Help!!! My iMac will NOT start up from any disk!

I was attempting to delete some files that had been in a separate partition on my older TM backup, in order to copy it to my new 2TB external drive. (The first time, it copied it as two partitions, which was NOT what I wanted! It worked fine, except that it needed more room already!)
In retrospect, these files appeared to be an alias of all my system, application & user folders. which I was unable to trash, but was able to trash most of them individually. Big mistake!
My iMac is getting a "?", a file icon and a 0 w/a line through it.
So, I apparently have all these key folders in my trash (I was unable to get rid of them). Unfortunately have been unable to start it with either of my two TM drives (both had been unmounted), nor my cloned drive, nor my OS install drive or any other utility drives.
Any suggestions to try before I bring it in to my local Apple store?
Thank you!
PS- I just heard of Steve Jobs death, and am so saddened to hear it...

I said "My iMac is getting a "?", a file icon and a 0 w/a line through it."
I should have included the folder icon that alternates w/the above two ...
Please! Any help (and/or suggestions) is appreciated!

Similar Messages

Please can somebody help, my imac will not start up, just chimes, apple sign then spinning cog. I have tried many key codes, no success, would really like to talk to someone.

please can somebody help, my imac will not start up, just chimes, apple sign then spinning cog. I have tried many key codes, no success, would really like to talk to someone.

