27" iMac won't boot from anything BUT the main drive

Hi all,
My lovely 27" iMac is in perfect working condition, but I thought I'd try to install a OS on a large SD card to see if I would gain any speed.
In the process of doing that (cause I never got that far) I discover that the iMac won't boot from the original install DVD. It simply spits out the DVD when I try to insert into the drive. I'v managed to make an image of the DVD (in a different mac) onto the SD card in order to try an boot from that. No luck. I've tried to insert a original install DVD from my Mac Pro into the iMac, which it reads fine and well, and when I tap the restart button it restarts, but stop with a white screen doing boot up.
If I try to hold down the option key during startup, the iMac WILL let me choose which OS to boot from, but if I choose anything else than the OS already installed it freezes.
I've even tried to boot my Mac Pro from the iMac install DVD - no problems.
I've even run a hardware test on the iMac - no problems.
I am running out of options fast! Please help a devoted Mac-friend.
Take care.
Peter

I WAS using the DVD that came with the machine, but I fear Apple may have sent me the wrong one?
In trying to solve the issues I'd tried other OS disc's (A Mac Pro install DVD and a OS X Leopard DVD) - but none of them would even boot, nor install of my iMac. I always end up with a white screen during boot up.
As I described, the original iMac install DVD would indeed boot my Mac Pro, do the disc seems ok?

Similar Messages

I have a G5 with Tiger to sell and want to erase all my data from it, but the cd drive won't work so I can't use the OS10 start up disk. Answers?

I have a G5 to sell and want to erase all my data from it, but the cd drive won't work so I can't use the OS10 start up disk. Any way to do it?

Do you have another Mac? If so, you can startup this one in "Target Disk Mode" (instructions here) and connect it to another Mac to delete the home folders (or the entire drive, if that's what you want).
One piece of advise, though: after deleting the data, and of course emptying the Trash, it wouldn't hurt to also securely erase the "free space" of the drive (instructions here) before disconnecting the old Mac from the new one. This can be helpful, since "deleted" data is often retrievable with ease unles it's written over after the deletion.

Xserve G4 Won't boot from Anything

Everyone:
I have a G4 Xserve (slot load) with 2 GB of RAM installed. It was running X.3.9 just as happy as a lark. I migrated all users from the server to use it as a test environment. My first test was to upgrade it to Tiger, which so far has not gone very smoothly.
The Xserve has all 4 bays populated. Bays 1&2 are mirrored using Apple's RAID software, this is the system drive. Bays 3&4 are set as a RAID 0.
My Upgrade goes like this: I inserted the Tiger Server CD (no DVD drive), double-clicked the installer and the server rebooted. The installed seemed to go smooth, but I did have to walk away from it towards the end. When I came back, the server was stuck at a blue screen and a moveable mouse pointer. Couldn't do anything else.
This forced a hard reset, of which the same thing happened. So I thought, no big deal, let's just redo the installation. Insert Tiger CD again, hold down C key....server boots from hard drive and gets stuck.
Weird.
Ok, let's try booting from the Panther CD. Reboot server, hold down mouse button, eject Tiger CD, insert Panther CD, reboot, hold C key....server boots from hard drive and gets stuck.
Dang. This was supposed to be an easy upgrade.
Just so things aren't confused, I pull out the drives with the Raid 0 (Bays 3 & 4). Same process.
OK, maybe it's the Raid on the system drive, so I pull out one of the drives. Same boot process.
Reset the PRAM, just for grins, no change.
Alright, let's see if I can force it to recognize the CD, pull out all the drives and put in a spare, brand new drive from the shelf.
Same thing, won't boot from CD. Neither Panther or Tiger. At least I get the blinking icon that there's no OS installed.
Put the #1 system drive back in, connect an external firewire CD Drive, still won't boot from CD. I still get to a blank blue screen, though.
Try booting in Single User Mode, I still get the same thing, boots from disk to blue screen.
Now I've spent an afternoon of my time and another techs time and we're both scratching our heads. I recalled that I could also issue boot commands via the Sys ID button. Dig out manual, find the combination, same story. Boots from hard drive to the blue screen and stops.
Seems like any input at boot time is being ignored, although it will eject the CD if the mouse is held down. I've verified that the machine is not locked (the light is off). I also opened it up to make sure that the lock switch wasn't partially stuck. Not sure if there's anything else to check.
Thoughts?

