Why is MacBook Pro stuck in Apple logo with a spinning wheel?

Try starting up in Safe Mode, then try finishing your updates. To start in safe mode hold down the Shift key when starting up. Were you doing a system upgrade or software updates? If you've installed Lion, start up holding down the "R" key.

"Solution that worked for me. First, this is for the late 2011 Mac

Book Pro.

After doing a software update for Office 2011, my mac got stuck on the start up with the logo and spinning wheel.

Power down you macbook. Now press and hold the ""Option"" key and the Power button at the same time until a screen comes up with two icons: one that says ""macintosh HD"" and another that says ""recovery HD""

Press on Recovery HD. Then when the utilities screen comes up, click on ""reinstall Mac OS X""

You will see a progress bar that says it will take about 16 hours.

Just leave our monitor in the open position.

The next morning, I clicked the trackpad and my screen was black. Then I clicked on F2 to increase the brightness and there was my desktop!

I powered it down again just to make sure it would reboot correctly and it did.

Hope this helps!"

"When your Macbook hangs at startup.It could indicate a hardware or software related issue.

Hard ware issue can be detected by running disk utility.If your hard drive is falling, You should immoderately attempt to back up all the information on your computer on prevent losing valuable business data such as contacts ,Email ,Projects and invoices .Then take your Macbook to an Apple store or repair shop to install a new hard drive .If the problem software related ,you can get your Macbook up and running again with a few troubleshooting steps .

> Safe Boot

> Disk Utility

> Single-User Mode

> Recovery Console

=> Use disk utility to check the status of your hard disk and make sure that you do not have a failing hard drive.

Shutdown your computer ; restart and then hold down the ""Command -R"" keys untill you see the OS X Recovery utility screen .

Select the ""Disk Utility"" option and select the ""First Aid"" tab"