Macbook won't start - I deleted an important file.

kinobestew123 · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:24

I can't believe I screwed up, basically I have ended up deleting a file called sartfile.bin. I was meaning to replace it straight away but got caught up doing other things and forgot.

Later on I restart my macbook and it won't start. I have tried the repair disk permissions in disk utilities on the CD to no avail.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can fix this? Is it possible to get the file from somewhere and "reinsert" it as such? I know where it needs to go.

Thanks in advance.

Stew.

Feek · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:37

Is it possible to boot from the OS DVD and pull it back from [say] a Time Machine backup?

kinobestew123 · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:41

I have never kept time machine backups due to not having the hard drive space to do so. I do however have backups of my photographs, music and all that so nothing much will be lost if I need to reinstall.

I have the exact file I need on the computer I am posting from now, and I also know the folder location it needs to go on the mac. It is just a case of getting it in there.

Would be disappointed if I need to reinstall because of it being such a small error.

Feek · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:44

Hmm, I was going to dump a copy of the file in my dropbox for you but as you've got it, you're halfway there.

If you boot from the install disk is it possible to run disk utility and mount your hard drive and a USB key with it on and copy it back?

It would be a shame if you have to blat the system because of it, but it is a system file (I think it's to do with the menu bar) so it's not something you'd normally be playing with or deleting under normal circumstances. Are you in appearance tweaking mode?

Good luck though.

kinobestew123 · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:49

To try and keep the story as short as possible, about a year ago I messed around with those settings and managed to get a rather nice black menu bar going. On my latest update to 10.5.8 however it stopped working and instead looked a nasty white colour so I was reverting to the original menu bar for the time being. Part of conducting the change to black originally was to replace the sartfile.bin with a new one. Hence this time I wanted to replace it with the original one. So I deleted the sartfile.bin, went to get the original from a backup folder and got distracted. Ended up restarting an hour or so later and encountered my troubles.

Now then, I have never really used disk utility so may be a bit useless. I do however have a 16gb pen drive. So how would I go about mounting my hard drive and a USB key with it on and copying it back?

I think we may be on the right lines I hope.

Stew.

kinobestew123 · 8 Nov 2009 at 17:56

http://www.maciverse.com/install-boot-os-x-leopard-from-a-usb-flash-drive.html

Having googled around, is this what you are suggesting? Get one of these up and going, and then put the file on it...promising! I will give it a go now.

Shadow Sky · 8 Nov 2009 at 20:10

Assuming that the computer your on thats working is a mac, it should be really simple. Simply connect a firewire cable between the two computers, turn on the computer that is working, and then hit the power button on the macbook and then hold the t button on the macbook down- it should start it in target disk mode which makes the macbook hardrive appear as an external hardrive on the other computer, then it should be simply a case of dragging the file across

kinobestew123 · 9 Nov 2009 at 19:50

Really? That sounds interesting and definitely something I will be bearing in mind. Unfortunately though my working computer is windows XP. Any idea if you can do a similar thing using that?

At the moment I am trying to install OS X on my 16gb pen drive to boot from that. I am having trouble getting it to work right though, it says it will take a few hours so I leave it and come back a few hours later usually to some kind of blank grey screen. Even if I assume this has completed, nothing happens when I restart the computer, is there a button I need to hold down to boot from USB?

Feek · 9 Nov 2009 at 20:20

Hold down the option key as you start and you'll get a list of available bootable devices.

Shadow Sky · 9 Nov 2009 at 20:21

It should work , but your xp comp wont be able to read the HFS + format that osx uses, so your need to do is download the trial of MacDrive for your xp computer:
http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

This should allow you to have read and write access to the mac's hardrive, and then its just a case of adding the file you've deleted to the correct place.

kinobestew123 · 10 Nov 2009 at 19:35

Hi...posting from a working macbook here

Thanks a lot Feek, it seemed to be installing fine to my pen drive, just the macbook didn't like detecting it when it came to booting up from it for some reason.

Shadow Sky, excellent, after much messing around with firewire drivers I managed to get the macbook to connect in target disk mode and then it was a simple case of dragging across the file like you said.

The main thing is I am back up and running.

So thanks again. :cool: