IMAC 27 wakes up but without Startup Disk?

Put iMAC to sleep and it wakes up with normal looking desktop, but nothing activates. Unable to launch apps etc. I shut down, unplug power, then startup with option key, Startup disk displays and I click enter, and all starts up fine.... I select MAC HD in Preferences but each time I put Mac to sleep this happens it never stays selected. The selected HD startup disk always go away? I would hate to have to re-install S/W to get past this issue. I also ran Disk Utility and it repaired & verified disk and permissions, but still iMAC will not wake from sleep with normal HD startup disk. Any help please?

Hi Nate,
The Apple guy called and we took care of this problem within 15 minutes. I will summarize for you quickly what cured it.
1. Open ACCOUNTS in Syst. Prefs. Clicked on LOG-IN Items, deleted 5 items and closed up.
2. Powered down Mac, unplugged all cables, USB, Firewire except Hi-Speed Modem cable.
3. Started back up with SHIFT key. However Magic Mouse didn't work.. So Powered OFF again.
4. Plugged all cables back in and did a normal Start Up. Booted up normal and issue is resolved
Apple Tech was great, no rushing and was easy to work with on the phone. iMAC is working great again!!
Thank you for your help, and I did ask Tech about resetting PRAM with your method, and he said it is a good idea to do this on occasion, but wouldn't have done much to cure my specific issue.
Thanks again Nate for your effort. Much appreciated! Jim

Similar Messages

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

I have a mid-2010 27" Quad Core i5 iMac running 10.8.3. Startup disk recognizes the primary hard drive as a startup volume but will not boot from it. Have tried zapping PRAM, ran disk utility. No errors reported Any thoughts?

My bad Eric. The startup preference recognizes the primary as a 10.8.3 startup volume but when u select it the system does not boot. I can only boot from my external backup drive

Resetting Password without startup disks

Left startup disks home, unable to get access to administrative settings. How do I reset password without startup disk?

jsmurphy06 wrote:
Left startup disks home, unable to get access to administrative settings. How do I reset password without startup disk?
"unable to get access to administrative settings?"
Why, are you admin or not?

IMac Memory Issues: "Your Mac OSX Startup Disk Has No More Space Available"

Hi all,
I've done some extensive searching on my issue, and haven't been able to find a solid solution. I was hoping that if I shared my specific problem, it might shed some light on what is going on. My OS is current: 10.8.2 with plenty of HD space (over 250 GB) and 4 GB ram.
Over the past couple of days, my iMac has become very slow and laggy. Most times I will eventually get the message: "Your Mac OSX Startup Disk Has No More Space Available". This is after it has been lagging for quite a while, sometimes several hours.
I will restart, things will be sufficiently fast for a few minutes, but once I start working in any application (including any browser, or adobe software) it starts to slow down until it is eventually to a crawl, with the spinny wheel showing up often, even when only one application is open at a time. It doesn't take more than several minutes to start slowing down. Even simple things like hovering over the dock start to really lag, or opening my applications folder or System Preferences can take upwards of 15-30 seconds, even several minutes sometimes.
Here's some steps I've taken so far:
- Checked the activity monitor and system memory seems fine. No single app takes up more than 7% or so of memory at any given time. 1.65 GB active, 1.64 GB inactive, about 700 MB wired, free about 4 MB. VM size is 247 GB, CPU also seems OK: (%user around 10-20%, %System around 10%, Idle around 70-80%). No single app seems to be taking up an excessive amount of Real Memory.
- Permissions repair (It found some things to fix, but never completely finished, seemed to freeze after several hours, tried it several times)
- Checked disk for repair (no problems found), did the S.M.A.R.T check and ran tests again using Onyx.
- Re-indexed Macintosh HD
- I saw a suggestion to reset the PRAM, so I did that.
I do have the system backed up via Time Machine. Suggestions for further action are very much appreciated!

Ok, thanks. Here's a screenshot from during when it was running to a near halt (took me a while even to take the screenshot):
Here's a second screenshot after restart. All I did was open Chrome to post this:
At this exact moment I have about 500MB of memory free, but I have been watching it slowly count down starting from 2GB free when I first restarted. So far it is running smoothly, but I am guessing that it will start to lag again once the free memory dials down.
In case there is any correlation: I happened to have a strange issue with my internet connection. My router seems to be working fine, and I have wi-fi connected around the house. However, I did have my iMac connected via ethernet cable, and the wired connection was not working (was not finding a DNS address), but when I go to Wi-fi, it works. Again, could be totally unrelated, but it started just before the slowdown.

