Intel iMac won't boot from HD

About a month ago, HD booted to Loading OS X, then froze at blue screen before showing logon screen. Returned under warranty, techie used external FW drive and DiskWarrior to repair and system restored to normal. Now have my own external drive with OS X and DiskWarrior.
Last week, installed Parallels. Spent some time with networking to old PC in order to make transition from PC to mac easier (GBs of file transfers). Around this time, 4 of my prefpane files somehow reverted to Power PC, not Intel versions and I couldn't change system preferences on sound, speech, sharing and another beginning with s. Performed an archive and install, all seemed to be working OK.
Last night, screen went black with white power sleep light on constantly. Could only shut down with 5-sec power button push. Attempts to boot from HD get as far as Loading OS X, then freezes at blue screen (why are they always blue?). Restarted holding down option key. Can boot from FW drive. Ran Disk Utility and DiskWarrior. After lots of "node" messages and catalogue this and directory that, DU now shows drive green and OK. However, on trying to boot again from HD, system hangs after "Loading OS X".
Have reset PRAM, used command-s to enter console and did the 2 commands listed there but still no joy. Gone to apple support, have removed and reinstalled RAM iaw their instructions. Have done the SMC thingy, all iaw Apple's instructions. The mac is only 4 month's old and I don't know if anything else can be done before I take it back. Any assistance anyone could give me would be gratefully received.
All the best
jj
PS. Also updated firmware yesterday (1.2?). All seemed to go OK iaw Apple's instructions.
Message was edited by: jumbojock

{quote:} Last night, screen went black with white power sleep light on constantly. Could only shut down with 5-sec power button push. Attempts to boot from HD get as far as Loading OS X, then freezes at blue screen (why are they always blue?). Restarted holding down option key. Can boot from FW drive. Ran Disk Utility and DiskWarrior. After lots of "node" messages and catalogue this and directory that, DU now shows drive green and OK. However, on trying to boot again from HD, system hangs after "Loading OS X".{quote}
To return back to the Internal after a "Startup Volume Repair" from an (External HD or Install Disk 1) restart again holding the Option key (for Startup Manager) and select the "Mac OS X 10.4.10 on Macintosh HD".
Also go to: "Apple / System Preferences / Startup Disk" and select Mac HD, then click the lock so the system will allways attempt to boot from the Internal HD on startup or restart instead of searching.

Similar Messages

Intel iMac won't boot from disc or in safe mode - cannot repair disk

I have an early Intel iMac 20" (2GHz core duo) that generally works fine. I recently ran Onyx and it reported a startup disk error, suggesting I insert the install disk, hold 'c', and use disk utility to repair the disk.
NOTE: I have performed this operation successfully in the past and know how to do it.
On this occasion, the iMac simply booted up to the normal desktop each time after multiple attempts at booting from both the original OSX 10.4.4 install disc and the OSX 10.5.1 install disc (current os is 10.5.8).
I then attempted to start holding 'shift' to start in safe mode but again, repeated attempts all landed me on my normal desktop.
I then attempted to hold 'option' to be given the choice of startup disc but again was ignored and went straight to my normal desktop after multiple attempts.
Note that my iMac appears to be running fine otherwise. I was just trying to perform some routine maintenance and have run across this problem.
Any ideas? This mac will be 5 years old soon and I would like to keep it running for a while longer.

Hello Devoidarex
You'll want to use the Leopard Install DVD to Repair your Startup Volume and may want to try a USB keyboard if your using a wireless.
Another option is to insert the DVD and go to: System Preferences > Startup Disk > select the Install DVD > then Restart.
Dennis

27" iMac won't boot from anything BUT the main drive

Hi all,
My lovely 27" iMac is in perfect working condition, but I thought I'd try to install a OS on a large SD card to see if I would gain any speed.
In the process of doing that (cause I never got that far) I discover that the iMac won't boot from the original install DVD. It simply spits out the DVD when I try to insert into the drive. I'v managed to make an image of the DVD (in a different mac) onto the SD card in order to try an boot from that. No luck. I've tried to insert a original install DVD from my Mac Pro into the iMac, which it reads fine and well, and when I tap the restart button it restarts, but stop with a white screen doing boot up.
If I try to hold down the option key during startup, the iMac WILL let me choose which OS to boot from, but if I choose anything else than the OS already installed it freezes.
I've even tried to boot my Mac Pro from the iMac install DVD - no problems.
I've even run a hardware test on the iMac - no problems.
I am running out of options fast! Please help a devoted Mac-friend.
Take care.
Peter

