I am unable to boot my iMac

I was doing routine maintenance on my iMac and noticed the addition of a new user "wheel" which I deleted. I also saw the group "everybody" had been given read and write access. I changed that to read only. Now, however, when I attempt to boot up I am able to enter my password but the system then stalls out in the boot-up screen with the grey apple logo and time bar underneath. I am not sure how to get past that or restore my system. Any ideas or tips?

NEVER delete something if you don't know what it is. The wheel user is integral to the function of the OS, and runs critical processes.
DON'T touch the permissions for anything if you don't know what it does.
Try booting your iMac with the SHIFT key held down.
As soon as you press the power button to turn it on, hold the shift key until that loading bar appears.
Your mac is doing it's best to try and fix itself.
Take this as a lesson, don't stick your head where it doesn't belong, and don't put your finger in the flame.
There is no need for 'routine maintenance'. Your mac is smart enough to work itself without you coming in and ruining it.
Please hear me, as if you keep doing things like this to yours and other's computers, you could TERMINALLY break the computer, rendering information inaccessible, and potentially corrupting your entire system.

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Unable to boot computer iMac intel after downloading and installing latest iPad software

I downloaded and installed the latest iPad software and my iMac will now not boot up. The iMac was getting a little slow just prior. Is one year old and this is the first problem. I have put the system DVD in and rolled back a couple weeks. Still no start up.

Imayit55 wrote:
Sorry. I downloaded the latest iPad update through iTunes using my iMac. Then synced the iPad to update the iPad. Updated iPad is fine. iMac will now not boot up. I put the iMac osx install dvd disk in and used it to rollback two weeks. No help. I am now running the disk verify program from the osx install DVD
There is no rollback feature on the OSX disc (which version of OSX is this, Leopard, Snow Leopard?) so I am unable to understand this unless you are referring to a restore from Time Machine, is this what you did?

Assistance request. iMac intel unable to boot.

iMac unable to boot. I have been unable to boot from original install disks. I transfered the install disk to a usb key. I am in the single user terminal screen. Would like to wipe iMac clean and reinstall from the Key. However don't know the comand lines. Thanks

Only a couple of things left for you to try...
Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.
Pull the RAM & reseat it.

Unable to boot to Vista after changing Mac OS partition size

Greetings,
After creating an additional Mac OS partition, I can't boot into Vista anymore. Any way to fix it without re-installing?
I have an intel iMac running Leopard, and Vista on a bootcamp NTFS partition. That was working fine.
I created a new partition on the drive (using space from my Leopard partition) and installed Tiger on it for a short project. I’ve been dual booting between Leopard and Tiger just fine.
However, now I’m unable to boot using the Vista partition. I boot to a black screen with white text that states "No bootable device, hit any key" error. Of course hitting a key does nothing.
I can boot into Leopard/Tiger just fine, and can see the Vista partition from Leopard and view the files as usual. However I just can't boot into Vista. I tried running the repair tool from the Vista install disk, but that doesn't work on the NTFS partition (I think it doesn't see a windows partition to fix). Disk utility from Leopard shows the vista partition as the right size and formatted as NTFS.
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Thanks!

TestDisk - CGSecurity.
TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
TestDisk can
* Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
* Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
* Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
* Fix FAT tables
* Rebuild NTFS boot sector
* Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
* Fix MFT using MFT mirror
* Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
# Mac partition map
# NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 )
TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Seeing you could lose everything, I would definitely use WinClone while in OS X to backup Vista, and CCC or SuperDuper to backup your OS X volumes (or Apple DU Restore, just be sure to turn off "Ignore Ownership" and repair permissions afterward, and then rerun 10.5.2 if possible).
http://www.twocanoes.com/forums/

