Formatted Mac Os X accidently. Now wont boot from disk or hard disk. Help!

Hello,
Last weekend I managed to stupidly and accidently wipe my mac os x part of the HD when it was meant to be for the partition I had freshly made for boot camp. Since the mac os x part of the HDD was formatted as NTFS, I now cannot boot to that and have been trying to get on to disk utility to sort this mess out... by booting to disk... problem is... it wont.
Long story short.
After insertng the Mac Os X Tiger install disk and holding C it does not force boot the disk and all I see is a grey folder icon with a question mark which flashes several then vanishes... I've tried inserting the disk and holding the Option key, and C... and also tried tapping both option keys fast to no avail... the cursor appears however when I do both and it then freezes and the screen stays white.
Tried phoning Apple tech UK to discover i'm out of applecare cover and it'll cost me £35 to get incident cover for this incident. She then said at the end,.... you just need to get to disk utility and sort it from ther... problem is.... I cant get there.
Apologies for the mini-rant... I've just tried every solution and I'm still at square1.
Thanks in advance..

+Any other suggestions?+
You didn't mention whether or not it still sounds the start-up chime when you try to boot.
Also, will it boot to the Apple Hardware Test (located on one of the grey-labeled original system discs) - hold down the d key instead of c key. Has it ever run the AHT prior to this problem?
Were you successful at performing a PRAM reset? Only this will cure the iMac of its propensity to search for the old startup disk. Had you ever done one prior to this problem? If you can do that and then immediately switch to holding the c or d key, it must force a boot. Since all you need is for it to boot, you should have no external device connected to your iMac.

Similar Messages

  • My mac mini wont boot from disk

    My 2010 Unibody Mac Mini wont boot from disk, i need to open disk utility to repair my drive but it wont boot, any ideas?

    it started yesterday, and nope, not changed anything apart from the apple update for S.L. a week or two ago, and its stuck at the spinning gear, this has never happened before

  • Wont boot from CD after hard drive installation.

    I just installed a new hard drive in an iBook 700mhz. I expected the system folder missing message, as the hard drive was blank. However now it wont boot from CD when I hold down c on boot. Also when I hold down option, I get a circular arrow and an arrow pointing to the right but no real options. I reset the PRAM but that didn't help. Any one have an idea?

    Over the years I've seen some optical drive failures that were actually being caused by the hard drive. The first thing I'd suspect given a new drive is that you didn't quite seat the I/O cable. The second is that the HD is defective. A couple times everything seemed fine and when the drive was placed on the bench and after formatting it there and reinstalling it the drive and computer were happy.

  • Folder with question mark + wont boot from disk

    Hi
    I am trying to reinstall a powermac g5 from the disk, using a old hard drive that works.. (formatted in NTFS) (hoping that when selected to boot from disk, mac will then erase and reformat it)this image is presented when i hold down the option key and the disk ejects this other image is presented when i hold down C (folder with question mark blinking) and the disk ejects... also presented if i boot normally.... Could some help be offered please??????
    Powermac G5
    Thank you in advance

    Yes, you must Format it HFS+ first...
    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.*
    How to format your disks...
    http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
    (To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
    Thanks to Pondini, Formatting,  Partitioning, Verifying,  and  Repairing  Disks...
    http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html

  • Emac wont boot from cd or hard drive & display qeustion mark ?

    Hello, if someone can please help me.
    I have an emac which is purchased in 2003, it has ran OSX 10.4 for around a year. Recently i clean installed the hard drive, but the installation kept failing.
    When I restarted the computer a flashing qeustion mark in a folder alternating with the mac face logo appeared. If _ hold C down during startup - it wont start from the original OSX 10.2 that came with it either.
    I dont know what to do, I've searched every corner of the web looking for a solution.
    Thanks,
    P.S I've even attempted removing the hard drive - then trying C at startup - still the same qeustion mark flashing!

