IMac hosed, can't boot from SuperDrive or HD - help!

My iMac had a kernel panic last weekend. I tried to reboot, but got the endless blue screen. I booted to the Superdrive and used the AppleCare-supplied TT disc. Ran the diagnostic, did a repair, ejected, and rebooted. Now, endless grey screen. Shut down, rebooted, and now I get a question mark folder, then the grey apple logo and then something new -- a grey screen w/a black box in the middle.
So I figure it's time to reinstall 10.4. I put the DVD in, and reboot, holding C down. Nada. I hear the internal hard drive whine a little bit, then the grey/black screen. The CD/DVD drive never spins.
Help!
thx!
-a

you know, I thoguht of that... and I bet it had something to do with it. The AC disc is from 2004, so it's older than Tiger (it came with my iMac in 2003).
Anyway, I zapped the PRAM (again), and that seemed to help prod the Superdrive into action. I ran the disc utility that comes w/Tiger, and ended up wiping the HD.
Everything seems to be cool -- big ups to LaCie external drives and their backup software. All I really lost was applications, which I can re-install.
-a

Similar Messages

Changed my iMac but Can't Boot from Windows

I'm using iMac 21.5 with Mac OS X 10.6.6
All programs are updated.
I used to have iMac 24, but i removed it's hard drive and installed it on a new iMac 21.5
i can't boot from windows 7.
what should i do ?

Can you boot into safe mode ..... because if you can you can also reach "repair computer"! so reboot your windows partition, as soon as the bios appears start pressing F8 until you see "Advanced Boot Options" when you get there choose, "Repair your Computer" (1st selection on the page) and go to "Startup Repair" .. selecting that will cause Windows to attempt to repair the boot sector of it's partition, if it succeeds you'll be able to boot, if not no data will have been lost.
However please understand that without a backup of your windows partition data loss is a possibility under these circumstances. Windows hard drives almost never boot when moved from one installation to another. Read that last bit twice.
Good luck
Message was edited by: Csound1

IMac G5 won't boot from CD drive, Please Help

My iMac G5 won't boot from the CD drive. There is no operating system on the hard drive so I want to install a fresh copy of Leopard. I have tried a couple different methods, but I keep getting the same end result. The first method I tried was booting from the CD drive by holding the C key during start up. The Leopard disc was automatically ejected after about 20-30 seconds. The second method I tried was booting the iMac to the "question mark file screen," which is when I inserted the Leopard disc. Usually on other Mac computers, this is when the computer will show the Apple logo and prompt you with the installation process. Not this iMac, it just ejects the disc shortly after I insert it. I'm not sure if it's the CD drive that is having the issue, the hard drive, or something else.
If you have any ideas, they would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Chris

Where did you get the CD from?
If it is from another Mac, it is probably specific to the hardware in that Mac and is not capable of boot your iMac.
Allan

I can't boot from instalation disk need help

can anyone tell me why i can't boot from instalation disk
i burn a DVD with verified iso with MD5 with Nero Express

i use burn image , of course and
i have a Sempron +2400 with asus a7s8x mainboard
and i download all 5 file for DVD x86 and then i copy /b all this files.
when computer boot from cd the screen is bleu with Solaris ................ v.20 message and after 1 second message became
Aolaris ..................v.20 and computer remain in this position

Can't boot from internal drive - Please help!

The internal drive on my PBG4 was making some funny noises this morning and sure enough, when I tried to reboot from it I was unable to. Instead I was brought to a screen with a DOS prompt with some cryptic error message. Since then I've called Apple support and their "solution" was to re-format the drive and reinstall the OS. I can do that if I absolutely have to, but if there's any way around it, I'd much rather avoid the reformatting/reinstalling everything nightmare scenario. Initially Disk Repair said the drive couldn't be repaired. I booted from my Disk Warrior CD (3.0.3), which prompted me to backup data (luckily I have an external 250GB drive) and I backed up my home directory. I did that and rebuilt the directory, then restarted from my Tiger CD and ran Disk utility again and it said the disk was fine. I tried to boot from the drive and I get taken to a DOS prompt again with the following error message:
launchd can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory
Any suggestions on what I can try at this point short of reformatting the drive and starting over from scratch?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1.25 GHZ, 1GB Ram
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 1.25 GHZ, 1GB Ram

