I need a startup disk to reboot my system . can i download it?, i need a startup disk to reboot my system . can i download it?

i need to startup my system i have a imac quad core imac running OSx 10.7.5 i lost my reboot system disk in my move and its so important i get back into my files. is there a place i can download this disk from? and how do i free up some start disk space if i am in a safe mode?

Startup your Mac while holding down the Command + R keys. From there you can access the built in utilities in OS X Recovery to restore OS X.
Read before restoring > OS X: About OS X Recovery
OS X Recovery does require a high speed broadband connection.
If this works, make sure to backup your important files ASAP.
Mac Basics: Time Machine

Similar Messages

Mac Pro (Early 2008) freezes, reboots to recovery system, trouble locating startup disk

I have two issues which may or may not be related with my Mac Pro. First, off and on for several months is has been frozen when waking from sleep. I can hit a key and see my desktop with the windows I left open, but I get the spinning beach ball and the time is typically several hours behind. The only way I can get it to start is to restart from the power button. This typically happens overnight when my computer has been asleep for a long time. Sometimes I hear the fan run while the computer is asleep and I don't know if that is related. I've tried switching from Firefox to Chrome to see if that was the problem since I typically have a few tabs open on Firefox when it freezes, but that does not solve the problem. The next step I plan to try is to get a can of compressed air and clean the fan and check if the video card air intake might be clogged, based on information I have read in various forums. Does anyone have other suggestions for things to try to eliminate the freezing? Another suggestion I read was to get a new logic board battery installed but I hate to lug this thing into an Apple store unless I really have to. Most of the time I'm comfortable fixing things on my own.
The second issue is that when I reboot after shutting down the computer with the power button, it does not always load the startup disk. Sometimes I get the recovery system instead, and if I try disk repair, restore from backup, or the startup disk option from the apple menu, it cannot locate the startup disk. Usually after a few tries, I can restart it and get my desktop, but I'm not sure how long that will work. I hoped that resetting the NVRAM would take care of this but it has not fixed the issue. When I do disk repair, it says the drive is fine. I've also used idefrag to clean up the drive. I'm thinking my hard drive might be about to die and I should just get a new one, but I don't want to spend the money if that is not the issue. I have 83 GB free on the drive so space should not be an issue.
Any suggestions on fixing either or both of these issue would be very much welcome! I need to make this computer last at least a couple more years.
Specs:
Mac Pro early 2008
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F37)

Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the 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.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating sys

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system. I do not have a back up of all my applications, my garageband music and other things. I also do not have time capsule set up on this machine, but I do have a 2 TB time capsule.
Is there anyway to back up this corrupted drive so I can restore my applications later?

There's an old saying. If you don't have a backup disc, then there must be nothing important to backup. That's just lesson #1. Lesson #2 is to never interrupt a software update. Not a good thing.
OK, I'm sure you know this. It just upsets me to read your story, knowing you have a lot of important stuff on your hard drive, and didn't use time machine.
You're pretty much in a bad place. My only hope for you is to boot to your Installation Disc, then using disk utility see if you can save the internal hard drive (by fixing what can be fixed). You might be able to see your user folder and some of your apps. I wouldn't even consider copying the library, because who knows what's been corrupted in there.
Good luck.

Tried to open my old MacBook. Couldn't remember password. Followed suggestion to reinstall hardware. Now startup disk is stuck in computer and it won't turn on. I keep getting a message saying I need to restart the computer. Any ideas?

Tried to open my old MacBook. Couldn't remember password. Followed suggestion to reinstall hardware. Now startup disk is stuck in computer and it won't turn on. I keep getting a message saying I need to restart the computer. When I hold down power button, I get the same message over and over. Any ideas?

Hello m.goo, and a warm welcome to the forums!
To eject the Disc, hold the Mouse button down, (or what passes for it on a Laptop), while powering up, if you also hold the Option key down at the same time it should eject & give you a chance to insert your install disc & wait for it to shw as a Boot option.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Tiger 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. (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."
Then Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it finishes.
If it appears to be time for An Archive & Install, which gives you a new OS, but can preserve all your files, APPs, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Be sure to use Preserve Users & Settings.
To check if AppleCare applies, AppleCare Products Overview...
http://www.apple.com/support/applecare/overview/

What do i need to do when i get a startup disk full error?

