My imac won't load properly and gets the spinning wheel for everything!? Help!

HI everyone,
hope hope someone will be able to help.
My imac freezed up the other day for no apparent reason. I couldn't do anything apart from move the mouse. So had to shut dow with the power button.
When it restarted I was able to log in as usual to the user that I normally use. Yet when I went to click on anything I get the spinning wheel of death! I've rebooted in safe mode but this didn't make a difference. I can't even run disk utility to check if there is an issue with the drive!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
thanks charlotte

Sounds like maybe the Hard Drive is failing or has failed.
1. Start from your Mac OS X Install disc: Insert the installation disc, 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.
If you can not see the Mac OS X volume (Macintosh HD) in Disk Utility while started up form the Install Disc, then you will need to make an appointment at your local Apple Store or AASP and have them help.
If you have a good backup in place, then you can easily restore the new Hard Drive from backup. If not, then depending on what is wrong, you may or may not be able to recover your user data from a bad Hard Drive.

Similar Messages

IMac won't start; I only get the spinning wheel

iMac (probably 3 to 4 years old)------I don't think this is an Intel.
I have a password to enter upon turning on iMac
What I did:
I backed up my files on an external drive.
I ejected the external drive & unplugged it from the iMac.
Selected Shut Down. Screen went blue (I think) then did NOT shut down. I waited 10 minutes or so. Still didn't shut down.
I pressed power button to shut off. Waited a few minutes then turned on. The grey screen with Apple logo and spin wheel appeared and that's as far as I can get.
I tried turning off and on but never got past the Apple logo/spin wheel.
I unplugged power, mouse and keyboard, replugged them in. Turned on but still no luck.
I hope you can help.

it sounds very much like your hdd has died, however, if it has, at least you have the good fortune to have backed up your system.
try booting by holding the alt key. if you can get to utilities perhaps you will have a better understanding of what is going on there.
the reason you cannot get past the spinning wheel is that the mac cannot access the startup volume which is your hdd.
if this is the case then dont be too disheartened, take this opportunity to consider a ssd for your machine it will give it an especially good new lease of life.

Whenever I try to log in to my Gmail account, the page redirects for a loooong time, then says that it won't load properly, and that the problem may be caused by not enabling cookies, but I have them enabled. Any idea what the problem might really be?

Whenever I try to log in to my Gmail account, the page redirects for a loooong time, then says that it won't load properly, and that the problem may be caused by not enabling cookies, but I have them enabled. Any idea what the problem might really be?

I did think about that and if I have to I will do that, however there are about 50 songs. I have closed and reopened iTunes several times and I am sure that I have the latest version. It fails right away but I can click on the cloud download icon and download the song that it failed on ... therefore it is not that song "or any one song" causing the issue. Any ideas?

I am working on a file I created in Indesign CC 2014 and when I try to rearrange pages in the Pages menu or try to package the file, I get the spinning wheel for 20 mins. then it crashes. What should I do?

Can anyone help? I started a 24 page document in Indesign CC 2014 and have been using the file off of a dropbox acct on my two machines (desktop and macbook pro). I need to rearrange some of the pages but when I try to drag and drop the pages in the Pages menu, I get the ominous spinning wheel...for about 20 mins at times. then It will just crash. The document doesn't have a tone of images. I've also tried to collect and package the file but get the same thing.
What should I do?? Help!

try the script at Adobe Community: InDesign 6 is crashing when attempting to open a particular document. All others are opening OK.
I'd also try moving the pages to a new file, though I suspect that will crash too. Divide and conquer might work -- tray one of your operations on half the document at a time, then repeat by dividing any piece that fails, and so on, until you isolate a page, then use the same method to isolate an object (though it's possible you have a corrupt page).

HT1657 watching a movie on Apple TV and it just stops in the middle of it. Try settings and check for rental and just get the spinning wheel for over 30 minutes.

Can't seem to finish a movie on AppleTV. It just stops in the middle of movie and returns to menu. Try to check for rentals under settings like it says to when we try and download movie again and all I get is a spinning wheel. At least the second this has happened in the middle of a movie. Beginning to think AppleTV is junk!

