Mac Mini won't boot up after disconnecting it from iMac

I have disconnected my Mac Mini from the iMac I had
it connected to, and now it won't boot up when I turn
it on. Do I need to hold down a key combination to
get it to boot from it's own operating system again?
You should not have to hold down any key to get it to boot to an installed copy of MacOS, though if you hold the option key down, it should take you to the Startup Manager which will give you a list of available MacOS volumes it can boot from. If it doesn't show any, then you don't have a bootable MacOS on your mini.
Are you getting anything on your screen when you are trying to boot, such as a folder with a question mark?

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Mac Mini Won't Boot Up After HD Upgrade

So I have a Mac Mini 1.5GHz Intel Solo. I recently maxed it out with 2GB RAM and a 500GB Hard Drive. My problem is, when I start it up with the install disc all that appears is the folder icon with the question mark. Tried restarting holding down "C" and the same thing happens. I tried booting up with the install disc that came with my MacBook Pro with Leopard, and it gets me through to the main screen but then it tells me that this software cannot be installed on this computer. But I was able to format the Hard Drive. So I tried the Tiger install disc and the same folder question mark icon came up. Any ideas?

+"I have the install discs that came with my MacBook Pro, Leopard, tried those on the Intel Mac Mini and that's when it let's me choose a language but then a window saying the software _cannot be installed_ onto this computer pops up."+
+While _the same version of Leopard can run on Intel and PPC_, Tiger requires a different version for Intel than for PPC.+
The distinction is between installing vs. running.
Macs have generally not allowed install discs from one model to be used to install on an other model.
But an external Leopard bootable hard drive (with the correct partition map) can boot either Intel or PPC Macs capable of running Leopard. Of course the partition map has to be GUID for Intel, and APM for PPC -- and PPC Macs can only boot from firewire externals or from internals.

Mac Mini won't boot after failed XP installation

Recently upgrade HD to 320GB 7200 rpm and 3GB ram. Running 10.5.8 fine.
I tried to install Windows XP through Boot Camp, but wasn't successful, I terminated the installation. Then Mac Mini won't boot up. When powered on, you heard the chime, then grey screen showed and stayed. Tried starting with "C" (boot from CD), "OPT" (boot option), "T" (target), and reset PRAM. None of them worked.
What should I try next?
Thanks
Message was edited by: Yijian Cao

If you install XP on Bootcamp, your startup disc will be changed to XP Windows partitioned you did. To restore your startup disc back to Mac OS, make sure your Mac is turned off. 1. Plug the power back and press the power button ON. When you hear the power On sound, press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard until you see the hardrives. 2. Select the HD that says MAc OS, then your mac will boot back to Mac OS.
Let me know if you have more problems, maybe I can help.
Abel

Mac mini won't boot anymore

My Mac mini won't boot anymore. It's been running fine for months.
It's running Leopard Server 10.5.2 Build 9C31
It starts to boot, I get the first spinning gear with the gray screen, then the blue desktop blinks, then a second spinning gear on a gray screen and it appears to hang (the gear stops spinning).
I booted off the install DVD, ran disk utility, repaired the HD, repaired the permissions: the behavior is the same.
Safe mode doesn't work (same hang as above).
Single user mode does work.
I can connect to it via Server Admin while it appears hung.
The last few lines of the system log are:
May 15 18:38:58 server emond[67]: SetUpLogs: uid = 0 gid = 0
May 15 18:38:58 server emond[67]: SetUpLogs: opening /Library/Logs/EventMonitor/EventMonitor.error.log
May 15 18:38:59 server kextd[23]: writing kernel link data to /var/run/mach.sym
May 15 18:39:09 server KernelEventAgent[59]: tid 00000000 received unknown event (12)
May 15 18:39:20 server kernel[0]: display: Not usable
May 15 18:39:20 server com.apple.KerberosAutoConfig[126]: Kerberos configuration is up to date
May 15 18:39:20 server com.apple.ATSServer[125]: FODBCheck: New annex file created
May 15 18:39:21 server ARDAgent [130]: ******ARDAgent Launched******
May 15 18:39:21 server com.apple.KerberosAutoConfig[132]: Kerberos configuration is up to date
May 15 18:39:22 server ARDAgent [130]: call logout from LoginLogoutProxyCallBackFunction
May 15 18:39:22 server com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.RemoteDesktop.agent): Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
May 15 18:39:24 server loginwindow[58]: Login Window Started Security Agent
May 15 18:39:29 server servermgrd[53]: servermgr_calendar: created default calendar virtual host
May 15 18:39:31 server ARDAgent [146]: ******ARDAgent Launched******
May 15 18:39:32 server ARDAgent [146]: ******ARDAgent Ready******
May 15 18:39:33 server mdworker[109]: (Error) SyncInfo: Boot-cache avoidance timed out!
May 15 18:39:54 server Python[47]: CGImageSourceCreateWithData data parameter is nil
May 15 18:39:54 server com.apple.wikid[47]: Thu May 15 18:39:54 server.jeff.carpenter.name Python[47] <Error>: CGImageSourceCreateWithData data parameter is nil\n
May 15 18:39:56 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - bad packet received. length: 1440, packet status bits: MII error
May 15 18:39:56 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2: 00000000,00000001 sk98osx sky2 - - sk98osx_sky2::replaceOrCopyPacket tried N times
May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSWRITEDATA SBF /dev/dtracehelper 13 (seatbelt)
May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSREADDATA SBF /dev/autofs_nowait 13 (seatbelt)
May 15 18:49:54 server kernel[0]: serialnumberd 194 FSREADDATA SBF /usr/sbin 13 (seatbelt)
May 15 18:55:12 server kernel[0]: AppleYukon2 - bad packet received. length: 23, packet status bits: MII error
Any ideas?

