Grey Screen w/ logo on startup, crashes in disk utility and FW disc mode

So yesterday I woke my computer from sleep and launched firefox. After a few minutes it crashed and the froze. I restarted and got the grey screen with apple logo. Restarted many more times and would either get the grey screen with logo or if it managed to startup it would again freeze after a few minutes.
Tried starting up from install disc to launch disc utility to check the permissions and verify disk. This also froze several times put i managed to repair permissions and repair disc. Now I am not able to get it to start up unless from the install disk. I have a bootable backup drive with I tried to connect and use as a startup disc. I just got a black screen when I tried that, I also connected the G5 to my
Powerbook G4 in firewire disk mode. It connected and I was going to attempt to copy the Bootable external drive back to the Drive in the tower and try starting from that, but the G5 then froze in Firewire disk mode and had to be restarted.
I'm out of options here, and desperate....any ideas. I thought that grey screens many times meant software or hardware conflicts. could this just be something horribly wrong with my hardware?
Help!
Thanks in Advance!

I've read several response to problems with target disc mode. I'm trying to connect my old computer, G3 tower with OS 8.6, to my new computer, mac book pro. I've called tech support twice and they have no clue as to why it won't work. They suggested this discussion page. I tried what one fella did, which worked for him, but didn't for me. I rebooted with shift button down, then ran verify and repair, then shut down, unplugged for a minute or two, restarted zapping pram (optioncommand(apple) P & R keys. Then restarted with the T key down. Attached firewire to both target computer and disc computer, (did this first), but no jumping firewire icon ever appeared.
One fella out there said it took his computer 5 minutes for the icon to appear. Did he hold the T key down all that time? I let go after my normal desktop icons were up and the computer stopped wiring.
I am calling tech support back...who knows maybe I'll get someone who knows something.
Any ideas?
Thanks Little Champ

Similar Messages

Help! Logo screen at startup, crashes in Disk utility and FW disc mode

So yesterday I woke my computer from sleep and launched firefox. After a few minutes it crashed and the froze. I restarted and got the grey screen with apple logo. Restarted many more times and would either get the grey screen with logo or if it managed to startup it would again freeze after a few minutes.
Tried starting up from install disc to launch disc utility to check the permissions and verify disk. This also froze several times put i managed to repair permissions and repair disc. Now I am not able to get it to start up unless from the install disk. I have a bootable backup drive with I tried to connect and use as a startup disc. I just got a black screen when I tried that, I also connected the G5 to my
Powerbook G4 in firewire disk mode. It connected and I was going to attempt to copy the Bootable external drive back to the Drive in the tower and try starting from that, but the G5 then froze in Firewire disk mode and had to be restarted.
I'm out of options here, and desperate....any ideas. I thought that grey screens many times meant software or hardware conflicts. could this just be something horribly wrong with my hardware?
Help!
Thanks in Advance!

I've read several response to problems with target disc mode. I'm trying to connect my old computer, G3 tower with OS 8.6, to my new computer, mac book pro. I've called tech support twice and they have no clue as to why it won't work. They suggested this discussion page. I tried what one fella did, which worked for him, but didn't for me. I rebooted with shift button down, then ran verify and repair, then shut down, unplugged for a minute or two, restarted zapping pram (optioncommand(apple) P & R keys. Then restarted with the T key down. Attached firewire to both target computer and disc computer, (did this first), but no jumping firewire icon ever appeared.
One fella out there said it took his computer 5 minutes for the icon to appear. Did he hold the T key down all that time? I let go after my normal desktop icons were up and the computer stopped wiring.
I am calling tech support back...who knows maybe I'll get someone who knows something.
Any ideas?
Thanks Little Champ

I used the internet data recovery because my mac is stuck with the grey screen + apple logo at startup. When I tried to reinstall the OS, it prompted: you can't upgrade to this newer version of mac os x is installed. What do I do? x

I have no backup of my files because my mac suddenly stopped working.
I'm using a macbook air 11" mid-2012 mac os x 10.8.5.
Please help

Try using Internt Recovery.
http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/14/reinstall-os-x-mac-internet-recovery/
When you visit the site page click the 3½ bars gray Reader icon left of the url in the address bar for easy viewing.