does that mean I have to send it to Apple to fix
No. Apple changes the bootROMs from model to model so you can't use the same install disc on different models. It could their way of dealing with piracy.
Example; Say I bought a new MacBook Pro and I had an iMac that was still running Leopard. I couldn't use the Snow Leopard install disc from the new MBP to install SL on the iMac.
Check out the new remodeled MacOSG website! 24-hour Apple-related news & support.
 MacOSG: An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast  Follow us on Twitter: MacOSG

IMac won't boot from Firewire?

Hey gang-
I wanted to post this to save anyone else pulling out their hair if they have a Mac that won't boot from a Western Digital (WD) external Firewire drive. I recently purchased a Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB FireWire 800 External Hard Drive.
I bought this drive intending to partition it into two 1TB partitions- one for a bootable backup and one for a Time Machine backup. I do my bootable backups with the application SuperDuper, which is outstanding for this purpose. I have used it to create bootable backups on 3 different Maxtor external Firewire drives, and they have all flawlessly booted all my Macs. I expected no different from this new Western Digital (WD) 2TB drive.
Unfortunately, the WD would not boot 2 out of my 3 Macs when connected via Firewire. It would NOT boot an Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) or an Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does boot our Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition). Strangely, the WD booted all 3 Macs when connected via USB, though needless to say very slowly in all cases. If you need additional technical information, read on.
Technical Info: The following tests were done with the WD connected via Firewire. The WD is correctly formatted for booting Intel Macs with GPT GUID formatting. Note that the WD appears as a bootable drive in System Preferences->Startup Disk on all 3 of my Macs. But when attempting to boot via Firewire, I get only a grey screen on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). The Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition) boots normally. When booting with the Option Key held down, Startup Manager does NOT see the WD as a bootable drive on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does appear as a bootable drive on the Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition).
When connected via USB, the WD boots all three of my Macs, but very slowly compared to the internal drive.
It's probably worth noting that the Late-2007 MacBook and the Mid-2007 iMac all share the then-new Santa Rosa architecture. So I'm guessing that they may share the same Firewire chipset. And for whatever reason, that chipset does not play nice with the WD chipset.
So, bottom line is that if you need a Firewire bootable backup, be sure to test the drive right away so that you don't think you have a bootable backup when in fact you don't.
On the good side, the drive is amazingly quiet. At this point, I need to decide whether to keep the drive, knowing that I have only USB as a bootable option on 2 out my 3 Macs, or return it. But in any case, wanted to pass this on to anyone else having problems booting from an external Firewire drive.

baltwo wrote:
FWIW, many WD HDs won't boot Macs and booting Macs isn't supported. Details at their site. That's the main reason I never recommend their crappy HDs.
Actually I'm very familiar with that list- spent a lot of time looking at this past week!
Ironically, the majority of that page is a list of drives which they claim WILL boot Macs. In fact, the list is entitled "List of Mac-bootable WD external drives..."
And yep, mine is on there...on the list that reads "The following external hard drives should be bootable on Intel-based Mac computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b)" is "MyBook Studio" as well as my drive model number.
But that's all beside the point. Like you, I couldn't recommend their drives at this point. At least make sure if you buy one that the vendor has a good return policy.
Dave