Imac late 2009 chimes but wont startup

Late 2009 27” iMac i7 2.66GHz w/ 8GB ram
let me preface this by saying that Ive searched for answers to this specific problem for days without any luck. I have a late 2009 iMac 27" i7, a few days ago, when I was out, and it was presumably asleep, it stopped working. When I returned, I tried to wake it but it wouldnt wake up, I noticed that the back of the machine was very hot, so I restarted it. It would chime, but the screen would remain black. I tried different ways of restarting, different screen, installer thumbdrive, target mode, safe mode, etc. Everytime, I would hear the chime, I can feel one of the drives spinning, but nothing. Unfortunately, I had only set this system up about 4 weeks ago, and had forgotten to turn my file sharing on, so I can use Screen Sharing to try to control it. Though I dont think its actually on because I dont see the machine listed in my wireless network anymore. so I guess it really doesnt matter. Another thing that it doesnt let me do is zap the PRAM. I’ll hold the keys down before the chime, and again nothing.
Here a little history about this machine. Ive had this machine since early 2010, its been a work horse, and has never given me much problems aside from a failed harddrive, which I replaced with an SSD. Also, Recently the CD drive failed on me, so I took it out and replaced it with an SSD, so now I have an ssd where the diskdrive was, and also added a 1tb 3.5 Drive into the original drive bay. All has been running smooth for about 4 weeks.
Anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried holding down the power button until the computer shutdown, holding it until boot up chime. Possiblly something wrong with the display? My family has the same computer and there have been boot-up issues too, so maybe a recurring problem? between tries, give it a few minutes and unplug, otherwise take it in. Also try to vacuum the dust out of the slot vent in the back or clean out the computer. If you can't get it to work and do not want to take it in, use target mode and connect another computer via usb to retrieve important files. Good Luck!

IMac G4 won't boot off startup disk

Looking at a G4 20" flat panel for a friend. He blew away some unknown file and hosed the computer. It will not start in safe mode. Get a Darwin kernel panic screen on normal start-up. Will not boot in safe mode. Will not boot off start-up disk (C) - get an interminal grey apple screen that does not proceed. It will boot off of the disk for hardware test (Option), but cannot launch off startup disk icon - get one of those Verboten circles with a line thru it. Hardware test returns two errors loading default text (1) and control (2) fonts and returns an invalid memory access at %SRRO 00000000.00000000 %SRR1 10000000.00083030.
G$ Mac OS X (10.4) unknown version of Tiger

Oops - G5, not G4. And what this young man did was delete his system library. Any suggestions about how to get him up again would be greatly appreciated.

Resetting Administrative Password without startup disk

Away from my home, attempting to access Macbook Pro administrative settings. Forgot password and unable to gain access without my startup disk. Wondering if there is a way around this or a way to reset password.

Forgot Your Account Password
For Snow Leopard and earlier
     Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
For Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
     Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
     instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
     Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
     OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
If you are unable to boot from an installer DVD:
(these will only work on Leopard or earlier)
1. Boot to Safe Mode by restarting and after the chime press and hold down
      the COMMAND-S keys until a black screen with white type appears.
2. At the prompt, type the following commands pressing return after each
      command line:
     /sbin/fsck -yf
     If you do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message then repeat this command
     until you do. If after seven tries you still do not receive a "Filesystem OK"
     message, then the system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.
     mount -uw /
     cd /private/var/db/netinfo
     mv local.nidb local.old
     rm ../.AppleSetupDone
     shutdown -r now
The second-to-last command above will cause OS X to think that the operating system is newly installed, and when the new owner starts up the computer it will send him/her to the startup wizard where he/she can start a new user without reinstalling.
This last method does not actually change a password. It simply removes the user accounts and lets you create an initial admin account as if the computer were new out of the box.
Reset Admin Password Using The Terminal
You can reset the password by printing out (or writing down) and carefully following these steps.
First, find the short name of the admin user on the machine. The easiest way of doing this is by looking at what the directory is called in the Users folder.
Now, start in Single-user Mode. It should boot into a command line.
Enter these exact lines. Press RETURN after each.
mount -uw /
ifconfig lo0 up
cd /var/db/netinfo
netinfod -s local
Now you'll need that short name. Enter "passwd", a space, and the short name of the admin. For example, if the admin was rather prosaically called "imadmin", you would enter "passwd imadmin".
The computer will now prompt you to change the password for "lmadmin" (or whatever the short name was). Go ahead and enter a new password.
Now, enter:
sync
reboot
and the machine will reboot. The admin password should now be changed.

