IMac :: Won't Boot - Hdd Failure?
Dec 11, 2008
The string of problems I've encountered started a few days ago. I normally let my imac go to sleep by itself but, on this occasion I told it to sleep via the apple menu. When I awoke the imac the screen was frozen. No mouse movement, no clock movement, nothing. At this point I turned the power off and back on again. It didn't get past the white screen (before the gray with apple logo). I then tried resetting the PRAM, booting in safe mode, and booting from my os disc. Nothing worked.
After several tens of tries it magically booted. It stayed active long enough for me to back up all my data (transferring at least 100GB), reformat the hdd, reinstall leapord, transfer data back, and use it until I let it sleep again.
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Jun 21, 2010
I know this is a fairly common subject matter but I have tried just about everything suggested but with no success. detailed below are my findings, I was wondering if anyone better qualified than me could suggest a diagnosis?
What does it do?
I hear the fans and hard drive and see the white/grey boot screen with the apple logo and spinning cog. The cog will spin for anything from 5 - 30 seconds before freezing. Some disk activity will continue for a short time afterwards before everything grinds to a halt?
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May 13, 2012
Macbook Pro won't boot. Symptoms preceding failure included failure to open Firefox. When trying to cold boot I can get as far as the start-up sound, the Apple logo, and the spinning whieel (spins for a bit but not for very long) and then major failure. Not running Liom.
Info:
imac 10.1, Mac OS X (10.6.2), also have macbook pro running os 10.5
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Mar 9, 2008
Yesterday my screen (30" Apple Cinema) started showing symptoms of graphics card failure, jagged lines across the screen. I rebooted my Mac Pro and it was gone. Then it happened again an hour later, this time the machine didn't boot, I get the Apple logo, and then it hangs up and the screen is shifted to left (I get apple logo on left side of the monitor instead of the middle) and jagged lines all over.
So the first thing I tested was using Target Disk Mode, it works. I can access my Mac Pro's internal HD's by TDM from my MacBook Pro. Then I tested single user mode, it does boot, I can't read what's written since the screen is shifted to left, but if I type (without seeing) reboot and hit enter, it reboots. So I assume the single user mode is working.
What else can I try to 100% make sure it's my graphics card that failed and everything else is ok with Mac Pro? I already ordered a graphics card replacement but I wouldn't like to be surprised if the Mac Pro still doesn't boot when the card arrives. It won't boot from Apple Startup DVD either. Same thing happens, gray logo then kernel panic with jagged lines all across the shifted screen.
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Oct 2, 2009
Yesterday my screen (30" Apple Cinema) started showing symptoms of graphics card failure, jagged lines across the screen. I rebooted my Mac Pro and it was gone. Then it happened again an hour later, this time the machine didn't boot, I get the Apple logo, and then it hangs up and the screen is shifted to left (I get apple logo on left side of the monitor instead of the middle) and jagged lines all over.
So the first thing I tested was using Target Disk Mode, it works. I can access my Mac Pro's internal HD's by TDM from my MacBook Pro. Then I tested single user mode, it does boot, I can't read what's written since the screen is shifted to left, but if I type (without seeing) reboot and hit enter, it reboots. So I assume the single user mode is working.
What else can I try to 100% make sure it's my graphics card that failed and everything else is ok with Mac Pro? I already ordered a graphics card replacement but I wouldn't like to be surprised if the Mac Pro still doesn't boot when the card arrives.
P.S. It won't boot from Apple Startup DVD either. Same thing happens, gray logo then kernel panic with jagged lines all across the shifted screen.
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May 22, 2012
why i have to unplug the power cable from the back of my imac after every power failure at my home to get the imac to boot up. I've tried resetting the surge protecter and unplugging there. However, the only option is to unplug the cord from the back of the monitor/imac before it will boot up.Â
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 15, 2012
Just got my new Macbook Pro Retina. Migrated my applications and data from my Macbook Air. Everything worked great. Apple Update advised that new updates were available. I accepted and ran the updates. Now it gets a kernal panic at boot. Can boot into Safe Mode however. I used Command R to reinstall OSX but that did not correct my problem. Same kernal panic persists.
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Dec 2, 2008
I just recently started to experience some very unusual behavior on an older PowerBook G4, and I was wondering if anyone has experienced this before, as I can't seem to find any documented info on this.Basically, out of the blue, the user began to experience issues waking from sleep, while using the laptop closed with external monitor, USB keyboard and mouse. Although a powercord was always connected, the machine seemed to be powering off.For a while, hitting the power button would boot things up again, properly, but not anymore. I have since disconnected all peripherials. Now, when pressing the power button, the machine will beep 3 times and then repeat itself every so often. The sleep led will blink three times, go solid, then repeat. Sometime the harddrive tries to spin, sometimetimes not
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Nov 26, 2009
I tried to install snow leopard on my 3 mos. old macbook pro and received a failure message with the invalid node structure, rebuilding catalog B-tree message.