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem. But with the aid of the test results, the solution may take a few minutes, instead of hours or days.
Don't be put off by the complexity of these instructions. The process is much less complicated than the description. You do harder tasks with the computer all the time.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. As I wrote above, it changes nothing. It doesn't send or receive any data on the network. All it does is to generate a human-readable report on the state of the computer. That report goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. If you prefer, you can act on it yourself without disclosing the contents to me or anyone else.
You should be wondering whether you can believe me, and whether it's safe to run a program at the behest of a stranger. In general, no, it's not safe and I don't encourage it.
In this case, however, there are a couple of ways for you to decide whether the program is safe without having to trust me. First, you can read it. Unlike an application that you download and click to run, it's transparent, so anyone with the necessary skill can verify what it does.
You may not be able to understand the script yourself. But variations of the script have been posted on this website thousands of times over a period of years. The site is hosted by Apple, which does not allow it to be used to distribute harmful software. Any one of the millions of registered users could have read the script and raised the alarm if it was harmful. Then I would not be here now and you would not be reading this message.
Nevertheless, if you can't satisfy yourself that these instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.
4. Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:
☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.
☞ Paste into the window of another application.
☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.
☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.
The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.
5. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode, under the conditions in which the problem is reproduced. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
6. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.
7. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/libexec;clear;cd;p=(Software Hardware Memory Diagnostics Power FireWire Thunderbolt USB Fonts SerialATA 4 1000 25 5120 KiB/s 1024 85 \\b%% 20480 1 MB/s 25000 ports ' com.clark.\* \*dropbox \*genieo\* \*GoogleDr\* \*k.AutoCAD\* \*k.Maya\* vidinst\* ' DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES\ DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH -86 "` route -n get default|awk '/e:/{print $2}' `" 25 N\\/A down up 102400 25600 recvfrom sendto CFBundleIdentifier 25 25 25 1000 MB ' com.adobe.fpsaud com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing ' ' 1274181950 464843899 1233118628 ' 51 5120 files );N5=${#p[@]};p[N5]=` networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder|awk ' NR>1 { sub(/^$[0-9]+$ /,"");n=$0;getline;} $NF=="'${p[26]}')" { sub(/.$/,"",$NF);print n;exit;} ' `;f=('\n%s: %s\n' '\n%s\n\n%s\n' '\nRAM details\n%s\n' %s\ %s '%s\n-\t%s\n' );S0() { echo ' { q=$NF+0;$NF="";u=$(NF-1);$(NF-1)="";gsub(/^ +| +$/,"");if(q>='${p[$1]}') printf("%s (UID %s) is using %s '${p[$2]}'",$0,u,q);} ';};s=(' s/[0-9A-Za-z._]+@[0-9A-Za-z.]+\.[0-9A-Za-z]{2,4}/EMAIL/g;/\/Shared/!s/(\/Users\/)[^ /]+/\1USER/g;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;' ' s/^ +//;/de: S|[nst]:/p;' ' {sub(/^ +/,"")};/er:/;/y:/&&$2<'${p[10]} ' 1s/://;3,6d;/[my].+:/d;s/^ {4}//;H;${ g;s/\n$//;/s: [^EO]|x([^08]|02[^F]|8[^0])/p;} ' ' 5h;6{ H;g;/P/!p;} ' ' ($1~/^Cy/&&$3>'${p[11]}')||($1~/^Cond/&&$2!~/^N/) ' ' /:$/{ N;/:.