What do i need to do when i get a startup disk full error? I can't update software or use my MacAir at all.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as "Backups." The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the 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.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

STARTUP DISK FULL NEED TO DELETE FILES IN OTHER

I know vertually nothing about this computer. Am on the road with it and use it for business in my truck. I keep getting a message that says that the startup disk is almost full and it won't allow me to use it until I remove some files. Somehow, was able to bring up storage bar that shows that the "other" which is expressed in yellow, contains the vast majority of my usage or files and what is in there is beyond me. This has all started since I got the iPhone 5 and had to replace it and redownload all in my truck using my verison wifi. Please help you can. Thank you!

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. I've seen no evidence that there is any advantage to having more available space at any given time than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the available space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as "Backups." The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
About local snapshots
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the 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.
Paste (command-V) into the Terminal window. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I just bought a new mac and need to clear the memory of my old one but i don't have a startup disk. how do i do this?

I just bought a new mac book pro and need to clear my old mac of it's contents to give it away--- I do not have my startup disk anymore. How can i completely delete my old mac's memory?

Erasing your drive:
Dragging the files to the Trash removes the references to them from the Directory. As has always been the tradition, the data blocks that held the actual data are not over-written, they are merely added to the free list for later re-use. Their original contents are still present.
Disk Utility "Erase" or "Partition" of a drive (which finishes in under a minute) also does not over-write the data blocks, but merely creates a new, empty directory.
To clear the data that may still be present (admittedly in a disorganized mess of unlinked blocks) you need to overwrite the data. Use the erase tab, then choose "Security Erase" Options, and overwrite once with Zeroes. This process can take several hours as it is -- if you insist on multiple passes, it can take days to complete, with little additional protection. Multiple passes is unnecessary unless your drive held Military Secrets.
When you have erased, be sure to install some version of Mac OS X -- a Mac with no obvious Operating software may be dead, and is much more likely to quickly become landfill.

Both time machine drive and startup disk can't be repaired by disk utilities and needs to be formatted!!??

ok so i accidentally remove the USB while my laptop was backing up to the time machine partition on my external HDD. I plug it in again, and no time machine partition. just the other part (fat 32 partition). so i open disk utilities.. the partition is there but grayed out. so I repair it.. and it says it cant repair it i need to back it up and format it. ok great.. i tried to do that and it said it can't access the disk.. super.
any way.. i don't know why i decided to check my other drives and see how they're doing.. and it turns out.. my startup disk has problems.. and you guessed it.. it can not be repaired:D so i restart in recovery mode.. did it again.. and? it can't be repaired.. i need to backup the drive and format it... (like the same problem with the time machine partition) just great! so i restart the laptop.. it safe boots.. I dnno why.. and everything is like it was.. I mean I don't see a problem with my drive.. i can do everything but that "cant repair" thing is scaring me.. what should I do? just leave it? or brace myself for a possible HDD death? I DON'T EVEN HAVE A BACKUP)
help me i feel vulnerable

As you have indicated, you don’t want to touch the partitions on your existing external drive because it has live files in the FAT32 partition for which there are no copies anywhere else. That leaves you with two sets of data that are currently not backed up: your FAT32 partition and your system drive. I suggest you need at least one more external HD for backups.
A “backup” drive should never have live files on it because should that drive fail all the live files on it would be lost. So you need a second external HD anyway for a proper backup scheme.
I would partition a new disk as you have the current one and then copy all the FAT32 files form the old disk to the new one. Then you can try repartitioning the old drive. I would then setup a backup scheme to periodically clone the new FAT32 drive onto the old FAT32 one, using the new disk for your live FAT32 files and dedicating the old disk to backups. You could also continue using the old disk for Time Machine backups.
You can use Mac cloning software such as Carbon Copy Cloner to maintain the cloned backup copy of your FAT32 data.
http://help.bombich.com/kb/usage-scenarios/backing-up-tofrom-network-volumes-and -other-non-hfs-volumes

How long should I let Safe Mode startup run? I keep getting the "disk0s2 i/o error" message and I'm just not sure when to give up and try a different method. I already ran disk utility in Recovery Mode and it said there were no repairs needed.

