Mac Boot Problem

Hi everyone. I turned on my mac this morning to see a screen that read 'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key.' I found a bunch of people online had this problem, but all of them were running boot camp with windows partitions. I'm not. The only thing I can think of that's even close to that was yesterday I downloaded this app that would make my external hard drive read and write instead of just read when I accessed it from my mac. I have no idea how that could possibly be related. However, I did once try to use bootcamp and whenever I go to finder, the Bootcamp disk thingy is write below 'Macintosh HD'. I checked that disk yesterday and found that that's where my Final Cut Pro scratch disks were going. Well, I don't know if this is enough information, but any help would be appreciated.

That means the directory of the boot volume is damaged and a repair is being attempted. If it happens repeatedly, you should assume that there's a hardware fault in the drive, the internal cable, or the logic board. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. Back up all data before you go.

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Help! Mac boot problem!

When my Mac boots, a little bar appears below the apple logo. Then, the bar fills up very slowly. I know the bar isn't the progress of my Mac booting, because after the bar fills up and disappears, the spinning wheel goes on for like another 20 seconds. the Mac actually boots, and there is nothing wrong, but because of the little bar that shows up, my Mac takes 15 minutes to boot, and its a waste of battery and time. Please help me get out of this problem. Thanks!

That means the directory of the boot volume is damaged and a repair is being attempted. If it happens repeatedly, you should assume that there's a hardware fault in the drive, the internal cable, or the logic board. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. Back up all data before you go.

Mac booting problems

SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE.
i have a mac os x 10.4.11
and when i turn it on it goes to a black window and it says
localhost mDSResponder-108.6 : starting
launchd: com. apple.niblindd: exited abnormally : bad system call
launchd: com. apple.niblindd:respawning to quickly ! trottling

Hi Mac turning on problems, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates.
May even need to do an Archive and Install if you have room on the HD, but saves all your files and gives a new OS...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
I only use Software Update to see what is needed, then get them for real via...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/
That way I can wait a week or so, check the forums for potential problems, and get Permissions & such in order before installing.
If all the above fails, then it appears to be time for a relatively painless Archive & Install, which gives you a new/old OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space and no Disk corruption, and is relatively quick & painless...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Just be sure to select Preserve Users & Settings.

Mac booting problem - Please help! very, very desperate!

My mac was being very, very slow so I turned it off, then as it it was booting it was taking ages so i restared in safe mode. While booting in safe mode the black bar at the bottom goes around 2/5 of the way across and then my macbook just switches off.
Ive tried:
fsck
disk utility repair/verify
reinstalling OS X Lion
When i tried to repair, it said i needed to erase everything and reinstall the OS. Last night when i tried to it said both drives are locked so i couldnt. And now when i just tried again, neither drivers are appearing; the box is just blank.
Let alone my livelyhood on the laptop, i have thousands and thousands pictures which if lost, would genuinley heartbreak me. I have much valuable data on my laptop and i really dont want to erase all data, because me being the gigantic fool that i am, i only have one time machine back up from about a year and a half ago.
Please, please help.
Thank you!

humzasadique,
unfortunately you’ve now discovered where the value proposition lies in making regular backups — if your livelihood depends upon your laptop, that lack of due diligence is rather baffling.
Which model MacBook Pro do you have, and which version of OS X is installed on it? Do you have an external bootable drive?

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro, which has re-booting problems. Also what does the spinning beach-ball indicate?

Hi, I have an early 2008 Mac Pro which has re-booting problems.
Processor speed is: 2.8
Memory: 2GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
2 x 28GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
I am running OSX Yosemite Version 10.10
My Mac Pro keeps re-booting. Last year I had to replace my graphics card. My original card was the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 255MB, and that is what I have now. At this precise moment my Mac Pro is running perfectly, except that it is slow and the spinning beach-ball keeps appearing. I have managed to do some work with the disk utilities, verifying, cleaning and partitioning. Some errors were found and when it was cleaned this seemed to help my Mac Pro to function properly. Although I am able to use my Mac Pro now, from day to day I still experience re-boot problems. Also quite unexpectedly my mac dictionary has an error, it closed itself down and will not open at all, I had the message to say that a report will be sent to Apple.
I have tried starting my computer with an external hard drive fitted via a USB cable, I use for back-ups. This worked and I was able to wipe my hard drive clear and replace all info from the back up I had done only a few days ago.
This worked for a few days and then the same problem started again.
I am beginning to wonder if I need to buy a new hard drive.
If there is anyone who has some answers to help me solve my problem, I would be most grateful.
Robert

When you have the beachball activity, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
          SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
          View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.
Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.
Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Mac Pro Boot Problems. Kona 3?