I assume you have OS X on a 2nd drive that you can run DW, Disk Utility etc.
As you backup files and know they are okay, delete them. Undo the layers of onion and try to go from latest to oldest.
If you don't have an emergency fw drive...
The trouble with long backups on a problem drive is they can fail during the backup if the drive gets too hot, which happens.
Back in Panther, you could use BootCD to create an emergency CD or DVD with your system, full finder, loads of utilities, and could even run FireFox. With that, you could run TTPro 4, Disk Warrior, DU, Rember etc. AND play around in the Finder and Terminal.
I still keep a CD and DVD with 10.3.9 just in case. The perfect FW drive would have a couple OS versions, a backup partition (that you can erase if needed).
Apple Disk Utility from CD/DVD can also be used to copy/clone a volume or foleer, using Restore and output to a volume or disk image.

Can't boot from cd or dvd

i have a imac with isight 20 inch, when startup i get a grey screen with a folder that blinks with a question mark and the two faces symbol, when i leave it like this for a minut, fan starts blowing at full speed.
i run leopard with all the updates untill januari 7 2009
I have a iomega timemachine disk from this imac
i can not boot from a cd that came with this imac neither from the leopard dvd
how can i find out what is wrong? why can i not boot from cd (all threads i read say you should do this but it just won't go) i noticed my dvd drive often rejected cd's lately but after several trys i would eventually....
can i boot from a timemachine set up hdd from this broken imac to find out what hardware failed ?

If your hard drive fails, Time Machine cannot boot your computer. A bootable clone, which is an exact copy of your system and its contents, can be used to boot your machine, or, if you install a new drive, to reverse clone (or make the new drive exactly like to old one).
Time Machine can restore your system to the state it was in on any given day, but you must have a working hard drive with the OS installed on it. I use both TM and a clone that I automatically make with SuperDuper!, so that if I want to restore a file, I can use TM, if I want to exactly duplicate my HDD, I use my SD! clone and am up and running with an exact copy of my machine before the hard drive died.
You will be able to restore from TM once you have initialized the new drive and put an OS on it.

Imac 21" mid 2011 can not boot from USB device?

Hi,
hope someone can help me.
Bought the new imac 21" and replaced the superdrive with a ssd drive.
Works great but it seems that the imac is not able to boot from any usb device.
I put my osx install disk in my external dvd drive and powered my mac.
While booting up (pressing cmd) the mac does not recognize my external dvd drive. This works great with my MBP late 2008. But the imac can not boot from the dvd drive. Also pressing "c" while booting does not work. Doing that a grey screen appears and after some time mac boots from hdd.
So i installed mac os via target mode over firewire withbmy old imac. This works.
But now i want to install windows on a bootcamp partition.
I can't boot from the windows 7 professional dvd, too. So i tried to create a bootable win 7 thumbdrive. Mac can't boot from this too. Reading many threads in some forum i tried with rEEfit. Reefit shows the usb thumbdrive whike booting, but using this will end in a black screen error from bios: "no bootable device....". Tried a knoppix on the usb thukbdrive, too.... No bootable device....
It seems that there is no way to boot from ANY external usb device like dvd drives or thumbdrives......
What more can i do? I tried for 2 evenings now, but nothing worked out for me......
Currently i don't see any any to install win 7 without an internal superdrive, but can this be??
Thanks for any comments.
Kwicks

Internal is definitely the easiest but you can boot from external HD or external optical drive, the mac is just very picky on what works and what doesn't.
For an external drive or usb stick it has to be GUID partition table and have 10.4.5 or better installed on it, for more info check this link out ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948 )
Hope this helps,
Joe