Macbook Pro 15" won't boot from ANYTHING :( Can't mount internal drive

Hi there,
I'm new to these forums so please bear with me if I make a faux pas.
A few days ago while watching a movie on my MBP Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 the beach ball of death appeared and the computer became unresponsive. I restarted to the flashing folder with a question mark.
Tried to boot from the install disk - No joy : Occasionally gets to the language selection screen (after a good 5-8 minute wait) and then instantly and completely freezes. Cursor won't move, caps lock light is unresponsive etc..
Tried to boot from Diskwarrior - Similar to the above. Long wait, boots to the Diskwarrior 'setting up' screen, unresponsive cursor - despite, Diskwarrior seemingly going through the motions (status in text changes, menu bar appears) and then it reports an unexpected error with code 60, 2105 and completely freezes.
Can't boot from a USB flash drive with a clean version of OS X made from my install disk.
Disk won't mount when in target disk mode. However the DVD drive mounts it's contents onto the host machine when it target mode.
I removed the drive last night and placed it in an external enclosure and OS X reports "The disk you've inserted is not recognised et.. "Initialise" "Ignore" "Eject". The drive appears in Disk Utility but all options are greyed out, SMART status says 'not supported' and it's capacity is shown as 0 bytes. The drive registers in the Hardware pane of Diskwarrior but no-where else.
I'm fine with the fact that the drive has failed but could these problems indicate something more serious? I'm concerned that the machine won't boot from any device or media. Is this a symptom of a failed hard drive or could this be a logic board issue?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanks all and Happy new Year.
XOXO

You might try a PRAM reset and see if this does any good.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US
It sounds like the hard drive itself is toast based on how it looks in an enclosure. So you won't be able to boot from it. Possibly after a PRAM reset you could option boot to a disc or to your external drive.
I had the experience of a failed hard drive totally messing up my PowerMacG4, and it took some doing to get it going again. I finally got it going again, and it has been working ever since without issue.
The MBP is a different machine, but having experienced first hand what a dying hard drive could do, I think it's well worth doing any resets you can.
If no joy, make an appointment at the genius bar and ask them if they can run a hardware test from their store feed. If you do have other issues, they should show up then.
If you end up being able to boot to the optical drive, you could try running the extended version of the Apple Hardware test yourself.
Good luck!

IMac won't boot from OS X install disc!

I'm needing to do some internal hard drive repairs but the system won't boot from the install disc! I've restarted it tons of times while holding down "C" and it just bypasses it and boots right into OS X. It restarts as normal with the chime (I am holding down "C") then the Apple logo comes up, then the spinning circle thing, but it just goes right into OS X. Help!

Let's be sure you are doing it properly.
First, you must use the OS X Installer Disc One that came with your computer. Carefully check both surfaces for scratches, dirt, fingerprints and if so clean it carefully with a very soft cleaning cloth that won't scratch the disc.
Second, insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when the spinning gear appears below the dark gray Apple logo.

G5 won't boot from Install Disc or Hard Drive

After 2.5 years of perfect service my G5 2.0 suddenly won't boot from the HD or Install Disc that came with it. My G5 only shows the grey screen with the apple logo, the spinning gears and the circle with the line through it.
I haven't added any hardware since day one. I've done pram,nvram and smu resets. I've selected a start up disk by holding the option key, removed and re-seated the ram one by one.
The Apple Hardware test CD shows everything passing. I ran Disc Utility from Target Mode from my MacBook Pro and it showed the G5 hard drive is in working order.
I think I have a hardware issue.
Is it worth it to get this model repaired if its something major?

I was having a similar problem, except I only saw the grey apple logo, no spinning. Finally got it figured out, ended up being one of my processors (dual 1.8) was bad, took the bad one out and it works fine now. Now Im working on getting processor replaced.

My iMac won't boot. I get the tone, the apple icon and the turning gear. I Unplugged, waited 1 min., restarted

My iMac wont't boot. I get the tone, the gray screen with apple icon and the turning gear. I Unplugged for 1 min.(+) and attempted to restart with the same result. Idid this twice. I reset the PRAM by holding Command Option P and R on restart. Same result. I held the Option key on restart and got a picture of 1 hard Disk. I hit Enter and got the same routine with the gray screen, apple icon and turning gear. I inseted the Hardware Test CD and ran the test, but it stopped at 2min and 27sec. That's after about 30 minutes of elapsed time -- it just gets hot so I held the power button to shut it off. Repeated and got to exactly same point in 2min and 27 sec. I'm stuck. Any ideas?

Unfortunately, it sounds like the startup disk is failing or has failed.
Which O S X is installed? Troubleshooting advice can depend on that information.