    If you have access to another Firewire-equipped Mac, it would be easier to use FireWire target disk mode with the other Mac as the Host and the eMac as the target. If the eMac's HD appears in target disk mode, first use the host Mac's Disk Utility to check the drive status in the eMac. If the eMac drive's SMART status is reading anything in red, your obvious next step is a replacement hard drive.
    If you were attempting to boot from a retail black-label OS X 10.4 install disc, the eMac certainly should have recognized that unless the optical drive has gone bad as well. Have you checked the eMac's PRAM battery? It should read within 0.1v of the nominal 3.6v value while under load (e.g., still in the eMac battery holder). A failed or weal PRAM battery is a classic reason for a Mac failing to start up properly.
    Replacing a failed PRAM battery should suffice in itself to revive the Mac. In some cases it may be necessary to carefully reset the PMU (see step 6 in eMac: How to Replace the Backup Battery).
    After checking the PRAM battery, see if resetting PRAM helps; hold down command-option-p-r while starting up until you hear three sets of chimes, then release the keys.

  • Lenovo T61 wont boot from disk or blue button but it will run pc doctor

    So I had left my Lenovo T61 Laptop on overnight and I woke up to a black screen with some sort of error message about the hard drive. I have had previous error messages about the hard drive on a blue screen but it has always returned to normal when I switch it back on.
    So after I try to turn it back on I get a blue screen about the hard drive, laptop resets and it wont start up normally.
    This is what happens when I try to start it...
    I have the option to press the blue button
    after that Im on a black screen with the option to start windows normally or launch start up repair.
    It doesnt matter what option I choose, a loading bar appears with 'windows is loading files...'
    the next screen is another loading screen, 'microsoft corporation'
    after it has been on this for over 5 minutes, the screen goes black and stays that way.
    If I put in my restore disk (I have  and boot from the drive it skips the option of starting normally or going to recovery center and starts on the loading screen (windows is loading files...) then goes to the 'microsoft corporation' loading bar, after a while it goes black and stays that way. I can hear the disk spinning and the disk is new without scratches.
    If I put pc doctor in and boot from the cd, pc doctor comes up. I have ran the test twice and each time everything passed.
    I had vista 32 on, and that is the recovery cds I have. I have used cd 1, 2 and 3 without any sucsess.
    If one person gives me the correct this without sending it to Lenovo I will paypal you £10 (basically buying you a beer)
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    I hadnt tried that, I didnt know I could. When I did that test it came back with a 0000 error. I googled that and found a few thread on this forum saying its means the hard drive is on its way out. So its looks like I have to send it in. 
    Im not sure if this is the model number, but the type is 8898-AQG
    If I try to run safe mode  its starts loading files on a black screen. The last one its loads is
    'Loaded: \windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys'
    I have no clue what that is, but it stops there.

  • Macbook unibody not booting from disk

    Hi, so my problem with a customers computer. It had a bad Hard Drive, i replaced it with a new Hard Drive that i partitioned with an imac. when i try to boot from a Leopard disk, the laptop just restarts and wont boot from disk. When i try to boot from Snow Leopard disk i just get a blinking folder with a question mark.
    Things ive tried
    1. Reset PRAM
    2. Safe Mode
    3. Reset SMC
    4. Boot from external DVD RW drive
    5. Removing Battery
    6. Used different AC cord
    7. Leopard disk, and Snow Leopard disk (both work in other macs)
    If any one can help, the customer is going to school soon and needs the laptop back.
    Macbook Unibody Model#A1278 2.0GHz 2GB RAM 250GB WD HDD

    You need the install disks that came with the customers computer.
    Message was edited by: macbig

  • Hi, i am badly in need of help. i partitioned my mac hd yesterday and now the boot camp is nt working as i was using win 7 on it. i am using macbook pro 13'' 2011. plz help me. anxiously waiting for response... specially from "Christopher"

    hi, i am badly in need of help. i partitioned my mac hd yesterday and now the boot camp is nt working as i was using win 7 on it. i am using macbook pro 13'' 2011. plz help me. anxiously waiting for response... specially from "Christopher murphy"