Got the white screen with flashing ? But no startup disk to be found

Need some help as following all instructions from everyone I cannot reinstall OS X mountain lion (I was using Mavericks but Mountain Lion is all that is coming up - issue is when asked to select disk where I want to install nothing come up??

A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Can't transfer cs5 from fried macbook air to my new Pro - i have serial numbers but no startup disk

my macbook air has software on it that I can't retrieve because it is dead -
i have a brand new mac book pro and serial numbers for both cs3 and the cs5 updagrade.
I called adobe to see if i can download the standard suite from their support but apparently they no longer offer access to anything prior to 5.5.
I dont have the installation disc's, how can I get this software downloaded and on my new computer without having to buy the whole suite again!
what can i do?

http://prodesigntools.com/tag/ddl
Mylenium

Time machine is turned off but my startup disk keeps filling up with backup files on a hidden volume.

My Time Machine is turned off but my system startup drive keeps filling up with backup files in a hidden volume. How can I stop this? When Time Machine was turned on, the destination was set to an external drive. I was completely confused about what was happening until I used Houdini to reveal the hidden volume. I have no idea how it got created or why it keeps filling up with no backup application running to my knowledge. Thanks.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
Download this, or a similar tool if you prefer:
OmniDiskSweeper - Products - The Omni Group
Boot in safe mode. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all, possibly including wireless networking.
Does your boot volume continue to fill up? Use the above tool to explore the volume and find out where the space is going.

Can i factory reset my Mac without startup disk???

So i have a 2009 10.5.8 osx mac book pro , problem is a friend gave it to me whos long gone and is the factory owner or whatever you call the '"master".
I dont know the master password and cant download adobe Cant update software without their password. So i'd like to completley wipe out everything as if I just bought the computer brand new.... problem is i dont have any of the disks and keep in mind i cant really download anything at all because this thing ***** so bad...... please help

Duplicate installation disks can be ordered from Apple customer service. You will have to provide them with the MBP serial number and there is a charge.
Ciao.

I changed my wheel group properties to no access at top disk level. I messed up, how can I change back in single user mode "command s" as I am now in Thailand and not able to access startup disks?

I messed up, I changed my "Wheel group" properties to No Access ( or something other than the default) at the top level of my startup disk "Macintosh HD".   Now my computer won't start up, I just get the spinning wheel of death.    I also am in Thailand right now, so I cannot go to a Genius at an apple store, nor do I have startup disks available.
So I was hoping there was a way to change back the properties of my disk (Volume) in single user mode (via Command +s) during startup, i.e. can I do a chmod command on the Macintosh HD listing under the Volume Directory.    Or where do i fix this?   Is it fixable without startup disks, etc...
THANKS FOR ANY HELP!!!!
If you could also please let me know you have an answer, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!
thanks so much
mark
<Edited by Host>

Thomas,
Thanks for the info on command-R, didn't know about that!!!
Yes I changed the sharing "Wheel Group" permissions on my hard drive via Get Info.    But that's all I did.    And then most of the apps wouldn't respond with anything.    So not knowing I did something stupid, I decided to re-boot, and then nothing but the Wheel of Death at startup.
I was trying to limit access to my computer on this network, changed my public folder settings, and then I thought why not the whole hard drive, but at that time I had no idea what the "Wheel Group" was... so I shouldn't have touched it, BUT IT DID ...... argggggg....
I managed to go to an internet cafe & research the problem yesterday.    I used the command +s single mode to get in, and then did the necessary steps to mount the drive so I could make changes.   I basically did this:
Boot into single-user mode (boot while holding down CMD-S)
Follow the on-screen instructions to mount the file system as read-write (a fsck command followed by a mount command)
Type the following: "chmod o+r /" followed by "chmod o+x /"
Type "exit" to leave single user mode and complete the boot sequence.
I found it at this link http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416180
It worked... thank God!!!   Well so far so good.
I was going to try my own fix by chmod on the Hard drive listed under Volumes directory, but that doesn't seem to match the info under Get Info Window.    So I just used the fix above.    I probably should now go and do "Disk Utility - repair permissions", however I am a little gun shy right now, so I will probably wait until I am back in the States so I can go to an Apple store if it messes up.   Right now I'm following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" MOTTO...
So Thomas I just wanted to say THANKS for replying so quickly, and I really appreciate your help!!!
(yes I know I shouldn't have used my email addresses, but I WAS DESPERATE, but that's still no excuse)
Hopefully maybe this thread will help someone else out in the future....
Okay, thanks again!
Mark