After attempting secure erase, iMac w/homemade fusion drive won't boot from *anything*

2009 iMac with homemade fusion drive (SSD installed in optical bay). Was working fine with Yosemite until I attempted to secure erase it before giving away the machine.
Now the drive is borked. Disk utility could make no sense of it, can't reformat, it can't repartition it. And now it has completely stopped booting. I cannot even get it to boot of an external USB drive anymore (the original operation was performed while booted from a Yosemite installer drive on a USB stick).
I've reset the PRAM, reset the SMC, and just nothing. All boots are attempted from internal messed up fusion drive, which eventually ends in the "prohibitory sign".
I'm not even sure what to try at this point. Any suggestions out there?

Thank you for the reply. I have since resolved the problem, although not in the most satisfactory way.
Here's what I did:
Pulled both drives out of the iMac, put them into a USB dock, and reformatted each one. Both drives appeared at this point to be fine.
Reinstalled both drive into the iMac, and started up from a USB drive. No problem.
Recreated the fusion drive from the terminal. No problem.
Now, because I am a glutton for punishment, I tried wiping the fusion drive again. This time, part way in, it kernel panicked. Luckily, I was able to reboot once again to the external drive.
At this point, the fusion drive was in the exact same messed up state as when I started. Disk Utility app could do nothing with it.
Fortunately, this time I went right to the command line, and was able to fix things up and recreate the fusion drive before anything else bad happened.
I gave up on wiping the drive for now. If I need to do so in the future, I will disable the fusion drive and try to wipe each physical drive separately.
I should note that this iMac has never given a spot of trouble before now, so I am highly suspicious of the way disk utility tries to wipe a fusion drive. I certainly won't try it again. (I don't know if it has ever kernel-panicked before in the 5 years I've owned it).

Upgrading iMac: Won't boot from 9.1 or 9.2 CD

I am upgrading a 350Mhz slot loading iMac. I put in a newer 500mhz mother board, a 60 gig drive, and 512 mb dimm. I have done this type of upgrade with other identical iMacs, except that the mother board was a 400mhz. In any event, there is no software on the internal hard drive, so I tried to boot from the 9.1 CD I have. The computer will chime and bring up the flashing question mark folder. I then tried just going ahead and loading OS 10.2. The iMac will boot from the CD with the C key held down with this disk, and it will get all the way to the startup of the installer. I have been able to use disk utility from here to format the hard drive. It shows up and formats O.K. Then, when I start the install sequence, I get all the way to the actual install, but while the software is checking the package contents, the computer either just stalls (mouse stops moving), or I get a kernel panic. I am presuming the problem is it doesn't have the 4.19 firmware installed. But if I can't get it to boot from the 9.1 disk, how can I install anything, much less the firmware.
By the way, I have replaced the PRAM battery, and I have reset the PRAM and NVRAM. Any ideas?

Don't those old imacs have a problem reading drives larger than 8GBs?
I believe that you are referring to the fact that some early Macs had to have large hard drives partitioned such that the first partition was less than 8 GB.
This is not applicable to the iMac 350 MHz or faster iMac (the slot loaders).
It is applicable to the tray loading iMacs (333 MHz and slower).

IMac won't boot from/install Lion. Why?

