MB 13" Won't boot from DVD or HDD.

[inactiveeru]

So I recently bought a MacBook 13" 2.0 Ghz Core2Duo, 2GB DDR3, 9400m, 160GB.

 

It came pre-installed with OSX 10.5.6 as standard.

 

Getting XP up and running with bootcamp was no problem, even played TF2 for a few hours without issue.

 

So I went ahead and tried to install Ubuntu.

 

Initially I had 20GB set aside for xp, the rest still for OSX. (140GB/20GB)

 

Using the disk utility in OSX from Applications folder I split the OSX partition into 80GB for OSX and 60GB for Ubuntu. (80GB/60GB/20GB)

 

Put in the Ubunutu 8.10 AMD64 disk and continued installation as normal, split the 60GB partition into 19GB, 1GB, and 40GB (decided I might try install Windows 7 BETA afterwards onto the 40GB).

 

So now my HDD is split as follows: (80GB/19GB/1GB/40GB/20GB)

80GB - OSX - default mac file system

19GB - Ubuntu - ext3

1GB - swap - Linux swap

40GB - free space

20GB - XP - FAT32

 

The first time I attempted the Ubuntu install it completed successfully and asked for the disk to be ejected and the Mac rebooted. Upon reboot it just beeped for a few minutes so I deemed the install a failure (was I correct in doing so?)

 

After this I was able to boot into OSX by holding the Option key, note however XP no longer showed up as a bootable option, only OSX was there.

 

Annoyingly however neither Disk Utility nor DiskStudio could delete the 19, 1 or 40 gig partitions, I wanted to revert to the (140GB/20GB) arrangement.

 

Googled around and tried to use the disk utility on the OSX DVD, still no pie. Also tried zero-ing the drive, nothing still.

 

After a while I ragequit trying to delete the partitions and had another crack at installing Ubuntu, this time however upon reboot it did not beep.

 

Problem now is I can't boot into OSX from the hard drive or the DVD at all. In either case it shows the Apple logo with the little whirly load symbol underneath it, after a minute or so the apple symbol changes into this:

with the whirly load symbol underneath it and won't proceed any further.

 

Also can't boot from the Ubuntu disk, holding Option allows the disk to appear as 'Windows', but it gets to 'ISOLINUX 3.63 Debian-2008-07-15 Copyright © 199402998 H. Peter Anvin' and refuses to go further.

 

 

 

 

I'd like to restore my MacBook to the original single partition with only OSX, and I'll go from there.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Have tried resetting PRAM, still the same issue trying to get into OSX, symbol changed and loads indefinitely.

 

Cannot reset VRAM, it fails to load OSX like above.

 

EDIT:

 

Left it off and unplugged for an hour or so, it booted into OSX off the drve finally.

 

Now I need help on how to remove all partitions bar the XP one.

 

Disk utility will erase them all fine, and zero the drives, but when I click on the minus symbol to remove the partition it just says "preparing to remove volume" forever.

[inactiveeru]

Sorry for double post but its intentional so mods can see this clearly.

 

Used G-parted on a dvd to delete unwanted partitions, then used OSX's disk utility to revert to a single partition.

 

Lock please.

[cjm0517]

"Problem now is I can't boot into OSX from the hard drive or the DVD at all. In either case it shows the Apple logo with the little whirly load symbol underneath it, after a minute or so the apple symbol changes into this:

with the whirly load symbol underneath it and won't proceed any further."

 

Sorry, that symbol means the same as the old "Sad Mac" logo. Basically, your Mac is badly broken, the MBR is probably screwed up or the bootloader is damaged. And it sounds like the MBR is the culprit about the never deleting partitions, it sounds badly damaged.