Cant boot iMac

Hi there,
Just come back from hole and I can't boot my computer - gives me the flashing folder with a question mark.
Have tried 'option' and the 'command r' reboots... 'Option' doesn't give me the system management screen, only displays an arrow. 'Command r' thinks about it for a while and then back to the screen with the flashing folder.
Don't have a HD Recovery on a USB.
Is there any other way of booting the computer so I can restore a TimeCapsule back up?
Look forward to hearing any suggestions you may have.
Cheers,
D

Hi Tony,
If you are able to use your Mac after choosing your Mac hard drive, but it still refuses to start normally after shutting it down again, open  (Apple menu) > System Preferences > Startup Disk. Choose your Mac drive. That should fix it.
If that change does not stick, especially if it occurs again if you were to unplug your iMac from the wall socket, you may need to have Apple replace a small battery used to retain that startup disk information. It shouldn't be very expensive.
Should I have click on recovery? And if I did would I loose anything?
The Recovery partition is there to use if you cannot start your Mac any other way. Selecting it won't cause anything to be lost unless you were to use Disk Utility to erase your Mac. It would warn you first.
If you want to try it yourself just to see what it looks like, it will resemble this:
Those options should be self-explanatory.
Back up your Mac if you have not done so already. You should be doing that routinely, whether or not you are experiencing any trouble. To learn how to use Time Machine read Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac - Apple Support.

Similar Messages

After time machine, cant boot?

Wow, i dont know where to start..
I have a iMac 27" intel i7 2011. Havent had any problem with it until yesterday. I was erasing my files i had in my recycle bin and for some strange reason i see that around 70% of all my files on my harddrive was gone. I also saw in finder that i had almost entire harddrive empty..
Hmm, i was scared but i thought that this is not so bad, because i have a 2TB external disk that's making time machine backups all the time.
I booted up with my recovery parition and started to recovery from time machine backup that i have since a few days ago (to be sure that it worked then).
When the recovery was finished (after around 8h / 600 GB) it was complete. But now when im booting up my iMac, all i got is apple logo and spinning wheel. I can hear that all my drives is starting up, exactly like always, but its stuck there, its spinning..
What i've tried until now is:
- Repair disk permissions
- Repair disk
- Resetting NVRAM and PRAM
- Disconnect all cables and only run with power cable connected.
- Safeboot (Its the same here, cant boot)
- Doing another time machine recovery but at a even earlier date.
Please guys, help me
EDIT: I had not been able to boot at all since a did my first try to recover from time machine.

Please tell us what you did exactly to do the TimeMachine backup?

Windows on Imac12,1 issue - Cant boot from USB or CD/DVD

Hello people.
I have this problem with my iMac, that i cant boot it from a USB drive or a CD.
Every time i try it says "No bootable device". Obviously i want to install Windows 7 to play a few games once in a while, and I've tried about everything i could imagine.
When i bought the iMac, some moron had installed windows and somehow deleted OSX. The problem was the same back then when i tried to boot from the Snow Leopard CD/DVD, all it said was "No bootable drive". I installed OSX by FireWire (Target mode) and formatted the hard drive.
I've tried to burn windows on a DVD as well as making a bootable usb drive, both with boot camp assistant, bot failed. "No bootable device".
I have seen some workarounds been done with Virtual machines and such, but it didn't work for me.
I already have downloaded parallels 7 and VMware Fusion (Latest, 5 i think. trial though). If any of you should know of a guide thats up to date, please do direct me to them - I've tried the ones i could find :-)
I would really appreciate you guys taking your time to answer, as i have been struggling with this issue for weeks and weeks with no luck.
Specs:
Imac 21.5-inch, Mid 2011
Model: iMac12,1
2.7 Ghz intel i5
8GB RAM
OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
Yours sincerely
Emil

Did you ever get this to work? I even made the Diag USB with the tablet 10 special code - and when I select the USB device for boot, screen goes black for a few seconds - then back to the menu.
I can't boot a default win 8.1 Pro CD either (with a lenovo USB drive).
I tried win10 and it pooched my system - does not boot at all, so I need to boot of an external device.

Macbook pro cant boot from external dvd device please help !!!!

hello everyone please help me i have macbook pro 2011 core i5 version
i just installed 2.5 ssd as second hdd
i cant boot from external dvd device to install any os the external dvd keeps on spining and mac is just thinking it doesnt show press any key to install
it shows the device when a boot into mac parition
i am trying to install windows on origianl 500 gb hdd and linux on ssd
but not luck
the external dvd drive works i pluged into my pc and it works
please help thansk in advance
200 gb mac
300 gb windows
120 ssd linux

I do not know about Disk Warrior but if you have a compatible OSX on an external HDD you certainly can boot the MBP. Use startup manager:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht1310
Ciao.

