Lost Admin, can't boot from disk or T-mode, no safe mode and no PRAM reset

After installing Leopard, like many I lost my Admin access. Then my MacBook would not boot from any disk nor would it book in T-mode so I could access it from another computer. It won't boot from the Leopard disk or the MacBook Restore disk. I also can't zap the PRAM and cannot boot on safe or fsck modes.
Nothing is working. I have searched the forums and tried everything I can find.
This has me worried I may need to just replace my hard drive and start over (likely with Tiger).
Any suggestions.

can you choose the boot device by pressing the option/alt key?
if not, try this:
- removing power cable AND battery and press the power key for 10 seconds. 11 secs will do, too
- reattach the battery AND the cable (don't start yet!)
- press command-option-P-R (all 4 keys, just to make sure) and press power button while not releasing the keys
- you should hear the startup chime TWICE. if not, well, you're out of luck. i'm sorry ...
- if you hear it twice, try booting again and this time option/alt for choosing the boot device should work (in theory)
hope that helps,
sebastian

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Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Can't log in with valid password, can't boot from disk, can't access disk utility, in single user mode can't reset password as appears locked in caps mode with '?' for forward slash, can anyone help?

Which keyboard layout you were using? German, French ... I suppose your layout is reset to the default: US and you are unable to find the "?" or "/" ...
Please have a look into the keyboard viewer, to see how the layout of your keyboard is actually.
marek

First gen. Mac Mini - won't boot from DVD/CD, or into any safe modes

Hi All!
Last Sunday my Mini seemed to start hanging up, then all of a sudden it was spinning beach ball time. Everything pointed to a hard drive issue, including Disk Warrior, which couldn't replace the directory due to some kind of disk issue (I've forgotten). Was able to get into safe boot mode, tried fsck -y:
+disk 0s3: I/O error+
+Invalid Key length (4,25910)+
+**volume check failed+
+/dev/rdisk 0s3 (hfs) exited with signal 8+
Soon after that I couldn't even get into safe boot mode. Yesterday we replaced the hard drive, but now I can't even boot from the Leopard install disk, or even eject it so I can try booting from the Panther install disk. It's as if it's no longer recognizing the keyboard. I can't boot from the CD/DVD by holding down the "C" key, nor can I boot using the shift key. All paths lead to the flashing question mark/mac face folder...
What else can I try? Could this be a power supply issue?
There is nothing else hooked up to it at present, other than the keyboard and the monitor.
I do have a LaCie mini back-up drive with Panther installed available, if that's any use.
TIA
Rose

Just for the records:
the Apple A1243 aluminium USB keyboard is not available at start up time (in connection with Mini 1,1 OS X 10.6.4, 1GB, late 2006)
I did not get the start screen to login, system hung with frozen wheel - so I was glad to have Boece's advice to use the IR remote for changing to the OS X DVD for startup (remember, no key worked on the keyboard). Nevertheless, Disk First Aid from the DVD have shown no problems with either disk nor allowances - but I have not been able to start from the the mini's disk.
Then tried the usual hints from Apple's documentation - to no avail.
After that I tried to restore from my actual TM backup, which used up some time (it's working rather slow, isn't it?), but then I got hung at the BSD's screen asking me to shut off an restart - another loop.
I guess that the iTunes update (9.2.1) is the culprit, as the last Safari update (5.0.1) is working OK.
At last, I made an erase & install - which worked (I am no in the duty of installing all updates again) so far. Let's see ...

IBook osx 10.5.6 no finder, won't boot fully, can't boot from disk

My iBook has worked fine ever since the upgrade to 10.5.6, no problems at all.
I installed Safari 4, and whatever security updates it required for that a few days ago and everything still worked fine.
Yesterday I awoke it from sleep and the colors of the default desktop (aurora) had all black parts turned blue, there was no bar at the top of the screen (where file edit, clock etc usually are ), and the finder didn't work. Dock and all it's icons showed up but none are clickable.
Did a hard shut down with the power button, restart it passes grey screen fine, goes direct to blue screen then to desktop - no starting OS X progress bar or anything, then back to the same blue-tinted desktop, unclickable dock, and lack of top bar.
I booted to single user mode, ran /sbin/fsck -yf said drive was ok,
can't boot up with the install disk, or with disk warrior. It passes the grey screen fine, but then gets to blue screen and the computer just shuts down, then boots back into that same bluish desktop.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks very much,
Maikunari

Hello m:
You have (IMHO) a hardware problem. Without being able to boot from a DVD the troubleshooting options are almost nil.
You could try to reset the SMC/PMU:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
If that does not work, I am afraid a trip to a technician for diagnosis is in order.
Barry

New hard drive but can't boot from disk?

