hard drivemacossnow leopardstartupterminal
I have a macbook 5,1 that won't startup. I'm going to reinstall Snow Leopard with the CD, but is there a way to export some of the files that are in it? I can't seem to gain access to them through the terminal in the SL CD:
cd Desktop outputs No such file or directory
and
pwd outputs var/root
if I cd ~/ then ls, there is only a Library folder, and no Users folder etc.
There should be a point—after you choose the language, but before it starts trying to install the OS—where you see a Utilities option in the menu bar.
Do you get to this point? If so, what happens when you choose Disk Utility?
There's more information about this at Using Disk Utility to Repair a Disk (University of Wisconsin).
OK, now it's a different question, so here's my different answer:
If repairing your main partition is what you want to accomplish, why not just run Disk Utility off the 10.5 system disk?
Any time you have problems starting a mac with an installer - do check these three articles:
In your case - you probably have a MacBook Pro (Early 2011) which will boot from (Mac OS X v10.6.6 Build 10J567) or later. You might see the term "retail disk" which means it has drivers for all Macs that can run that level of OS - this is different from the disks that ship with macs - you almost never can use say a MacBook Air restore disk on a MacBook Pro - they just have the drivers for that one model.
Normally, you could just buy a retail copy but the last 10.6 retail copy I've seen documented is 10.6.3 and is too old. You'll need to order a replacement disk through AppleCare online or via phone (or find someone in possession of your MacBook Pro's install media for Snow Leopard)
Most Apple Retail stores are set up to image your mac from the factory builds through the genius bar and since your mac is so new, I can't imagine the seller you bought it wouldn't bend over backwards to make sure you got a copy of the appropriate disk (they might even have a service desk that could assist you)
Best Answer
Keep in mind that you are booted to a different volume/system when you boot to the installer DVD.
With that in mind you can use
ls /Volumesto get a list of volume names.Presumably you will see Macintosh HD (or different name if you renamed the internal volume) listed, if so you can use
cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HDto switch to the internal drive. If your internal drive is named differently then keep in mind that spaces should be replaced with\(a backslash followed by a space) in Terminal. Once you're in the correct volume your earlier commands should work as expected.That same
ls /Volumescommand should show the path of your external hard drive as well. You could copy the files using something along the lines ofcp /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/file1.jpg /Volumes/Backup\ Drive/Folder1.If you are attempting to copy everything from the hard drive you can use the following command to force a copy of everything, skipping over corrupted data that would otherwise cause the process to hang or stop...
or, following my previous example