I WAS using the DVD that came with the machine, but I fear Apple may have sent me the wrong one?
In trying to solve the issues I'd tried other OS disc's (A Mac Pro install DVD and a OS X Leopard DVD) - but none of them would even boot, nor install of my iMac. I always end up with a white screen during boot up.
As I described, the original iMac install DVD would indeed boot my Mac Pro, do the disc seems ok?

IMac won't boot from Firewire?

Hey gang-
I wanted to post this to save anyone else pulling out their hair if they have a Mac that won't boot from a Western Digital (WD) external Firewire drive. I recently purchased a Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB FireWire 800 External Hard Drive.
I bought this drive intending to partition it into two 1TB partitions- one for a bootable backup and one for a Time Machine backup. I do my bootable backups with the application SuperDuper, which is outstanding for this purpose. I have used it to create bootable backups on 3 different Maxtor external Firewire drives, and they have all flawlessly booted all my Macs. I expected no different from this new Western Digital (WD) 2TB drive.
Unfortunately, the WD would not boot 2 out of my 3 Macs when connected via Firewire. It would NOT boot an Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) or an Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does boot our Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition). Strangely, the WD booted all 3 Macs when connected via USB, though needless to say very slowly in all cases. If you need additional technical information, read on.
Technical Info: The following tests were done with the WD connected via Firewire. The WD is correctly formatted for booting Intel Macs with GPT GUID formatting. Note that the WD appears as a bootable drive in System Preferences->Startup Disk on all 3 of my Macs. But when attempting to boot via Firewire, I get only a grey screen on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). The Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition) boots normally. When booting with the Option Key held down, Startup Manager does NOT see the WD as a bootable drive on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does appear as a bootable drive on the Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition).
When connected via USB, the WD boots all three of my Macs, but very slowly compared to the internal drive.
It's probably worth noting that the Late-2007 MacBook and the Mid-2007 iMac all share the then-new Santa Rosa architecture. So I'm guessing that they may share the same Firewire chipset. And for whatever reason, that chipset does not play nice with the WD chipset.
So, bottom line is that if you need a Firewire bootable backup, be sure to test the drive right away so that you don't think you have a bootable backup when in fact you don't.
On the good side, the drive is amazingly quiet. At this point, I need to decide whether to keep the drive, knowing that I have only USB as a bootable option on 2 out my 3 Macs, or return it. But in any case, wanted to pass this on to anyone else having problems booting from an external Firewire drive.

baltwo wrote:
FWIW, many WD HDs won't boot Macs and booting Macs isn't supported. Details at their site. That's the main reason I never recommend their crappy HDs.
Actually I'm very familiar with that list- spent a lot of time looking at this past week!
Ironically, the majority of that page is a list of drives which they claim WILL boot Macs. In fact, the list is entitled "List of Mac-bootable WD external drives..."
And yep, mine is on there...on the list that reads "The following external hard drives should be bootable on Intel-based Mac computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b)" is "MyBook Studio" as well as my drive model number.
But that's all beside the point. Like you, I couldn't recommend their drives at this point. At least make sure if you buy one that the vendor has a good return policy.
Dave

IMac won't boot from OS X install disc!

I'm needing to do some internal hard drive repairs but the system won't boot from the install disc! I've restarted it tons of times while holding down "C" and it just bypasses it and boots right into OS X. It restarts as normal with the chime (I am holding down "C") then the Apple logo comes up, then the spinning circle thing, but it just goes right into OS X. Help!

Let's be sure you are doing it properly.
First, you must use the OS X Installer Disc One that came with your computer. Carefully check both surfaces for scratches, dirt, fingerprints and if so clean it carefully with a very soft cleaning cloth that won't scratch the disc.
Second, insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when the spinning gear appears below the dark gray Apple logo.