I'm having booting problems with a Mac Pro. It's got a kona 3 card in one of the PCI slots, and we've been tinkering with it to try to get the audio to work right. However, I've been having huge problems whenever I try to restart the computer. After hitting the power button, or telling it to restart the screen goes to black and sometimes I hear a chime. However, the computer does not boot any further. Then, after holding the power button down and restarting the computer, I can sometimes get the computer to boot normally.
I suspect the Kona card is causing some of the problems. I have multiple hard drives on the system, and I have the ability to boot onto two separate drives in 10.5.8. Both drives are having the same problems.
it's a 2x2.8ghz quad-core Intel Xeon with 10gb of ram. The Kona card is in slot 2. Slot 3 has also been tried, but similar problems remained.

removed kona card. uninstalled aja programs. restart problems still persisting.

Mac Pro Boot Problems After 10.6.2 Update

After installing the latest version of snow leopard I am now having boot problems on my mac pro.
Symptoms;
-Screen resolution is incorrect at apple splash screen.
-Takes a lot longer than usual to boot.
-Once booted the blue tooth magic mouse isn't imediately reckonised, takes a while to find that.
-Once the mouse is finally reckonised it can move around but can't click on anything or bring up the dock. Tried a wired mouse, had the same problem.
-The keyboard is also not appearing to do anything, none of the shortcuts or quick keys work..
Had exactly the same problem after 3 restarts but on the 4th after leaving it for a good 20-30minutes it setled down and everything was working okay. However this is a recurring problem as I had the same thing yesterday...
I have a my 10.5.8 system backed up on an external so I am running from that at the moment. Don't want to go back to snowy til these problems are solved.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Martin

Try Safe Mode (It will take more time to startup in Safe Mode because it runs a directory check.)
Let us know.
-mj

MAC OSX 10.3.6 having Boot Problems(Gray Screen with Spinning wheel all the Time) ,How to restore all the files without Mac Startpup Disc,still is not possible i want to download full CD from Apple Site, Is It Possible to Download!

Hi Frnds,Small Favour for me,...
MAC OSX 10.3.6 having Boot Problem(Gray Screen with Spinning wheel all the Time) ,How to restore all the files without Mac Startpup Disc,still is not possible i want to download full CD from Apple Site, Is It Possible to Download!, Windows 7 is working perfectly , can i restore any files in MAC OSX 10.3.6 through Windows 7, or i need the MAC OSX 10.3.6 Bootable Files i need to enter the MAC OSX....

Hi Frnds,Small Favour for me,...
MAC OSX 10.3.6 having Boot Problem(Gray Screen with Spinning wheel all the Time) ,How to restore all the files without Mac Startpup Disc,still is not possible i want to download full CD from Apple Site, Is It Possible to Download!, Windows 7 is working perfectly , can i restore any files in MAC OSX 10.3.6 through Windows 7, or i need the MAC OSX 10.3.6 Bootable Files i need to enter the MAC OSX....

Mid 2006 iMac Boot Problem (Since latest firmware update)

I have a Mid 2006 17" iMac. Ever since the latest firmware update in early December, about every other startup I've been having boot problems. After the white screen with the Apple Logo and the spinning wheel it goes to a blue screen like normal, but instead of the 'Loading Mac OS X' white window popping up it stays blue and the spinning loading wheel starts. I've left it loading for quite a while before and nothing changes. I have to do a force shut off by holding the power button. and then I start it up and it will boot normally.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Actually, I think it'san early 2006.

