Help - My Computer Won't Boot

phish2525

Registered
hello all,

i am looking for some help. here's my problem - i usually don't turn off my mac too often, and i went to reboot it right now, and it won't start back up. it goes to the white screen where it shows the apple and the spinning gear, and then the spinning gear stops. i am not too sure why its doing this and what is going on. it has done this once before, and i took it to an apple dealer and they told me that my hard drive had gone bad, and i know that this is not the case this time because this is a pretty new hard drive (only had it for like 5 months or so). please let me know what i can do to start my mac up! thank you!

jeremy hewitt
egghead2525@yahoo.com
 
Put an operating system Install disk #1 into your CD tray and turn on the computer holding down the "c" key. This should force a boot to the CD and it will boot up. Then find the Disk Utility and repair your hard disk. This might be all you need. But you might need to re-install the operating system, and possibly the hard drive is dead again. If you get the system running with the CD boot, and can repair the hard drive, I recommend you backup any important documents before re-installing operating system.
 
Apple support has several files that outline the troubleshooting process:

iMac G5: My computer stops responding during startup

Several things could make your iMac G5 stop responding as it starts up. Some of the solutions involve reinstalling software on the hard disk or replacing hardware components. Follow the steps below to get your iMac G5 working again.

1. Disconnect all external devices and cables, including USB, FireWire, and Ethernet.
2. Reconnect these devices one at a time, beginning with the keyboard and then the mouse, and restart the computer after connecting each one to see if the computer starts up without stopping. If the computer stops responding after you connect a certain device or cable, you'll know that that's what's causing the issue. You should replace that device or cable.
3. Find the Software Install or Restore disc that came with your computer. Insert the Software Install or Restore disc into your computer's optical drive. The disc may look something like the one below.



4. Shut down your computer.
5. Once it's off, hold down the C key on the keyboard and start up your computer. This will start up the computer from the Software Install and Restore disc instead of your hard disk.
6. If your iMac G5 successfully starts up when started up from this disc, your hard disk may have damaged software. You can use the Archive and Install feature of the Mac OS X Installer to reinstall a good copy of the software. This kind of installation gives you a fresh version of Mac OS X, but you don't lose any data from the computer. All of your old information is archived.
7. If you are unable to see the hard disk when you install Mac OS X, use Disk Utility to repair or reformat your hard drive. Important: Please be aware that formatting the drive erases all of the data on it. If you don't have a backup of the the data on the hard disk, you may want to have a company that provides data recovery services save the data for you before erasing it.
8. If you are unable to reformat your drive or are unable to see the drive in Disk Utility, you may try to use a third-party disk repair utility to see if it can repair the disk.
9. If you are unable to repair or reformat your hard disk, replace the hard drive. You can order a replacement hard drive here. If you don't have a backup of the the data on the hard disk, you may want to have a company that provides data recovery services save the data for you before ordering a replacement hard disk.
10. After replacing your hard drive, if you are still unable to mount (see) your hard disk using Disk Utility, you may need to replace the midplane assembly. You can order a replacement midplane assembly here.
 
Also - repair permissions with Disk Utility:

If you have problems with a disk or volume, use Disk Utility to test and repair it. You can also verify and repair permissions on a Mac OS X startup disk. Occasionally the user permissions associated with files or applications become damaged, which can prevent a file or application from opening. To learn more about testing and repairing disks, open Disk Utility, in the /Applications/Utilities folder, and choose Help > Disk Utility Help.
 
i am running an ibook g4...and what sucks is that my cd isn't suckin in any cd's...and i don't want to force the disk into the slot or anything like that, cause i'm afraid it'll get stuck. i was planning on getting a new drive soon...so is there any thing i can do besides the os disk's? i think the problem might be that i had little hard drive space when i shut down and now it doesnt have enough memory to boot up...is this possible? i'm thinking this because even if i try to go into like single user mode to do the fsck, it'll freeze after the same amount of time if i'm just to wait for the spinning gear to stop if i try to boot it up normally...is this even a possibility?
 
i've tried to use the firewire disk mode to boot up my ibook and then delete some stuff when it pops up on the other mac...but for some reason, when i turn on the ibook and hold down the "t" key, it just sits with the black screen like it never turned on and nothing happens....not sure whats going on exactly...any ideas?
 
When connecting one Macintosh computer to another using FireWire Target Disk Mode, some computers may not appear until the FireWire cable is disconnected and connected again.

Symptom

The computer in FireWire Target Disk Mode (the "target") does not appear on the host computer.

Products affected

* Host computer with Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.2.1
* Target computer with Mac OS Boot ROM version 4.2.1 or earlier


Solution

Connect the FireWire cable to the target computer after starting it up in FireWire Target Disk Mode.

If the cable was already connected, unplugging it from either computer and plugging it back in should allow the target computer's hard disk to appear on the host.

If the target computer is a Power Macintosh G4, a more current boot ROM may be available. First, determine what version of the boot ROM is on the target computer using Apple System Profiler.

The boot ROM version is listed in the Hardware Overview section.
 
I obtained above from apple.com/support. Maybe you have one of the special situations. So start your laptop up first holding down the T key, then plug in the firewire cable.
 
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