[Solved] Cant boot after editing fstab ( virtualbox )

what information do i need to post here to help, and how do i get it since i cant boot in ?
Last edited by Shockwave0 (2013-11-07 00:48:14)

im using openbox i opened up /etc/fstab with leafpad heres what it looks like
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda1
UUID=aff5b1d2-0452-467f-81e7-dc3b2298101e / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/sda3
# UUID=1519cef9-0d8d-4ea4-b9d5-cc94b09cd59a none swap defaults 0 0
Last edited by Shockwave0 (2013-11-07 00:05:54)

I have installed windows on the new NTFS partician and cant boot it back to mac

I have installed windows on the new NTFS partician and cant boot it back to mac. I dont think I loaded the bootcamp for windows properly now it is stuck in Windows with no bootcamp icon

Restart Windows, hold down the option key.
If you have a valid OSX install, the drive should appear. Choose the OSX partition and continue.

Cant boot G4 tower

hi
ive been running a G4 tower 800mhz at work from an external lacie firewire drive with the latest tiger without any trouble so far.
however, since i took that drive home and connected it to my cube there to transfer some files, i cant boot from it any more.
the drive is completely fine and all my files are ok. just since i reconnected it at work, it doesnt boot anymore
it gets stuck at a standard blue apple desktop background.
ive done most of the things i could think of, including:
- removing any startup items
- single-user mode with some codes to reset vram etc
- verbose mode doesnt give suspicious messages
- verifying the disk using disk utility doesnt give errors
- no third-party ram
any help? what can i do to make my disk bootable again?
any ideas why it became unbootable just by connecting it to another mac for like an hour or so?
thanks a lot for suggestions
maarten

no i didnt boot the cube from the external firewire drive. just connected it. went into my home folder on there, copied the files over, and disconnected it again
didnt do anything more with it
archive and install. sure a solution, but quite a pain. id prefer to find out whats wrong. i thought it might have to do something with permissions, but i repaired those and it didnt change anything. still stuck on startup....
maarten

Cant boot winxp installed to hdc3.

I cant boot WinXP. I have just installed it to hdc3 (equivalent to (hd2.2) for grub), and this is what I put in menu.lst:
(1) WindowsXP
title WindowsXP
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1
but this only results in message:
Selected device does not exist.
I have tried all sorts of combinations, such as putting rootnoverify (hd2,2) before the map lines, etc. Searched other forums, google... But nothing.
The other message I get from some other combinations is:
Invalid or unsupported executable format.
any help?
edit: the hdc3 partition is also set to be bootable

thats what i originally used, but of course its:
selected device does not exist
what's goofy?
http://www.google.com/search?client=ope … q=grub+map

Cant boot HELP

cant boot after i ran out of battery during update later when i recharged it i left macbook on for 12hours without moving off the boot screen (the grey apple with the circle loading thing) i tried repairing it with mac install disk but nothing. not sure what operating system i got it end of 2010

You will need to do the following:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.
BTW, your profile says Mac Pro, but you have a MacBook Pro, so you should change it to reflect what you are using.

My macbook pro retina 15'' cant boot after smc reset .

My macbook pro retina 15" cant boot after smc reset. Can someone find me a solution which does not require opening my laptop ? Thnx in advance .

Try Resetting the PRAM

Cant boot os x after installing windows

I have a 2011-2012 macbook pro 15. yesterday I installed windows 7 using bootcamp and installed all drivers. everything seemed fine and I even switched to OS X Yosemite once and went back to windows again. and then I tried to restart and boot back to OS X and it did not let me. so basically once I restart, I hold the option key and when I do that nothing happends. all I see is a black screen. it does not show me the booting options. If I restart the computer and touch nothing windows automatically boots up. so windows is fine. so what I tried to do is go into bootcamps control panel and change the start up boot to OS X and restarted thought this might automatically boot osx but it didnt. so macbook got restarted and it stayed on black screen. option key still doesnt work. I also tried the command + R and i get the utility screen but I still cant boot OsX eventhough i can load windows again from start up on my utility screen. so I dont know if i need to re install OSx, or if its the drivers or a hardware issue or what. please help me out, I need my OS X and files that i have on it

Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)
Startup Issues - Resolve (3)

I CANT BOOT MY MAC! D:

Last night i added 2GB of ram to my 2006 first macbook, booted osx10.4 and it worked, ned i booted the mac holding down ALT to get to the boot menue so i could boot from CD so i could install 10.6.3 from a retail disk. (I don't know if it helps but i used a external usb cd drive and the once in the mac is broken).
It got about 10% through in the installation then it failed but i passed the part were i had to format my HDD. So obviously i couldent boot the old osx any more but when i next booted it up, if i held C to boot from cd it crashed and if i held alt to acsess the boot menue i would get a black mouse cursor i could move then a blanc screens so ic could do nothing with it. i f it helps since i have a retail osx disk, would t help if i booted of usb (btw, when i presses nothign and tried to boot it showed a grey logo with a question mark in it and it cant find a boot partition) what is the best way to fix this as i cant boot!
plz help

Boot your Mac while holding down the Alt/Option-key until the Boot Selection screen is shown.
Choose your OSX to boot from.
Once in OSX go to System Preferences - Startup Volume and set your OSX to be the default.
Use Disk Utility in OSX to verify disk and repair permission.
Stefan

Kernel Panic during restart and cant boot from DVD/CD

ah.. I have a pickle here guys. PowerBook G4 15 inch 1.67 1gbDDR2 ram. I just got this sucker like 2 months or less ago. I am not getting Kernel Panic during restarts every time and cant boot from a DVD or CD. they are not burned. here is the panic.log.
Darwin Kernel Version 8.4.0: Tue Jan 3 18:22:10 PST 2006; root:xnu-792.6.56.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC
Tue Jan 24 21:56:32 2006
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00294084): sbflush sb->sb_so already null sb=239766c
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x00095718 0x00095C30 0x0002683C 0x00294084 0x00293678 0x002935A0 0x00292EE0 0x00159A90
0x0014F7D0 0x001504C0 0x0013B0B4 0x0013B1C8 0x0011D308 0x000A9894
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x2D203280)
PC=0x00000000; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0x00000000; DSISR=0x00000000; LR=0x00000000; R1=0x00000000; XCP=0x00000000 (Unknown)
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.4.0: Tue Jan 3 18:22:10 PST 2006; root:xnu-792.6.56.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC
can any one help me out here, tomorrow I am going to boot it into target disk mode and install from a G5 onto the powerbooks HD doing a CLEAN install and then I am going to try booting it from a DVD and doing another CLEAN intstall just cause I dont trust a firewire install for some reason. I would like to avoid all this mess if possible. ANY HELP PLEASE, either respond or email me tend0 at mac dot com. thanks

haha oh man thanks for startin slow with me, but we are passed that tested RAM, start up items, prefs, tried makin a new user account, as I stated before I can not boot from a DVD/CD.. that was one of the problems so I cant run anything that involves tageting the main HDD while its mounted. I have also repaired perms, ran fsck, tried booting up DiskWarrior(didnt boot from the CD), etc. if any one knows this perticular kernel panic string and can point out what the conflict is I can resolve it but other than that I have ran the run of the mill check to see if everything is in order procedure again and again.

Cant boot fat32 drive under lion

Hello lion users
I have a little problem with the fat32 drives. I cant boot them when i connect my external drive via firewire800. I did not checked it with USB but i think there will be the same problem.
Befor i installed lion the external drive worked perfect and also on the windows bootcamp is the harddrive working.
Has any one the same problem or any kind of idea, how i can fix it?
Hope you enjoy the lion, i do it also with this problem

I am having the same problem and not even running windows in my machine. I use one external that I have been using for 3 years for all of my ITUNES music and now my macbook will do nothing with it. I can see it in disk utility but can't do anything and it says unsupported. There is no way I can copy 500gb to another drive and I do not want to lose all of my music. I NEED HELP. It worked fine yesterday under snow leopard then now nothing. If I can't find anything soon as i can't play any of my music I will go back to leopard for now. I wish they APPLE would have warned us before so we could do what we needed to before hand...FRUSTRATING UUUGGHH

My iphone cant boot. it begins but restarts when it gets to the desktop. what can i do?

my iphone cant boot. it begins but restarts when it gets to the desktop. what can i do?

Hello Nadersalah,
It seems you're experiencing multiple issue with your iPhone. Based on the information you have provided, it appears your iPhone needs to be serviced. The following link should help you get started with the process and has links with additional information on topics such as warranty and service pricing, battery replacement, and express replacement service.
iPhone Repair and Service - Apple Support
Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Bobby_D

Cant boot iMac

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for