Unable to boot disk utility or reinstall Mountain Lion

Hello,
I bought an iMac via ebay and I am unable to boot to disk utility and reinstall mountain lion becouse the guy I bought it from didnt delete the users nor reinstall OS
I have a Pc keyboard and am pressing the correct command+r but mac just hangs on apple sign and loading.
I can enter single user terminal and this is what I did and can do. There are 4 users in the /Users
tried following;
/sbin/fsck -fy
disk is ok
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Bug:launchctl.c:2344 (25952):2: (dbfd = open(g_job_overrides_db_path, 0_RDONLY | 0_EXLOCK | 0_CREAT, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR)) != - 1
launch_msg(): Socket is not connected
I am connected to the internet via ethernet and I am stuck here not knowing what to do! I dont have an original DVD from Apple but I do have an image on the DVD.
There is no other mac in my house either and I cant make bootable usb or firewire.
Any suggestions on where to go from here or I am screwed?
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Apr 7, 2013 7:42 AM (in response to daiktsu)
@daiktsu: I wonder why these two are helping you at all.
@sls and Radiation: I admire your patience with this troll.
Unreal ! hahaha , congrats to all 3 - Lex, SSLS and Radiation for taking the HIGH road . Now that is CON"TROL" !

Unable to boot back to os x after installing windows7

I'm using iMAC with all the softwares updated.
As the title stated, I'm unable to boot back to my mac os x after i successfully installed windows 7.
I hold on to the Option key / Alt key but to no avail.
I'm able to see my Mac HD via My Computer from windows 7.
I even manage to install drivers from the os x cd itself to windows 7.
Just thinking is it something wrong with the MBR of mac os x or windows that caused this issue to arise.
Any help or guide will be helpful!
Regards,
xiang

X on startup should take you into OS X
For now, go to Windows control panels : Boot Camp and change the default OS there.
Whether it is keyboard, bluetooth, or karma, some people's systems do seem to have trouble on the timing or getting Option/Alt to bring up the EFI Boot menu/manager.

[Solved] Unable to boot (startup job is running)

Hi there!
Today I went home and tried to boot my laptop there, but was unable to boot Arch.
Before I went home I did a system update using ' sudo pacman -Syu ' and shut the laptop off normally. Right now I get the following message whilst booting:
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Do any of you know how I can fix this, or how to boot/fix arch such that I can attempt to fix it? Based on a search trough this forum it might be an error in FSTAB, although all cases reported on this forum appear to boot normally after the 'a startup job is running 'error message'.
Many thanks.
Last edited by Simthadim (2014-10-11 09:43:36)

Thank you for your response.
Changing the UUID's to /dev/sdaX did not do it's magic, unfortunately. The ' a start job' message is gone, the boot however gets stuck at
/dev/sda2 clean .... (beginning of boot)
Unfortunately I did not properly save the back-up of my fstab file, so the initial set up is lost. Was able to acces arch using alt+f2 and have restored it manually with
lsblk -f
It currently looks like this. I did have a line to automount my data partition (/dev/sda4, label: Data), but didn' t know how to restore that one as that line got deleted too. My gut says this automount was causing the initial error, but it should boot up normally with the current fstab file, right?
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda2
UUID=47faa9c6-13d9-4d4f-8744-78766ea7c193 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# /dev/sda3
UUID=bd14a274-a365-4511-9a11-151e086a42db none swap defaults 0 0
UUID=509F9EA61178387E /run/media/simon/Data ntfs auto 0 2