Imac G3 ppc hard disk failure can't boot from cd

Hi All,
My hard is disk making repetitive clicking noises and the machine won't boot up, I just get a grey screen and eventually a flashing folder/question mark. I did manage just once to start from the install CD,but Disk Utility couldn't see the internal HD so that was a dead end, can't repair what it can't see! and I haven't been able to start it since. Tried various key combos on start (safe mode,clearing PRAM) still nothing. Bit the bullet and took out the internal drive and put it back (nothing to lose, you never know? ). As it seems the HD is beyond help and the fact that changing over the HD is reasonably straightforward physically, I am considering buying a replacement and doing it myself. Now I haven't done a repair like this before and wonder if when I power up with the new HD in place will I be able to boot from the original install disk ie. holding down "c" (which is not the case at the moment) and format and install the OS onto the new Hard Disk ?
I would rather spend a couple of quid and save the machine than have to spend hundreds on a new one.

I did try using my external USB connected CD reader/writer using the option key on start but couldn't get past the blue screen with the arrow and refresh icons.
The iMac G3 will not boot from a USB device.
Be careful when booting software that hasn't run on the machine before. You need to have the lastest firmware on the machine when booting 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 on the machine. I
You could disassemble the external firewire drive & swap in a dvd drive. I did this. The dvd drive will not fit in the case, but who needs a case anyway. Just use the electronic parts.
You need to figure out the level of your firmware before installing10.2 or greater. ( The PC name for firmware is BIOS. ) Installing 10.2with a down level firmware will most likely make your iMac unusable anddifficult to fix.
What is firmware?
The firmware software receives control when you poweron your machine. It does some hardware testing and some hardware configuration then passes control to your version of MacOS. It reside on a PROM ( program read only memory ) chipon the logic board.
Figuring out what level of firmware you have?
1) Mac OS 9.x or 8.x, you need to use the Apple System Profiler.
Apple -> Apple System Profiler
2) Mac OS X, use the System Profiler.
Apple -> About This Mac
click on the More Info... tab
click on Hardware
read the Boot ROM Version
3) Open Firmware, boot into Open Firmware.
Power on your iMac while holding down command+option+o+f
The first output line contains the firmware level. Mine reads:
Apple PowerMac4,1 4.1.9f1 BootRom built on 09/14/01 at 13.18.04
Copyright 1994-2001 Apple Computer Inc.
On my machine, I have 4.1.9f1.
What firmware do you need?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
For a slot loading iMac, this article indicates that you need to berunning 9.1 or later version of Mac OS Classic.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75130
"The iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9 will only run on iMac computers withlot-loading CD or DVD drives running Mac OS 9.1 or later from a localdrive. If you are using Mac OS X you must boot from a local Mac OS 9.1or later writeable partition (not a CD, or network disk) prior tofollowing the update instructions."
You can download the Mac OS 9 updates from the Apple site.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1387?viewlocale=en_US

Weird screen pattern freezes iMac, can't boot from HD or DVD

I woke up today to find the screen of my iMac black with a sparse pattern of bright pixels on it. I wasn't able to power down holding the Power buton so I unplugged it and left it for a bit before plugging back in. I was then able reboot without any problems. Then a few hours latter a weird pattern appeared across my screen, kind of rolling, animated in spots as seen here:
I powered down, started it up and the screen had this pattern on it:
It froze during startup at the point shown in the photo with the Apple logo. I powered down, unplugged, plugged back in and then tried booting up from my Snow Leopard install disc. It also froze on the logo screen. Another attempt brought up the "You need to restart your computer…" message in different languages shown here:
I figured it was having a kernel panic so I did some searching around and followed instructions on The X Lab - Resolving Kernel Panics page and Apple's Kernel Panic Troubleshooting page. I unplugged everything but my mouse (wireless keyboard) and tried booting into Safe Mode. The screen still had the same pattern but it froze again during startup, the grey progress bar having disappeared.
I can't boot from my hard drive or from a DVD and the pattern is always on screen when I turn the iMac back on. I can't run Apple Hardware Test. I'm stuck but I'm wondering if anyone knows what the cause might be or has any suggestions on how to fix it or even get it to boot up somehow.
I have TechTool Pro and a large flash drive. I'm going to try creating a bootable USB drive with Snow Leopard on it from this backup computer and try to get TechTool Pro on it as well. I'll report back but I'd really appreciate any feedback on this problem.

