Mac won't start grey screen appearing

My power mac g5 that is running leopard wont boot up.
Everytime I try to start it, shows a grey screen telling me to restart the computer (appearing in english, french, spanish, and chineese i think). I accidentaly deleted a folder on the root menu of the HDD entitled "usr". How can i fix this.

I tried this but it didn't work. I think it is my keyboard because even when I turn the computer on the green led on the caps lock button doesn't light up. I even tried a regular USB keyboard and I had the same result.
I guess I will have to find my leopard CD.
Is it possible to just restore system settings from the leopard cd so that I don't lose all my data?

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PB Won't start--grey screen with logo--no spinning wheel

Did an update that required a restart--got grey screen with the apple logo and that's all. Tried resetting the Pram and the PMU, no luck. Won't start in safe mode or from another DVD (tried both the original and my Tiger disks). It was working normally before the update (iTunes and I think an Airport update and a couple of other things). I've removed and re-installed the RAM with no change.

Thanks!
HD disconnected it starts from a CD. HD re-connected it now displays the spinning geary thing but doesn't get any further. Disk First Aid found and fixed many problems but it still won't go past the spinning thingy. It passed Apple's hardware tests. So--a new HD is likely in order but I want to try a more comprehensive disk repair program and recommendations for that and for a new HD are welcome!

Intel iMac - won't start - grey screen & progress bar

I have a 2006 Intel iMac - 20" model, Intel Core Duo, 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, etc. It was one of the very earliest Intel iMacs. Kept updated, running OS 10.6, etc.
It has worked extremely well for over 5 years - apart from the Superdrive being temperamental sometimes - but has suddenly gone wrong.
Last week the machine completely froze for no apparent reason. I had to force a reboot. This failed - grey screen and the grey spinning wheel (if that's what it's called), indefinitely.
Forced reboot again and this time held down the shift key to go into safe boot mode. This time it was successful, and I was able to get to the logon screen & log myself in. I opened Disk Utility & attempted to do some diagnostics but the machine froze again.
Looking around various other forum postings...I rebooted the machine in single user mode and was able to get to the command line to type 'fsck -fy' to attempt to fix disk problems. This failed repeatedly, with an error message 'invalid node structure'.
I tried to boot my machine from the OS X disc but my Superdrive refused to play ball - it would not read the disc (or any other disc for that matter, including a copy of DiskWarrior that I have).
I have now got hold of an external DVD drive in the hope that this would show up as a boot device when I switch the machine on while holding the option key down. No such luck - the drive powers up ok (power via USB) but I'm not given the option to boot from it - in fact that screen doesn't appear at all.
All that happens now on powering up - regardless of what I do - is the grey apple symbol appears and a progress bar beneath it. The progress bar gets stuck about 5% of the way along, and then after about 10 minutes it disappears and is replaced with the grey spinning wheel thingy. And then it just gets stuck - nothing else happens.
HELP!
All my important data is backed up on an external drive via Time Machine, so that should be safe, but I'm desperate to get the machine running again.
One thing that occurred to me is that I've had a program called ReFit installed on the machine which allowed me to run the machine as dual boot etc. (and I do have a couple of other small partitions on the drive, not currently used) but the ReFit welcome screen stopped appearing a couple of weeks ago for some reason. I'm wondering if this has somehow messed things up...?
Grateful for any suggestions...
Thanks,
Alan.

For the drive, you should be OK with any SATA 2 at 3 MB/s transfer speed. You could also use a SATA 1, no jumpers needed. (Not SATA 3 - can't be jumpered down.) The early 2006 Intels were 1.5 MB/s -- at least the drives were, so I'm assuming the SATA controller on the logic board was also. Might just be SATA 2 hadn't yet been introduced and can run the faster SATA 3 without jumpers. My guess is not. You should be able to set jumpers on the drive for backwards compatibility. You'll have to contact the drive manufacturer or go to their website for that info.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/stats/imac-core-2-duo-2.16-20-inch-sp ecs.html
As for the superdrive, I'd contact the manufacturer to check on compatibility.
Glad I'm able to help. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, maybe you want to have a look here.

Computer won't start, grey screen with Apple logo only. Ideas?

Last night my wife's G5 froze. It is a G5 2.0 running OS X 10.4.11. I shut it down (had to use the power button) and tried to restart. No luck, just made it to the grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel. After a few seconds the Apple logo disappeared and a black box took its place, then the wheel stopped spinning. It was late, decided top wait until morning before trying again.
This morning I tried to start up again. This time got a warning(?) in upper left that a Firmtek item had already started. I'm sorry I didn't write this all down at the time, so I don't remember the entire message. Since there is a Firmtek card installed in one of the PCI slots I thought that might be the problem, and I pulled the card, as well as another Adaptec card that was also installed. Tried to start again, got to grey screen with Apple but this time no spinning wheel.
Opened media slot manually and inserted Diskwarrior. Tried to start with Diskwarrior but again only reached grey screen. Let run for ~5 minutes, until fans started to run and were begining to get noisy.
Next I reset the PRAM. No luck, still stuck on grey screen. Tried Diskwarrior again, this time got another message in upper left. Here is most of it -
System Failure : cpu=1; code=60000009 (Invalid pmap)
Lateset crash info for cpu1;
Exception state (sv=0x609bb280)
PC=0x000a4ad0; MSR=0x02003000 followed by more similar strings, then
backtrace terminated - unaligned frame address; 0xfc088891
So what's the diagnosis? I've had various issues with my G5s in the past, but have never had one refuse to boot with Diskwarrior before.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Whew, could be many things, from RAM, (or RAM slots/solder issue), to CPU #1 being bad, (CPU#1 is actually the second one.
Does it boot into any of these modes?
Target mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
We might get clues with verbose mode...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Mac won't boot, Grey bar appearing at the bottom of Apple Logo then shuts down

Hi,
I'm using a Late-2011 Macbook Pro and it is running on OS X Mavericks. One day, my laptop just shut itself down and when I turn it on, it won't boot. It just gives me a grey progress bar under the apple logo then shuts down. I tried accessing the DU and tried verifying and repairing the disk but I am unable to copy my files to another drive. It gives me an input/output error. I am not very tech savvy and I badly need my files. Please help!
Thanks in advance.