Yes, it's been running Server since I purchased it.
I doubt the serial number is in use elsewhere: I purchased the 10-user version at a retail store in a sealed package and I've only installed it once.

Mac Mini won't boot up.

Mac Mini won't boot up! Just getting blank white screen, any ideas why? No apple, just a blank screen. It worked fine last night.

Have you tried booting into the Recovery HD by pressing/holding COMMAND+R at system start or the Option/Alt key and choosing Recovery HD to boot into?
If you can get into the Recovery HD, open Disk Utilities and Verify Disk. Repair if necessary.

Mac OSx won't boot up after update to 10.6.7?

Mac OSx won't boot up after update to 10.6.7?

Hi Mike
This is called a kernel panic, similar to s 'blue screen of death' on Windows. When you say you reinstalled 3 times, do you mean the OS or the Update?
When does this kernel panic appear? You may have a hardware issue if it's happening on boot.
Taylor

Mac mini won't boot after RAM upgrade.

Tried installing new RAM in my Mac Mini, 512MB stock to 2GB of Crucial. Followed the directions to a T, grounded myself the whole time.
Things I've tried so far:
1. Resetting the PRAM, no luck.
2. Holding option at start-up, shows no icon.
3. Holding shift, no luck.
4. Holding X, nothing.
How do I get it to accept a CD if it won't boot?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
You clearly have a problem, but you don't describe exactly what that is other than that your mini won't boot after the upgrade. What happens when it starts up? Does it attempt to start and hang up on the grey or blue screens, or does it start beeping at you almost immediately after you try and start it up, and also flash the power light?
If the former, then you may have dislodged a connector while working inside the system, in which case opening it up and checking that everything is firmly connected would be the first thing to do. If the latter, then the beeping/light flashing is the system telling you it has failed the power-on self test and the pattern of beeps/lights indicates why. In your case likely the system can't find workable memory. In that instance, opening the system and ensuring that the RAM is firmly and fully seated would be a good step, and if the mini continues to fail, then replacing the new RAM with the original to test that the system will then start.
It is not likely that anything had damaged your MacOS install in the process of upgrading, thus normally no reason to need to boot to CD as a result of a RAM issue.

Mac Mini won't boot after 10.6.6 / Airport update

I just reinstalled 10.6.3 on a unibody Mac Mini, updated to 10.6.6 - and it booted fine. I ran another software update, and it suggested two more updates - which I believe was an Airport Utility update and a Java update. Now the Mac Mini fails to boot, stopping at the Apple logo.
The last lines of verbose startup goes like this:
Airport: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).
Aut result for: (MAC address) succeded
AirPort: Link Up on en1
AirPort: RSN handshake complete on en1
AppleBCM5701Ethernet: 0 0 setFixedSpeed - logic error, speed any?
Suggestions?
H

I experienced a similar problem today after a recent upgrade to 10.6.6. I ran Tech Tool Pro 5 on the machine, which reported everything as just dandy after about 6 hours of testing, but it still wouldn't boot. Next, I tried booting in Verbose mode, which revealed that my iMac was hanging on:
AppleBCM5701Ethernet: 0 0 setFixedSpeed - logic error, speed any?
I used Safe Single User mode (turn on power, then immediately press and hold Shift-Command-S until text starts appearing) to boot to a command line. Single User mode provides instructions on how to mount the file system read/write. I executed the `fsck` command as instructed, and after a few minutes it reported that it had made changes to the file system. At that point, I skipped the `mount` command and went directly to `exit` to continue the boot process, which completed. I turned AirPort back on (I had it turned off), then rebooted normally without any trouble.