Some things to report. First, the night before any of this happened, I noticed the fan was running when there wasn't really any reason for it. The computer was idle, no major tasks running. I'm wondering if perhaps the videocard overheated and is causing problems. Perhaps the temperature sensors are screwed up?
Today I got a USB keyboard hooked up and reset the PRAM. Still unable to boot but the pattern on the screen did change from the mess of b&w squigglies above to vertical bars as shown here:
Trying to boot normally or in Safe Mode both result in the spinning wheel freezing and halting startup.
I found powering down then gets weird. It's like it tries to turn on again but can't after a second. Or sometimes it will and the mouse lights up, I can hear the optical drive but the screen stays dark. At that point I need to unplug and try again.
I tried booting from Snow Leopard install DVD during one of these weird cycles and could hear it trying to access the optical drive but I don't believe it even got to the chime stage.
I attempted booting from the install DVD again after unplugging. No luck there but instead of a frozen spinning wheel, it brings up the "You need to restart message…". Other methods don't do this.
Still at a loss to find a reason for this but it appears to be a hardware problem, no doubt the video card based on the screen issues. Does any of this shed any light on what the problem is or (even better) how to fix it?

Imac g5 crashes while asleep; can't boot from cd/dvd

My imac g5 crashes while asleep. Both the display and hard drive are set to sleep.
In trying to fix this problem with Apple tech support, I've discovered I can't boot from the cd/dvd. When I hold down the letter c while restarting, the disk ejects. I've tried three different disks: the install dvd, a Norton Systemworks bootable cd, and the bootable cd from AppleCare. All are ejected.
Have I got some hardware problem(s)?

Since we couldn't fix this over the phone, it's now at the Apple Store being fixed. They've replaced the power supply and, after I called again and made sure they tested it by having it sleep for a couple of hours (they couldn't wake it up after that), they're replacing the logic board.
I've been disappointed by the amount of hardware that's had to be replaced on this computer. I also had to replace the mid-plane assembly about six months after buying it in Sept. 2004.

How to reset password if you can't boot from DVD?

I just bought a second external disk drive and installed Leopard on it. When it asked me if I wanted to import my information from my internal drive, I said OK, not realizing that since I had a blank password on this drive (running 10.2.8), that would not work with Leopard. One of the reasons why I bought the second disk drive is that my internal superdrive failed, and I had added on an external Lacie superdrive which does not function as a boot drive, and I wanted to run the new OS on another drive so if one drive failed, the other would work as a boot drive. However I can't boot from the DVD to reset the password on my external drive to an actual password. I disconnected the external drive and am working on my internal drive with 10.2.8. (So something I planned for worked)
I suppose one solution would be to erase the new external drive and start the whole install process all over again, making sure to add a password on this drive first. But that took about five hours and I'd really rather not. Is there some way to reset the password remotely using the OS from my internal drive to look at the external drive? Or is the non-boot from an external USB superdrive a problem unique to 10.2.8 but if I set the external drive to be the boot drive, the Leopard DVD would boot the external drive?
Thanks.

Thanks. Thankfully, when I thought about it, I realized that the computer had booted from the external superdrive to install Leopard, so I figured I'd give it a shot by selecting the install disk as the startup disk and restarting, crossing my fingers and hoping. It worked, so I was able to simply reset the password using the reset password function. Perhaps the issue with the external superdrive is that if it's not already mounted with a system disk before you restart, it won't do it after it starts up in event of failure.
And if that hadn't worked, I would have booted from my internal drive, used disk utility to wipe out the external drive, put a password on the 10.2.8 account, and done the whole install process again and migrated the account now with a password to the drive.