Not sure what to do, I tried booting up from the leopard install disk and it took about 15 minutes to boot up and everything is wonky, doesn't work right.
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Nov 7, 2006
when my PowerBook (15", bought new in Aug 2004) wakes from sleep, the harddrive makes a dreaded tapping/clicking sound. It's very prominent and is not your standard HDD "chatter."Often, Finder will hang and I'm forced to power-cycle the machine. Most of the time, it boots without incident.Lately, however, there have been incidents. Tonight, when I got home, it froze. I tried to power-cycle it, but got nothing. I plugged it in.
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Jan 28, 2008
I have a 12" Powerbook G4 running 10.3.9 Panther. I am having problem booting my computer from a Firewire HD. I have done a search in the forum but cannot get a definite and/or successul solution. Forum moderators and my respected macrumor fellows, please feel free to direct me to a specific link if you find the questions redundant.Recently, I have had the HD making terrible noise and several days ago, the computer cannot boot at all. When I pushed the power button, the screen shows a folder in the middle with a Mac face and switches to a question mark back and forth. However, it just gets stuck at that stage. I suspected that I have a HD problem and wanted to boot from my clone Firewire HD. Unfortunately, the computer will not boot with Firewire HD either.
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Jul 6, 2009
when power pressed to boot, it will go into boot, but then the screen starts flickering from dim to bright a clicking sound is heard, the power cord on the side changes from dark to light amber. the screen then goes to black. some times am able to get to log in then it just goes black.- More information- my harddrive had been making erratic noises for about... 3-4 months. some loud clicking... in thinking that the hd failed i bought a 160gb WD Scoirpio blue IDE drive... These problems still persist. even when i option to start up with my external drive, which i have mirrored my hard drive. it will boot up for the external then this clicking noise as noted above.
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Mar 10, 2012
I have recently installed new RAM and an SSD in my late 2009 MacBook Pro, running OS X 10.6.8, and it now frequently hangs when I try to start it up. Here are details:Â
In recent weeks I noticed signs that seemed to point to a failing hard drive. I took the machine to a Genius Bar. The genius tried Disk Utility and a quick diagnostic and could not reproduce an error, but he noted many, many I/O errors recorded in a log file. Â
He said I probably had a failing disk, but it might be a cable issue. He gave me two options: leave the machine with Apple overnight to run diagnostics and perhaps repair if the problem was confirmed, or just take a chance and replace the drive myself, for less money and less downtime. Â
I went to a local computer store, and the salesman there noted that I was using relatively little disk space. He suggested that I swap my failing 160 G disk for a smaller, 120G solid-state drive, which happened to be on sale. I agreed and also bought some new RAM. Â
I installed the drive and RAM, partitioned the disk (with HFS journaling), and restored my files with Time Machine. For that day and the next, everything worked perfectly. Â
The second day after the installation, the system hung while starting up. The Apple logo appeared, the gray spinner appeared, and it just spun. I tried resetting PRAM. I tried safe restart. I started up from the install disk and ran Disk Utility: no problems found. I repaired permissions. I took out the new RAM and put back the old. In some cases after trying these steps, the system booted fine — once. In others, it would not boot the first time, but would boot on the second or third attempt. I reinstalled OS X and updated software. The problem persisted. I installed some freeware to enable trimming the new disk. No better. Â
I have booted many times in verbose mode. During the unsuccessful boots, there is usually a message "Bug: launchctl.c: 3557 (23930):6 ioctl(S6, SIO CAIFADOR_IN6, &ifra6) ! = -1". The next line is the command "fsck_hfs", and the machine hangs. Eventually it sometimes spits out "launchctl: please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisory.plist". If I let it go for a long time, I sometimes come back to find a long string of I/O error messages, to the effect that media was expect to be there but wasn’t. I think every time I have gotten the launchctl message, it has booted successfully on the next try. Â
During the successful boots in verbose mode, everything happens so quickly that it is hard to say what is going on, but I don’t think it is running fsck_hfs. If it boots successfully and I give it a heavy I/O task, like doing a virus scan, everything works fine. If I run Disk Utility off the installation disk, it says the disk appears to be OK. Â
I started the machine in single user mode and ran fsck manually. It gave me reports similar to running Disk Utility, and told me the disk appeared to be OK. It then gave me the prompt for a new command. I typed "exit". It responded "logout". And hung.Â
One last thing: I just tried a couple of times to restart with the Apple Hardware test. Despite holding down the D key, the test failed to load, and after a long pause, the machine attempted a normal start-up. Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Oct 1, 2008
I have a single boot disk with just the apps on, and 2 disks in a software mirrored RAID in which I keep all the important stuff.Its just occurred to me, if the boot drive fails won't the software RAID be destroyed as well?Or will it be easy to recover the data off one of the previously RAID1 disks, when the new boot drive is installed?