Mac Mini Won't Boot or Internet Restore - Hard Drive Boots on Macbook

Late 2012 Mac Mini. I cloned my 10.10.2 installation of Yosemite over from my Macbook pro 6,2 to a 1TB Samsung 840 SSD. It booted with no issues besides the keychain being lost and all passwords having to be re-entered.
After a week of going perfectly, it stops recognizing the USB keyboard after I unplugged it and plugged it back in. So I rebooted and get the dreaded stop sign after the boot failed. Oops. I enabled trim before I cloned, but forgot to check if it was working in the cloned drive (seems it was in the end). Since there was no recovery partition, I booted into Internet Recovery, but that hung using both WPA and WPA2 router logins. It obviously was syncing with router, but I got error -2002f in every configuration I tried. It also didn't seem to recognize an ethernet connection. Weird stuff.
I remembered I had an issue with a previous Mac Mini of the same model and the permissions after a clone. I repaired permissions and that was that. This is different because it wouldn't boot into Safe Mode. Resetting the PRAM did bring back an audible chime at least.
I pulled the SSD out of the Mac Mini and alt booted in from my Macbook 6,2. No issues (except the keychain thing again( and it loaded quickly. Nothing seemed to be wrong.
Then I put it back in the Mac Mini and tested it with known working RAM. Still the same thing. So now I am going to sleep on it and try to figure it out. It is unlikely to be a hardware failure as the Mac Mini was made in May 2014 and I bought factory refurbished. It seems to be an issue relating to the SSD as it boots other drives.
Any ideas?

Fix The Bugs Please wrote:
It is unlikely to be a hardware failure as the Mac Mini was made in May 2014 and I bought factory refurbished. It seems to be an issue relating to the SSD as it boots other drives.
Any ideas?
Is this SSD an additional drive added to your Mac Mini or did you replace the HDD with it? If it's an additional drive and since it's a Samsung, depending where you purchased your drive doubler kit (iFixit or OWC) you can try swapping the drives in the bays. I know for a fact that Samsung SSDs do not work right with the iFixit drive doubler kit's SATA cable. But it does work correctly with the Apple supplied SATA cable. If it's the OWC SATA cable, I know for a fact those are much more reliable with Samsung, OWC, Intel, Crucial SSDs. Another thing, I would NOT enable TRIM (my opinion) using a 3rd party trim enabler if you're running Yosemite. There are issues with trim enablers and Yosemite. Just let the built-in Garbage Collection take care of things.
If it's not an additional drive that was added, does your Mac Mini boot and work fine with the stock drive that it came with? Even though it's a 2012 model, if you purchased it refurbished from Apple in May 2014, you're still under warranty (same 1yr as new Macs) and if it's having same or similar issues working with the stock drive, you can take it to a local Apple Store for warranty repair. You would need to have only the stock drive installed (no SSD) before you setup an appointment.

Mac mini won't boot - hardware test error

my mac mini isn't booting... stuck on the grey apple screen with spinning circle.
have ran the hardware test on the OSX DVD and i get the following error
**ERROR*CODE***ERROR*CODE**
2STF/8/3: ATA-100 ata-6 - Master
**ERROR*CODE***ERROR*CODE**
i assume this means that the HDD is knackered ?

The variable reports on the hard drive are not entirely unusual with a drive that has problems, but it's not a good sign in general that you are having issues with booting to the install disk. That has potential to reflect a controller error that could be minor in nature and even be as simple as a poor connection on the drive carrier which has both drives mounted to it.
Try booting to the OS installer again. If you can get past the language selection screen it means OSX (the very basic version on the installer) has loaded, and that's a good sign. There's no reason from that point that the Utilities menu wouldn't pull down as normal and disk utility run from there. If you can get that far, see if the internal drive is visible on the left of the disk utility app, and if so, select it (there may be two entries for it, either will do) then click the repair disk button.

Mac Mini won't boot after PRAM reset

My mac mini has been running very slow, VERY VERY SLOW, then it would seem it would catch up with itself and run fine for a few minutes, then slow down again. It got to the point where I would have to do hard resets, but it still wouldn't work all that great. So I read on here to do a PRAM reset, which I did by holding down controloption+PR, and i got a gray screen with a status bar. But now the mac won't even boot up, even when I try safe mode. I turn it on, and i hear the start up tone, and get to the gray screen with status bar, but then it just shuts off. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Message was edited by: akiemele

From your user guide:
1 Disconnect all external devices from your Mac mini, except the keyboard and mouse.
If you have an Ethernet cable connected, disconnect it.
2 Restart your Mac mini while holding down the D key.
3 When the Apple Hardware Test chooser screen appears, select the language you want
to use.
4 Press the Return key or click the right arrow button.
5 When the Apple Hardware Test main screen appears (after about 45 seconds), follow
the onscreen instructions.
6 If Apple Hardware Test detects a problem, it displays an error code. Make a note of the
error code before pursuing support options. If Apple Hardware Test doesn’t detect a
hardware failure, the problem may be software-related.
If this procedure doesn’t work, you can insert the Applications Install DVD that came
with your Mac mini to use Apple Hardware Test. For more information, see the Apple
Hardware Test Read Me file on the Applications Install DVD.
When prompted, choose the extended test.