MacBook Pro won't boot from Superdrive

I have a MacBook Pro which is around 7 Months old, I wanted to run Disk Warrior on it but the Macbook Pro wouldn't boot from the disk, tried the MAC install disk same issue.
Holding down the C key at boot time causes the drive to spin up it gets as far as the grey screen with the apple logo then the drive stops. Tried also holding down the alt key, I can see the hard disk and DVD icons but selecting the DVD same thing happens as above.
The superdrive seams to work fine when the machine is running just refuses to boot from it.
Any help would be much appreciated
rgs
Colin

Colin: Are you trying to boot from the Install/Restore DVD that was shipped with your MacBook Pro? If not, do. Your DiskWarrior DVD may not be able to boot your MBP model, and an older Snow Leopard installer DVD can't either.
The best setup for using DiskWarrior or any other Disk utility on your MBP's internal drive is to have a bootable clone of that drive as a backup, with all your utility software installed on it just as it is on the internal drive. Then whenever you have a problem, you can boot from the other drive to repair the troubled one. No need then to boot or run the utilities from a DVD, which is tediously slow at best, even when it works perfectly.

Cannot boot from Superdrives on my Mac Pro!!

Hello,
So I tried to boot last night from my Disk Warrior CD in order to do a maintenance check.
I hold C key but in vain after a couple of minutes I get the black screen/freeze with the message to restart holding power button.
Today, I tried to install Leopard on my external firewire drive and when the Mac restarted I got the same result.......freeze.
I tried both Superdrives.......same result, verified connections etc..... no dice.
I run the latest Leopard 10.5.3 in a first edition Mac Pro Dual 2.66 with 13GB RAM and 3 hard drives.
What bugs me is the fact that while holding or not the C key, after a couple of minuted I hear the ''click'' that you hear when you shut down the Mac Pro. It is like the Mac is shutting off but still runs for a few minutes before giving me the black screen.
This means I cannot boot anything anymore on my Mac Pro.
Please help me, any deas, what should I try doing.
The 2 Superdrives are Pioneer 111D and 112D......one is master the other on cable select.
Thank you.

Flocarino wrote:
Another Surprise: I tried to boot from the original Mac Pro Install Discs, result: it crashes even faster.
Well that's a BUMMER You've got a hardware problem somewhere and it's time for 'Hit or Miss' Tactics to find it
First things First. Follow Theses Steps ...
Step 1) Can you boot from the hard drive with both 'Superdrives' plug in and empty?
If your answer is NO Goto Step 7.
Step 2) Check the 'Superdrives' from the 'System Profiler' -> 'Hardware' -> 'ATA Bus'. Does it list BOTH Drives?
If your answer is NO Goto Step 7.
Step 3) Is the TOP drive 'Unit Number: 0' (Zero) and the BOTTOM drive 'Unit Number: 1'.
If your answer is NO Goto Step 7.
Step 4) Can you 'Mount' a CD/DVD to the 'Desktop' from both drives?
If your answer is NO Goto Step 7.
Step 5) Can you 'REBOOT' the 'Install DVD' from the 'Desktop'?
If your answer is NO Goto Step 7.
Step 6) Happy Days Are Here Again. Stop Here.
Step 7) 'DON'T PANIC!
Step 8) Open case and remove the 'Superdrive' bay. The 'Original' drive should be in the TOP bay with the END OF the 'Ribbon' cable plugged in to it. This 'Ribbon' cable and the 'Superdrive' should have a 'NOTCH' and can ONLY be plugged in a certain way. Set the 'Drive Select' jumper to 'Master'. Unplug the 'Ribbon' and 'Power' cable from the 'BOTTOM Superdrive'.
Step 9) Repeat Steps 1 thru 5 and if you make it to Step 6, Repeat Step 8 using the 'BOTTOM Superdrive'.
Step 10) Hmm, both 'Superdrives' WORK by themselves but NOT together So connect the TOP drive back as in Step 8 and connect the BOTTOM drive but change the BOTTOM drive's 'Jumper' to 'Slave'. Leave the TOP drive set to 'Master'.
Step 11) Repeat Steps 1 thru 5 and if you DO NOT make it to Step 6 then I'll need more information from your 'Console Error Logs'.
End Of Steps ............................................................................... .................................
Not relevant to you problem BUT did you change your VIDEO CARD?
Buzz
<Edited by Moderator>