+:/d;s/ *://;b0'$'\n'' };/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{ s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;};$b0'$'\n'' d;:0'$'\n'' x;s/\n\n//;/Apple[ ,]|Genesy|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)$/p;' ' s/^.*C/C/;H;${ g;/No th|pms/!p;} ' '/= [^GO]/p' '{$1=""};1' ' /Of/!{ s/^.+is |\.//g;p;} ' ' $0&&!/ / { n++;print;} END { split("'"${p[41]}"'",b);for(i in b) print b[i];if(n<200) print "com.apple.";} ' ' $3~/[0-9]:[0-9]{2}$/ { gsub(/:[0-9:a-f]{14}/,"");} { print|"tail -n'${p[12]}'";} ' ' NR==2&&$4<='${p[13]}' { print $4;} ' ' END { $2/=256;if($2>='${p[15]}') print int($2) } ' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 21 22`" 'NR!=2{next}'"`S0 37 17`" ' NR!=5||$8!~/[RW]/{next};{ $(NF-1)=$1;$NF=int($NF/10000000);for(i=1;i<=3;i++){$i="";$(NF-1-i)="";};};'"`S0 19 20`" 's:^:/:p' '/\.kext\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' 's/^.{52}(.+) <.+/\1/p' ' /Launch[AD].+\.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { split("'"${p[41]}"'",b);for(i in b) print b[i]".plist";if(n<200) print "/System/";} ' '/\.xpc\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/p' ' NR>1&&!/0x|\.[0-9]+$|com\.apple\.launchctl\.(Aqua|Background|System)$/ { print $3;} ' ' /\.(framew|lproj)|\):/d;/plist:|:.+(Mach|scrip)/s/:[^:]+//p ' '/^root$/p' ' !/\/Contents\/.+\/Contents|Applic|Autom|Frameworks/&&/Lib.+\/Info.plist$/ { n++;print;} END { if(n<1100) print "/System/";} ' '/^\/usr\/lib\/.+dylib$/p' ' /Temp|emac/{next};/(etc|Preferences|Launch[AD].+)\// { sub(".(/private)?","");n++;print;} END { split("'"${p[41]}"'",b);split("'"${p[42]}"'",c);for(i in b) print b[i]".plist\t"c[i];if(n<500) print "Launch";} ' ' /\/(Contents\/.+\/Contents|Frameworks)\/|\.wdgt\/.+\.([bw]|plu)/d;p;' 's/\/(Contents\/)?Info.plist$//;p' ' { gsub("^| |\n","\\|\\|kMDItem'${p[35]}'=");sub("^...."," ") };1 ' p '{print $3"\t"$1}' 's/\'$'\t''.+//p' 's/1/On/p' '/Prox.+: [^0]/p' '$2>'${p[43]}'{$2=$2-1;print}' ' BEGIN { i="'${p[26]}'";M1='${p[16]}';M2='${p[18]}';M3='${p[31]}';M4='${p[32]}';} !/^A/{next};/%/ { getline;if($5<M1) a="user "$2"%, system "$4"%";} /disk0/&&$4>M2 { b=$3" ops/s, "$4" blocks/s";} $2==i { if(c) { d=$3+$4+$5+$6;next;};if($4>M3||$6>M4) c=int($4/1024)" in, "int($6/1024)" out";} END { if(a) print "CPU: "a;if(b) print "I/O: "b;if(c) print "Net: "c" (KiB/s)";if(d) print "Net errors: "d" packets/s";} ' ' /r\[0\] /&&$NF!~/^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./ { print $NF;exit;} ' ' !/^T/ { printf "(static)";exit;} ' '/apsd|BKAg|OpenD/!s/:.+//p' ' (/k:/&&$3!~/(255\.){3}0/ )||(/v6:/&&$2!~/A/ ) ' ' $1~"lR"&&$2<='${p[25]}';$1~"li"&&$3!~"wpa2";' ' BEGIN { FS=":";p="uniq -c|sed -E '"'s/ +\$[0-9]+\$\$.+\$/\\\2 x\\\1/;s/x1$//'"'";} { n=split($3,a,".");sub(/_2[01].+/,"",$3);print $2" "$3" "a[n]$1|p;b=b$1;} END { close(p);if(b) print("\n\t* Code injection");} ' ' NR!=4{next} {$NF/=10240} '"`S0 27 14`" ' END { if($3~/[0-9]/)print$3;} ' ' BEGIN { L='${p[36]}';} !/^[[:space:]]*(#.*)?$/ { l++;if(l<=L) f=f"\n "$0;} END { F=FILENAME;if(!F) exit;if(!f) f="\n [N/A]";"file -b "F|getline T;if(T!~/^(AS.+ (En.+ )?text$|(Bo|PO).+ sh.+ text ex)/) F=F" ("T")";printf("\nContents of %s\n%s\n",F,f);if(l>L) printf("\n ...and %s more line(s)\n",l-L);} ' ' s/^ ?n...://p;s/^ ?p...:/-'$'\t''/p;' 's/0/Off/p' ' END{print NR} ' ' /id: N|te: Y/{i++} END{print i} ' ' / / { print "'"${p[28]}"'";exit;};1;' '/ en/!s/\.//p' ' NR!=13{next};{sub(/[+-M]$/,"",$NF)};'"`S0 39 40`" ' $10~/\(L/&&$9!~"localhost" { sub(/.+:/,"",$9);print $1": "$9;} ' '/^ +r/s/.+"(.+)".+/\1/p' 's/(.+\.wdgt)\/(Contents\/)?Info\.plist$/\1/p' 's/^.+\/(.+)\.wdgt$/\1/p' ' /l: /{ /DVD/d;s/.