Imac won't start. hard drive not spinning?

Ok. I push the power button and my imac gets to the gray apple startup screen and then the hard drive spins down. The hard drive trys and trys to go, but just keeps spinning down. I have no idea what to do.

Hi,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It sounds like your Hard Drive may have failed (which is to be expected for any iMac G3 with original drive still installed - given their age).
HD often start making funny noises as a warning before failing though.
To confirm this I suggest that you get the original software install/restore CD that came with your iMac. Insert that shortly after start-up and hold down the 'C' key on your keyboard to boot from the CD. If the iMac boots fine but Macintosh HD is no longer visible on the desktop you need to investigate the HD. Post back with your findings!
good luck!
mrtotes

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External hard drive not spinning up

Hi,
I have a 160GB Freecom FHD-3 external hard drive connected to my iBook with USB 2.0 that I use to store all my music / movies etc. I have a slight problem with this drive and i was wondering if anyone could help me.
Firstly when i turn the iBook on with the drive connected it takes a long time (>3 mins) to boot up. Secondly if the drive is connected and i put the iBook to sleep, the drive spins down and automatically powers off. When i wake the iBook the external drive does not spin up and my iBook freezes with the spinning pizza of death as it is desparately searching for the external HD with my iTunes music folder in.
I did not have this problem with my Mac Mini and i was wondering if there was anything i could do to sort it out.
Cheers

dickonhowell, Welcome to the discussion area!
I am guessing that the Mac mini keeps the USB ports powered even when sleeping. I would bet that the iBook turns off the USB ports when sleeping. That is probably why you experience different things with the 2 different Macs.

Software Installation CD, won't recognize hard drive not labeled C:\

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I have a used iMac, HD wiped, OS 10.6.8 freshly installed w/Rosetta, Photoshop Elements won't start saying "could not complete because of missing or invalid personalization info." previous owner's name still there preventing initialing?

I have a used iMac, HD wiped clean, OS 10.6.8 freshly installed w/Rosetta, Photoshop Elements was installed but won't start saying "could not complete because of missing or invalid personalization info." is previous owner's name somehow still there preventing initialing? How do I remove and install my own? I don't understand as HD was completely wiped with no OS when I got it.

I think Adobe allows their software to be installed on 2 computers only. However, if say you buy another computer and wish to install PSE on the new computer ( effectively a 3rd computer as far as Adobe is concerned ) PSE needs to be properly uninstalled ie not simply by uninstalling using the operating system's uninstall process. It needs to be uninstalled using the Adobe uninstall process that is contained within the software.
You should then be given a prompt as to whether you will be reinstalling on the same computer or if you wish to remove altogether. If the latter, then all traces are removed and the software can be (re) installed on the new computer.
If, unknown to yourself, the software had been installed on 2 computers and although you or the previous may have wiped the hard drive clean, as far as Adobe is concerned the software is still ' registered / assigned ' to 2 computers.
If the previous owner bought a new computer and installed their PSE on it, wiped the hard drive clean without properly uninstalling/removing PSE thentherein probably lies the prblem.
As Allan Jones said, it 's probably worth your while to purchase your own copy.
Hope this helps.

Can you use a start up disc on an iMac without formatting the hard drive?

Can you use a start up disc on an iMac without formatting the hard drive?

Yes, because the startup disk is read from the boot rom, not the Hard Disk.

How do i upgrade my iMac to two TB hard drive start to finish?

How do I upgrade my Imac to two TB hard drive start to finish?

Those are definitely good drives. The OP lists his iMac as a 2011 unit, so it should have a Thunderbolt port on it. If money isn't an object, he could probably put together a RAID unit using Thunderbolt. I think OWC is selling an Thunderbolt hub of some sort. He could do all this, get good performance, and not even need to bother cracking the case. It's a lot easier and convenient working on an external drive than it is having to service an internal drive. He just needs to steer clear of some of the low power/backup drives.
Just my two cents, of course.