Hello Pauljfield,
You may want to report the issue you've had with your rental to the folks in our iTunes Store.
How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBooks Store purchase
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933
Cheers,
Allen

My iMac locks up constantly in email. I click on one or two emails. Then when I click on another email, I get the spinning wheel and have to relaunch. Why does it get confused and lock up?

My iMac locks up constantly in email. I click on one or two emails. Then when I click on another email, I get the spinning wheel and have to relaunch. Why does it get confused and lock up? Seems like it is stuck.

10.6.8 here, MacBook Pro. Comcast. Mail freeze ups. Occasional warnings to use "Log Out" under the Apple icon.
Disk Repair run several times. Shows lots of Java "remote" issues.
I run Disk Repair several times, shows a lot of Java, "remote" issues.
Restart don't know if it helps, I do it all the time. What's with quitting Mail but it doesn't quit, and why a separate maneuver to "Log Out".
i

Can't get Mail to work - I get the spinning wheel and Mail freezes. I have to Force Quit it. How do I fix this?

Can't get Mail to work - I get the spinning wheel and Mail freezes. I have to Force Quit Mail . How do I fix this problem?

Please follow these directions to delete the Mail "sandbox" folder.
Back up all data.
Triple-click the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder — not just its contents — to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.
Log out and log back in. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window. If you still have the problem, quit Mail again and put the folder back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Post your results.
Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Every time i start my MacBook Air i get the spinning wheel and have to soft boot (shift, control, option, power) it three or four time s before it starts

Every time i start my MacBook Air i get the spinning wheel and have to soft boot (shift, control, option, power) it three or four time s before it starts. It has only been over the last week or so I also found Safari will not load up and tyou have too open then shut from the drop down then restart it to get a page, any help pleas?

Do this:
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
     Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
     COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities 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 the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
     Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
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 main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
     Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall
     Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is
                three times faster than wireless.

I keep getting the spinning wheel, and macbook pro seems to be slowing down. How do i fix this without buying software?

I keep getting the spinning wheel, and macbook pro seems to be slowing down. How do i fix this without buying software?

Go to system profiler and report back the amount of RAM that you have.
Make sure that you have at least 20% of your hard drive free.
Make sure you don't have a lot of items on your desktop as that can slow things down.
Quit applications that aren't responding or you aren't using and won't be using for a while.
~/Library/Caches Quit all applications and delete this folder. Do a regular delete then do a secure erase on all the items that won't delete.
If it only happens with a certain application (Safari for example)...
1. Quit the application (Safari)
2. Open ~/Library/Preferences and find the file for safari (com.apple.Safari.plist).
3. Put the file in the trash. Do NOT empty the trash yet. Open the application and make sure everything's ok. Now you can delete the file. In Mail if you trash the file, you will get rid or your setup.
Make sure that your dashboard doesn't have too many widgets and use Activity Monitor to see what it's using.
There are ways to disable if you want to.
Make sure that all of your software is up to date.
Repair permissions (it can't hurt)
Don't have a lot of login items.
Your internet browser shouldn't have a lot of extensions.
I hope this helps
Chris

IMac G5 tries to start and dies after spinning cog for a minute

iMac G5 tries to start and dies after spinning cog for a minute
I did this;
1. Insert the Mac OS X 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.
the result was.
the 'permissions' are sometimes wrong, but they repair
the hard drive is either repaired or OK
the iMac will then restart and work fine and sometimes shut down and restart OK
after replacing the Hard Drive I actually thought I had fixed it and went to bed late but happy,
on waking in the morning, however I was not so happy it fired up and then died after dong -> apple logo -> spinning cog -> dead!!
I would be grateful for any help
Thanks
Pete