My 27" iMac Freezes, Won't boot from DVD

My iMac has started to freeze up every few minutes. Every so often, it becomes unresponsive; the mouse cursor still moves (sometimes it turns into a beach ball), but I can't click or type anything. Whenever this happens, the hard drive begins to churn as if it's reading or writing something big. This usually lasts only about thirty seconds to a minute, but it's happening with frustrating regularity.
I've been trying to troubleshoot this for a few days, now. I'll walk you through the steps I've tried so far.
I ran a check on the hard drive with Disk Utility. This came back with a message about the files/directories not matching up with their expected counts. The solution it suggested was to boot from a Snow Leopard disc and let Disk Utility run a Repair Disk while the startup drive is not mounted. It was at this point that I realized that I couldn't boot from the dvd. Whether holding 'C' or 'Option', when it tries to boot from the disc, it gets to the Apple logo and then hangs.
I kept researching and found a workaround; boot into Single User Mode and perform fsck, which fixed the Disk Utility error, but did not solve the freezes/noises, and I still can't boot from the dvd.
Any ideas?

Thank you for your prompt response.
Well, I'm not sure if I explained it clearly. Holding the Option key does indeed bring up a list of bootable devices. The problem arises when control is passed to the Snow Leopard disc. The Apple logo flashes, I can hear the optical drive being accessed, but then it locks up.
I should also clarify that it's not the disc that came with the iMac. I just moved and can't find the original disc, so I borrowed my neighbor's (which came from a Macbook he bought after mine (which I bought last year)). I am under the impression that Macs can't boot from discs that are older than the version of OS X that they shipped with. I wouldn't think that's the issue, here, as his came out later than mine, but I've still got a lot to learn about life in the Appleverse.
My data should be safe--I've got an up to date Time Machine backup on an external drive. The performance issues aside, I'm really looking to understand the underlying problem(s) here.
So, one option is that the RAM might be bad. I can test that by swapping out each DIMM and checking if the problem is resolved. One thing I don't understand, though, is why bad RAM would manifest as the hard drive being accessed. Is there a definitive way to test the logic board, as there is for testing RAM?
Also, I keep thinking of other little syptoms which may or may not be related.
Recap of Symptoms:
Magic Mouse occasionally loses its magic (right click, multitouch, etc.) and needs to be turned off and on.
Free disk space fluctuates by as much as eight gigs (without my intervention).
System stalls (accompanied by HD access sounds) multiple times per hour.
Can't boot from dvds (though, this could be a version problem).
**Fixed: Disk Utility Verify Disk error.
I do understand that this might be a hardware error, and I certainly know how much trouble that sort of thing is to find/fix. I'm definitely willing to open the case and swap out DIMMs and drives, but not until I've exhausted my software solution options. *crosses fingers*

2 internal hdd's can't boot from thumb drive

I installed an SSD and a seagate SSD/HDD hybrid in the optical bay. I installed refit but I can't boot from a thumb drive and my superdrive doesn't act right, Is there firmware update or any kind of fixes anyone has seen heard or similar problem.
2010 mbp Intel ssd/momentus XT hybrid

cleaning the drive worked.

IMac hosed, can't boot from SuperDrive or HD - help!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for