External HD crashed by Disk Utility and all partitions gone

I had a 320GB Seagate external hard drive with 3 NTFS partitions.
They are 200GiB, 40GiB, 38.1GiB
I tried to format the middle partition into an Mac Partition and failed. After that, all partitions are gone and when I plug the HD into a PC, the disk manager recognize the whole space of disk as free.
the Log of the Disk Utility is as follows
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: Preparing to erase : “PERSONAl”
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: Partition Scheme: Master Boot Record
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: 1 volume will be erased
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: Name : “PERSONAl”
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: Size : 38.1 GB
2009-06-17 21:38:50 +0800: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2009-06-17 21:38:53 +0800: Error with volume erase Invalid argument
2009-06-17 21:38:53 +0800: Erase complete.
Then a new "disk2" appears in the Disk Utility and can't be ejected easily. There's also something like picasaUpload stuff bumping up during the short formatting.
I tried to recover it using DiskTest 6.11 but it appears to take 14 hr to scan the whole disk and will not necessarily fix the problem.
I have Anyone have suggestion on how to recover the partition? The 200GiB partition is really important for me.

NTFS partitions can not be readily altered to begin with, and when there are multiple such partitions on a drive you should not attempt to alter only one. Since Disk Utility basically can't manage an NTFS partition, when you tried to alter the 'middle partition' (which in most cases is really a 'sub partition' or secondary partition to the 'main' or primary partition) you destroyed the whole of the volume's data structure. Unless you use a data recovery service or use data recovery software yourself, your data is gone. You should not attempt to alter NTFS formatted drives from Disk Utility.

Macbook Pro does not start. Grey screen with logo and status bar going on forever.

I have a Macbook Pro, late 2010 running with OS Mavericks. Lately it became very slow but never had major issues like crashing. Lat night, I tried a hard restart because it was stuck and I cannot get it to restart ever since. I get sound and grey screen with logo. The status bar is going on forever but does not boot. Can anyone help, please?

Try a safe boot:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
If no success, boot into recovery:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1310
Select the recovery partition and then from the 4 option menu select Disk Utility.
Open Disk Utility>First Aid and run Verify and Repair.
What are the results?
Ciao.

Grey screen /apple logo won't open reinstall 10.6

Grey screen /apple logo won't open reinstall 10.6

The internal hard drive may have failed.
You should be able to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD by inserting it and holding down the c key while it boots. From there you can select the Disk Utility app to check the internal drive.

Help - Grey Screen & Apple Logo aft fixing internal DVD Writer

My DVD writer started to play up a few months ago and eventually stopped reading any discs. After routing around the various forums I had a go at fixing it by taking my Powerbook apart, removing the DVD writer and using an air cleaner and optical cloth cleaned the DVD writer out. Full of dust!
I put the DVD writer back leaving the top of the Powerbook loose and started it up. Excellent result, not only did it play a DVD film, but it burnt a disc which I could read in my aging Power Mac. RESULT!
I then preceded to screw it all back together. It went to the grey screen with the Apple Logo and spinning wheel. I have not been able to get it past this.
I have tried resetting the PMU & PRAM by removing the Power and battery and holding the power switch on for 5 secs.
I have tied to restart and then hold down Command-Option-P-R, wait for third chime and release and press the shift screen. But it stays on the grey screen/Apple Logo.
I did get it to go to a blue screen once but it won't go further.
I have tried to pop in Techtool Pro Disc 4.5.1 and Disk Warrior but the DVD writer just spits these out again.
I have taken it apart again to check that all my connections are OK and they do seem OK. I don't understand how I could get it to play/burn and then it goes all awry only after I screw the keyboard back.
Anybody got any ideas short of taking it in for repair!

I would just get it repaired.

About imac (early 2008 24") stuck on grey screen apple logo spinning wheel

HI all just wondering if any body has experienced the grey screen apple logo spinning wheel and also switches off and back on all by itself after 5-10 minutes in the past or recent.
how did you get on did you sort it?would like to read some feedback on this subject thanks

Generally that indicates a serious problem with the hard drive.
Power down, hold alt key at power on, what shows as boot choices?
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Report what happens or doesn't please.

