Windows famously had the Blue Screen of Death, when the computer was hopelessly frozen in an error state; Macs have the spinning Rainbow Wheel or Beach Ball that often also spells doom. I thought of those recently when I faced a dead computer interrupted mid-upgrade. While recently upgrading the operating system on my MacBook Pro, I got this screen: Nothing but a greyish-white backdrop and a darker grey circle-slash in the center. When I'd power down and back on, same thing. It was well and truly stuck mid-upgrade. How do you fix a Mac when an OS X upgrade fails in the middle of its upgrade?
Musings on Tests, Quality, Tools, Projects and more. By Steve Page