How I Conquered the Mac “Grey Screen of Death”

2011 December 11
by Alvina

Because of the Grey Screen of Death, I was so close to throwing in the towel and just replacing my hard drive. The files that I had yet to back up were headed to the trash.  This morning I woke and decided to give it one more try.

My computer has been stuck on the grey screen of death for about a month and I had no idea how I’d fixed it.  Everything I found online either didn’t help or referred some expensive options or simply advised to just wipe the slate clean….get a new hard drive.   I received the same advice from the “experts.”

Being a taurus, I was too stubborn to settle for defeat.  Lucky me!

Mac Grey Screen of Death

Mac Grey Screen of Death

Here is what I did to solve the grey screen of death on my mac book pro:

First I booted in Verbose mode:

Power on computer.  As soon as you hear the tone hold down the command key and the V at the same time.  A black page will come up and direct to a terminal.

Here I found my error.   Words that stuck out:

full disk error

invalid sibling link

repairing B catalog

failed to repair volume

It was now stuck on continuing for a very long time so I just held down the power button to shut off.  I pressed power again and this time booted in single user mode by holding command + S

at the prompt I tried to repair by typing: fsck-fy

that did absoloutely nothing….if it did make a difference a message would have said ***File system was modified***, then I wuld have repeated this command until the message said **the volume (name of volume) appears to be ok.

Then I would have typed: reboot to restart my computer.

But that didn’t happen.

so I typed: umount  /

Next I went to find all the files and directories that were possibly bogging down my startup disk.  I typed:

cd /users/myuserid (you would replace with yours)

du -sk * | sort -n

the “s” option returns a summary of a directory’s contents

“k” option shows the output  in 1 kb increments

sort command list them in ascending order with the largest directory last.

continue changing the directory until I isolated the largest directory

cd directory

du -sk * .??* | sort -n | tail

Kept narrowing down until I found the largest and deleted unwanted files and directories.

delete unwanted files:

rm filename

delete unwanted files with spaces or weird characters

rm “filename”

forcebly remove files & contents of directory

rm -f -r filename

remove all files & subcategories

rm -rf directory

remove empty directory

rmdir directory

I repeated until I felt I deleted enough files  and directories….mostly videos.

Then I typed Reboot and hit return.

Booted in verbose mode (Command + V)

Took a while but the disk tried to repair itself….went past the errors that occured in the past ( This is where I started to get excited)

after about 5 minutes of it trying to repair itself I got a repair was successful message and the computer rebooted itself without prompting from me.

I am very happy to have my mac back! :)

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A Day of Horseback Riding at Fair Winds Farm #fb

2011 January 28
by Alvina

For my daughter’s 6th birthday I surprised her with a day at Fair Winds Farm for a day of horse back riding.

We had a blast!

First we learned how to groom and saddle the horses:

Tina brushing her horse

Tina brushing her horse

Clean Horse's hoof

Cleaning Horse's hoof

Brushing my horse

Brushing my horse

Tina brushing her horse

Tina brushing her horse

Then we walked them out for a quick lesson:

Walking the Horses Out

Walking the Horses Out

I totally got this

I totally got this

Tina's Horse Riding Lessons

Tina's Horse Riding Lessons

Me Getting Horseback Riding Lessons

Me Getting Horseback Riding Lessons

Then, like pros, we walked the trails.  The views were beautiful and we were joined by perhaps the coolest cat ever.

Leaving the Farm

Leaving the Farm

Taking in the beautiful water views

Taking in the beautiful water views

Beautiful water views

Beautiful water views

Tina riding like a pro

Tina riding like a pro

Cool cat followed us the whole time

Cool cat followed us the whole time

We ended our day on the farm with a gaze off the bridge a moment on the tire swing and a nice little picnic.

Gazing off the  bridge

Gazing off the bridge

Enjoying the tire swing

Enjoying the tire swing

The people at Fair Winds Farm were nice, personable and professional. We will definitely return often.

If you are in the Hampton Roads or North Carolina Area and interested in Horseback Riding. I thoroughly suggest you check out Fair Winds Farm

Thank you, Fair Winds Farm for a wonderful time.  A special thanks to Betty Bryant for the beautiful pictures.

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T.I. “Live Your Life” (Lisa Lavie) Media Distribution

2010 September 19
tags:
by Alvina

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Keeping up with the Kardashians

2010 August 22
by Alvina

Well it took cable guy all day to get the cable straight.  It kept raining on and off and I feared it wouldn’t get done today.  But finally it’s fixed!  I am watching the end of Khloe and Kourtney….Scott is totally getting on my nerves…Kourtney better go!  And any moment the premiere of keeping up with the Kardashians will start!  I would have been so upset if I missed it.  Also pretty interested in seeing the spin crowd at work since I am in PR myself.  K ya’ll  9:59 Gotta go!  It looks good!!!

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Found You Lyrics

2010 June 8
by Alvina

When I found you by Britney Spears

I believe
We all have one true love
Somewhere in this world
I do (I do, I do)

When it seemed
All my dreams
Were falling through
That’s when I found you

I believe for every heart
That whispers in the dark
There’s a ray of light somewhere
Shining through
It was sink
Or swim
When the tide came in

I found myself
When I found you
I found the closest thing to heaven
Yes in you
I found the deepest love I knew
Ooooh Ohh
I’ll believe
Yes it’s true
I found myself
When I found you

Ooh yeah

I believe (I believe)
For every door (Every door)
That’s closing
For every heartbreak
There’s hope for something new
From the ashes rise a glimpse of paradise
It still flickered in your eyes

When I found you
I found the closest thing to heaven
Yes in you
I found the deepest love I knew
Ooooh Ohh
I’ll believe
Yes it’s true
I found myself
When I found you

A life unfolds
No one knows
I thought love was just a tingling of the skin
I felt so alone
All Alone
More than you could ever know
You show deep love
Sweet love

When I found you (I found love)
Oooh (the closest thing to heaven)
Oh yeah
I found you baby, I found you
I found you
Yeah
I found myself

When I found you
I found the closest thing to heaven
Yes in you
I found the deepest love I knew
Ooooh Ohh
I’ll believe
Yes it’s true
I found myself
When I found you, you

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