How long should I let Safe Mode startup run? I keep getting the "disk0s2 i/o error" message and I'm just not sure when to give up and try a different method. I already ran disk utility in Recovery Mode and it said there were no repairs needed but it still kept getting stuck on the apple loading screen.

You have limited opportunity to attempt to create a backup of your created files.
That is what the SafeBoot or safemode appears to allow you -- at the moment.
Since the hard disk drive exhibits signs of failure or other major issues, plan
on a replacement in the near future. You may be able to get the computer to
start up in a regular full OS X (not safe mode) but consider its hours are limited.
An externally enclosed hard disk drive (with own power supply, not relying on
Mac ports to run it) is a good basic means of which to use a disk utility to make
a copy or a Clone of the current OS X. This may help retrieve an archive that
could be used along with a Time Machine backup, to restore your Mac once you
get a new hard drive installed inside.
Good luck & happy computing!

HT203176 i have a slow macbook, i ran live disk utilities and said I need to repair disk from a cd. did that, I got volume repaired from the external disk. when I reboot from hdd, then run disk utility, I get the same error message i did b4 repair

i have a slow macbook, i ran live disk utilities (from hard drive), turned out I needed to repair disk from a installation disk. Did that, I got the volume (Hard drive) repaired from the installation disk disk. To this point, great!
When I reboot from hdd, then run disk utility, I get the same error message i did b4 repair. I went thru two rounds of this.....
Can anyone help? thanks

Sorry guys, I don't see how to reply to you so I use reply to "me" basically.
So the error I get is "volume header needs minor repair" and then you need to perform repair from the installation disk message.
I did repair not verify from the disk twice. Every time ending in the "the volume had ha been successfully repaired". Then I reboot from the internal disk. Run disk utilities from it, do verify and get the same error message I got before repair. I hope this can shed some light fr you guys. Sorry I didn't include details in the original
MEssage.

Startup Disk Full - need to remove photos

Before I begin - please excuse my technological ignorance. If I leave out any information, please let me know and I will get any needed details up asap.
I have a MacBook Pro, running Version 10.9.2 OS X with 8 GB Memory and 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. After multiple warnings that my startup disk was almost full, I finally received the dreaded 'your startup disk is full' message (my fault for ignoring all of the warnings!). I was able to free up a neglible amount of space by deleting useless files - so now I have 2.54GB free out of 159.18GB.
My iPhoto library is taking up about 82GB of space, with almost 19,000 photos covering the past 10 years. It is time to move a large chunk of them off my IHD but I'm at a loss as to the best way to go about this - and I'm terrified of deleting them from my IHD and then losing them forever.
I have two external hard drives and have copied my iPhoto library to both. Questions are:
*Is it better to backup/copy to EHD the source files for the photos (not sure if I'm using the right wording here) instead of the iPhoto library? While I foresee using Macs for a while, I would hate to lose access to these photos 20 years down the line because I know longer have iPhoto - or (heaven forbid) iPhoto is replaced by something else that can't open my library.
*If yes to above - how do I do this?
*If copying iPhoto library to both EHDs is sufficient and I delete most of my photos from my IHD to free up space (probably all but the most recent 12 months), it seems redudanet to make additional copies of the entire library each time I backup. I don't want 5 iPhoto libraries on my EHD with some duplicate photos in each. The overlap would drive me insane. Is there an incremental backup option that only backs up the new photos to the EHD?
*Is there a better option than EHDs for backing up a huge amount of photos?
Again - please excuse any places I may have used the wrong wording or term - I'm a bit new to this backing up business but want to make sure I don't lose any photos. With a 9 month old baby it seems something precious and photo-worthy happens every couple of minutes.
Thanks!!
Christie