Star-up disk Full; cannot start my 2008 iMac w/ 500 GB hard drive

Kept erasing empty files from my early 2008 Intel iMac(with 500 GB hard drive). Kept getitng message 'Strt-up disk almost full.'
Used Hard drive as start-up disk. Kept getting a file labeled (approx.) EFileS1...(didn't write it down). Tried once to totally erase
this file: Removed Garage Band by moving to trash and securely erasing; and other files( 1-3 Mb at most. Now, get message "Start-up disk Full" and I can't
log onwhen I enter name and PW, I get the screen saver; I don't get the dock or anything else. I tried to use a external hard drive, and I also tried using an external CD/DVD player (integrated one no longer works) to reload SnowLeopard (OS 10.6) with no response (I had upgraded to OS 10.6.8).
I'm now using a Nov 2008 MacBook (burned out screen with external monitor) to write this email).
I'm going to buy 2014 MacBook Pro 15in w/ retina display as my sole computer, but my iMac hard drive has documents I'd like to save-Then I plan to totally
erase its HD before discarding/donating.
All suggestions and help will be appreciated.
Snboshu

If you can get the 2008 started move large libraries such as your iPhoto, iMovie and iTunes libraries to an External HD. Once you have verified the libraries have been successfully moved then Trash the ones on the internal HD and empty the Trash. Once these operations have been done then use:
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD

Imac won't start white screen apple icon spinning gear

imac won't start. when turn on, I just get a white screen with apple icon and a spinning gear below the apple icon. what should I do to get it started and fix the problem? Thanks.

See if any of the suggestions in this link help:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever

My iMac won't start up properly, it powers on the bong sound happens and then the little gear spins forever
ive tried booting from my leapord disk
smc reset
pram reset
and safe boot

Please carefully read Apple's advice letter Gray screen appears during startup for troubleshooting steps.

My iMac won't start normally it will start on safe boot unless I start in verbus mode single user mode or reset the pram but if I start this way it won't sleep

help mi imac won't start normally

Hello!
Can you tell us what happens?
I’ve offered the steps below to similar posts in the past and they helped out getting to the solution (or at least find the cause). I suggest them to you too in this case. It will take you about 30 minutes or less to do these, depending on how bad the problem on your Mac is.
The goal here is to boot your Mac to the so-called Recovery partition where you’ll have a chance to repair the disk and the disk permissions using the Disk Utility and Password Utility. This might solve your issue and even if it doesn’t- it’s still a decent maintenance step to perform. These steps won’t erase your data or reinstall your Mac in any way if you follow instructions carefully.
Here’s how:
1/ Make sure your computer is completely shut down.
2/ You’ll have to be quick next: Press the Mac’s power button. As soon as you either hear the loud chime, or see the display light up - usually after a second or 2 - on your keyboard press [cmd] + [r] Keep these keys on your keyboard pressed until you either see an Apple Logo with a loading bar or a spinning gear.
After a few minutes, you’ll be presented with a Utilities screen. This is the Recovery partition. If this step is already giving you problems, try using a USB-keyboard. It doesn’t have to be an Apple-keyboard. If you have a Windows-tailored keyboard laying around, use the “Windows-flag” key in stead of the [cmd]-key and it should also work.
3/ Choose Disk Utility and click [continue]
Disk Utility will display your computer’s harddrive in the left column. The default name for it is “Macintosh HD” and is usually the second one from the top. Click on it and click on the [verify disk] button. This will check your “Macintosh HD” harddrive partition for errors. If found, click [repair disk] unless you have a Fusion drive in your Mac and it says [fix] instead of [repair disk] please tell us before you continue! For a screenshot of what I mean, check this article from Apple: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202574
4/ Once done with the verifying or repairing of your “Macintosh HD” click [repair disk permissions]
This will check your partition for permissions errors. A common myth about this feature is that it will fix all permissions issues on your Mac, which is not true, but it will fix most systemwide issues. Also, here is a list of error messages that you can safely ignore if they pop up:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203172
5/ Lastly we shall do a permissions/Access Control List repair on specifically your user’s home folder with a somewhat hidden tool in the Recovery partition. Close Disk Utility and find the menu called “utilities” in the top left corner of your computer’s display. It’s in between the menus “edit” and “window” Don’t be confused with the menu called “os x utilities”
Choose Terminal. A somewhat old-fashioned looking window will pop up, waiting for a text command from you. This is the Terminal.
After the # type: resetpassword and press return. Note that there is no space between ‘reset’ and ‘password’
What you’ll see next is an rectangular window that gives you the option to reset passwords. We are not going to that, however. Instead, click on “Macintosh HD” at the top. In the pull-down menu below that, choose your user's accountname. Skip all the rest and at the very bottom click the [reset]-button.
A spinning gear will appear and may stay on for a second or several minutes. It’s hard to predict exactly how long.
If you have multiple users on your Mac, I advise you to repeat this step for all your users.
We’re ready to reboot your Mac now. Click on the Apple Menu and choose “startup disk” Choose to boot from “Macintosh HD” Please let us know if this solved your issue, or if the steps above did not work, or could not be performed for some reason.

