Excuse me? That “long, wandering first post” was ALL ABOUT the MacBook Pro restarting, how I discovered it, what I tried to do on scene to sort it out, what more I did when I had more time, and how what seemed to make it stop (running Disk Utility) from the Recovery Partition, then again in Safe Mode) made me able to use the machine again, but that I was surprised to not see a report from Disk Utility saying it had repaired anything.

I think this discussion has ended its fruitful lifespan.

Jim Robertson