2nd Hand iMac wont boot. Tried "repairing drive" in recoveryHD disk utility but doesn't fully pass through. HELP! :(

I have just purchased a second hand mac from Gumtree as Im eager to get into the beauty that is OS X.
But when I try and boot it will just stay at the apple logo with the spinning bar.
I booted into the recoveryHD with COMMAND+R and launched disk utility, I then proceeded to click "repair disk" on Macintosh HD.
It hangs for a while but then says "The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely" and then says ERROR:Disk utility cant repair this disk, backup as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk and restore your backed-up files.
I then tried to "re-install OS X Mavericks" but I need an apple ID with Mavericks purchased (please note I am on a windows machine and cant do this).
I've tried calling 133 622 but apparently their phones aren't on from 9am-9pm as stated (It's currently 7:30pm).
This is turning me off Macs as this sort of stuff should not just "happen" and due to apples "no windows support" views I cant actually do anything.

Mavericks is a free OS yes? If theres a way I can get it as a purchase on my Apple ID I can download and restore. I was just wondering whether there was a way to restore from the recoveryHD
And as for the no windows support, their OS X utilities image for USB is only available as a .dmg so I cant use that tool to recover from the recovery partition

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BDAqua wrote:
Yes, it needs the path to the drive...
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External Hard Drive showing in Disk Utility - but not desktop.

A little background:
Yesterday, I moved my shelf where I have my modem, Airport Extreme, Airport Express and an external HD connected to the extreme to be a wireless HD for all users to access. Everything worked great - no problems whatsoever.
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Lacie Hard Drive Appears In Disk Utility But Not Desktop

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Any help?
Thank you.

Welcome to the forum.
Have a look at the comments on THIS THREAD. Perhaps there's something there that will help.

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Hi Dominic,
If this is still not mounting, it may be worth trying a PRAM reset...
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
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Message was edited by: jazmyn96

You might get more help were you to post in something like the MacBook or OS X forum. This forum is for OS 9, an archived Apple Macintosh operating system.
That said, it sounds like your drive might be dead. When you say that you can see it in Disk Utility, you mean that it shows up in the column on the left? When you repair it, can you hear the drive spinning up?
Can you try making an image of the drive to see what happens?

I have a fat32 formatted drive (WD my passport 500GB) that is showing in disk utility but does not mount. I am using a macbook with mac osx 10.5.8.

Disk warrior came highly recommended on other posts but because the drive is not mac os formatted it won't do its warrior magic...
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Hi Christina,
It's quite possible the AC PSU has given out, if It's only Bus powered as it appears, that's the worst idea ever & asking for eventual problems.
What Format is it?
Did you install any WD SW?
Your best bet is DiskWarrio...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
But others that may work…
Drive Genius…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83

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My IMac wont boot up! I installed the Mac OSX system disk and ran disk utility this is the results:
invalid node structure
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
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Thanks,
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I called applecare and they were able to get my iMac up and running. Apparently there is an issue with updating software. I just had to do an update today and ended up with the same problem. So I re did what the applecare rep told me and I got it going again myself. I am hoping this will not continue. So anyway, I am going to provide the steps on how my I got iMac going.
1. unplug the computer for approx 17 seconds.
2. unplug everything from the computer except the mouse and keyboard.
3. plug in the computer
4. turn on the iMac and hold down the option key at the SAME TIME
5. when the iMac comes on, it will make a loud beep noise, CONTINUE to hold the power and option key until a small the Mac HD icon displays.
5. When the Mac HD icon shows on the screen, release the power button and option key. Then click on the arrow below the Mac HD icon.
5. The iMac will boot and take you to the desktop. Then click applications
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7 then choose disk utility
8 a screen will appear that states first aid. At the bottom, there will be an option to repair disk. Click on that then choose Mac HD.
9 When this is finished, you are good to go. These steps will repair what ever the software updates are doing to the hard drive.
Hope this helps.

Imac wont boot

My late 2008 iMac wont boot. I have tried everything that i understand but cannot accesss harddisk.
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Imac 2008 24" 3.06GHZ/2GB/500GB/SD8X/GF8800GS/512.
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My imac wont boot and a small square shows up next to the cursor

Hi
my imac wont boot and a small square shows up next to the cursor. I can open in safe mode. I have reinstalled the OSX, but can't boot from back-up.
Any advice?