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I was recently given a broken Macbook from a friend who didn't want it anymore, and had no interest in fixing it. It's a 13.3" Macbook from 2009 with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066MHz RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 9400M. Since I can't get it to boot, and am not super familiar with Apple OS's (I'm more of a linux guy to be honest), I'm not entirely sure which version of OS X it's running, but from the production date my best guess would be Snow Leopard.
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Broadcom2045FamilyUSBBluetoothHCIController::start booting in single user ... will wait for later
[HCICcontroller][configurePM] power parent ready after 1 tries
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I then, tested the RAM by trying all 6 permutations of the two 1GB sticks. With each configuration I tried to boot the computer normally, in safe mode, and in single-user mode, but in all 6 configurations the computer behaved exactly like (with the exception of it spending more time on the gray screen with Apple logo during the normal boot procedure when it was being run in the 4 positions that had only 1GB of RAM rather than the standard 2GB, but that was to be expected) it had been.
Five notes of interest.
1) The power adapter she gave me with it is an 85 watt model, whereas the stock power adapter appears to have been a 45 watt version, but this should neither have contributed to my current problem, nor caused any damage to the computer whatsoever
2) The computer is unable to be turned on without being unplugged and removing the battery first. That is to say, after an unsuccessful boot attempt I must remove then replace the battery in order to try again.
3) The battery is not defective, and is capable of holding a charge
4) The screen was replaced at some point in the last 2 - 3 months
5) I have read of a similar problem occurring with Macbooks that have had a new hard drive installed, but as far as I can tell the hard drive in it is the stock 160GB one that came stock with the computer
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and for any advice or help you can provide.

Despite nobody having answered, I'll keep updating.
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Hi
Well, mostly the BSOD appears due to a hardware problem or serious software issue.
In your case the software problem is possible
Unfortunately, I think the new OS installation is the best way to get the notebook running correctly.
Now you want to know how to save the data and files well, I think you should remove the HDD from notebook and should try to connect the 2.5 HDD via external USB controller to another computer. Then you could save the files on the other HDD
I think, now you know that the regular backups are important and necessary!!!!

Why might extracted Snow Leopard MacBookPro drive no longer boot under IMAC Lion?

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2. As I didn't have a spare drive, I purchased an OWC USB 3.0 enclosure kit and inserted the drive from the MBP.
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Thanks Pete, but it doesn't solve my problem.
Apple does something to the recovery partition to make it invisible. When I was trying to setup my 16GB USB stick drive as a "Recoverable Partition", since I don't have one on my main Lion drive, it made it invisible also. But during the process it failed to finish but has left my USB drive invisible under Lion and nothing that I've tried has been able to undue that. (See Above). What is it that I need to do to get my USB Flash drive visible again under Lion. It is visible under Snow Leopard and it is visible under the lion install utitlties (I made a installer DVD from original internet downloaded Lion installer) but not under disk utilities on lion or the lion desktop! I've reformated under both the above(Snow Leopard & Installer utilities) were I had access to the USB Drive but that didn't undue whatever Apple does to make the recovery partition and my USB Drive invisible because once I boot back into Lion, it's still not there! So the $64,000 question is how do I get my USB Flash drive visible again under Lion?
Hope this help you to understand my situration.
Ian

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up.

Holding down the option key when booting my iMac lo longer shows me my bootable external drives, the system just boots up to the main system. Also, holding down command, option,P,R no longer zaps the p-ram. the system just boots up normally. Why do these key fonctions no longer work?

It could be your timing if on a bluetooth keyboard. I find it best to hit the keys as soon as i hear the chime, release and hit them again but this time holding them before the chime ends....like a fake pump in football.
But....you can always open up system preferences, startup disk, and select your bootable clone for booting. If it doesn't show up there, the Mac doesn't think it's bootable.

Unable to boot from cloned MacOS 10.6.8 server

Hi there,
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Acer Aspire Switch 10E - unable to boot, no keyboard