So I dropped in a new Travelstar last night, reseated all the connections, closed everything up, popped in the software disk that came with the powerbook (OS9) and tried to boot from the disk by holding down the "C" when starting up. No dice. The Screen is black, the drive just spins the disk intermittently and I don't hear the hard disk spinning. I'm guessing that means it's not the hard disk that was the problem. The original problem was that it would lock up and when I restarted it would either get stuck on the gray screen or just a black screen and the hard drive wouldn't spin, just the disk drive would spin. This last time it was just the black screen. Any suggestions?

Hi, rickDJ. Have you tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM?
I'm guessing that means it's not the hard disk that was the problem.
It sounds that way, but the clincher would be if you pulled the new drive and tried to start up from the CD without any HD in place, and got the same result. Then you could be sure neither hard drive was at fault.
One possibility is that the hard disk's short connecting cable is loose or has gotten damaged. Others are that the the optical drive's cable is loose or damaged, or the optical drive itself is dirty or damaged. If the problem persists without any HD or HD cable in place, my next (free) step would be to pull the optical drive and open it up, clean the lens with alcohol, put the drive back in place, make sure its cable connector is solidly seated on the logic board, and test again with the bootable OS 9 disc.
If you can't start the computer up from any bootable CD or DVD with or without a HD in place after zapping PRAM and manually cleaning the optical drive, there's not much more troubleshooting you can do. There are other possible causes of the problem, but they're not pretty $-wise, and you can't identify them by yourself under the circumstances.

Sun V120 Blade: can't boot from disk. Is there anyway to recover?

I have a SunFire V120 Blade with 2 hard drives (one contains application data), and NO CDROM drive. It appears that the rack took a power hit, and now I cannot boot the V120 server. A 'boot disk' command returns: Executing last command: boot disk
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8/disk@0,0 File and args:
Can't read disk label.
Can't open disk label package
Evaluating: boot disk
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ok
Since I have no CDROM, how can I reset/recover, because I wouldn't know how I could reinstall Solaris?
Any ideas? Thanks in advance for the assistance.
Jim

You have 2 choices, replace 2nd disk with a CDROM drive or perform a network install from a JumpStart server on the same subnet.

Was upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard. Install failed. Now says I'm in 10.6 but I'm incomplete. Screen goes gray. Can't boot from disk.

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Run through this list of fixes
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Can't boot up after Yosemite, not even in safe mode. Just hangs, or states unable to repair. Any ideas?

When starting up it tried to install Yosemite, got about half way throught then stated it could not repair the disk (it wasn't broken!). Now it doesn't even try to install, it just get half way through a normal boot up and hangs. Have no access to anything so can't even uninstall/delete. The boot disk that came with my Mac doesn't work either. Can anyone think of a way out of this and still save what's on the disk?

Hey there, it looks like you have a serious issue with Windows. However, as far as I can tell, Firefox is unable to cause this to your system. The update is confined to the Firefox program files, at worst it would make Firefox unusable.
Unfortunately I don't have any idea what might have caused the issue in this case, but I'd suggest asking in forums that are specifically for Windows. They might be able to help you with getting back to a functional system.
--Kadir

Can't Boot From Install Disc 1 ?

Holding down "C" at Start Up isn't working.
Most of the time I can't get Preferences > Start-Up to even "see" my Disc 1.
When I can get it to show up in Start-Up, and Select it, and Lock it ... it Still Won't Start Up from the Install Disc 1 ... and in fact usually ejects the disc.
Sometimes when I re-push in the disc, I get the message that a Blank Disc has been detected, "what do you want to do with it."
But, it shows up in Disc Utility, and when I run Verify Disc, it all looks good?!
The Disc has Mac OS version 10.4.8 on it. I'm running 10.5.7. I'm all up to date with my software.
Yesterday I ran the latest version of Disc Warrior. When I run TechTools 4.0 it seems to get stuck running Files. When I run Repair Permissions from Disc Utilities, it shows a fairly massive amount of issues. Running it over and over again doesn't seem to make any difference.
I WANT to run my Install Disc so I can run Repair Disc from Disc Utility ... because I'm having a number of issues ... and I seem to get the spinning rainbow a lot.
SUGGESTIONS ?! ... thanks ...