I have a 2006-model iMac (iMac5,1 with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2.5GB RAM; this is one of Apple's supported configurations for Lion) which has been running quite nicely for several years now. About a year or so ago I moved it to 10.6 which went smooth as silk. Last week I decided to move it to 10.7 and right about now I'm ready to throw this iMac in the effin' trash. It simply WILL NOT boot from OS X 10.7 no matter what.
I first put my 10.7 installer on the computer while it was running 10.6. I launched it, it copied a bunch of stuff, then restarted the computer. Then....nothing. I got the Apple logo with the spinner. I waited about 20 minutes for something greater to happen but nothing did so I forced a shut down. Unfortunately that attempt seems to have destroyed my previous 10.6 installation. Any further attempt to start from that hard drive yields an infinite spinner with the Apple logo but never any desktop or anything useful.
I then put my old iMac into Target Disk Mode, connected it to my newer iMac (iMac7,1 with 4GB RAM running 10.7.4), and used Disk Utility to reformat the old iMac's hard drive. That went fine. I then ran the OS X 10.7 installer on my new iMac, directing it to install onto the old iMac's hard drive. It took about 10 minutes to copy its files then directed me to restart which I did. I got the spinner-with-Apple for a few minutes followed by a spinner-with-circle-slash forever (about 15 minutes before I forced a shut down). I was able to reboot my newer iMac from its internal hard drive without any issues but every time I tried booting the newer iMac from the older iMac's hard drive I would get the spinner-with-Apple for a few minutes followed by a spinner-with-circle-slash forever thing. The same thing happened when I took the older iMac out of TDM and tried to boot it from its own hard drive. Trying that in verbose mode shows "Waiting for DSMOS" as the final line before the machine stalls. It is important to note that (a) this is a legitimately purchased Lion license that I bought last year, and (b) I'm trying to install it on an Apple iMac, not a Hackintosh.
Next, I ran the Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable 10.7 recovery USB drive. The creation of the drive went fine and I'm able to boot my newer iMac from the drive — but I cannot boot the older iMac from it, again getting the spinner-with-Apple for a few minutes followed by a spinner-with-circle-slash forever thing. Verbose mode shows the DSMOS error again.
My next step was to extract the "InstallESD.dmg" bootable system image from the installer app and clone that onto a USB drive. That went fine and I was able to boot my newer iMac from that drive but I was unable to boot the older iMac from that drive, again getting the spinner-with-Apple for a few minutes followed by a spinner-with-circle-slash forever thing with verbose mode showing the DSMOS error.
Next I tried to reverse things. I put my newer iMac into TDM, connected it to the older iMac, and tried to boot the older iMac from the newer iMac's hard drive. This failed too. I never got the circle-slash thing, only the Apple logo forever. Verbose mode shows the last line being "BootCacheControl: Unable to open /var/db/BootCache.playlist: 2 No such file or directory".
Finally, I pulled out a spare external hard drive. From my new iMac I booted from my USB drive (the one I cloned "InstallESD.dmg" onto), installed Lion onto the external drive, and booted successfully from the external drive. Everything was running perfectly. I ran System Update until everything was fully updated, then connected that external drive to the old iMac and tried to boot. Again, Apple logo forever with verbose mode showing the BootCacheControl error.
To ensure that the older iMac was fully operational I dug out the old OS install discs and ran the "extended" diagnostic. Everything came up perfect with no errors.
I then pulled out my OS X 10.6 DVD and tried booting the older iMac from it. That worked perfectly, and I was able to format and install 10.6 without any hiccups or issues whatsoever. The iMac is perfectly operational under 10.6.
So why the phargl can't I get 10.7 on this bloody machine?!?!?

In addition to MGW's suggestion...........
See the following Articles:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25497 Older versions of Mac OS than what comes with your computer
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25517 Mac OS: Versions, builds included with PowerPC Macs (since 1998)
==========
Without the original System DVDs that came w/the iMac, all you have is a glorified doorstop. You need the System DVDs to troubleshoot. *Especially Install Disc #1.*
You can get replacement System Install & Restore CD/DVDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.
If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number. Here's a list of links to all of those -
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html

IMac won't boot from HD, are permissions relevant?

My iMac G5 was working perfectly yesterday. Today it started with the chime and the Apple logo, but then got stuck with the fan running - tried this several times. I then booted from my Leopard DVD, and the System is reported as normal. Tried Disk Utility which says HD is OK. Checked permissions in case this was a factor - it started making a long list of wrong permissions. I stopped this and tried to go straight to 'Repair Permissions'. DU said it was doing it and it would take "less than 1 minute", and then changed its mind to several hours (currently it says 2 but this goes up now and then. I am not at all sure that permissions have anything to do with my booting problem, so I am seeking advice on this forum. I do have a Time Machine backup of the HD, but I don't really know how to proceed in finding out what's wrong or in correcting it. So far can't find anything in Apple support pages. Can anyone help?