Hello everyone,
I have recently bought an Acer Aspire Switch 10E to do my terrain work, and would love to be able to run Linux on it. I'm running into one problem after another though (most likely because some things aren't officially supported yet, but I was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences who might be able to help me out. To cut the long story short, from my own experience, I'm sure Linux can run on this.
In any case, the machine features a quad-core Intel Atom CPU (which should work AFAIK), with Intel HD graphics (which should also work flawlessly AFAIK). It also features a Realtek RTL8273BS WiFi network card (haven't got to trying it out, but my guesstimate is that it requires some proprietary firmware, since it didn't work on Ubuntu live). It has a 1280x800 touchscreen (which worked flawlessly on Ubuntu live), and a dockable keyboard (now that one boggles me). This is just a quick "tldr" version of what the machine is supposed to be. It's basically a 64-bit x86-compatibile tablet PC with a dockable keyboard and which shipped with Windows 8.1.
Okay, so first things first. The Acer Aspire Switch 10E has a 32-bit UEFI, and there is no possible way of booting an OS (live or otherwise, Linux or otherwise) which only has a 64-bit EFI image. There is no legacy BIOS on the motherboard, so (to whom it may concern), don't even bother with online tutorials that tell you to switch to legacy BIOS, as there is no way to enable it. On the other hand, a valid 32-bit EFI image will boot, even in Secure Mode, so don't bother disabling that either. In other words, there is absolutely no need to change anything in the UEFI setup in order to boot Linux, apart from adding your 32-bit EFI image to a trusted list.
Thus, in order to boot any live Linux media, it is (TTBOMK) required to either generate a working 32-bit EFI image, or use an existing one. It took me a while to figure that out, on top of the time to figure out how to generate my own 32-bit EFI image, without breaking something. Bear with me here - this is the first machine I ever owned that features an UEFI, let alone an UEFI without legacy BIOS.
Here is the stuff I found, which I was able to use to get to this point:
UEFI GPT Arch Linux USB (bootx64.efi and bootia32.efi) - Taylorbyte.com
Acer Aspire Switch 10 can't boot 14.04 LTS - Ubuntu Forums
From Ubuntu forums, I learned about this and this, both of which have bootable 32-bit EFI images, which work on Ubuntu live. Those, however, did not work with Arch Linux, for some reason, so I generated my own EFI images from the tutorial found on Taylorbyte.com. Not absolutely sure if I did it right however, since the tutorial seemed a bit dated, but it did get me into the basics I needed.
So, I now have a bootable USB drive with Arch Linux installed on it, with both 32-bit and 64-bit EFI images. My Acer Aspire 10E recognises the 32-bit EFI image and boots into GRUB loader from it, which asks me whether to boot into Arch Linux or Arch Linux Fallback. At this point, my keyboard still works, and I can choose either.
However, as soon as I choose Arch Linux to boot, it complains about being unable to boot from "UUID=<my USB's UUID>", and drops me into a boot console. The cursor blinks, but the keyboard input is not recognised at all.
I have recompiled the kernel for my live Arch USB (via makepkg -o and makepkg -e) as stated on the Ubuntu forums (setting HID_MAX_USAGE = 65536 in a certain header file in the kernel sources), but it didn't do much. The kernel still compiles, so I guess that's a plus.
Without keyboard, I am unable to install Arch on this machine, and I'm currently stuck with this error, which I'm not sure what to make of. I have never stated any UUID's while configuring my Arch live USB, so I suppose something is detecting it automatically, thus preventing Arch from booting (no idea what it could be, though).
So to conclude, I need help with booting Arch live USB on this machine, as well as getting keyboard to work. I have read here and there some people had some success with either Arch, Fedora or Ubuntu, and I've seen (32-bit) Debian 8.1 installer boot normally - without keyboard or wifi, though.
Any help regarding this would be very much appreciated.
Last edited by Wintershade (Today 12:49:37)

Hi Marc, Thanks for the swift response. I'm not sure if Acer (Philippines) will be able to give the necessary support since they are only selling the Switch 10 (not even Switch 11! So backwards!) . I don't mind reinstalling the file from time to time as long as it will fix the problem asap. Would it be possible to know how often you reinstalled the exe file to fix the problem? One more thing, the only thing that's hindering on buying the Switch 12 are problems like these (since we don't have the tech support yet). Would it be possible for you to send me the fix for the keyboard problem? Thank you very much! ++ How's the experience when you are using it on your lap, let say when travelling on a plane ? Is the built stable enough that it won't stumble that easily?

I am unable to boot my iMac

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