First of all you don't want to backup your photo library if the backup will be your only copy. If you delete the orinal library to gain space that will allow the backup software to delete the photos from your backup.
Also if your photos are valubable to you they really need the protection of a good well tested backup plan. Any data with any values always needs backup protection.
My suggestion is to move your photo library to and EHD that is formatted Mac OS Extended with GUID partition mapping. After the move test your library to be sure that the application can still open it properly. Once that is done, the original library can be deleted.
I would then get another EHD that is formatted MAC OS Extended with GUID partion mapping. Is hould be 2 to three time larger then you disk space start backing up to it. Time Machine is a very simple backup solution. Test the backup by restoring some data from the backup to sure your restore from it.
Allan

Mac book pro spinning on startup but never gets to log in screen, repair disk says unable to repair, 2007 computer running Lion, how do I reinstall Lion to the Mac HD, which is the disk that needs repair, but cannot be repaired?

2007 MacBook Pro, was shut down properly last PM. Today on startup, spins and spins but cannot get to log in screen. Held option key with restart and using disk utilities the mac HD showing needs repair, but cannot be repaired. Says save as many files as possible and reinstall software. Can't save files, can't get into them. Willing to reinstall without saving, but can't because only disk option for the reinstall showing is the repair disk, and it is showing as locked. What to do?

Sounds like the drive is starting to fail. Have you ever change the drive in that system? If not then it is time to think about doing that, the sooner the better.

HT201364 i can install the os x because the is "You need 4.95 GB of available space to download OS X Mavericks. Remove items from your startup disk to increase available space." however, my mac air his space . so how can i

i need to install the new 10.9.2 to my mac but i cant becouse no available data there while i have space there ;therefore, how can i install it

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
In reality you will need a minimum of 12 GBs of free space to both download and install. Even then you still will need at least another 10 GBs free or a total of about 22 GBs.

Startup disk "Not mounted", needs to be repaired but can't get it to mount

I did a Verify Disk because my HD has been having issues. It told me I needed to backup and reformat, so I went ahead and backed everything up and went to DU in recovery mode.
But when I got there, my Macintosh HD showed up as "Mount Point: Not Mounted", so I did the following:
I clicked on the Macintosh HD from the list and clicked "Mount". It gives me the following:
Mount failed
The disk "Macintosh HD" could not be mounted.
Try running First Aid on the disk and then try mounting.
So I click "Verify Disk" and it gives me this:
Disk Utility stopped verifying "Macintosh HD"
This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
So I go to click Repair Disk but it's grey and cannot be selected, I assume because my drive is not mounted.
So how can I'm in a paradox and REALLY need help with getting my startup drive mounted again. Can anyone help?
Let me know if I can provide more info for troubleshooting and thank you in advance!

Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.

Need to increase startup disk memory

My hard drive is full so I installed the time machine so I can backup my files.
Now, i frequently get a message that i need to make more space for my startup disk.
How can I safely make space and what are some of the files or application I can remove to increase space?

Well, you're addressing two separate issues here. First, running backups with Time Machine is very sensible, but do understand that it's intended as a backup, not an archive. That is, you should always have two copies of your files - the original, and the backup. Therefore, don't delete any important files from your main drive, since you will then only have one copy (which is NOT a safe backup!)
Second, your hard drive space. How large is your current drive? You may benefit from simply installing a larger drive. It's a technical operation on a PowerBook, so you may want to find a local tech if you're not comfortable disassembling your Mac. If you don't want to take that step yet, run OmniDiskSweeper to find out which files and folders are taking up the most space. If you have iDVD and/or GarageBand installed, and don't use them, you can remove their large template/loop files from the /Library/Application Support folder. You might also shave off a couple of GB running MonoLingual. But these are really stopgap solutions, and ultimately, a larger HD may well be the solution.
Matt

I need a startup disk to reboot my system . can i download it?, i need a startup disk to reboot my system . can i download it?

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