    you can't add or mofidy partition numbers. especially not if and once you have windows installed.
    boot from Windows 7 DVD afterwards
    but first you have to tell us and Christopher what and how you partitioned your system.
    Successful setup of OS X Lion + Data Partition + Bootcamp Win7 Ult
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3293948
    So after many, many hours I think I've finally figured out how to successfully setup Mac OS X Lion on one partition, a seperate data partition, and Windows 7 Ultimate on a Bootcamp partition . Here is a screenshot of my setup on my 13" MacBook Pro
    Thread with suggestions on Windows backup methods:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3798090
    Paragon CampTune
    Paragon CampTune is a commercial product that is designed expressly for this task. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/ It consists of a downloadable ISO that needs to be burned to a disc and booted from in order to resize the partitions costs US$19.95.
    Securing Dual-System Configuration
    Imaging is still the most affordable and robust way to secure computer data. Unfortunately Mac OS X backs up only HFS+ volumes, leaving Windows with dual-system configurations unsecured. You can permanently lose all of your data unless you have a Windows-compatible backup solution.
    Paragon’s CampTune and Paragon’s Drive Copy for Mac can secure the entire dual-system configuration. CampTune creates traditional images of volumes or entire hard disks, Drive Copy can copy them to other disks. In case of an emergency, you can restore the previously created image or copy all your data back to its original state.
    GParted Live
    GParted Live is similar to CampTune as it is also distributed as a bootable image that needs to be copied to a CD/DVD or USB flash drive. As free and open source software, distributed under the GPL, it will always be available free. Since it has more functions than CampTune, it may be harder for folks who are not as experienced with partitioning hard drives. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
    iPartition
    Coriolis Systems' iPartition is a £29.95 ($44.95 US) utility that runs in Mac OS X and allows resizing of all of the relevant partition formats, including HFS+, FAT32, and NTFS. It provides a Mac-oriented user interface that may be easier to manage than some of the free utilities. As it is not capable of resizing the boot disk, it requires a bootable external disk or a boot DVD. (A tool to create a boot DVD is included.)
    Paragon Partition Manager
    From the makes of CampTune is a commercial tool that is similar in functionality to GParted Live, but has a more polished/friendly user interface than GParted Live. Previously only the US$79.95 Professional version supported all the features required for this, but as of version 11 the US$39.95 Personal version has also been reported to work. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-personal/
    Winclone/Disk Utility
    Winclone is a free tool for creating and restoring backup images of your Windows partition. One of its key features is that it can restore to a larger partition than the one the image was created from.
    NOTE: Winclone has been discontinued, but for now remains available and capable of completing these tasks (including creating and restoring Windows 7 images).
    Winclone updated to support Lion Winclone updates and download
    Disk Utility can resize HFS+ (Mac OS) partitions, but is currently incapable of resizing NTFS partitions, so you could use it to reduce the size of the HFS+ partition and create a new larger placeholder MS-DOS (FAT) partition
    The full process would be:
    Backup Windows partition with Winclone.
    (if the new Windows partition is smaller than the old one make sure you set the preferences in Winclone to save the image as an uncompressed dmg)
    Delete old Windows partition
    Resize current Mac Partition
    Create new Windows partition as MS-DOS (FAT) in free space after Mac OS partition.
    (If the new Windows partition is smaller than the old one an additional step is required: shrink the filesystem on the image by selecting Tools->Shrink Windows (NTFS) Filesystem)
    Reboot your computer for the new Windows partition to mount properly (winclone may not restore if you don't reboot)
    Restore Winclone partition over new Windows partition
    An alternate Winclone based process is described in the External Guides section
    Native OS utilities
    MR user Kazyua reports that you can use the disk management utilities provided with the current operating systems if you want to do it manually. Windows 7 and OS X both have partition resizing functions built in. In OS X, open Disk Utility and manually shrink the mac HFS+ partition by dragging the lower right corner. Then in windows go to the start menu and type "disk management" into the search box then hit enter. You should get an overview of the drives you have and the individual partitions. Right-clicking on the partition gives an "Extend Volume" option. The Windows NTFS volume should then be extended into the free space you created with Disk Utility. This method has not worked for other users, so try at your own risk.
    Resizing under VMWare Fusion
    If you are looking to allocate more space to Windows under VMWare please refer to the following thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=828182
    From http://guides.macrumors.com/Extend/Resize_Boot_Camp_Partition
    Thread with suggestions on Windows backup methods:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3798090

  • My Mac Pro flashes the question mark and wont boot from hard drive, flash, or Cd... Please help!

    My Computer froze so I shut it down... When I tryed to boot up again it wouldn't power up.  After a few tweeks I got it to power up but now it wont boot from the hard drive, flash drive or a cd.  It want to start, then, after a few seconds it stops.  Not sher what to do.  Can anyone help?

