You might need to clear the nvram or pram can't remember what it's called anymore. Key combination to hold when booting. It's been a while since I worked on a Mac.

Couple of things...

 

First, don't panic.

 

Second, one thing that may work is creating a Knoppix CD and booting from that

 

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

 

You can boot from the disk into a Linux GUI, plug in an external HD and drag and drop files to that external drive. I've rescued files from Mac and PC this way on drives people thought were dead.

 

Here is a nice article on Mac file recovery. I anticipate fsck fix may solve your problem.

 

http://www.macworld.com/articl...c-wont-start-up.html

 

There are physical file recovery services as well, so don't freak out. They are pricey, but if the data is that important, it may be an option for you.

****ing Foo typing in Chinese again.  

Thanks all.  Took it to our work IT guys and they tried everything they could think of.  The will keep trying but have told me that it may be lost.  Nothing I can't replace, but man what a headache.  Ugh.

It does sound like your hard drive is biting the dust. Mine is starting to act up similar to yours while making some tell-tale HD noises but I have backed up regularly and I'm letting it die a respectful death.

SO now our home Macbook Pro is running S  L  O  W  L  Y.  I mean I get the pinwheel of death all of the time.  All apps freeze up randomly.  As I type this it froze for about 7 minutes and then let me finish this sentence.

 

We can't get apps to force quit, and we have to restart it every time something really seems to crash.  I thought maybe it was Chrome causing it as Safari and Firefox seem to be better, but they still freeze and crash too, as well as other programs like Word, Excel, etc.  It also struggles with copying files to our external drives.  The USB portsonly work about half of the time.

 

I check the activity monitor and there doesn't appear to be a lot of processes going on.  We have 8 GB of RAM, so I am stumped why it is struggling to do anything.  

 

Any ideas?  Could it just be dying?  It's only a couple years old.

Reset your PRAM

 

THanks boss I will give that a try!

Make sure you back up everything on an external hard drive, if you can!

 

Have you tried the built in Disk Utility function?  Use the First Aid function therein.

No, Cuqui, haven't tried that.  Been trying to back things up but it keeps freezing up.

 

Another weird thing is that I had closed Google Chrome earlier and when I tried Boris' suggestion, Chrome was open in the dock.  

 

Boris, when I tried the reset, it chimed really fast, then the screen went black and then white with a chime.  I kept holding it through that then released.  Was that correct?  It is still freezing up when I just type now so maybe I didn't do it right.

Strongly recommend you try the Disk Utility. 

 

You can find it in the Applications folder, use the search function if you've got trouble (type in disk utility).

 

When you use First Aid it has a running log of the things it is checking and their status.

 

Good luck

Ensure it is powered down completely, not just in sleep mode

 

Hold it through like 4 chimes just to make sure it's flushed

Tried the First Aid and did the repair disk option.  It ran through a bunch and then said partition appears to be okay.

 

Boris, I tried the reset again and this time some text, like the old DOS appeared on the screen for a few seconds.  Then it went into the start-up screen.

Running better now?

No, it actually tried to restart by itself and froze during the restart.  I did a hard shutdown and haven't touched it since.  Not sure what else to do at this point.  My work IT guy said I might need to do a complete re-install--perhaps the OS is corrupted?

Have you tried a Safe Boot yet? 

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up

You can use safe mode to help you resolve issues that might keep your Mac from completely starting up.

 

What is safe mode?

Safe mode (sometimes called safe boot) is a way to start up your Mac so that it performs certain checks, and prevents some software from automatically loading or opening. Starting your Mac in safe mode does the following:

• Verifies your startup disk, and attempts to repair directory issues if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts 
• Deletes font caches, Kernel cache and other system cache files

Together, these changes can help resolve or isolate issues related to your startup disk. 

Starting up in safe mode

Follow these steps to start up into safe mode.

1. Start or restart your Mac. 
2. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
3. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop. This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

To leave safe mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.

If you don't hear a startup chime after pressing the power key, see what to do if your Mac won't turn on.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Maynard, get rid of Chrome first to make sure you don't have some wonky Chrome app throwing it for a loop.  Chrome is really becoming a hog, even on Windows machines.   

 

Then follow Cuqui's tips.  You can always look into DiskWarrior if it gets hairy.

Maynard, one other thing about Disk Utility:

 

When you activate it you'll see a listing of drives on the left, on mine the listing looks like this:

 

WDC WD5000AAKS-402AA0 Media

 

Macintosh HD

 

When you run First Aid you need to run it on both drives, especially the bottom indented one which is where all the action is, I guess.

 

Good luck

Thanks guys...I'm keeping at it.  We do have a local computer place in town that I hear does good work, so there is always that option too.