Disk Utility that can repair a 10.5.7 permissions is only found on the Leopard installer disc. Tiger can't repair Leopard when it comes to permissions, and may also have difficulty with the directory.
Secondly, if your MacBook Pro was purchased after October 26, 2007, it can't boot from any Tiger disc.
If your MacBook Pro was purchased prior, you can use the disk, but you'll want to follow these directions for hardware diagnostics:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081
Only if your MacBook Pro has Tiger installed, should you use Tiger for the directory or permissions*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
Macs can only boot from the operating system that shipped with them, and newer retail operating systems. This means:
1. pre-October 1st, 2007 MacBook Pros can boot off:
- - the discs that shipped with them
- - retail 10.5 discs which look like * that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM.
2. October 1st through October 25, 2007 can do #1, and also use Upgrade and DropIn discs. Those disks were offered as a limited time mail order Up to date program, some were dropped in the box that came with them.
3. October 26th through November 14, 2007 can boot off the discs that came with them, and retail 10.5.1, 10.5.4, and 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
4. November 15, 2007 through June 29, 2008 can boot off the discs that came with them, and the retail 10.5.4, and 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
5. June 30, 2008 through December 14, 2008 can boot off the discs that came with them, and the retail 10.5.6 discs that do not say Upgrade, DropIn, or OEM, and have a label like the image above.
6. December 15, 2008 and later MacBook Pros can only boot off the discs that came with them.
Presumably when Snow Leopard comes out in September, all of the above will be able to use Snow Leopard because of the specs on http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody

HP 3500 MicroTower doesn't boot from disk!

We are facing a very strange issue with HP 3500 , the machine can't boot from disk ! only way to get it to boot is to pxe boot it.
Whenever it can't find a Pxe server to boot from it failed to boot from disk with an error that "No boot disk detected ... "
Disks are detected correctly in the setup/bios and quick smart check tests are passing successfully.
I have tried to disable the network boot but this didn't help as well, it indeed skipped the Pxe boot step but it still fails to boot from disk with the same error.
The OS installed on the machine is Ubunutu 12.04
Note:
We installed extra 2 disks to this machine and 2 extra network cards as well , not sure if this is related but I thought it worth mentioning it.

Hello @abdallahm,
Welcome to the HP Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I understand you are having issues with your HP Pro 3500 Microtower PC not booting up and are looking for assistance. I am sorry, but to get your issue more exposure, I would suggest posting it in the commercial forums, since this is a commercial product. You can do this at Business PCs - Compaq, Elite, Pro.
I hope this helps. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
Dunidar
I work on behalf of HP
Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
"Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

MSI KT6V-LSR (MS-7021) Can't Boot From CD/DVD

New to the forum and would like to say hello to everyone first.
Here's my problem i can't boot from my DVD drive, my 2 HDD's and 2 DVD drives are working fine inside windows.
Inside the bios screen they are detected in the right order, and are in the right boot order. I checked the jumpers on them and they seem fine and i haven't touch them since i changed my dvd rewriter 6 months ago and i have booted from a cd since then.
I just booted up the Windows Xp disc on a differnt pc and it worked fine, yet on mine it goes straight to my XP OS.
I was hoping someone could help me out, thanks.
MSI KT6V-LSR (MS-7021)
Athlon XP 2400+
768 MB Ram
Windows XP Home sp3
Maxtor 6Y120L0(master)
Seagate ST3400832A(slave)
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20(master)
JLMS XJ-HD166S(slave)

Did you install Nero 9 by any chance?
Even if you didn't, and old version of InCD can cause this too.
The problem is upper/lower filters, they are screwed and thus your CD's are missing in action.
Run this tool inside windows: ftp://ftp6.nero.com/tools/General-CleanTool.zip
As for booting, change the boot order in the BIOS, probably set to harddisk first.
If that doesn't solve it, disconnect one of the CD's and test with a single one, maybe one is broken and hinders the other, but that is my last guess.

Trying to install SL on a new hard-drive for my iMac, when asked which disk to install on it gave me no options, i followed advice from another forum and created a partition, now can't boot from the new drive at all. Help?