Boot problems - can I "Archive and Install" to back-up and then reformat?

Hi all!
I'm having booting problems with my PowerBook 15".
I've ran the hardware/disk utility tests and everything seems fine. The problem is, I get a blue-screen with the spinning sun-dial or sthing. It keeps spinning and spinning! I tried going into safe-mode, but it doesn't work!
My question is, can I do an "Archive and Install"... load a fresh copy of OS X on my PowerBook so that I can back-up my data? Would this work?
Please help, thanks!

I took the risk and managed to install Tiger over my previous OS successfully! Afterwards, I backed up everything as fast as I could, and then did a Clean Install. Worked like a charm! haha..
However... after doing the Clean Install, I realised that I am UNABLE to install "Windows Media Player for Mac OX X" on to my machine!?!?! I downloaded "WindowsMediaInstaller.bin", and opened it with StuffIt Expander. StuffIt Expander just hung at the "Preparing" mode and says "Preparing..."
Anyone else has/had the same problem? Please help, as a number of online radio sites require Windows Media Player to run, and now I can't access them!! =(

IBook boot problems

Hello, My iBook recently won't boot correctly. It goes to the login screen and then goes to a full screen terminal and asks for my password. The only password that works is the root password. Now this happened after I installed the xvid codec for quicktime but as far as I know that couldent have caused something like this. So in trying to fix this I rebooted the computer into single user mode and removed the applesetupdone (/var/db/.applesetupdone) file to hopefuly get the computer to just go through the intl. setup. Well that didnt work. Now it gets stuck in a loop saying it cant load up the intl. setup. I can still get into single user mode though so it should still be fixable. If not I think the mac has smbmount so I could just move my files over to my friends computer and reformat. I know this problem was not caused by my dual boot because its been running fine for about 2 years. Could anyone tell me how I could fix this boot problem or how to startup the network services in single user mode.
Thanks, Spazo

An update. . .
Booted in TDM and wouldn't show up on my MBP, however could view it in disk utility. It wouldn't let me mount it though. I've tried repairing however after an hour still nothing. Here's the info notes. I'm getting the impression the hard drive is damaged beyond repair.
Name : AAPL FireWire Target Media
Type : Disk
Disk Identifier : disk1
Media Name : AAPL FireWire Target Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : FireWire
Connection Type : External
Connection ID : 2979676490117816
Partition Type : Applepartitionscheme
Device Tree : /PCI0@0/PCIB@1E/FRWR@3/node@a95fffebd32b8/sbp-2@4020/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : Yes
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : Yes
Location : External
Total Capacity : 27.9 GB (30,005,821,440 Bytes)
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 0

Boot problem cannot access to login/passwords session

the imac is opening well, doing is music, displaying the turning wheel......and then nothing. it goes with the rainbow spiral for ever. any tricks to help me out? thanks.

Hello!
I have the same kind of problerm : my new iMac (late 2013, 27", i7) doesn't seem to boot, with the wheel spinning forever!...
Actually, it does stop spinning, and the Mac boots, after ......................... 8 minutes and 30 seconds!!!
After that, it seems to run perfectly! The RAM is well recognized and the computer works fine. But if I reboot, it' starting over
Notice that when I reboot from the login page, it works perfectly : boot within a few seconds!
It seems that it began after I added 32 GB of Crucial RAM, but it doesn't disappear after I remove that RAM!
I tried all the "classic" resets (SMC, PRAM...) but it didn't fix anything.
Apple changed my Mac for a brand new one, but I have exactly the same problem with the new one...
Can you tell us more about your config? Is it the same as mine?
I don't know what to do, since the Apple hotline offers no solution.