Intel iMac won't boot & Disk Utility error-can't verify disk

I posted earlier today that my 24" intel iMac (2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo) froze yesterday after a Safari crash. I had to shut it down with the power button. Since then it won't start up. Sometimes it starts, then shuts off. Other times it starts, then the little gear just spins. I've done the keyboard commands for RAM, the complete disconnect of power, then reconnect, and the Disk Uitility with the install disk. When I do Disk Utility to verify, it gives me a red-letter error that it cannot verify on both verification checks. I have also tried, via the install disk, to repair by using a Time Machine backup, but that utility has been spinning and spinning on my Time Machine for hours, and I cannot even click the "Continue" button because it is busy (checking the time machine?)
I am out of ideas as to how to move on from here. My AppleCare expired 2 months ago, so that's a problem. I've had no major issues before now, except for earlier this year when Mail wouldn't open for some reason. Anyway, I'm at my wits' end here. I NEED my Mac. I'm disabled and have no better source of entertainment or socializing. My hobbies are editing audio, video, & photos. Without my Mac, I'm just in the middle of the sea in a raft with no oars. Any helpful suggestions will obviously be much appreciated. Thanks.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
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.

Intel Xserve won't boot from 3rd party drive in ADM

Right, I've got a Late 2006 Xserve Dual 2.66 with the normal non-RAID SAS/SATA board, which has been running fine for 2 years with a pair of non-Apple Seagate Barracuda ES 250GB drives (Bay 1 & 2), and an original 80GB ADM in Bay 3 as a spare boot disk.
Bay 1 & 2 are set up using SoftRAID and are partitioned into a boot volume (30GB) and a data volume (200GB), both RAID 1 mirrors. The boot volume is cloned nightly to Bay 3 (single volume, set up using Disk Utility). Data is backed up to a utility machine, so this is arrangement lets me handle any single drive failing.
This arrangement has worked fine for 2 years, and allows me to remotely boot off Bay 3 and run DiskWarrior or other disk maintenance software on the normal boot drive without having to drive across town with a firewire drive. I originally started with Mac OS X Server 10.4, but I'm now on Mac OS X Server 10.6.4.
Where things have come unravelled is, I need to upgrade the two 250GBs to something larger. I didn't realise that the Intel Xserve is pretty fussy with ADM sleds and the model of SATA drive they will work with. I didn't have any issues when I set up the Barracuda ES 250GB so wasn't expecting any problems this time.
I bought a pair of Seagate Constellation ES 500GB drives (well 3 actually, one to keep on the shelf as a spare).
I installed them in the sleds and inserted them in the Xserve. The green power LEDs came on but the drives weren't recognised in Disk Utility or System Profiler. I then added the jumper to set them to 1.5Gb/s and then they mounted. I went through my normal process of cloning the OS to them from a standard disk image I have of a known working OS install, ran Disk Utility to repair disk & repair permissions, Disk Warrior to check everything else (my standard paranoid procedures). Set the startup disk to the new install and rebooted. No joy, just the flashing question mark folder. Reboot with the option key, and the new volume doesn't appear in the list of available boot options.
I installed the drives in a firewire enclosure, and it booted without any problems, so it's not a corrupt install, it's something to do with the ADM sleds.
So to go back to basics, I tried initialising a single drive as a single volume and installed 10.6.4 server fresh from the DVD. Same result, no boot when in installed in ADM sled, boots fine in firewire case.
Erased drive, changed formatting to APM (rather then GPT), cloned OS, etc. Won't boot when in ADM sled, boots fine from firewire case. So that screws the theory that drives have to be GPT to boot on Intel hardware.
So I ordered a set of WD RE3 500GB drives (x 3) and repeated this whole process. Same deal, boots fine in firewire, won't boot when installed in ADM. GPT vs APM doesn't make any difference.
Try #3. Ordered desktop variants rather than server class drives. So armed with a pair of WD Caviar Black 500GB. Same deal, boot fine from firewire, will not boot when installed in ADM. Also required jumpers for 1.5GB/s and also the undocumented pins 7&8 (apparently this might be related to the new Advanced Format they are using)
Try #4
A pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB. This is where it gets tricky. One of the Barracuda will boot the Xserve when installed in an ADM, and one will not. So 2 Barracuda 7200.12, both same model number (ST3500418AS), both same firmware (CC38), yet they behave differently.
Try #5
Barracuda ES.2 250GB (x 3). Won't boot in ADM, will boot firewire.
Try #6
WD Caviar SE16 250GB (WD2500KS)
Boots in ADM (Yay!!) and firewire
Try #7
WD Caviar SE16 500GB x 2 (WD5000AAKS)
Boots in ADM and firewire
I've managed to get access to G5 Xserve (2.3DP) so I've repeated all this testing on it as well. The G5 doesn't care about the model of drive and boots from any of them using a 10.5.6 install with APM formatted drives.
I've tried all these drives in 4 different models of ADM sled. One thing I have determined is that the model of sled determines if you need to use the 1.5GB/s jumper. I have 2 sleds from G5's, they require the jumper, a 80GB Intel ADM sled with separate data and power plugs requires the jumper, and an Intel 160GB ADM sled with the ribbon cable and combined data/power plug doesn't require the 1.5GB/s jumper. APM vs GPT formatting again makes no difference.
So on the Intel machine, the drives work in the sleds, appear as normal drives on desktop or in Disk Utility when logged in, and also appear as normal drives when connected via SSH if Auto Login is disabled. So to me they appear to be working drives.
It appears to me that something changed at a low level between the Barracuda ES and ES.2 generations of drives (for WD drives as well since the Caviar SE16 that boots is a similar age to the Barracuda ES)
So then why won't it boot from them? Is there some magic dance I've missed?
And how come one of the 7200.12 will boot, while another identical model won't?
Any tips or suggestions greatly appreciated.

