Replacing crashed hard drive in iMac, can't get OS X, stuck, please help

J

jacktorres

Registered
So my hard drive died, I had the gray screen with the apple. I replaced it with a SATA drive (there was a Snow Leopard install disc in the DVD drive from me trying things after the hard drive crashed) but when I turned it on after replacing crashed hard drive there was only a gray screen no apple.

At that point I thought I should get the Snow Leopard disc out and use the OS X install disc that came with my iMac (2007), but I also tried booting from the Snow Leopard disc and neither were working. Finally when I was trying to boot from Snow Leopard (by holding C) it ended up ejecting, wierd I know.

And then there was a folder flashing (an improvement from just gray screen). So of course me not knowing what I was doing, put in the OS X install 1 disc that came with my iMac. I think that was a bad idea because nothing happened and now it won't turn on at all.

What do I do? Can anyone please help me?
 
Neglecting the hard drive entirely, it's odd that your system will not boot from the install disks. Is it possible that you disconnected the drive when installing the new HD?
Try holding the "option" key at startup and see if the install media shows up.
 
Its possible that I disconnected it but I want to think its working since it did eject?

As for holding the option at startup, its not starting up since I switched the Snow Leopard Install for just OS X install
 
Good point. I'm still suspicious of the drive, it's possible that it has gone bad. Did it work before you replace the HD?
Also, if you have another mac I would try booting up in Target Disk Mode and see if you can install that way.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
 
No issues with the CD drive before crash. I have no other mac but some friends do, I will try Target Disk when I can. Do you suspect that could solve the issue of it not turning on at all?
 
I missed that last part - no, TDM will not fix that.
Try the troubleshooting steps here;
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1587

If that doesn't work, you might want to take a peak inside to make sure everything is properly seated and connected. iFixit has nice guides as far as a reference.
 
Unplugging the iMac for 15s got me back to gray screen. Now I'm wondering if I should be using Snow Leopard Install or just the OS X install discs that came with my iMac?

I guess I should try the "c" button ?

edit 1:

I tried the "c" button and it just ejected, and after it ejected only then did a folder start flashing with a question mark. Do I need to do something to the drive first. I'm not getting at boot from the disc at all.
 
Shouldn't have to do anything to the drive if it is working/connected correctly. Try the troubleshooting steps here;
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

The question mark means that it didn't find a boot source. For some reason it isn't reading the media or the drive isn't working correctly, so it doesn't see anything useable and ejects it.

I'm guessing that if you can get TDM working you will be able to install to the iMac over firewire flawlessly, then you can get a better idea of the problem from the OS.
 
I reset the PRAM and NVRAM, which was interesting because then the start up chime started working again (I had installed a program to disable it and it still was disabled until I did the shift+option+p+r)

Still flashing folder and not booting from dvd, just ejecting when I hold c. I will have to wait til this afternoon for a friend to come over to try TDM, but in the mean time I wondering what are the chances that I just need to check the connections on the optical drive.
 
Master/slave configurations are only relevant on IDE/ATA devices, as SATA devices can only have 1 device per cable. As long as you replaced the head sensor it should be OK.
As for the optical drive, it's just one cable I believe, so it's probably OK unless it's at some half-connected state? Seems unlikely, but something isn't right about the disks or the drive it seems.
 
Im in target disk mode, and I have the flashing firewire symbol.


But the controlling computer has no other hard drives showing up in disk utility.

Should I take it apart and check all of the connections? I hope I have the right kind of hard drive.
 
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