MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) only boots up to Apple logo with little spinning wheel Using single-user mode, I get this message:


  launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisory.plist


What does it mean and how do I convert launchctl to launchd?
This is your one and only hope that I know of.

Login Single User Mode and to repair a disk

Boot the Mac into Single User Mode by holding down Command+S during system boot. After you hear the boot chime, you know you will have successfully entered Single User Mode because you will see a bunch of white text on a black background scroll by.

When the Single User boot sequence has finished, you’ll find a small command prompt at the bottom of the screen prefixed by a hash sign (#), when you see that type the following command exactly:

fsck -fy


Once fsck completes, if you see a “File system was modified” message, then you should run “fsck -fy” again until you see a message stating “The volume (name) appears to be OK” – this is standard procedure of using fsck.

Type “reboot” to leave Single User Mode and boot the Mac back into OS X as usual.
Once OS X is booted again, it can be a good idea to confirm all is well by going back to Disk Utility and running the “Verify” tool to check on the drive's health.

If the above does not work

I hate to share this with you, but I have never seen a fix for this, other than connect the drive to another Mac and recover any files you can access at this point. 

95% chance a reformat is the only solution. 

Try to save what you can and hopefully there are no important files on the drive.