I don't have an answer for you, but you deserve thanks for all the useful hardware information you posted from your trial-and-error testing.
My impression has that the XServes need specific kinds of firmware and hardware monitors on their drives in order for everything to function smoothly. My own efforts swapping drives in ADMs has produced "mixed results" to put it mildly. It would be so much easier if we knew what kinds of drives worked properly in what kinds of ADMs and on which Macs/XServes.

IMac won't boot from HDD or CD. Help!?

Hi,
I recently came back from holiday for a couple of weeks and sat down to start my iMac (24" C2D). The machine just sat at a white screen and wouldn't go anywhere. Thought, ah, I'll just reset the PRAM (unplugged power cable for a min or so), and still same problem. Eventually I got the mac to boot by holding down the power button, the long beep sounded and the mac booted. All was well, until the next time I powered it down. Same thing, however same resolution didnt work...
After numerous attempts holding c, I've managed to boot into the mac installer, which said it couldnt repair the drive through disk utility. As I have time machine backup, thought I'll just start from scratch. Created a new partition (just to make sure everything was fresh), verified disk (no problems), started installer and it crashed towards the very end of the install (just over 1 hour in) with errors of being unable to copy files. After another few hours, managed to boot from CD again, this time install started, left it running overnight, only to find the mac in the morning on, but with a black screen. I've had to power it off and now I'm left with the same issue of a white screen and being unable to boot from CD.
Does any of this make sense to anyone? Could be a failed HDD, but why would I have the issue with the iMac generally refusing to boot from CD? Ran hardware diagnostic (extended) and no problems found.
I now have no hair left...

I assume that model has a back up battery in it? If so, have you changed it recently? If not you may want to replace it. In the meantime, try removing it completely and see if it starts up any better. If the battery is right on the hairy edge of good/too low, it might be corrupting the PRAM (or whatever they call it now on new models) causing start up issues. If you remove it, you won't retain a lot of settings such as Date and Time, but you should also be able to boot up eat time with all default values.
I had the same sort of issue with my eMac and pulling the battery cleared it up. That was many months ago and one of these days I might get around to buying a replacement battery... or not.
Cheers,
Patrick

Imac won't boot from disk or restart

I'm trying to erase the HD on my powerpc G4 imac (2003). I have two issues preventing me from doing so. The first seems to be that I can't boot from the Tiger disk because I have a newer wireless keyboard with no other options available to me (the old white keyboard is long gone). So, I think it's not responding when I hold down the C button. The second issue is that the computer won't restart or shut down. It goes through the motions and gets to the point where the dock disappears and just the desktop is showing and it stays there indefinitely. I have to hold down the power button to get it to turn off. Then when I turn it back on it says that OS X quit unexpectedly. So, I can't perform any functions that require a restart. It doesn't seem to finish the process before I shut the computer off.