Quasi-boot problem with TI/Pwrbk

I 10.4.11 but not the most recent security updates and a 667Mhz Ti G4 Pwbk Onyx/DVI and new 40G hard drive that works fine also have with 512 SDRAM
Problem is that only sometimes, when I power-on I hear whirring etc...but never get a gray screen ergo no apple and no boot yet the machine is putting out plenty of heat lookinf for start-up disk
I've used the option key and that sometimes work but it same percentage of iffyness whether I use it or not and whether machine will boot or not.
I've read archives for this problem and have reset PRAM ---little button under right side of keyboard--- several times but problem always comes back after a couple of reboots.
Interesting that after I reset PRAM the first time i boot I hear the apple tone.
That is the only time I ever hear that tone on this machine, whether it goes ahead and boots fine or not.
Also get very infrequent kernal panics but the not booting or only booting after several retrys or reseting PRAM.
I guess its just and old machine not designed fro 10.4 and maybe it just needs a new battery --not PRAM batt--- as this one does not hold a charge for very long if at all, and maybe more RAM would make a differrence.
What can I expect from a machine this old for only $245? Problay not much more than I'm getting.
Still, considering how much it was new I like it.
Ran

Hi karbon, yeah its not pram battery and probably not anything to do with the main battery either, since hearing you have poor batt. also with no starting problems like i have, plus I'm now finding out my wifes new used, ibook 12" inch with a good batt. is also having similar starting black screen problem.
Yes I did install the HD myself, but computer runs fine and all is very stable, except for once in a month kernal panic. Not much of a problem.
Had only just bought the computer and it booted ok first and only time I tried it, so first thing I did was check HD with my OS 10.4 disc and found out the HD was going bad in red letters.
The OS I have installed is from the one of the original 10.4 releases and it was a 5-pak, altho the installation on my my Pwrbks new HD drive was about the 9th installation with that 5-pak.
I'm always amazed how I can keep doing installations beyond the 5-pak limit it was sold as.
THe HD has passed no problem and I'm the very conscientious type when it comes to repair permissions before and after any Apple updates and with most of my application installations.
I've had the computer for about a year now but the problem only began a few months back. For while usiing the option key when powering on would by-pass the problem but after while it didn't.
So, now I've come to discover, that it that after twto times of powering on an then off, it will boot ok on third time, tho currently it is powring on first time every time with no problem. :--)
Querky issue that I can live with.
My wife 12" ibook has a design flaw with the bluetooth/wifi card or at least its connector to mother board.
It has begun to also take three or four power ons before it will finally boot.
It has additional quek tho, where I will ask me to "mac-boot" and then I get the flashing "?" folder alternating with mac icon. So pwr off and it always boots find after this flashing episode.
We have left the wifi/bluetooth turned-off and will probably have the card removed and get a USB wifi.
Thx again for your supportive reply...
I wonder if it something with these older macs and the new updates that cause this problem?
Ran

Installed new superdrive= CD boot problem

I just installed the Pioneer 110 superdrive, and had read previously to set the superdrive as the master and the HD as the slave, which is what I did. Everything works great except when using a boot disk. If there is a boot disk in the drive when I restart, it will boot off the CD without holding down the C key. Does this mean that the HD needs to be the master or could something else be wrong?

The DVD and HD are on the same cable in the G4 iMac... one has to be the master and one the slave. From the factory the HD was the master and the CD drive the slave, but on previous advice I reversed that when I installed the new DVD drive. I think that must have been bad advice but I will wait to hear from others before opening up the machine again, as the boot problem is the only glitch.
When I bought it my Mac dealer told me that PatchBurn is not needed with this drive and that appears to be the case... all the Apple software I have works natively with this drive... no patch necessary.

Mac Boot with Nano attached

Whenever my Nano is attached to my G4 Titanium the computer starts in open firmware, and I have to type mac-boot to boot up. Without the Nano attached it starts up just fine.
Any solutions?
I just got the Nano for Christmas.... It's a second generation.

My harddrive is selected as the Start-up disk, and the iPod doesn't even show up. It's not showing up on my desktop either, just in iTunes. I'm not keen on attaching a hub, since that would require buying one and I shouldn't have to buy a hub for my computer to start up properly....
I suspect that the problem lies with software for a 1st generation iPod I had before replacing it with the Nano this Christmas. I can't update using Software Updater, because I ignored all those updates that didn't apply to my 1st gen iPod, and now "Reset Ignored Updates" is greyed out. I already tried deleting the preferences but it's still greyed out....
The mystery grows thicker.....

Mac Boot Problem

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