+: //;b0'$'\n'' };/s: /{ /V/d;s/^ */- /;H;};$b0'$'\n'' d;:0'$'\n'' x;/APPLE [^:]+$/d;p;' ' /^find: /d;p;' "`S0 44 45`" ' BEGIN{FS="= "} /Path/{print $2} ' ' /^ *$/d;s/^ */ /;' );c1=(system_profiler pmset\ -g nvram fdesetup find syslog df vm_stat sar ps sudo\ crontab sudo\ iotop top pkgutil 'PlistBuddy 2>&1 -c "Print' whoami cksum kextstat launchctl sudo\ launchctl crontab 'sudo defaults read' stat lsbom mdfind ' for i in ${p[24]};do ${c1[18]} ${c2[27]} $i;done;' defaults\ read scutil sudo\ dtrace sudo\ profiles sed\ -En awk /S*/*/P*/*/*/C*/*/airport networksetup mdutil sudo\ lsof test osascript\ -e );c2=(com.apple.loginwindow\ LoginHook '" /L*/P*/loginw*' "'tell app \"System Events\" to get properties of login items'|tr , \\\n" 'L*/Ca*/com.ap*.Saf*/E*/* -d 1 -name In*t -exec '"${c1[14]}"' :CFBundleDisplayName" {} \;|sort|uniq' '~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $' '.??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune' :${p[35]}\" :Label\" '{/,}L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist -exec plutil -s {} \;' "-f'%N: %l' Desktop L*/Keyc*" therm sysload boot-args status " -F '\$Time \$Message' -k Sender kernel -k Message Req 'bad |Beac|caug|corru|dead[^bl]|FAIL|fail|GPU |hfs: Ru|inval|jnl:|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA$|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|tim(ed? ?|ing )o|WARN' -k Message Rne 'Goog|ksadm|SMC:|suhel| VALI|ver-r|xpma' -o -k Sender fseventsd -k Message Req 'SL' " '-du -n DEV -n EDEV 1 10' 'acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu' '-t1 10 1' '-f -pfc /var/db/r*/com.apple.*.{BS,Bas,Es,J,OSXU,Rem,up}*.bom' '{/,}L*/Lo*/Diag* -type f -regex .\*[cght] ! -name .?\* ! -name \*ag \( -exec grep -lq "^Thread c" {} \; -exec printf \* \; -o -true $ -execdir stat -f:%Sc:%N -t%F {} \;|sort -t: -k2 |tail -n'${p[38]} '/S*/*/Ca*/*xpc* >&- ||echo No' '-L /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems -type f -exec file {} +' '-L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,Ex}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Ca*/*/Ex,Co{mpon,reM},Ex,In{p,ter},iTu*/*P,Keyb,Mail/B,Pr*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo,Widg}* -path \\*s/Resources -prune -o -type f -name Info.plist' '/usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib' `awk "${s[31]}"<<<${p[23]}` "/e*/{auto,{cron,fs}tab,hosts,{[lp],sy}*.conf,mach_i*/*,pam.d/*,ssh{,d}_config,*.local} {,/usr/local}/etc/periodic/*/* /L*/P*{,/*}/com.a*.{Bo,sec*.ap}*t {/S*/,/,}L*/Lau*/*t .launchd.conf" list getenv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf\ globalstate --proxy '-n get default' -I --dns -getdnsservers\ "${p[N5]}" -getinfo\ "${p[N5]}" -P -m\ / '' -n1 '-R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt' '--regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.*|sort|uniq' -kl -l -s\ / '-R -l1 -n1 -o mem -stats command,uid,mem' '+c0 -i4TCP:0-1023' com.apple.dashboard\ layer-gadgets '-d /L*/Mana*/$USER&&echo On' '-app Safari WebKitDNSPrefetchingEnabled' "+c0 -l|awk '{print(\$1,\$3)}'|sort|uniq -c|sort -n|tail -1|awk '{print(\$2,\$3,\$1)}'" );N1=${#c2[@]};for j in {0..9};do c2[N1+j]=SP${p[j]}DataType;done;N2=${#c2[@]};for j in 0 1;do c2[N2+j]="-n ' syscall::'${p[33+j]}':return { @out[execname,uid]=sum(arg0) } tick-10sec { trunc(@out,1);exit(0);} '";done;l=(Restricted\ files Hidden\ apps 'Elapsed time (s)' POST Battery Safari\ extensions Bad\ plists 'High file counts' User Heat System\ load boot\ args FileVault Diagnostic\ reports Log 'Free space (MiB)' 'Swap (MiB)' Activity 'CPU per process' Login\ hook 'I/O per process' Mach\ ports kexts Daemons Agents XPC\ cache Startup\ items Admin\ access Root\ access Bundles dylibs Apps Font\ issues Inserted\ dylibs Firewall Proxies DNS TCP/IP Wi-Fi Profiles Root\ crontab User\ crontab 'Global login items' 'User login items' Spotlight Memory Listeners Widgets Parental\ Controls Prefetching SATA Descriptors );N3=${#l[@]};for i in 0 1 2;do l[N3+i]=${p[5+i]};done;N4=${#l[@]};for j in 0 1;do l[N4+j]="Current ${p[29+j]}stream data";done;A0() { id -G|grep -qw 80;v[1]=$?;((v[1]==0))&&sudo true;v[2]=$?;v[3]=`date +%s`;clear >&-;date '+Start time: %T %D%n';};for i in 0 1;do eval ' A'$((1+i))'() { v=` eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((3+i))'() { v=` while read i;do [[ "$i" ]]&&eval "${c1[$1]} ${c2[$2]}" \"$i\"|'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}";done<<<"${v[$4]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};A'$((5+i))'() { v=` while read i;do '${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$1]}" "$i";done<<<"${v[$2]}" `;[[ "$v" ]];};';done;A7(){ v=$((`date +%s`-v[3]));};B2(){ v[$1]="$v";};for i in 0 1;do eval ' B'$i'() { v=;((v['$((i+1))']==0))||{ v=No;false;};};B'$((3+i))'() { v[$2]=`'${c1[30+i]}' "${s[$3]}"<<<"${v[$1]}"`;} ';done;B5(){ v[$1]="${v[$1]}"$'\n'"${v[$2]}";};B6() { v=` paste -d: <(printf "${v[$1]}") <(printf "${v[$2]}")|awk -F: ' {printf("'"${f[$3]}"'",$1,$2)} ' `;};B7(){ v=`grep -Fv "${v[$1]}"<<<"$v"`;};C0() { [[ "$v" ]]&&sed -E "$s"<<<"$v";};C1() { [[ "$v" ]]&&printf "${f[$1]}" "${l[$2]}" "$v"|sed -E "$s";};C2() { v=`echo $v`;[[ "$v" != 0 ]]&&C1 0 $1;};C3() { v=`sed -E "${s[63]}"<<<"$v"`&&C1 1 $1;};for i in 1 2;do for j in 0 2 3;do eval D$i$j'(){ A'$i' $1 $2 $3; C'$j' $4;};';done;done;{ A0;D20 0 $((N1+1)) 2;D10 0 $N1 1;B0;C2 27;B0&&! B1&&C2 28;D12 15 37 25 8;A1 0 $((N1+2)) 3;C0;D13 0 $((N1+3)) 4 3;D23 0 $((N1+4)) 5 4;D13 0 $((N1+9)) 59 50;for i in 0 1 2;do D13 0 $((N1+5+i)) 6 $((N3+i));done;D13 1 10 7 9;D13 1 11 8 10;D22 2 12 9 11;D12 3 13 10 12;D23 4 19 44 13;D23 5 14 12 14;D22 6 36 13 15;D22 7 37 14 16;D23 8 15 38 17;D22 9 16 16 18;B1&&{ D22 35 49 61 51;D22 11 17 17 20;for i in 0 1;do D22 28 $((N2+i)) 45 $((N4+i));done;};D22 12 44 54 45;D22 12 39 15 21;A1 13 40 18;B2 4;B3 4 0 19;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 5 11;A1 17 41 20;B7 5;C3 22;B4 4 6 21;A3 14 7 32 6;B4 0 7 11;B3 4 0 22;A3 14 6 32 0;B4 0 8 11;B5 7 8;B1&&{ A2 19 26 23;B7 7;C3 23;};A2 18 26 23;B7 7;C3 24;D13 4 21 24 26;B4 4 12 26;B3 4 13 27;A1 4 22 29;B7 12;B2 14;A4 14 6 52 14;B2 15;B6 14 15 4;B3 0 0 30;C3 29;A1 4 23 27;B7 13;C3 30;D13 24 24 32 31;D13 25 37 32 33;A2 23 18 28;B2 16;A2 16 25 33;B7 16;B3 0 0 34;B2 21;A6 47 21&&C0;B1&&{ D13 21 0 32 19;D13 10 42 32 40;D22 29 35 46 39;};D23 14 1 62 42;D12 34 43 53 44;D12 22 20 32 25;D22 0 $((N1+8)) 51 32;D13 4 8 41 6;D12 26 28 35 34;D13 27 29 36 35;A2 27 32 39&&{ B2 19;A2 33 33 40;B2 20;B6 19 20 3;};C2 36;D23 33 34 42 37;B1&&D23 35 45 55 46;D23 32 31 43 38;D12 36 47 32 48;D13 20 42 32 41;D13 37 2 48 43;D13 4 5 32 1;D13 4 3 60 5;D12 26 48 49 49;B3 4 22 57;A1 26 46 56;B7 22;B3 0 0 58;C3 47;D22 4 4 50 0;D23 22 9 37 7;A7;C2 2;} 2>/dev/null|pbcopy;exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
8. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
9. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "Syntax error" or "Event not found," enter
exec bash
and press return. Then paste the script again.
10. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, press the key combination control-C or just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.
11. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line
[Process completed]
to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report what happened. No harm will be done.
12. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
At the top of the results, there will be a line that begins with the words "Start time." If you don't see that, but instead see a mass of gibberish, you didn't wait for the "Process completed" message to appear in the Terminal window. Please wait for it and try again.
If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
13. When you post the results, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "You are not authorized to post." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
14. This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 by Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Use Agreement for the Apple Support Communities website ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