IMac won't start - should I reinstall OS?

Recently my iMac won't start up - it goes to screen with folder + question mark. I've run Disk Utility, repaired hard drive, but there were no reported repairs to make.
Occassionally it will start up, and everything seems normal until suddenly the beach ball appears and everything freezes. 99% of tries it won't start up (i get the ? folder). Is it worth erasing the disk and reinstalling everything to see if a fresh start will help, or is it likely that the hardware is damaged?
Don't want to bother erasing it if there's no point... any advice greatly appreciated.
Also - anyone who's had their iMac repaired - what are the costs like?

I've just suddenly had the same problem - for no apparent reason as far as I can tell. The night before last I switched off my iMac as normal, and yesterday morning switched it back on. At first it would start, but crashed as soon as I tried to start any applications. Then it wouldn't start at all, and just got as far as the gray screen with the apple on it. After trying resetting the PRAM, switching on and holding the on button for 10 seconds, it was no different...
So, I tried doing a archive-reinstall from the original leopard DVD I bought from apple. This did a successful disk verification, but then said it couldn't install mac os due to a problem with the basesystem package. After that it wouldn't let me try another archive-install and only gave the options to install as new, or erase and install. The latter I don't want to do, and the former just gives the same basesystem error... All I get now is a flashing folder with a question mark and not even the gray screen...
I have tried using the diskutility to verify/ repair the hard drive and it says all is well...
I have heard this may all be due to dodgy RAM chips, but I have never messed with them or altered them. It just seems odd they should suddenly fail when they were working fine before.....
Any ideas would be much appreciated. A lot of data at risk
Dan.

IMac won't start up passed the grey screen

Last friday my iMac (late 2006, 24", 2.33 duo core Intel, OS 10.6.8) gave me the spinning beach ball.
Restarting resulted in: first the apple screen with the progress indicator, followed by grey screen..
That was it. It hangs at the grey screen.
I've been busy this weekend testing all kinds of ideas to get my imac to fully start up again.
I checked the RAM, it's fine.
I flushed NVRAM, wild guess, but nothing changed.
Starting up in safe mode doesn't work.
Starting up in recovery mode doesn't work.
On the upside, I was able to start my imac up in Target mode. Using the host computer and Disk Utlity I can see there's nothing wrong with the HD. All the data is still there!, so later today I'll make a copy of the complete HD, hoping/thinking that I won't copy whatever is wrong.
I had Disk Utility repair all the permissions.
I've used the host computer to reinstall the OS on my imac.
But on start up my beloved iMac still won't get passed the grey screen.
I'm thinking something goes wrong before my Mac even gets to the HD. Maybe it's the firmware, but I'm not really sure that firmware matters in this case. And I wouldn't know how to reinstall the latest version of firmware because my imac won't start up from it's disk drive
I'm thinking maybe something could be wrong with the graphic card's RAM, though on start up I can see the apple logo just fine.
I'm not able to start up from CD, I've tried that because I wanted to reinstall my OS (before I figured out how to do that in Target Mode) by putting the OS disk in my imac's own disk drive. Staring up with the C key still gets me the grey screen. Staring up with Option key shows no other option but the HD.
So is there anybody out there who has an idea that could help me further along?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Frank

Hi Jan,
If you have another firewire Mac you can check if the HD of your Mac is OK by connecting them with a firewire cable and use target-mode. That way I found out my HD was just fine.
It also offers you the chance to run a diagnostic program to check if anything else is fine. I used TechTool to do that. But everything checked out fine.
In the end I decided the problem is probably hardware. Some electronic part that broke. Very frustrating that some small transistor or so is keeping me from using my otherwise fine iMac.
I contacted a repairshop that also works for the local Mac retailer. They told me my iMac was concidered 'classic' and therefor it wasn't economically not worth the trouble trying to repair it.
I gave up, took two weeks to mourn the loss of my beloved iMac, and bought a Mac mini.
FrankV
Judging by your name I'm guessing I could've anwered this in Dutch.