TS3148 my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear

my mackbook air starts up with a persistent grey screen, apple logo and a spinning gear. It will not show the login window

Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown (emergency use only!)
Next find the Shift key and hold it and press the power button, the machine will boot into Safe Mode.
Next backup your files to a external drive just in case.
Emergency backup procedure
Drag and drop copy your users file folders (music, pictures, documents etc) to a regular external powered drive as soon as possible.
Do not use, setup or trust only TimeMachine at this troubled time as it will copy corrupted data and we need just your users files safe just in case. TimeMachine cannot be used with a Windows PC.
Unmount and Disconnect all external drives once the backup process is completed.
Note:
If you have any over 4GB sized files, those won't copy to a standard formatted FAT32/MSDOS drive from the factory, if you need to save these 4GB+ files use another blank/empty drive and use Disk Utility to format it 1 Partition, Option: GUID, Format: OS X Extended Journaled (or the standard default one for older Mac's).
Mac's cannot copy to nor format a NTFS drive. ExFAT format to be used with a Windows machine must be right click formatted by Windows, not OS X (does it wrong) XP macines can install a free exFAT update from Microsoft. Vista-Win 8 can format exFAT.
Formatting a drive will erase all data on it.
Most commonly used backup methods
Your problem is likely due to a incompatible third part at boot kernel extension file that some program installed into OS X at some time.
If you can recall which programs you installed using your Admin password then that's a good place to start and update or uninstall those programs.
The next solution is a #8 Reinstall Just OS X + Software Update fully, this will replace OS X with a new copy, fix OS X if it's the cause and kick out ALL third party kext files out of OS X.
You also can manually drag and drop the third party kext files (if you know what they are) out of of the System/Library/Extensions folder and reboot.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Solving at boot kext issues in Snow Leopard

Spinning spokes, grey screen, apple logo

I know there are other posts on this but I have done what those suggested and I am getting weird results. This is a co-worker's computer. He ran software updates last night and then this morning he is stuck on this screen. This is what I have done:
1. boot from external drive - it brings up the drive lists and I select my drive and click the arrow under it. Three low tones sound after that, about five seconds apart. Stays at grey screen also.
2. boot from CD - hold down c key with the os disk in it but nothing happens after grey screen
3. boot from 2nd CD - hold down d key to get to hardware check but it goes to a weird different grey then a black screen with a white cursor then to a dialog box that stays there for 1/2 second and then it shuts itself down.
4. reset PRAM
5. hold power button until those quick flashes of light come on
6. took out hard drive, connected it with my usb to ide/sata adapter and plugged it into my own computer. ran a repair disk via disk util and those green letters come up saying the drive is a-ok.
7. hold shift down - a tube at the bottom with the filling grey from left to right starts going (firmware?). it finishes then finally gets to the safe boot screen after like 4-5 minutes, so I went to restart it normally but it just goes back to the grey screen and sticks there again.
8. single user mode - ran the fsck command and it said system appears to be ok. typed reboot and eventually came to login screen; logged in but got stuck before Finder, doc, menu bar, etc. could load.
9. boot into network startup (hold down n): still does grey screen; then put a random used hard drive into the bad computer and did the network boot again and it came right up just fine with our deploy studio setup.

If you can't run the Apple Hardware Test from the disc that came with the machine, with no wired peripherals connected, and the disc is not damaged or dirty, then you have a hardware fault. Take the machine to a service provider for testing.

Screen blacks out at startup; what does it mean and can I fix it?

I've got a Macbook that has held up wonderfully over the past 6 months but just within the last week I've been having problems when trying to start my computer. I will turn it on like I normally do, the startup sound plays, the blue apple screen will come up and OS X will begin to load but then.....my screen goes black. Pressing keys does not make the screen come on and neither does working with the scroll pad. The computer is still on and running; putting it to my ear I can hear the hard drive running. I then have to force quit by holding down the power button to retry starting it again. The last time I tried to turn on my computer it took about 6 tries before I finally got into my account. After logging in it will run like it normally does and I have no problems. I know that this force quitting probably isn't helping the problem, and I want to get some advice from other apple owners before I run into the local mac store in tears. The computer was bought in December and I'm running Mac OS X.
Any advice would be helpful and greatly appricated. Thanks!

