Macbook pro stuck at Apple logo and spinning loading wheel during boot

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My scenario: A Macbook pro laptop (around 2011 version) that refuses to boot up, and is stuck at the apple logo with spinning wheel. 

 

Context: This issue came about, after putting the macbook on sleep mode for a very long period of time, around 4 weeks, before trying to wake it up. It failed to do so. The power button was held down to force power off. Powering it up again and it thus became stuck at  the apple logo boot screen.

With the modern OS 's that come with the Mac like Lion and up, they were supposed to give users better options when it came to OS system recovery and restoration. They scrapped the traditional CD installations disks, and opted to go with methods like "Recovery partitions" and internet recovery.

While I believe their methods does work, and has helped many users, it however does not cater to every mac user who hits a corrupted drive, especially when coupled with poor access to the internet.

Below elaborates the options I tried to use to recover my macbook pro. It is not a solution-ing step-wise per-se, but it could help to educate the possible options you can try as well in your recovery. Images are only indicative, as they may not be the actual images captured during the troubleshooting.



Attempt 1:

On first booting up, I see the macbook pro stuck at the familiar apple logo and loading wheel. This spinning however goes on forever (more than several minutes).

Something is obviously not loading here.

Apple logo and spinning wheel on bootup

Attempt 2: 

Checking out the various start-up key combinations online will give you some options you can try on boot-up.

I first went with holding down the Shift key during startup as the easiest option to try. This proved futile as it again got stuck at the same apple logo.

I then went with Command-V, to see if I could uncover what was loading behind the facade. The screen output seemed to indicated that the boot partition is corrupted and then refused to continue loading. That explains why we are stuck at the apple logo.

Attempt 3:

Now corrupted boot partitions are not a good thing. Its either a data corruption issue, or a hardware problem. And depending on severity, we should always strive to salvage first what data we can in case its a failing disk.

One think we could try is to try and repair the disk with the fsck command (file system consistency check). This worked for me the last time, and I hoped it would again.

Running fsck command

Unfortunately, it gets stuck while trying to repair some invalid b-tree. We could probably repair this with some unix expertise, but it was not really the case for me.

I then booted into Single user mode via Command-S. For those familiar with unix, I was intending to retrieve the data from the disk through a USB stick via command line. This however proved quite tedious for me. In the end I physically removed the hard disk and recovered the data through another mac. 

Attempt 4:

Ok now that we got the data out safely, we could have more confidence trying to fix the disk. I used disk utility and cleaned out the disk. Alas it was NOT a good move, as I believe the "OS recovery partition" that came with the disk was erased. I was more familiar with Snow leopard versions before that came with the actual CD.

Those with the "recovery partition" still intact can try booting with Command R, or holding down the options key. Restoring from it then should be quite straightforward. For those without, you can read on.

Mac Recovery Partition

Attempt 5:

Now without the "recovery partition", I needed to get my hands on a Mac OS. Since I have Snow leopard, I tried that, by copying the installer into a USB stick and booting up from it. 

Another block. 

Initially from interpreting the error, I suspected a hardware problem. I then tried holding D during boot-up to run Apple hardware test. This passed without a hitch. This however is misguided, as the actual reason was apparently, you cannot install an OS version older than what came with the macbook pro. The mac does not likes this and goes into a panic fit.

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x55762459): "Unsupported cpu: family = 0x6, model = 0x2a, stepping = 0x7"@/SourceCache/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement/AppleIntelCPUPOwerManagement-90/ pmProcessor.c:210
Debugger called: <panic>
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame: Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5549bd48 : 0x21acfa (0x5ce650 0x5549bd7c 0x223156 0x0)
0x5549bd98 : 0x55762459 (0x5576a7e8 0x6 0x2a 0x7)
0x5549bdc8 : 0x5575d393 (0x11 0x5576bd40 0x5576bda0 0x0)
0x5549bdf8 : 0x5575a05b (0x6b62800 0x6b21f80 0x5549be28 0x6be8100)
0x5549be18 : 0x5389f2 (0x6b62800 0x6b21f80 0x11 0x4fbe2a)
0x5549be78 : 0x536c27 (0x6b21f80 0x6b62800 0x6beaf00 0x6f23b80)
0x5549bf28 : 0x5371b8 (0x6b21f80 0x6be8b00 0x0 0xffffffff)
0x5549bf78 : 0x538e76 (0x6b21f80 0x0 0x5549bfac 0x1)
0x5549bfc8 : x29c68c (0xx6f02c50 0x0 0xffefffff 0xffdfdfff)
          Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
                    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCpuPowerManagement(90.0.0)@0x55759000->0x5 5770fff

Mac kernal panic

Attempt 6:

Ok, so it seems I need a newer OS. Something newer than Snow leopard, like maybe Mavericks or Lion. With no "recovery partition", I was still left with the "internet recovery" option, or I could try to download a copy from the app store, on a friends mac. I would suggest you get a valid apple id ready, otherwise even this process can prove quite frustrating. At the least, you need to get your hands on a valid apple id that has been setup in iTunes or iOS device.

So one option we could have here is trying to download the correct OS from the app store and re-install from there. I however, was also experiencing frustrations with that on another mac. Eg. your mac must support lion, you need a apple id with valid credit card, etc.

So continuing with the "internet recovery" option. What we need is to hit Command + option + r during boot-up. You will need to detect your wifi before it will connect to the internet. As a note, not all wifi connection protocols work. You will need WPA/WPA2.  

It will take some minutes to load before you are presented with the options screen.

Internet recovery options screen

You will be presented with a few options. If you have a full time machines backup, you could use Time Machine to restore. If you have a backup image, disk utility will help you. I have neither, so i am left with "Reinstall Mac OS X".

I finally believed it would be a painless process. Then i hit another block. This is when i really missed the old CD way of installing...

Error trying to download OS during internet recovery

Attempt 7:

After trying several more times, it was starting to seem that a visit to the apple support store could render some help. I was expecting a small service fee, but at 120 SGD? It could seem worth that value in exchange for the time and effort already spent. But i was already so close, and I did not believe in paying for what I supposedly could do myself, and should have in possession (which is the mac OS with license when it was bought).

In the end, i managed to get a copy of the Lion OS from a fellow mac user. I will be keeping a copy of the installer safely this time.