No startup disk on boot

Okay, this will be a long story and I hope some people would have the patience of reading everything. I just want to tell everything that may have contributed to my problem. My main problem is, when I start my iMac, it does not find any startup disk (not my Mac OS, and not my bootcamp partition).
It all started when I opened my iMac and got an error message, something about a missing/corrupt ntfs.sys file (I default Windows on startup, and I don't know why this appeared, I didn't convert my HD from FAT to NTFS because I don't even know how to do this). So I looked for it on the internet and most of the suggestions said that I should insert my Windows CD and boot from there, and choose Repair. Unfortunately that didn't work, so I booted from Mac instead (holding down the Option key on startup so that I can choose which partition/OS to start from). I successfully booted on Mac. While I was there, I changed the default disk to boot from to Mac (using Startup Disk). And somewhere in the lower left part of the screen, I saw a lock button that when enabled, it will prevent future changes (on what startup disk to start from I guess), so I locked it.
The next day when I started my Mac, it just showed a blinking folder with a question mark. Again, I searched for it on the internet and followed a thousand suggestions on how this might be fixed. These are the things I tried (not in order), and not one of them worked:
1. Safe Boot/Safe Mode - holding down the Shift key
2. Holding down the Option key - before, it showed my 2 available partitions (Mac and Bootcamp/Windows), but now I just get a blank white screen with my mouse pointer
3. Resetting the PRAM - I can tell that the reset worked because previously, I disabled the gong sound during startup, and after I resetted, the gong sound came back
4. fsck - fail. It fsck'd my Mac OS CD (see step 5)
5. Booting from Mac OS installation CD - although I successfully booted from this one, when I ran Disk Utilities, it only showed the CD and not the startup disks. I even tried reinstalling, but when I got to the part that says select which drive to install in, there were no options at all.
Basically I tried everything that I can find on the Internet, to no avail. I'm worried that this could be a hardware problem, although I still have my warranty. It has only been 7 months since I bought it...
Additional infos: I tried removing my USB keyboard and mouse but that didn't change anything, and I didn't add a memory card on it. I never opened my iMac ever.
HELP!

1. This might happen if it wasn't connected well to begin with, but given that you were already having problems with the drive, almost certainly isn't the case here.
2. Useless except as a paperweight. Any data stored on it and not backed up can only be recovered by a professional service.
(59298)

RAM Doubler broken by OS 9 Startup Disk control panel

After setting up a PowerBook G3 with OS 9.2.2, thought I'd install RAM Doubler since it has only 128MB of RAM (and just for nostalgia's sake). Seems to work fine (of course, had to install the two OS 9 RD updates), but then I started from an external disk to run Disk Warrior on it, and when I returned to the internal disk RAM Doubler was disabled "because it had been moved". I remember RD had a piracy-protection system to prevent copying; apparently this was triggered somehow.
Experimentation determined that the trigger was the Startup Disk control panel: if this control panel is even opened, without changing any settings, RD is immediately disabled. Though the alert suggests "Restart your computer to run more applications," this doesn't work; RD must be reinstalled at this point.
I assume this is a bug that appeared in Mac OS 9 sometime after Connectix went out of business, so was never addressed/fixed. (I haven't tried this with 9.0.x or 9.1.) It can be avoided by not using the Startup Disk control panel, instead using the C key to start up from a CD, or cmd-opt-shift-delete to force startup from an external disk. Either of these expedients does not affect RD, but the Startup Disk control panel kills it.
Anyone else run into this? Any thoughts, solutions?

Hi, HandyMac -
There have been a few posts over the years indicating that RamDoubler can't quite get to full compatibility with OS 9. This may have to do with some applications in OS 9 having the ability to use dynamic memory allocation, a function probably not expected by RamDoubler.
As Baby Boomer suggests, leaving RamDoubler off and using the OS's native Virtual Memory function should prove to be more stable.
Best is to increase the physical RAM in the machine. I have 896MB RAM in this G4, and am able to leave Virtual Memory off.

HT1338 how do i delete items from my startup disk

I'm trying to upgrade my software but my startup disk is full, how can I fix this?

petermac87 wrote:
tjackson919 wrote:
I'm trying to upgrade my software but my startup disk is full, how can I fix this?
Download OmniDiskSweeder (free) and see what large files are filling up your disk. They would be the first ones I would consider backing up and deleting. How big is your drive and how much space is left?
Pete
OmniDiskSweeper apologies for the typo. Even forgot to paste the link!!!! Thanks Clinton
Cheers
Pete

IMAC 27 wakes up but without Startup Disk?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for