Please help my iMac will not start. The apple logo comes up and the wheel goes round and then I am left with an empty white sceen can anyone help

Please help, my iMac will not start up, the apple comes up and the wheel goes round but then I am left with a blank white screen. Has anyone any ideas.

Locate your original install disk (it's grey) and use it to restart your iMac by holding the "C" key during startup. Use the disk utility to repair your harddrive.

IMac G4 will not start up from OS disk to upgrade

I am trying to upgrade the OS in a G4 iMac, the OS disk is recognized, am asked to restart, but it will not restart from the OS 10.5 disk.

Will it boot from the install disc that came with the G4? If so, run
Disk Utility
   1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, 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. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
   5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
   6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
After that, reset the PRAM and see if that helps.
Please post back with results,

TS3824 iMac will not start and switches off almost immediately

My iMac will not start. It switches off about 3 seconds after pressing the power button. The iMac then starts again, and fails again after 3 seconds. This cycle just repeats.
I have not installed any new software, this seems to happen for no reason.
Any help would be appreciated, as I cannot use my iMac at all.

Lyonhair wrote:
I was hoping to speak to Apple themselves about my issue. My local Apple store is too far away. Is there anyway to talk to apple via email?
I thought there was a way to start your iMac in an emergency independent of my hard drive. From a flash drive for example? If this can be done, where can I get the appropriate software to put on the flash drive?
You will need to call AppleCare if you want to speak to them yourself. They don't participate in this forum in any fashion, and no they don't support via email. If you don't have AppleCare you will be charged, otherwise you will need to take it into an Apple Store or AASP. If you don't know how to contact AppleCare or an AASP please start with AppleCare Contact Info
Good luck.

IMac will not start-up, do not have a backup, any way to back it up before erasing the drive?

Our iMac will not start up, it goes to the flashing question mark screen. I have tried the different steps listed at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440, but they have not worked, as it says the disk is not repairable. It says I need to erase the disk and reinstall OS X. However, I do not currently have a back-up of the hard drive, so is there any way I can back it up before erasing and reinstalling, even though the iMac will not start up? Thanks.

I also tried downloading Snow Leopard onto an external hard drive and boot from there, but it just comes up to the choose a language screen everytime.

My imac will not start - it is hunged up, when I turn it on I see the apple and the little wheel go around and around and nothing happens - what can I do ???

Hello - can anybody help me - my Imac will not start - When I try to start it I just get to see the apple and the wheel that goes around and around HELP !!

Restart in Safe Mode, this will clear some caches. How you do this is when you hear the startup tone hold down the Shift Key until you see the progress bar appear. Let it fully boot, then open System Preferences - Startup Disk and ensure your internal HD is selected and then click Restart to test. If you still don't have luck you should run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode, you may need to run the test 2-3 times to report any errors. To run AHT you will need teh ORIGINAL Install Discs that shipped with the computer. Instructions for AHT are in:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Have you been backiing up?

G4 iMac will not start normally

My wife's G4 iMac will not start normally. I have used the procedures from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393 and the "Disk Utility" on http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214 to no avail.
When trying to start, a message comes up saying that the computer must be rebooted. Trying to boot in "Safe Mode" fails after an hour and shuts down the computer, and the "Disk Utility" runs for an hour or two and then gives a message that it was unable to repair the "minor error" on the hard-drive.
After force starting the iMac by holding the power button until the command line appears, I tried running fsck, but the commands are unrecognized. However, if I type in "mac-boot" at the command prompt, the iMac will start. I have copied all of my wife's photos, movies and music, and Word and Excel documents, etc. to my XP PC's hard-drive using USB flash drives.
My question is two-fold:
#1. I have heard that "Disc Warrior" is excellent at resolving hard-drive errors. Can anyone comment on "Disc Warrior" and is there anything else out there that someone can recommend?
#2. I bought RAM to bring the total up to one gig, so I was thinking of upgrading the hard-drive and installing Tiger on the new and larger drive while in the "Ball" changing the RAM. What is the maximum capacity hard-drive I can put into the G4 800mhz iMac without any problems and is there any particular model hard-drive that seems to work best?

I tried reading the link that you posted http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html but I don't have a disk with the "Apple Hardware Test".
Since I made the post that you replied to, things have gotten worse. I can no longer get onto the internal hard-drive. I have tried many different methods including the methods written about in the linked article you supplied. I can get onto the Installation CD and I can run "Disk Utility" from the CD. I have repaired the file permissions, but when I run "Repair Disk", it runs for about two hours and then suspends operations with a dialog box stating, "First Aid failed. Disk Utility stopped repairing Volume because the following error was encountered: The underlying task reported failure on exit." and then in the progress box after the list of addresses, there is a message:
(in red) Incorrect number of thread records
Invalid leaf record count
Invalid Map Node
Invalid directory Item Count
Invalid directory Item Count
Invalid volume directory Count
Invalid volume file Count
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Invalid volume free block count
Volume header needs minor repair
(in green) repairing volume
(in red) The volume could not be repaired
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
(in black) 1 HFS volume checked.
(in red) 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
(in black) repair attempted on 1 volume
(in red) 1 volume could not be repaired.
I recently bought the 1/2gb replaceable RAM and the 1/2gb "Hidden" or "Factory Installed" RAM. I was planning on installing them soon. Since the "Disk Utility" is telling me that there are faults on the internal hard-drive and I have to go into the "Ball" to replace the "Hidden" or "Factory Installed" RAM, I figured that I might as well replace the hard-drive and redo the system.
Unless someone comes up with something I can do which will not cost me much money, I figure that I might as well install the RAM and a 120gb Western Digital Hard-drive that is about a year old, but was only used for a few days in an XP PC. Will the 120gb drive be recognized? I was thinking of partitioning it as 80gb and 40gb partitions. Does that sound good? I would install the OS on both partitions so that I could always boot if there was a failure.

