple ID.
All went perfectly, from what we could see at first. I should add before
we go any further that he has identically the same model macbook that I
have... the mid 2010 stocked white 13 inch. This system is not a macbook
pro. Beware. It is just the standard mid 2010 white 13 inch.
Anyhow, he went through the install window, and the system restarted as
expected to finish the installation. We hear the startup chime, and think
all is well. We give it a few minutes, then hit command+F5. Sure enough,
Voiceover came up with the Fred voice talking perfectly. We were quite
satisfied so far. The progress indicator looked perfect, and was moving
along just fine. Once it reached 100%, the system restarted as expected.
I told him get ready, here comes ML! You're gonna love this. Huhho!
Boy? oh, boy? was I? wrong! I should a said: Get ready! Here comes
disaster!
We hear the chime, and wait? and wait, and wait some more? and continue
waiting? and more waiting? and, oh, by the freaking way, did I by chance
mention, waited? LOL! So now, great as I am, not just at the mac, but in
general with trouble shooting technology, I'm going, well? sh**! Um?
Like, uh, hmm! what the! Heck? So here I am, trying to figure out, what
in the God blessid heck happened, as I swear! we didn't do anything! out
of the ordinary from anyone else. So, I had him shut down, and simply
restart by holding his power button down. I know, bad? move, but what
else were we gonna do!? He was hung! We kind a had no other choice of
the matter. It was either do that, or sit here and watch the perty apple
whilst singing: I haven't gotta clue, I don't know what to say, what the
bird is wrong with it, all the do dah day. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! So, it
reboots, we hear the chime, and again, we wait for all eternity. Nothing
happens. Just that stupid little apple on the grey background that shows
it's loading. You know, kind a the Darwin boot loader, I guess you'd call
it, ish. No error messages that I know a, just the blasted thing not
booting. It's totally weird, as it said! it installed correctly.
So, the next thing I had 'em do, was to go into the hidden recovery
partition by hitting command+R once he heard the startup chime. That
worked absolutely flawlessly. He did hit the ML, not the Lion, Recovery
Partition with no issue at all. So I'm going: Sh'sh'shewwwww! At least?
that worked! So, only cause I didn't feel like having him fetch an
ethernet cord from the back of his desktop windows machine out in the
living room, which would a waken his folks up, plus is way back in a
cavinet which, yeah, good luck trying to get that tower pulled out to get
back there with all the cords in the way... LOL! So, at my disgression,
I had him go up to the airport icon in the menu bar instead, and connect
to his wifi network. That worked again, perfectly. Once connected, I had
him try to reinstall from the recovery partition. That worked again
perfectly. Then the system restarted, but here's the weird thing. Then,
it went again through this stupid progression thing again. It's almost
like it repeated the installation. it didn't sho anything different it
was doing. The extra components it had to download did go through
successfully, so it's not like it got hung there. Trust me. We both
watched the screen with Voiceover very closely.
Once this all was done, the system restarted a second time. just as we
thought he would be good to go, we hear the chime, lots of hard disk
activity for about maybe 10 minutes, then no activity, and just regular
fan noise, nothing unusual sounding. It's not like his processor was over
heating, as there wasn't any fan noise out of the ordinary. I'd think the
EFI would a kicked in causing the fan to rev up to cool down had there
been an issue. OK, yeah, there is the possibility he has a bad EFI, but
it's real unlikely. Especially being what I'm gonna tell you all we did
here in just a second that proves that not to be the case.
So, you can imagine, by this point, I'm pulling my hair out trying to
figure out what the hel., parden the language, is going on!
Finally it dawned on me, maybe, just? maybe, it's the PRam having issues.
Again, it's really doubtful, I completely agree with you all, but at this
point, we really had nothing to lose. If you're wonderring, well D*** it,
Chris? why didn't you think to have him go to disk utility and run a
disk/permission verification and repair the disk/permissions, if needed.
The only reason I didn't have him yet do that, is because not even a week
ago literally! not even 7 days ago literally speaking, I myself had his
macbook literally in my hand, as he came down here for 3 weeks to visit
with me, and I ran a disk repair/permission repair at that point, as his
finder kept saying busy busy busy almost constantly, and so we thought
maybe something with the drive was screwed. Sure enough, it was, and I
repaired, and according to the log, it was fixed 100% of the way. So, I
didn't really think yet to have him try that, as why! He only just did it
and fixed things not even a week before. So, it just kind a seemed thus,
pointless.
I did however finally have him do this, and nothing at all came back with
errors. The drive appears to be completely 100% fine.
Finally, in disk utility, I had him go to the macintosh HD volume, not?
the actual disk, but just? the partition/volume. Then on the erase tab, I
had him erase the disk entirely. I don't mean erase free space, I mean
just the full erase. Once done, I had him quite disk utility. Obviously,
we were doing this from the ML recovery partition.
I had him do it this way, and not literally set the partition scheme from
current back to 1 partition, as for one thing, I knew if we did that, it
wouldn't a worked, as files were in use from the hidden recovery
partition, which we were currently booted into, so even had! we done it,
it wouldn't a worked. Plus, hypothetically, had! it been technically
possible, I knew it would a been a real stupid move, as that! would a not
only! wiped his macintosh hd volume with the supposedly installed OS, it
also would a licked his hidden recovery partition clean, so, yeah, that
was out of the question.
What my goal ultimately was, was to have 'em erase the macintosh hd, and
reformat it, just in case something really was going totally wackid. Once
he did this, I had him try, without first restarting to reinstall. At
this point, he did get the option to not only reinstall, but to install a
new copy, which we didn't see before. He clicked it, but then the install
button was dimmed. I had him reclick the new copy just in case we'd some
how toggled that option off. Still, no good.
I wondered if it had somehow again decided to be a thing, so I had him
restart. Worst? choice, I ever? could a haddem make! Once that happened,
we hear the chime, he holds command+R down, and no? dice! It didn't even
let 'em go into recovery any longer! I'm going, what the blue flying
blankity blank! I didn't even touch! his hidden partition! I couldn't!
it's so hidden, even had I wanted to! I couldn't. I didn't have him wipe
the partition scheme, and again, even had I, it wouldn't a worked since
that partition was mounted, as was in use running the recovery, to start
with.
So, I had him plug his external Seagate go flex USB 500gb drive in which
has a Super Dooper backup on it of his Lion install which was quite
recent. I had him boot, while holding down the option key, to see if we
could boot to it. No good.
Finally, right as he said he was going to take the b***ard into the Apple
Store in his area, I told him to try in despiration one? last thing. I
had him leave the drive plugged in, and reboot, this time, without!
holding down the option key. Guess what folks!? Boom! Drive wirreled
up, we waited about a minute or two, and boom! Voiceover came right the
heck up talking with his Lion bootted Super Doop drive from the Go Flex
drive. I had him doop it back over to the macintosh hd.
That too, worked perfectly. I had him then shut down, then remove, only!
then, the go flex drive from the USB port, then restart.
Guess what? Again: Boom! it booted like gold! Flawlessly!
So, what in the cotton blessed heavens gives here! I am beside myself!
This is totally! killing me! I hardly ever stump at this kind a thing,
but I'm totally cluelessly baffled! When we called Apple today, he spoke
to a senior advisor, who was pretty well just, if not more, as stumped as
I am!
He set up a mac genious appointment at 10 tomorrow Arizona time to have
them look at the thing and try to install it themselves, but I'd still!
love to know if you all know what in the heck! caused this!
This is totally perplexing the heck outta me!
Chris.
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