Mac Mini won't boot to Mac after partitioning for Windows 7

system:
Mac Mini, late 2009
Intel
4 gig ram
500 gig hard drive, brand new
OSX
Mtn Lion with Mavericks just installed, runs ok
problem:
Adding 90 gig partition for Windows 7, now won't boot to either Mac or Windows
After a little bit sticky install of Mavericks, I had the thing running fine. I downloaded support sw onto the USB drive as per Bootcamp instructions, and started going through the wizard to install Windows 7.
First try: "error" while creating the partition. I ran the Disk Utitliy, Verify Disk, found an error, ran Repair, it fixed the error
Second try: it started making the partition again, and then apparently just zipped through the partition making real fast (it finished so fast I could hardly catch it), then shut down in an apparent restart (as it's supposed to?), and from then on it won't reboot all the way. I get about 15 seconds of gray screen, the Win 7 disk jerks a little, then screen goes blank and silence. No hd activity. Tried restarting with all the usual key combinations (Command-R, "X" key, Option key, etc, etc). Nothing will bring the Mac login screen up again.
What gives? It is such b.s. for this stuff to be so flaky. This is all totally current software on the Mac side, running fine for days, and an apparently ok partition created. Fix me, Apple.

Got it. Thanks for the help. Isn't there any boot disk thing that I can just stick in there that will jerk the OS sideways and give me the Mac login screen, or did the Bootcamp/partition attack just wreck everything? I don't see why I have to do an entire scrape of my totally updated and formerly working OSX just to retry a routine Bootcamp partition, which the girl at the Mac Store in Seattle here assured me has worked for them all the time. It really is a crock. Maybe I shouldn't bother trying to put Windows 7 on there at all if all these latest versions are so flimsy. I wouldn't want to have to do it all again. But it looks like I'll have to at least once. And send Apple the bill for my wasted time. I ain't feelin' the glamour.

Mac mini won't boot after latest update Maverick

My Mac mini running Maverick after an automatic update won't boot. " no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key"
What option do I have here?

Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is
three times faster than wireless.

Mac Mini won't boot after update

I have a Mac Mini that won't boot after the most recent software update. Since the Mini has only a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a number of the usual options (hold down shift, etc.) won't work. I've tried a reset, also no luck. At the moment, I can't locate my Tiger install CD either.
When holding the power button on during boot, I get a series of flashes from the status light on the front (a set of very rapid flashes, followed by a slower set, followed by a slow set) but no startup chime, or fan, or video. My display and power source are both known-good (work fine with my Powerbook)
Any suggestions, other than buying a hardwired keyboard/mouse?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
The 'newer version of OS X" error occurs because the installer on the DVD you have booted to has by default been set to update the version of MacOS on the hard drive, which of course it can't do because the version of MacOS it is installing is newer. The only way to install in this situation is to select a different option. However, that isn't what you want to do at this point, because as it says, you'll loose your data if you do an 'erase and install'.
Instead, you should see menus at the top of the screen when it's booted to that install disk. Click the Utilities menu, select Disk Utility, and then click the top entry for the internal hard drive on the left. Once done, click on the 'Repair Disk' button (not Repair Permissions). This will test the drive to make sure it's OK. If it reports errors, and then reports 'error or exit' with the drive not repaired, you will either need a 3rd party application such as Alsoft's Disk Warrior, or to perform an erase and install (which of course you don't want to do at this point because your data is not backed up).
If the Repair Disk process completes with no errors, next select Repair Permissions, and let that process complete, then reboot the system as normal to see if you can now access the drive.

Mac Mini Won't Boot after 2008 008 Security Update

I have 2 mac mini's both identical systems - ran the security update at home - rebooted and noticed the movements of the mouse and the mail application was 1/2 to a second slow/behind - decided to restart - it took 3 restarts and it finally came back and then locked up
I ran Disk Warrior and version 4.0.1 could not fix the problem - version 3.0.3 said it could and replaced the directory - but upon restart it would not boot - I became mesmerized by the spinning dial
I will not run the update at work and had to substitute my titanium at home in the meantime
ugly...

Hi thecincykid, and a warm welcome to the forums!
If you have another Mac around, try FW Target Mode, which will turn your iMac into an External Firewire Drive...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
To either reapply the Security update, or the big Combo update...
The combo update for PowerPC-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html
The combo update for Intel-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateintel.html
Repair Permissions before & after re-install, then reboot again each time.

Mac Mini won't boot up after disconnecting it from iMac

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