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Sep 5, 2014
I've had my TIme Capsule for a few years now. Last year I decided to self upgrade the internal HDD to 3TB to actually fit back-ups from my two mac's at home. On my MBP the boot drive failed. It's unfixable unfortunately. how to restore full system on a new HDD on my MacBookPro from TimeCapsule, after boot drive failure?
how to connect the laptop with clean/ empty HDD to MBP and make it boot and install it all from Time Capsule. Moreover, I am not sure how to connect it to Time Capsule, so that it doesn't take 3 days to restore.There is both an ethernet port as well as USB 2.0 one too.Â
That 'old' boot driveis still barely running, I wanted to hand copy at least my iPhoto Library of 110GB in size, but it just keeps crashing, as the file is so big. I mean, I should have it all back-ed up on TimeCapsule,
Info:
TImeCapsule, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), Seagate Agent GoFlex 1.5TB
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Apr 24, 2008
My mother's G5 iMac has just had its second HD failure. Its with Apple now for fixing and they said its down to the 'port at the back was blocked with dust'.
Is this common? Sounds a tad suspect me..
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Mar 20, 2010
I have an IMac OS X 10.5.8. It's about 4 years old. Recently I subscribed to a DSL through AT&T and purchased an At&T modem. The AT&T tech support was unable to help me set up my wireless connection. My AirPort in on and I have a full bar signal. My network has a check next to it. When I turn the AirPort on, it automatically comes up with the network. There is no way to remove the check next to the network unless I turn the AirPort off.
The issue comes when I disconnect my ethernet cable. I loose my internet connection. The AT&T tech support told me to contact Apple but my computer is older then 90 days.
Also, I have an I phone that does the same thing. My wifi connection works everywhere I go with no issues but will not work in my home. All the wifi bars are up but it says connection failed.
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Jul 26, 2010
Well I never thought about this happening anytime soon, but it did. The weird part is that the Windows partition still boots up and works fine. Should I go ahead and replace/upgrade the HD now or just reinstall OSX? I'm kind of thinking about upgrading...
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Sep 27, 2009
my Mac Pro 2008 runs Snow Leopard 10.6.1 on a striped software RAID and Windows XP using Bootcamp on a separate hard drive.
Initially that separate hard drive had been split into two partitions, one for Time Machine and one for Windows. But eventually I decided to get rid of the Time Machine partition and dedicate the entire hard drive to Windows.
I've done that but there appeared a strange problem. In System Preferences my startup disk was set to Windows and now I'm unable to change it to Mac OS X anymore. (Please see the screenshot below).
Of course I can select Mac OS X while holding "Alt" on boot, but having Windows a default OS on Mac Pro is very disturbing
I have no idea what is "boot helper partition" and what's wrong with it. I'm afraid that Windows installer (I had to use it while transforming the partition) messed something up.
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Jan 4, 2010
Have a white iMac (2Ghz Core Duo, 20" screen). It has started misbehaving slightly: it usually takes two or more tries to start from off, and has to have a hard restart if I've let it go to sleep on its own.If I have made it sleep myself, by pressing the power button, it always comes back, but it refuses to do so if I let it sleep on its own.My local reseller suggests that it may be a logic board fault: I'll have to pay ?70 to diagnose this and, if that's the case, the repair is uneconomic, meaning I've also wasted
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Aug 6, 2010
I left my iMac on overnight last night to finish downloading some stuff. I woke up and all our clocks are flashing, so we must've had a blackout. Anyway, I went to check the progress of my downloads, and the iMac was off. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. No fan noise, HDD noise, nothing. I've been trying for almost two hours now and nothing is working.
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Sep 21, 2010
Have an early 20" iMac G5 and the Hard drive started to squeal and then crashed. Tested dive in another iMac and it is definitely bad. Installed new hard drive and the system fails to find it. Formatted it on the other iMac and reinstalled but it still is not seen by the system. Everything was running very well until the drive failure. Took it to an Apple approved store, paid the $60 to be told that the Mother Board was bad. It is hard for me to believe that a disk failure could cause a Mother board failure. 2- 20" iMacs, a 24" iMac, and a new 27" iMac (not yet out of the box.)