Maybe Disk Utility can repair the disk this way:
-Search your installation DVD's.
-Insert the disc 1 and sthut down your Mac
-Start your Mac again while holding down the C key
-Now your Mac should boot from the CD, this can take some time.
-After a while you will see a installation screen where you can chose a language.
-Chose English and continue.
-Then click some time's next and agree with the "Software Agreement".
-Open Disk Utility. Top menu bar --> Utilities --> Open Disk Utility.
-Select your hard disk in the list of disks and volumes on the left side
-Go to the First Aid (tab somewhere on the right).
-Click the button to verify the permissions.
-Then Click the button to repair the permissions.
-Click the button to verify the disk.
-Then Click the button to repair the disk.
-Exit the Disk Utility and the installer.
-Restart your Mac
In any case,when you force shout down,Repair Disc Permissions.

Have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair files and i needed to format hard drive and start again. now nothing works

have a mac book pro that crashed. ran disk utility to repair. comp booted and ran for short time. then crashed. ran repair again. disk utility said it could not repair disk and needed to format and start again.
comp said it could not unmount disk and now when comp trys to boot all i get is a question mark on the screen. help

Erase and Install
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU after formatting completes and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
5. After restart into Snow Leopard download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Help needed. I have a 3TB external hard drive partitioned into 1TB's. I used one partition as backup for the main computer hard drive. But now it is greyed out as shown in the disk utility and its name changed, i dont know how that happened, i tried verif

Help needed. I have a 3TB external hard drive partitioned into 1TB's. I used one partition as backup for the main computer hard drive. But now it is greyed out as shown in the disk utility and its name changed, i dont know how that happened, i tried verifying and repairing it but had no luck. I also tried mounting and unmounting it but still no solution. Anyone to help please?

Looks bad. I would strongly advise backing up the stuff on the other two partitions as soon as possible in case the rest of the drive goes wrong.
Beyond that, Disk Utility has limited abilities to repair disks, DiskWarrior uses a different approach and might, emphasis might be more successful. It has certainly done the job for me in the past when Disk Utility could not.
See http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/

G5 freezes at startup, get grey screen with logo, but no spinning gear

As subject says, I get the Grey Startup screen with aple logo, but no spining gear.
do i need a new install of OS X? Or ???

Hi wampaskitty, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
If that doesn't work, Boot off your original G5 Install Disk while holding down Option/alt key to select AHT, then run the extended Apple Hardware Test.

My MacBook pro will not startup. I get a blank grey screen no logo appears so I can't chooseadiffer t drive nor boot from DVD. Safe mode and verbose mode also don't change blank screen.

It was running slow with the colored spining appearing often. This started happening weeks ago with Yosemite so I formatted the disk with the DVDs that came with the mid 2011 MacBook pro, 10.6.8. I then installed Yosemite on an external drive and this morning i was booted from the external hd with Yosemite and it stopped recognizong mouse clicks so I forced a restart and now I'm stuck with the blank grey screen. Safe mode and verbose mode also do not work.

Lao Bo,
yes, you can locate and copy a file from your HD to a USB key using UNIX commands. If you know the exact name of the file which you’re trying to locate, try this:
find / -iname filename -print
This command will search your entire internal disk for the particular filename. If you know that it’s within a particular user account, then you can save search time with this variation:
find /Users/username -iname filename -print
Either variation of this command will print all files found which have the given filename. Presuming that you’re able to identify the correct file, you can copy it to a USB key using the command
cp -p filename_returned_by_find /Volumes/USB_volume
If you’re not sure which volume name your USB key has, this command will show you what the possibilities are:
ls /Volumes
Please let me know if you have any trouble with these commands.

Grey Screen w/ logo on startup, crashes in disk utility and FW disc mode

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