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Mac won't start up and shows grey screen

My mac won't start up this morning ? It has a full charge of battery and even plugged in it just shows the grey screen. Any help.

Please restart your Mac and hold the 'Option'-key to see your start-up discs. If you do not see any start-up discs it could be your hard disk cable that is faulty. This is a common problem with Macbooks, but I am not sure this issue has been fixed with the Retina models. I've had this problem with my 2012 Pro, and a new cable did the job. Very easy to do yourself!
You can also start Internet Recovery (need wifi or cable) and start up Disk Utilities to see if your hard disk shows up there.
Please let me know.

Movie won't play in timeline - grey screen appears, Movie won't play in timeline - grey screen appears

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Should I just restart the computer?

That would be a start!
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MacBook Pro won't boot. Grey Screen appears, apple logo then nothing

I'm very frustrated. I was using my laptop and suddenly the rainbow wheel appears and it freezes. I tried to hard reboot it and when it restarted a grey screen appears and the apple logo shows up. I bought it used from a Micro Center and I believe it's out of warranty. What is going on and what are my options?

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 3
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 4
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 5.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 7
Repeat Step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 8
This step applies only to older Macs (not current models) that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery. Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the boot failure will be preceded by loss of the startup disk and system clock settings. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 9
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. If you can't get to an Apple Store, go to another authorized service provider.

HT4904 I need to repair my start up disc so I have to start up from installation disc. In doing so, my computer restarts, I hear the mac sound, then a grey screen and then turns off and goes on in this cycle endlessly. Why can't I restart from disc?

I need to repair my start up disc so I have to start up from installation disc. In doing so, my computer restarts, I hear the mac sound, then a grey screen and then turns off and goes on in this cycle endlessly. Why can't I restart from disc?

Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

My Mac won't start up and Im using DiscWarrior. When I restart the computer with "c" down, the screen goes black. Is this ok? Do I just wait it out?

my Mac won't start up and Im using DiscWarrior. When I restart the computer with "c" down, the screen goes black. Is this ok? Do I just wait it out?

Have you just tried repairing with Disk Utility?
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

When I restart my Mac, the grey screen appears like usual. But it takes more than 40 minutes (more) for it to load to finish restarting the Mac. What should I do?!

When I restart my Mac, the grey screen appears like usual. But it takes more than 40 minutes (or more) for it to load to finish restarting the Mac. What should I do to fix it?!

Disconnect all devices from your computer if you have not already done so. Restart again. If the problem has been resolved, you had a peripheral conflict. You will then have to reconnect the devices one at time, restart, to locate the culprit.
Login Items is another culprit. Check your login items.
System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items
Delete/disable all you do not need or want.

I Mac won't start -- we get apple logo with spinning wheel, question mark that disappears and then a blank blue screen

My daughter's old I Mac won't start. It is not backed up. We want to get some things off of it if we can.
When we turn it on, we get the Apple logo with spinning wheel for awhile, then a question mark briefly and then a sky blue blank screen. Is there any hope of getting this to work? This computer is out of warranty. Does it seem that if we reinstall the Operating System we might find old data?

First try restarting with the original install disc an run Disk Utility to repair the drive. If you have to re install the OS make sure you select archive and install or else everything will be lost.

Help! Mac won't start. I hear the ding and see the apple logo but the bar below it never goes further than an inch before the screen goes dark. I have tried unplugging.

Help! Mac won't start. I hear the ding and see the apple logo but the bar below it never goes further than an inch before the screen goes dark. I have tried unplugging.

Hello Templemeads,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1367
Have a nice day,
Mario

Mac won't start (Kernel Panics)

Hello,
My mac won't start up. It turns on, gets as far as the spinning circle and apple logo then a dark screen comes down with a Kernel Panic message. This occurred roughly three months ago and I ended up taking the mac into the regent street store where it was fixed under apple care warranty. My care has now run out, and the 90 day repair warranty has expired but the problem is back so obviously hasn't been fixed properly. Is there anything that can be done about this?
Every time I boot up the computer the message appears, I have tried rebooting with the safe option as well as re installing OSX from the original disks. The install completes successfully but upon restart it pops up with the original kernel panic message.
Luckily I have everything backed up so am prepared to try anything to get it running.
Thanks.

Let us know, but since you obviously have another machine, have you tried Target Disk Mode and then Disk Utility?
use TDM to access Disk Utility.
1. Click the First Aid tab.
2. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
3. Select your Mac OS X volume.
4. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
Please post back,

Every other day, my mac won't start up

every other day, my mac won't start up. my keyboard would light up and i hear the system start but nothing is appearing in the screen. i would have to press the start button until the screen actually shows up.. why does it do that?

Have you just tried repairing with Disk Utility?
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

Mac won't start grey screen appearing

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