Imac won't boot up
- Thread starter 27machine
- Start date
DeltaMac
Tech
Try to boot to your hardware diagnostic partition.
Restart, while holding the letter D on your keyboard.
You should start up in the diagnostics, so run both the standard, and extended tests.
Or, boot to your original restore DVD (disk #1, I think) with the same process (holding the letter D), which should also start up with the Hardware test.
If that test passes, or you can't get to that test at all - restart again with your restore DVD in the drive, while holding the letter C. That will force your iMac to boot to the installer.
You will go through a screen asking you to choose a language, then a couple of Windows to accept the license.
You'll see some menus at the top of your screen, so choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Choose your hard drive from the list on the left, and click Repair Disk. If anything is repaired, run the same Repair Disk, until no problems are found. Restart then.
If it restarts OK, you should be good.
If the Repair Disk fails with a continuing error, or you just don't see the hard drive at all, then you likely have a failing hard drive. You're in warranty, so call AppleCare for help with that, or take in the shop where you purchased your iMac.
Restart, while holding the letter D on your keyboard.
You should start up in the diagnostics, so run both the standard, and extended tests.
Or, boot to your original restore DVD (disk #1, I think) with the same process (holding the letter D), which should also start up with the Hardware test.
If that test passes, or you can't get to that test at all - restart again with your restore DVD in the drive, while holding the letter C. That will force your iMac to boot to the installer.
You will go through a screen asking you to choose a language, then a couple of Windows to accept the license.
You'll see some menus at the top of your screen, so choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Choose your hard drive from the list on the left, and click Repair Disk. If anything is repaired, run the same Repair Disk, until no problems are found. Restart then.
If it restarts OK, you should be good.
If the Repair Disk fails with a continuing error, or you just don't see the hard drive at all, then you likely have a failing hard drive. You're in warranty, so call AppleCare for help with that, or take in the shop where you purchased your iMac.
DeltaMac,
Hi, and thank you so much for your help. I got to the diagostics and did both
the standard and extended tests-twice, everything checked out good.
Still when I tried to boot, no luck. I then tried to start with the DVD which
was already stuck in the drive-couldn't get it to eject , so what the heck
then it took me to installing original Snow Leopard-which I was afraid to do
thinking it would wipe out all my new data. I remembered seeing another post that said try apple,shift,O,F so I just did that and somehow I was in Disk Utility-so I did repair and it went for a while then I got an error message that the repair was being stopped, so then I did verify which worked, I re-did disk repair and this time it worked, I also got messages that said to back up data,
so I plugged in two thumb drives to save files, but I couldnt mount the Mac HD,
I don't know why, I selected mount in the menu-but it just wouldnt show it
even tho it said it was mounted. So then I figured maybe it will just boot up
since it said everything was repaired-nope.
So that's where I'm at now. I guess I'll try it all again.
One confusing thing: when in Disk Utilities it shows the Mac HD as a sub folder of the BrandName HD (HItachi or whatever it is I forget) -both seem like the same thing with 2 different names
because there's only 1 TB HD -
Anyway, thanks again -if you have any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
jpm
Hi, and thank you so much for your help. I got to the diagostics and did both
the standard and extended tests-twice, everything checked out good.
Still when I tried to boot, no luck. I then tried to start with the DVD which
was already stuck in the drive-couldn't get it to eject , so what the heck
then it took me to installing original Snow Leopard-which I was afraid to do
thinking it would wipe out all my new data. I remembered seeing another post that said try apple,shift,O,F so I just did that and somehow I was in Disk Utility-so I did repair and it went for a while then I got an error message that the repair was being stopped, so then I did verify which worked, I re-did disk repair and this time it worked, I also got messages that said to back up data,
so I plugged in two thumb drives to save files, but I couldnt mount the Mac HD,
I don't know why, I selected mount in the menu-but it just wouldnt show it
even tho it said it was mounted. So then I figured maybe it will just boot up
since it said everything was repaired-nope.
So that's where I'm at now. I guess I'll try it all again.
One confusing thing: when in Disk Utilities it shows the Mac HD as a sub folder of the BrandName HD (HItachi or whatever it is I forget) -both seem like the same thing with 2 different names
because there's only 1 TB HD -
Anyway, thanks again -if you have any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
jpm
DeltaMac
Tech
Disk Utility shows a minimum of two lines for your hard drive: one for the hard drive itself (manufacturer's name and model number), and then a line for each partition on the hard drive.
Try that repair again (the verify choice is unnecessary, as a repair also does a verify), and if no further problems are found by disk utility, then continue with the OS X install.
You won't lose any data as part of that reinstall (unless you choose to erase the drive first). The reinstall, by default, will simply install over the top of what is installed now, and is similar to a repair install in Windows. Your own files and apps are normally safe.
If you can't complete the install for whatever reason, or it just doesn't boot again - you should call AppleCare for support with your iMac.
Try that repair again (the verify choice is unnecessary, as a repair also does a verify), and if no further problems are found by disk utility, then continue with the OS X install.
You won't lose any data as part of that reinstall (unless you choose to erase the drive first). The reinstall, by default, will simply install over the top of what is installed now, and is similar to a repair install in Windows. Your own files and apps are normally safe.
If you can't complete the install for whatever reason, or it just doesn't boot again - you should call AppleCare for support with your iMac.
djackmac
ACMT
If you have an external HD, you might want to connect it to the machine. Then while in disk utility click on the internal drive then just above that select "new image". Point to save the image to your external HD. If it completes then you will have a complete image of you internal HD. After that it should be safe to go ahead with the OS reinstall.
I tried that, but it took like 7 hours and then the new image appeared on the left below the list , then it disappeared. Also I only see the drive in the list on the left , nothing gets mounted on the desktop.
Somebody told me to try linking the two computers (old/new) with an ethernet cable and starting the old one holding down the T key-maybe I can retrieve
files from the new one? Is that right?
Thanks again for your help
Somebody told me to try linking the two computers (old/new) with an ethernet cable and starting the old one holding down the T key-maybe I can retrieve
files from the new one? Is that right?
Thanks again for your help