OK.....I figured it out.....after reading endless threads on the cursor issue, I found out that apple calls the cursor a MOUSE POINTER..! and the square that follows it a 'corruption'...GO FIGURE!
Anyway, this is what I did.
I tried reinstalling Mountain Lion....online install. It didn't resolve the issue. Same problems
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Hi,
I've searched and searched, but I can't seem to find a similar problem.
I bought an iMAC 24" 2.8GHZ 2GB RAM about 3 months ago that came with Leopard 10.5.1 . I updated to 10.5.4 and everything was working fine for 3 months. Better days....
The problem was I downloaded some iTunes Updates (there seemed to be other updates that had downloaded as well). I didn't give it much thought and didn't view the updates.
I rebooted and I briefly saw a some type of "boot" error. I should have looked more closely - alas I didn't give it much thought. It wouldn't boot up and stayed in the Grey Screen with the apple logo.
I read the forums and saw that "Archive and Install installation of Leopard" was what I needed to repair the corrupt image but save my files. I tried this but it didn't complete the installation.
After a few hours I turned it off and tried other things. The "Disk Utility" said no errors, but I preformed the extended check and it said:
Alert! Apple Hardware test has detected an error.
4HDD/11/4000000004:SATA(0,0)
Searching on this error doesn't seem to help.
Where I am at now is to run the "Repair Disk" under Disk Utility, but that gives the same result as when I try to do the "Archive and Install installation": They both seem to hang, and the installlation CD (Leopard 10.5.1) makes a repetitive 5-10 second routine where it makes some digital bleeps, whirrs & turns a few times, goes silent and repeats.
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Woe is me, I now know that I should have a backup, but I don't. The wierd thing is though - I wasn't actually upgrading my software. I just went to Update iTunes when it didn't recognise my iPod.
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Marty.

IMac Wont boot, can't unmount, can't reinstall

Hi Community, I'm really hoping you can help me as this one has me stumped.
I have a 2010 (i think, i can't boot it to check) iMac, through a power cut it now won't boot to OS X (Yosemite 10.10)
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imac
recovery hd
BOOTCAMP
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In disk utility if i attempt to mount the iMac partition it reports "Cant Open Drive"
Im not bothered about the bootcamp partition or the existing partitions, i just want to get the iMac running OS X again.

After banging my head against the wall, and Apple suggesting a genius bar appointment to replace the drive (at cost) i have resolved the issue. It was a bit of a hack but might help some one else who has the same problem
1) Boot to Windows (Bootcamp)
2) Go to partition manager in windows.
3) Delete the Apple partitions that are listed in the window.
4) Resize the windows partition, this forces windows to re-write the partition table it would seem
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The above *may work with a USB bootable device.
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Original G3 iMac wont boot

Hi, could any of you help me with this problem. I've got an old Bondi Blue G3 333Mhz iMac 256Mb ram 4Gb HD.
The internal CD drive (tray loading) doesn't work, but I've got and external Iomega usb CD drive that does the job fine.
The other day it had a few issues, so I thought I'd sort it out by booting from my Systemworks CD. So I went to control panels, set the startup disk to the external usb drive and hit restart.
The computer now gets as far as looking for a system folder at start up (flashing question mark on a folder, followed by mac logo), then just sits there showing a folder in the centre of the screen with the Mac logo on it.. The CD drive spins up but never gets to full reading speed and if I press the eject key it'll slide the drawer out, which I'm thinking shouldn't happen if it's using this as the startup...
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Thanks

Norton SystemWorks was fine in the days of Mac OS 9, but it hasn't been updated for years. With Mac OS X, it tends to cause more problems than it fixes. Don't use it if you have Mac OS X on that Mac. If it's just Mac OS 9, it should be fine. I use it myself on my Mac OS 9 Power Mac.
Roger Wilmut1 is correct that you cannot start up from a USB drive.
Since that internal CDROM drive is broken, the only thing I can think of doing is taking out that hard drive and connecting it externally to your iMac G5. The cheapest solution for doing so is something like this, which is a useful tool to have around.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NVSPATARH/
You can also get an empty external drive enclosure.
You can use Disk Utility on the iMac G5 to assess and repair that drive. If Disk Utility cannot to the repair, you may need another tool like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro.

Imac wont boot, stuck loading, all i see is apple logo and spinning cycle

My 27 inch iMac wont boot, i am runnign snow leopard. I just see the apple sign and the cycle spinning meaning its still loading. I cant use disk utility because leopard install disc wont boot, also i cant run any commands in single user mode, doing /sbin/fsck -fy does nothing, i dont see a # sign or anything, whatever i type it doesnt matter whenever i hit return the cursor just goes to the line below.

dudix wrote:
I cant use disk utility because leopard install disc wont boot
Power down (assume you have already tried the SMC reset) and insert the Applications DVD that came with your new iMac. Boot up while holding the "D" key down (may be best with a wired keyboard) to run the Apple Hardware Test according to these instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

2nd Hand iMac wont boot. Tried "repairing drive" in recoveryHD disk utility but doesn't fully pass through. HELP! :(

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