IMac Won't Start Up/Boot

My iMac won't start up. I've tried holding all kinds of key combinations while I turn it on, but it doesn't even get that far. It gets stuck on a folder with the Apple picture alternating with a question mark. It doesn't do anything else for a while, and then the fan turns on (???).

This is indicative of a corrupted system or drive. The first thing to try is:
Repairing the Hard Drive
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) 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, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) 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.
If this doesn't solve the problem then you will have to reinstall OS X. If the drive tests out OK per the above then you can reinstall without erasing the hard drive:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.
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IMac won't start - no chime=no hope

iMac won't start
Power light on front comes on,
NO chime
Some very quiet sounds for a few seconds and nothing else
I'm assuming the worst....dead hard drive?
What- if any- are the options for repair - any idea of a general $$ amount
thanks

Hey Sheryl et al,
In the 1st gen and ALS G5 iMacs the first thing to check out is the capacitors on the logic board. If those look good and I mean absolutely pristine, then open up the power supply and check the ones in there.
Note: The diagnostic LEDs I consider to be a general indicator and not infallible.
The iSights are much more difficult to work on since opening them is much more problematic. The ones with the ATI X600 GPU chip have a high failure record due to that chip.
Also the iSight's power supply is another failure point.
As Richard notes a new power supply will run just over $100.
However a logic board swap will run $350 - $400 depending on model at DT&T services in CA.
Also Apple could/should theoretically do what's referred to as a "depot repair" on these machines for a flat $350. It would depend (as always) on the Apple Tech/service person you're dealing with.
A final note, I repair and donate these to deserving not for profits.
Harry Porterfield did a piece on me a few years ago.
http://www.vimeo.com/150591
Here's the URL to the TV station site:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5097319
Richard
Message was edited by: spudnuty

20" imac won't start up-flashes between blank grey screen and black screen

20" imac
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Was running system 10.5.8 just fine. Worked great.
But then I wanted to give the imac to a relative. And so, I tried to boot from the original grey mac install dvd to wipe the hardrive and set the imac back to factory specs.
But it wouldn't boot off the dvd. All It would do at restart was to flash slowly back and forth between blank grey screen and black screen. So, I tried the Leopard update dvd. Same results. So I zapped the pram and tried again. Same results.
If I just pushed the start button tho.. the imac would start right up and run fine. However, I didn't want to give it to someone else with all our information on it.
I finally restarted it and held the "T" key to turn it into a giant firewire drive, hooked it up to our other 20" imac, and used the disk utility from the second imac to erase the drive of the first imac. Then I inserted the grey install dvd into the second imac and selected the drive of the first imac and ran the install process.
Now, the first imac won't start up at all. Just a continual grey screen for a bit, than a couple of buzz sounds in the machine and then the black screen... than back again.
It ran great before I erased the drive and re-installed OS 10.5
What's wrong? How do I get the machine to either boot off the install cd?

So, I've figured out a little more on the first machine. It's a 20" 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running 10.5.8.
It ran great. But, I wanted to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS system before giving it to a relative.
I found that although the optical drive would read and write to normal cds and dvds, the machine would NOT boot from the grey start-up disks I had on hand. ( I have two imacs, and I tried both sets of dvds without success.)
I zapped the PRAM, and used disk utilities via firewire connection from my other 20" imac to check the hardrive and make repairs. Disk Utilities couldn't find any problems. So, using disk utilities from the other imac, I erased the first imac's harddrive and then used the install dvds on the second imac to install the original OS to the hard drive of the first imac.
(looking on the hard drive of the first imac, I can see all the contents)
However, the first machine will not start up. It just switches from grey....to black..... then grey..... and then black again.... over and over
Why won't it boot from the newly installed OS on it's own hard drive?
And Why won't it boot from the original install dvds?
How can I get it to start up again?

Imac won't start. hard drive not spinning?

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