DU often gives enormously long times for permissions repair, sometimes the time estimated goes down very quickly, but I have one machine that takes 45 minutes to repair. I would suggest trying again, and also resetting your SMU, which can resolve some computer issues such as not starting up, not displaying video, sleep issues, fan noise issues, and so on. If your computer still exhibits these types of issues even after you've restarted the computer, try resetting the SMU. To reset the SMU on one of these iMacs:
1. Turn off the computer by choosing Shut Down from the Apple menu, or by holding the power button until the computer turns off.
2. Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord.
3. Wait 10 seconds.
4. Plug in the power cord while simultaneously pressing and holding the power button on the back of the computer.
5. Let go of the power button.
6. Press the power button once more to start up your iMac.
Please let us know which model you have, Rev A, Ambient Light or iSight.
Let us know how you make out,

Imac won't boot from CD or HD-? mark on screen HELP!

I hope someone can help with this. I bought an imac for my little girl on Ebay. Its a Graphite CRT, with I believe a 20G HD and 128 of memory. I think it is either a 400mhz or 600.
It came on at first and I put in a Tiger DVD to upgrade the OS. It worked for a min or two. I also bought another 128 dimm and installed that into the memory slot.
Well, after that, I now only get a purplish screen or the screen with the ? and the mac face flashing back and forth. It will not read ANY CD or start from the HD at all. I took out the memory I put in, reset the pram, tried Disk Warrior on the drive. Nothing. Just the flashing question mark. The guy I got it from on Ebay was totally unhelpful except to say he thought it could be fixed.
I keep thinking Hard drive, but why doesnt the cd/dvd recognize anything I put in there?
I hold the C key down to start from a cd and nothing. It makes a sound like its trying, but to no avail.
I have seen various people on here with various problems, but nothing exactly like this. Can someone please help? I have a 4 yr old that really wants to use her "new" computer.
Thank you.
G5, PowerBook G4, imac Mac OS X (10.4.9) G5, powerbook, imac
G5, PowerBook G4, imac Mac OS X (10.4.9) G5, powerbook, imac

Hello again C,
I have seen, or heard the partition for these older CRT imacs can only have a certain size partition to be recognized, is that true?
Not for your Slot Loader. The "first 8 GB partition" applies to Tray Loaders.
I think the drive I have is about 40G.
That should be perfect as you don't want anything above 128GB.
I started it just now with the option key down. I do get a screen with two icons. The one on the left is like the refresh button on safari, a circular arrow, the one on the right is an arrow pointing right. The circular one makes the little wait clock come up but nothing happens. The other, does nothing.
Darn, I must have had the fingers on the wrong hand crossed. This is the Startup Manager, which will show any bootable Operating Systems. If it doesn't show an OS, there is nothing to boot from on that drive nor any drive connected to it. The circular icon will poll the drive again looking for an Operating System. The right arrow key will let you move between bootable systems to select the one you want (also accomplished using the Tab key, once you find the OS you want, hit the Return key).
Do I have to hold down the f key when i put it on, or should the computer recognize it automatically, like they do in OS10?
No, you shouldn't need to press any key. After you have transferred the information on the Firewire drive, connect it to the Strawberry iMac. The idea will be to install OS 9 on the external drive from the working iMac. Insert your OS 9 disk into the Strawberry iMac and run the installer. When you come to the screen for where to install, select the external Firewire drive (if it doesn't give you this option, cancel the install). On this screen you should also see a pulldown with the type of install, select Clean Install.
You will need to download the OS 9.2.1 update found here:
Mac OS 9.2.1: Document and Software
This will also need to be installed on the Firewire drive to update the OS to one which should boot on any CRT iMac.
After a successful install and update, connect the Firewire drive to the Graphite and see if it will start up (if necessary, use the Option key on startup).
If you have questions or need help at any point, please don't hesitate.
Hope This Helps,
Jeff
Mini 1.25, 12 Al PB 1.5, PTP 250, WS PB G3, 3xiMac 400 (OS 9.1) Mac OS X (10.3.9) Wireless KB/Mouse, AEBS, 80 GB OWC FW HD

IMac won't boot from HDD or CD. Help!?