Hi Sleepy Pants,
I'm sorry to hear about your computer.
Unforchently the wireless keyboard can not be used to perform disk boot. At least when the computer is not booting properly. Do you have any wired USB keyboard? Any usb keyboard should be enough to safeboot, or boot to the install disk.
Good Luck
-tt

Rev. A iMac Won't Boot From CD

Ok, this has stumped me. My brother gave me an old Rev. A iMac (233mhz, 128mb RAM), and I wanted to outfit it so my kid could play CD games and surf the 'Net (he's only 3, so we're not talking hard to please here).
Anyway, I bought a brand new 40GB Seagate 7200 ATA drive to replace the original 4GB drive so that I could install Panther for the stability. I installed it today, then popped in the OSX installation Disk 1, and it wouldn't boot. Got the flashing question mark/folder.
So I figured I might have to boot with the old OS, so I popped in the copy of 9.0 that came with my G3 Blueberry, and that started to boot (happy Mac appeared), but a few seconds later I got a popup that said, "A Fatal Error Has Occurred." My only option was to restart.
I've been looking for a while at issues already discussed that are sort of related to this, but nothing exactly with that error. I suspect it's a firmware problem, but if it won't even boot off the 9.2 CD, how can I update it?
Furthermore, the drive was right out of the baggie brand new. I assumed that even though it was completely blank, I could still boot up with an install CD and initialize the disk, get the firmware on there and install a system.
Now I'm thinking from what I've read in other threads that in order for success to be achieved, I'm going to have to boot up and install from the original OS8.1 CD that came with the machine, then incrementally upgrade the from there.
Any help would be kindly appreciated. The fatal error message and the inability to boot from a system CD scares me.
iMac G3 533mhz 256M/120G Mac OS X (10.3.9)

OS X needs to be on the first partition, OS 9 can be on the second. I think you have to have an installed an OS on the first partition so the boot blocks are set. I believe also that you have to have 8.5 or higher to do the OS X installation. The process on my PowerBook G3 Wallstreet was to install 9.2 first and then OS X following the guide in the Read Me on the install disk. I already had 9.1 on it at the time.
I remember it was a pain. I had to take it to work, back up the hard drive, partition and install. At the time it was 10.0 and ran so treacle slow. 10.1 fixed that, and it still has 10.1.5 on it running fine.
Also, the disk format has to be HFS+, not HFS. If you have an external drive, then you could install and do your upgrades on that until you can install on the internal.
There is also an iMac Firmware updater you will need to run available from Apple.com.

IMac won't boot from HDD - stays at gray screen

Quite simply, the iMac that we have in the house won't boot. It just gets stuck at the gray screen with the apple and the loading wheel (which is moving, so it's still not "frozen" per sey, but it sits there for going on 20 minutes). We have tried booting it in Safe Mode, which only succeeds in displaying the loading bar, but the computer still gets stuck. Single-User Mode works, but the fsck -fy command says that there are no errors. Booting from a Disk also does not work - we got it to get to the Setup Manager, but choosing the disk just freezes the computer. So we can't get into the Disk Utility. Loading in Verbose mode, the commands stop in the middle of "Running fsck on the boot volume", specifically "Launchcti: dubios permissions on file (skipping): /etc/mach_init.d"
The operating system is 10.6 something we believe, but we can't find out because we can't start up the computer. It is at least 10.6, if not newer.
Any ideas what's wrong and what could be done to fix it? We don't know a huge amount about Macs (although my brother knows a bit more about unix-based systems than I do). Any help would be appreciated!

Are you saying you haven't been backing up? If so and you have performed all the steps in the letter and reached the final step that says to do an erase and install then yeah you will lose all your data!
If you have not been backing up I hate to say it but this will be an extremely valuable lesson on why you should. That being said I'd also recommend bookmarking and reading the following 3 MacWorld articles on backing up, IMHO the common thread is not only should you be backing up but that you should do redundant backups.
Backup Plan I
Backup Plan II
Backup Plan III
Personally I use Time Machine and Super Duper on 2 seperate EHDs to backup daily.

