If Your Mac Crashes at Startup
Startup crashes are another bad thing that can happen to your Mac. These crashes can be more of a hassle to resolve than prohibitory-sign problems, but they are rarely fatal.
You know that a crash has happened when you see a Quit Unexpectedly dialog, a frozen cursor, a frozen screen, or any other disabling event. A startup crash happens when your system shows a crash symptom any time between the moment you flick the power key or switch (or restarting) and the moment you have full use of the Desktop.
Try all the steps in the previous sections before you panic. The easiest way to fix startup crashes (in most cases) is to just reinstall OS X from the Recovery HD partition. I detail this procedure at great length in the Appendix. Read the Appendix, and follow the instructions. If you’re still unsuccessful after that point, come back and reread the “Step 5: Things to try before taking your Mac in for repair” section.
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