    Have you tried Safe Boot?
    You also might reset PRAM and reset SMC.
    Have you tried booting with the Recovery System? See its possibilities here.
    From there you can make repairs to your primary startup partition.
    Do you have a backup? If not, do you have an external drive large enough to back up your primary drive? It would be good to have one in case your drive needs repair or replacement.

  • I have been given a iphone3gs today and after restoring it to factory settings like i was adviced to, my phone now wont boot up past the apple logo, it will switch to black screen if i press both buttons. I havnt managed to sync it to itunes. how do i get

    I have been given a iphone3gs today and after restoring it to factory settings like i was adviced to, my phone now wont boot up past the apple logo, it will switch to black screen if i press both buttons. I havnt managed to sync it to itunes. how do i get it to work???

    Try to connect in recovery mode, explained in this article: iOS: Unable to update or restore

  • 24" iMac - Wont boot from HD or disc... Help!

    Hi guys,
    Just been working on iMac, forget the exact spec but it's a 24" Intel 2.something Core 2 Duo or whatever it is, 4gb DDR2 RAM, gotta be about 2 years old to the day and after my last 2 Macs have lasted forever, never developing a fault, I didn't take out Applecare... Perhaps I had a bit too much faith...
    As I say, just working away and all of a sudden, upon putting a video in Quicktime to full screen, the whole image has kinda of condensed itself into the top 20% of the screen and started slightly flickering the image. I've tried quitting some of the programmes, but neither the mouse nor leyboard have been responding so I've just had to turn the computer off.
    I've gone to turn it back on, and after about 30 seconds, it's got as far as the grey screen but then the little spinning progress indicator pauses and it does nothing else.
    I've reset the PRAM and that made it take longer before it froze but ultimately did nothing.
    I've now tried getting it to boot from the Snow Leopard disc but this does the something, until after about 3 - 5 minutes, the screen goes all pshychedlic, like looking at an old school TV really close...
    So looking for any suggestions on other things to try before I have to take to my local store... Any hazard a guess at what may be up with it?
    I've got a back up the whole computer but I don't think this is a software problem, I'm assuming it's going to be a hardware one?
    Any help at all would be much appreciated!

    Ok, tried Safe Mode and that wont boot either. Saw a little progress bar on the grey screen though which made a change, but ultimately, it crashed once that had disappeared.
    I've just noticed that at the point when the progress wheel stops spinning, a pattern of dead pixels appears across the screen that aren't there when the progress wheel is spinning.
    The more I talk to people about this, the more graphics card seems to come back as the likely culprit, based on the fact that:
    - it started by me putting a video to full screen
    - the fact the display went weird when it first happened and also it plays up after it crashes with the psychedelic colours
    - it wont boot from HD, disc or now in safe mode either, however it does run AHT fine.
    - I've hoovered out the vents on the iMac and somehow it seems slower than it was before (bit odd)
    - the dead pixel thing mentioned above
    So now thinking it may be time to get a new graphics card?
    Reckon this is likely, even though the AHT hasn't picked up any problems? As mentioned earlier, I'm not too concerned about it would seem it doesn't particularly test the graphics card too much, so all just seems to point towards it.
    Anything else that I could do to single this out as the likely culprit?
    Guess this is a chance to upgrade!

  • Wont boot from cd???

    I have a slot-loading iMac that wont boot from a CD.
    Does anyone know why? I have tried holding C and choosing the CD as a start-up disk but it doesnt work. The CD i am trying to start-up on is the Mac OS 9 CD.
    Can anyone help??
    Thanks Daniel.

    Did you have any luck on this?
    I am having the same quandry. I have a slot-loading 450MHZ imac which I purchased used with 10.2 installled on it. When I tried to upgrade to 10.3 using my black retail CD I own I was told I needed to upgrade the firmware. Then I discovered that Classic had been deleted from this computer, so had no way to boot in 9.2.2 to install the Firmware update....so I figured I would have to start from scratch from my white 9.0 retail CD and do the upgrades to 9.2.2, but it wouldn't boot from the white CD.
    Then I followed instructions I found here and used my 10.3 disc to access Disk Utility and reformatted the HD with the OS 9 Drivers (losing the 10.2 install it had in the process), and reset the PRAM twice.
    So now I just get a gray screen with the flashing Question Mark in a folder. I have tried an external CD drive to confirm it's not a problem with the optical drive and have booted from the OS 9 CD on another slot-loading imac to confirm it's not a problem with the Disk. I have a 9.0 CD and a 10.3 CD but nothing in between.
    Still no luck...