Intel imac won't boot with usb powered hub attached

My intel imac has started to not boot with a powered (have tried a variety of them) attached. Just stops at the white screen. Also, after I attach the hubs (2, both powered) the computer got into spurts when it just kicks everything attached to the hubs off saying that something pulled too much power. At other times it is fine with the same set up. I've tried resetting the PRam but it didn't make any difference.
I see from other postings that this isn't too uncommon, but didn't see any fix.
Thanks

Can you determine if it is just one of the hubs? Resetting the PRAM probably didn't have anything to do with this problem but the SMC controls the power, try this reset:
SMC RESET
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
Wait 15 seconds.
Attach the computers power cable.
Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.
The 5 second timing is important to a successful reset.

IMac won't boot from Windows USB install stick

I have a iMac 7.1, the first gen Intel iMac, now running Moutain Lion 10.8.2. I installed Windows 7 via bootcamp two years ago via a flash disk, and the installation was smooth and easy. Now I want to try some Windows 8. I used the Windows USB install tool to clone the install disk into a flash drive and tested the flash drive on a windows computer first. It was working properly. But my iMac just couldn't boot from the flash disk when I pressed the option button during start-up. There's no icon for the flash disk. Then I clone the old Windows 7 install ISO into the flash disk, it wouldn't show in the boot options either! Why? Is it because of some firmware update? Why the same Windows 7 install image I used two years a ago can't boot now for the same iMac? Please help. Thanks!
Jeff

I believe mende1's response is slightly incorrect. On older Mac computers that came with an internal DVD drive the only way to install Windows on those Mac's is from that internal DVD drive. Even if you connect an external DVD drive OS X and or the Mac computer Firmware will not allow the Win install DVD to boot from that external DVD drive. It must be done from the internal DVD drive. So if yours has failed then you would need to have it replaced before you can install Windows on your Mac.
I know this from personally trying to install Windows from an external DVD drive even when there is an internal DVD still in the system. My late 2011 MBP would not load the Win install from the external DVD drive but would from the internal DVD drive.
3str wrote:
Thank you for your reply. But this is really disappointing. My optic drive has died long time ago.........

Intel iMac won't boot up when iPod is plugged into USB port.

I have a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Purchased new from Apple in January 2007. Running Mac OS X 10.4.10. Purchased a new 80 GB video iPod (v1.2.1) from Best Buy in June. Computer stopped rebooting soon after. I began by deleting preferences of various kinds with no luck. I've reset the P RAM, the System Power Manager or whatever ya call it. I've even done an Archive Install of the Mac OS. Yet every time I try an' reboot with the iPod plugged into the USB port I get the start-up chime then the gray screen and that's it. No gray Apple, no log-in window. I shut it down, unplug the iPod and it starts right up. Please, I'm beggin' ya. I don't want to have to wipe the hard drive and start from scratch. Any suggestions?
Thanks....

ABStrange -- the apple tech believes that the iMAC is trying to boot from the iPOD which is causing the hanging. Interestingly, if you wipe the iPOD clean, it will work flawlessly. The minute you put one song back on the iPOD it will hang again. Hopefully on Monday or Tuesday I'll hear something back. I'll let you know what I find out. I did mention this thread on the forum to the apple tech. Hopefully they take this seriously. Maybe it is a serious enough flaw with our iPODs that will warrant a replacement?
BTW: I upgraded to Leopard yesterday and the problem still exists. Was kind of curious to see if that had any effect.

IMac won't boot from Techtools CD

I've been trying to track down the reason for my wife's iMac G5 20" and its incessant fans. Even when there's no disk activity, the fans will come on like a plane landing.
First, I tried to boot from the DiskWarrior CD - and failed. The machine simply wouldn't recognise me holding down the 'C' key. Then I inserted the Techtools CD and did the same. So far the machine is sitting here stuck at the grey start-up screen with the fans going like crazy.
**** it, the machine is acting weird and it won't let me repair it.
Anybody out there have any ideas of my next step??

Try running the hardware tester that came with her iMac. There probably is a problem on the midplane and/or power supply.
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
 An Apple User Group 
New: MacOSG Podcast

Intel iMac won't boot from HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for