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Dec 21, 2010
My 27" iMac that I purchased on Dec 8 2008 had a HD failure. I was running bootcamp and Win 7 and thought I had a virus but the Apple Store geek said the HD was kaput. This has to be a record for short lived HD's on a Mac. And no, I didn't have extended warranty. Anyone else have such a bad experience? My MBP is chugging along and I'm pretty certain I will NOT partition the HD on the Mac when I get it back tomorrow.
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Sep 6, 2009
My IMac crashes sometimes very suddenly, like in a power failure. It doesn't force quit or shut down, it just goes like somebody pulled the plug. It's usually possible to start it up again after 30minutes or an hour. The plug and lead seem to be fine. I tested it on another mac. The obvious suspicion would be overheating, but how can that be caused so suddenly (and how can I fix it)? It's an IMac Intel core duo, 20", 2 ghz, 2gb ram from 2006. I'm running Mac OS X (10.4.11) 2006.
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Nov 7, 2009
i need some advice on what to do next, my Intel 24" iMac has failed, diagnosed as a faulty logic board by the Apple Genius. I purchased the iMac in Dec 07, and I deliberately did not purchase the extended warranty as this is a desktop unit, that in 20 months of ownership has never been moved, dropped or transported anywhere.
I have no option than to either pay for the repair - �380 or sell on eBay for spares...!
I informed Apple about the Sale of Goods Act, and they have put the owness on me to prove it was faulty from date of purchase...! They have informed me that I need to visit an Apple authorised service centre where they will run a test and produce a report, which will determine if the fault was there in the first 6 months of ownership.
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Jun 5, 2014
I've tried six times to burn 290 photos, exported from iPhoto, to a RW DVD. The pictures export OK, the transfer to the DVD seems to go OK but it's when the disc is being verified that the problem occurs. It gets to somewhere around 25% verified then returns the message below and ejects the disc.
I only seem to have two burn settings:Â Max (2.4x) and 2.4x - I've tried both and failed.
As a test, I sent a mere 10 photos to a disc and that worked. Then I tried 100 to a new disc and it failed again. But the discs' capacity is 4.6 Gb.
In the past I've successfully burned several hundred photos onto many discs from the same manufacturer.
I'm not sure what's going on. Is it possible that the disc burner on my iMac is broken.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Dec 8, 2014
While installing windows 7 via bootcamp tonight, I suffered a power failure a minute or two into installation. Upon reboot, I have only a black screen with flashing curse. I have attempted to reboot in safe mode, recovery mode and diagnostic mode, but I think the machine is not recognizing the keyboard.
Info:
iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), 2014 21.5" Fusion Drive
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Nov 15, 2009
It looks like the hard disk in my 1.5 year old iMac (24" 3.06 C2D, running 10.6) suddenly failed today. I woke the mac up from sleep and pretty much immediately I got a spinning beach ball. The system was totally unresponsive so I did a hard reset. Unfortunately the blinking "?" folder came up on the gray screen, instead of the familiar Apple logo. Booted off the OS X disk and ran Disk Utility. The hard disk comes up as "media" and unrecognized by the system. So no First aid or formatting possible. I'm guessing the hard disk has given up but before purchasing a new one I want to rule out anything more serious like motherboard issues.
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Mar 19, 2010
I installed USB Overdrive (a program), I clicked on restart and my iMac never got up. When I start it, the HDD and fans do work. But there is no boot sound, and when I change sound levels, I cannot hear it. I think, it never makes it to OSX. It does not load the OS. I dont think it is Graphics card (HD2600) failure.
When I try to reset PRAM, nothing happens. Usually I must hear it restart again with loud boot sound but it never happens. Also my keyboard does not seem to work, as the CAPSLOCK button does not light up, when pressed. I changed RAM to different moduls, still the same. I checked the iMac RAM on a different computer, it works. Maybe USB Overdrive killed the USB slots? As my USB keyboard does not seem to work
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Feb 17, 2012
Last week, my MS Entourage quit getting my me.com mail. It gives me a Authentication failed because Entourage doesn't support any of the available authentication methods. error message. It was working fine and suddenly quit. I can access my mail by going to icloud as well as on my ipad, but not on my iMac using MS Entourage. When I set up a new account and have it "Verify My Settings," I get a "Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password" (-17900 ), yet its the same user name and password used on the ipad and icloud.com logon. My iMac operating system is 10.7.3 and Entourage is 12.3.2
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