  • IMac wont boot from CD

    I am selling my iMac so want to reformat the HD and do a fresh install of Leopard.
    When I try to boot from the system CD I get the grey screen, I hear the CD Drive reading the disk, then the computer reboots. The same thing happens every time no matter how I try to boot from the CD. When I eject the CD, or boot from HDD, it loads the OS fine. It just wont boot from the CD.
    I have tried:
    Booting from CD by holding the C key during startup
    Booting from CD using Startup Disk in System Preferences
    Installing OS from the 'Install Mac OS X' application on the disc
    Holding the option key during startup and selecting the CD drive
    Resetting the NVRAM
    Verifying the HD in disk utility
    Verifying the CD in disk utility
    Verifying and repairing HD disk permissions in disk utility
    Running the install on my MacBook to check the CD (booted to the CD and started install process fine)
    I have searched for previous discussions that reference this issue but could find none with this specific problem. The CD drive reads other media fine so I don't think it's a hardware issue.
    Any help would be much appreciated.

    Clean the disk?
    Dirty lense?
    The bottom of the disk must be free of scratches and especially human fingerprints which the oils can trasfer insdie the machine.
    Use a bit of rubbing alcohol on a very soft clean cloth and polish ot a shine before using the optical drive.
    Order a replacement disk from Apple, buy jewel cases that suspend your disk, the plasic/paper sleeves Apple provides aren't good.

  • G5 wont boot from installation disk?

    Any suggestions for a G5 that wont boot from the installation CD? Regular starts fail at the grey screen with the apple logo. I've re-set PRAM and SMU, and replaced the battery. G5 passed the Disk Utility tests and the hardware test run over firewire from a PowerBook. I've tried booting from the CD while holding down the various keys. Runs fine in terminal mode so I've saved all my files. Not sure where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated.

    Hi choriocapillaris, and a warm welcome to the forums!
    Can we assume it booted from this Install Disc before, or could this be an Install Disc from another Mac?
    If it is the right Disc, put it in the PB, boot the PB into Target mode...
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
    Boot the G5 with the Option key held down & see if the Install Disc in the PB eventually shows up as a boot choice for the G5.

  • Mac Mini i7 (Mavericks) will not boot from the external drive

    Mac Mini i7 (Mavericks) will not boot from the external drive with Disk Warroir 4.4. or Drive Genius or Lion.
    Not even from the external Firewire hard drive with Mavericks

    Does the external HD have a GUID partition table?
    Is the external drive formatted Mac OS X Extended (journaled)?
    Is this a 2011 or late 2012 Mac?
    How was Mavericks installed on the external drive?
    Who is the builder of the drive mechanism in the external drive?
    Who is the builder of the external enclosure?
    What type of interface does the external drive have USB2, USB3, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, thunderbolt?
    Is the external enclosure directly connected to the mini?
    Have youtried a different interface cable?

Maybe you are looking for

  • TLS Connectivity issues following upgrade from OS 7.0 to OS 7.1

    We currently use BES 5 and MobileIron for our MDM. A brand new fleet of Curve 9360 were all working on both BES and MobileIron. BAttery life was a problem so we upgraded to os 7.1 which has added 3 days to the battery standby time however......... Si

  • Calling a function from procedure

    Please someone let me know if I'm going in the right direction or am I making it too difficult for myself. I'm only using the exam guide on programming units which assumes the reader already has a firm grasp on the material. I am entry level and need

  • How to Password protect doc in pages

    How do I password protect a doc in pages?

  • How Programmatically Creating a Free Label in LabVIEW

    I know that I can change the text of existing free text (decorations) in LabVIEW.  Can I programmatically create a free label in LabVIEW.  like adding a copyright notice to a bunch of VI's Thanks in advance Stu Stu McFarlane Viewpoint Systems, Inc.

  • Novice in sapscript :-)

    Hi, I am developmenting a typical USA check with sapscript. And i have a problem, i want copy the main box from header to footer of page, but when i do copy/paste of main box, sapscript do a copy (main 01) and data don't appear in main 01, only in ma