Hi,
I recently came back from holiday for a couple of weeks and sat down to start my iMac (24" C2D). The machine just sat at a white screen and wouldn't go anywhere. Thought, ah, I'll just reset the PRAM (unplugged power cable for a min or so), and still same problem. Eventually I got the mac to boot by holding down the power button, the long beep sounded and the mac booted. All was well, until the next time I powered it down. Same thing, however same resolution didnt work...
After numerous attempts holding c, I've managed to boot into the mac installer, which said it couldnt repair the drive through disk utility. As I have time machine backup, thought I'll just start from scratch. Created a new partition (just to make sure everything was fresh), verified disk (no problems), started installer and it crashed towards the very end of the install (just over 1 hour in) with errors of being unable to copy files. After another few hours, managed to boot from CD again, this time install started, left it running overnight, only to find the mac in the morning on, but with a black screen. I've had to power it off and now I'm left with the same issue of a white screen and being unable to boot from CD.
Does any of this make sense to anyone? Could be a failed HDD, but why would I have the issue with the iMac generally refusing to boot from CD? Ran hardware diagnostic (extended) and no problems found.
I now have no hair left...

I assume that model has a back up battery in it? If so, have you changed it recently? If not you may want to replace it. In the meantime, try removing it completely and see if it starts up any better. If the battery is right on the hairy edge of good/too low, it might be corrupting the PRAM (or whatever they call it now on new models) causing start up issues. If you remove it, you won't retain a lot of settings such as Date and Time, but you should also be able to boot up eat time with all default values.
I had the same sort of issue with my eMac and pulling the battery cleared it up. That was many months ago and one of these days I might get around to buying a replacement battery... or not.
Cheers,
Patrick

Rev. A iMac Won't Boot From CD

Ok, this has stumped me. My brother gave me an old Rev. A iMac (233mhz, 128mb RAM), and I wanted to outfit it so my kid could play CD games and surf the 'Net (he's only 3, so we're not talking hard to please here).
Anyway, I bought a brand new 40GB Seagate 7200 ATA drive to replace the original 4GB drive so that I could install Panther for the stability. I installed it today, then popped in the OSX installation Disk 1, and it wouldn't boot. Got the flashing question mark/folder.
So I figured I might have to boot with the old OS, so I popped in the copy of 9.0 that came with my G3 Blueberry, and that started to boot (happy Mac appeared), but a few seconds later I got a popup that said, "A Fatal Error Has Occurred." My only option was to restart.
I've been looking for a while at issues already discussed that are sort of related to this, but nothing exactly with that error. I suspect it's a firmware problem, but if it won't even boot off the 9.2 CD, how can I update it?
Furthermore, the drive was right out of the baggie brand new. I assumed that even though it was completely blank, I could still boot up with an install CD and initialize the disk, get the firmware on there and install a system.
Now I'm thinking from what I've read in other threads that in order for success to be achieved, I'm going to have to boot up and install from the original OS8.1 CD that came with the machine, then incrementally upgrade the from there.
Any help would be kindly appreciated. The fatal error message and the inability to boot from a system CD scares me.
iMac G3 533mhz 256M/120G Mac OS X (10.3.9)

OS X needs to be on the first partition, OS 9 can be on the second. I think you have to have an installed an OS on the first partition so the boot blocks are set. I believe also that you have to have 8.5 or higher to do the OS X installation. The process on my PowerBook G3 Wallstreet was to install 9.2 first and then OS X following the guide in the Read Me on the install disk. I already had 9.1 on it at the time.
I remember it was a pain. I had to take it to work, back up the hard drive, partition and install. At the time it was 10.0 and ran so treacle slow. 10.1 fixed that, and it still has 10.1.5 on it running fine.
Also, the disk format has to be HFS+, not HFS. If you have an external drive, then you could install and do your upgrades on that until you can install on the internal.
There is also an iMac Firmware updater you will need to run available from Apple.com.

27" iMac won't boot from anything BUT the main drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for