IMac will not start up - blue screen after months of Leopard use

I have an iMac G5 that will not start up. It hangs at the blue screen, but does not have the issue with the ApplicationEnhancer.bundle file. It will start up in safe mode.
This iMac will not start from a bootable external drive (the external drive can be used as a start up disk successfully with my iBook G4). The iMac's internal drive can be used as a start up disk for the iBook (via the target mode) and does not appear to have any problems. Does this seem like it is a hardware issue with the iMac? The iMac also hangs at the blue screen if I attempt to start up with the Leopard install disk after using the startup disk preference pane in safe start mode.
I have repaired permissions, verified the disk, etc., using the disk utility. I have cleared caches, preferences, and so on, using Mac HelpMate.

It may be that some of your login items might be incompatible with the mac. Also, try booting up from the install disk and repair your disk.

My iMac will not wake up from sleep after upgrading to OS X Mavericks

After upgrading to OS X, my iMac will not wake up from sleep. Each time I have to do a hard restart. Is there a fix for this problem?

Hi,
I have just had the same problem with my iMac and after upgrading to Mavericks my iMac would not wake without pressing the power off button and re-booting.
Anyway, I have since done a complete new install on my iMac and have gone 5 days without an issue with the iMac not waking. It was a bit of a pain to do but my own view so far is that the problem is linked to the upgrading of the OS instead of a clean install.
My iMac now flies with a new OS installed instead of an upgrade.

IMac will not start following OS X 10.9.4 update - takes 30 minutes to load and then turns off

iMac will not start following OS X 10.9.4 update - takes 30 minutes to load with spinning wheel and progress bar and then when it appears to be finished it powers off?

Thanks for the suggestion - this was the 1st thing I tried but it does not appear to work either. I'm still getting the 30 minute spinning wheel and slow moving progress bar on a grey background - even if I try to start the iMac in 'safe' mode!

My Imac will not start up. What do I do??

My imac will not start up. I have shut it down and turned it on but it will not come up. What do I do?

Take a look at > Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on

We have a mac laptop and dont have any problems with pdf files but our imac will not open them. any suggestions

we have a mac laptop and dont have any problems with pdf files but our imac will not open them. any suggestions?

Back up all data.
In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-G. Copy the line of text below into the box that opens, and press return:
/Library/Internet Plug-ins
From the folder that opens, remove any items that have the letters “PDF” in the name. You may be prompted for your login password. Then quit and relaunch Safari, and test.
If you still have the issue, repeat with this line:
~/Library/Internet Plug-ins
If you don’t like the results of this procedure, restore the items from the backup you made before you started. Relaunch Safari again.

TS1647 My Macbook Pro will not print anything from any program. I've reinstalled the drivers. I get an error message in Word that says, "Word could not communicate with printer." Any ideas?

My Macbook Pro will not print anything from any program. I've reinstalled the drivers. I get an error message in Word that says, "Word could not communicate with printer." Any ideas?

Be sure to try restarting, if you have not done so since this problem occurred. You should also power off the printer while you do the restart...
If that does not help, you can try resetting the printing system. Open System Preferences Print & Scan (or Print & Fax) pane. In the sidebar with list of printers, right (control) click anywhere. Select Reset printing system. You will have to add back your printers after you do this.

TS1702 This app will not be deleted from any iOS device that synchronizes with your iTunes library.

How do you remove an app from your iPad? I have synced the iPad and attempted to remove and this is the messgae I receive:
This app will not be deleted from any iOS device that synchronizes with your iTunes library.
HELP! Get rid of these Doodle Gods, Kick the Buddy, etc....

As Jim states, that procedure deletes the app and its associated documents from the device itself. At next sync, the deletion should propagate and get rid of the backup on iTunes as well.
If not, you can also manually delete that backup. Go into iTunes on the computer you sync the iPad with. If needed, select Show Sidebar in the View menu. Choose Apps under Library in the sidebar. Click on the All tab in the middle of the window. Scroll about till you locate the offending app amongst the bunch of icons. Right-click or Control-click on it and choose Delete from the popup menu. If the app is gone already on the device, there should be no warnings. You should delete from the device first and sync, so this manual step becomes unnecessary.

Help!!! My iMac will NOT start up from any disk!

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