I've had **** with my iMac, the hard-drive failed so i replaced it with a new 1TB Samsung drive. Then when i tried to install SL from the install disk, all went to plan until it asked me which drive i wanted to install it on, where it came up with a box where my options should have been, but instead it didn't give me any options to install it on any drive i.e. it asked which drive i wanted to install it on but no drives came up to select.
So i followed the advice from another forum, look at the 'Extended Hard-drive preparation' response
( https://discussions.apple.com/message/10576009#10576009 )
After following these instructions i have now got a new partition, but when i restarted my computer to install SL on the drive, the option to boot from the drive is now not available, now i must boot from the install disk, whereas before i was able to boot from either the install disk or the hard drive. The hard drive is still visible in disk utility as it always has been, but i am now unable to boot from it, let alone install SL.
Please help my iMac has been broken for months and i've been trying to fix it for so long and am getting problem after problem. Thank you!
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Hi db2
That off the shelf MS-DOS / FAT-32 drive needs to re-partitioned GUID Partition Table / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) before you can install OS X and Startup your Intel iMac from it.
1. Boot from your original install or retail SL DVD and open Disk Utility.
2. Highlight the new HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Volume Scheme select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Apply button.
6. Once thats done, then you can do a clean SL Install, Restore from TM , your old HD or Bootable Clone.
Dennis

Disk repair failed how can I back up my files when I can't boot from the start up disk

When disk repair fails, and I can't boot from the hard drive how can I get to my files to back them up. I have a seagate 1 TB connected to the USB port.

Perubbit,
which model MacBook Pro do you have, and which version of OS X is installed on it?

Can't restore from Disk Utility while booted from OS installation DVD

I'm absolutely astounded by this.
I have a new MacBook Pro 17". I restored my files to it and in short order, had it too full/fragmented to re-partition it for Boot Camp.
So I decided to image the disk and store that image file on a FireWire drive, wipe the system disk and restore it cleanly from the image file backup, hoping that would result in contiguous blocks used so that I could then re-partition for Boot Camp.
When booted off the OS X for Intel DVD-ROM disc (10.4.6 - the one that came with my MacBook Pro), if I get out of Installer and into Disk Utility, if I select the internal hard drive and click the Restore tab, I can easily select the hard drive backup image with the button. But the "Destination Disk:" box is only accessible via dragging the disk to the box.
There's one little problem - there is no Desktop, so the disk(s) do not appear on the Desktop. There is no way to drag the target disk to be restored to into the Destination Disk: box. You cannot drag a disk out from the little sidebar inside the Disk Utility window over to the Destination box. I tried. You can't drag any disk anywhere from that sidebar. It's clear that the only way to drag a disk anywhere is if it's shown on the Desktop in Finder (which isn't running when the installation DVD-ROM is booted from). There is simply no way that I can find to restore a disk drive from a saved backup disk image when booted from the installation DVD-ROM.
Please tell me I'm ******** and missing something, or if there's a Better Way to do this. (I can't seem to run Retrospect while booted off the DVD-ROM, so I can't restore from my Retrospect full backup of the disk, either. Joy!)
(I'm really curious if there's a Better Way - especially because it appears I can't boot from an external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive, so I need something that will work in this extremely limited installation DVD-ROM booted environment, I think.)
MacBook Pro 17" dual 2.16 GHz ; Mac OS X (10.4.6) Booted from Mac OS X for Intel 10.4.6 installation DVD-ROM

You can use an external bootable drive with a MacBook Pro -- check your manual or the built in help. Your problem is that for some reason, you can't install a bootable system on one. There are several reasons why Installer won't enable you to do so: insufficient space, incompatible partition scheme (should be GUID) or file system (should be HFS+ or similar), or wrong installation option selected.
It is possible this is related to why you can't drag the startup volume to the destination box in Disk Utility. It must be an HFS+ variant file system.
I think you should check carefully with D.U. the partition scheme of all your drives & the file system format of all the volumes involved. Also run repair disk, as someone has already pointed out.
The behavior with the Restore function is not normal -- you should be able to drag a volume to the destination box from the list.

Can't boot from hard disk or from windows 7 recovery dvd

I have a 970A-G46 motherboard.
I can't boot from hard disk or from a windows 7 recovery dvd.
If I move the hard drive to another PC, it boots fine.
If I put the DVD in another PC's dvd drive, it can be accessed.
This machine will boot from an Ubuntu dvd and I can then access the HD directories and the recovery dvd.
What do I need to do?
Help and thanks

"I can't boot from hard disk or from a windows 7 recovery dvd."
What is that DVD from? Is it from a previous computer of some kind? Same question for HDD and the OS on it.

Lost Admin, can't boot from disk or T-mode, no safe mode and no PRAM reset

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