Hi Miriam,
Thanks yes,
here we go -- after running disc utilities it tells me directory OK and disk OK (or something like that) When I replaced the Hard Drive, I started 'fresh' erased/formatted the hard drive (new Seagate Barracuda 7200 500GB) and it has just got 'tiger' on it (and upgraded to whatever it is now I think I remember 4.11, I can't tell at the moment as I have got the back off) I didn't transfer any data I just took the old drive (Seagate 160GB) out and stuck the new one in.
I've just changed the battery (I didn't really think it would work, but I was still hopeful and I'd bought the battery anyway) I did the LED thing, the internal power button thing, and the resetting the SMU thing (with crossed fingers and bated breath) but -- so I'm thinking is it the power supply? I read some of Jim's weighty, but worthy tome and resolved to remove the power supply and have a look. On opening it up, it does look as though, one (at least) of the capacitors has 'blown' (by the way, just in case I sound like I know what I'm talking about, I don't of course, I'm just quoting Jim's words;-) I'd love to send you a picture of the inside of the power supply showing what I believe to be a 'blown' capacitator (and I'm going to try to send one to Jim as I think it might be useful to him and others. can I attach a photo in any way or would you like to send me your email address <Edited by Moderator>
Thanks
Pete
PS it's still 'weird' to me, why it starts and runs well, when started from tiger (or whatever) and then starts or restarts from the Hard Drive unless I leave it a few hours and come back and try to start it
again? wow it's late nearly 4.00am here in london UK.

I tried the Aperture trial and liked it but did not buy it when the trial finished. a few weeks later I purchased Snow lepord and purchased Aperture Via the app store. i have not been able to use it because every time I open i get the spinning wheel of de

I tried the Aperature trial and liked it, but did not purchase it when the trial ended. A few weeks later, i purchased snow lepord and purchased aperture via the app store. I have had not been able to use it since. Each time i open it , afer a few seconds i get the spinning wheel of death and Aperture is frozen. I have to force quit Aperture to shot down mycomputer. I have re-installed Aperture 3 times with th e same result. I have iphoto on my computer as well is this causing the problem? I want my money back!!! Can anyone help?

You need to delete the trial & then reinstall from the boxed DVD or the Mac App Store. The files to delete are the iWork ’09 folder from the main HD > Applications; the iWork ’09 folder in HD > Library > Application Support & the individual iWork application plist files found in HD > Users > (your account) > Library > Preferences for each user.
Yvan Koenig has written an AppleScript that removes the files. You can find it on his box.com account in for_iWork'09 > other_iWork'09 items > uninstall iWork '09.zip.

I want to delete my mac account and replace it with my gmail account. I know how to do this but when I click and open up mail I get the spinning wheel and have to force quit mail.

I want to disable my mac.com mail, I know how to delete it but I cannot get into mail to do this, whenever I click on mail, or mail in system preferences to open it I get the spinning wheel and have to force quit. I am running a Macbook 10.7.5
Thanks,
Edward.

You can't merge Apple IDs. You also can't cancel (delete) and existing ID, you can only choose to stop using it.
If your old ID was compromised and you can no longer access it, you'll have to contact Apple for assistance. Go to https://expresslane.apple.com ; click 'See all products and services' at the bottom of the page. In the next page click 'More Products and Services, then 'Apple ID'. In the next page select 'Other Apple ID Topics' then then 'Apple ID account Security’.

When I try to open certain slide shows, my computer gets the spinning wheel and times out. Other slide shows open fine. What am I doing wrong?

When I try to open certain slide shows, my computer gets the spinning wheel and times out. Other slide shows open fine. What am I doing wrong?

Hard to say but most likely you are not doing anything wrong but have some library corruption
What version of iPhoto? Of the OS?
backup your iphoto library, depress the command and option keys, launch iPhoto and rebuild your database
LN

Windows control panel routine to designate Elements 12 as my default editor does not list the program. It loaded OK and accepted the key. Your regular help line could not help. What to do?

Windows control panel routine to designate Elements 12 as my default editor does not list the program. It loaded OK and accepted the key. Your regular help line could not help. What to do?

Hi Robbie,
The editor program is NOT under the organizer path as you mentioned in your last message. The actual editor program is at the location I gave in message #1 i.e. as follows
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 12\PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe"
The one under the organizer is actually the Welcome screen which you have probably set up to go directly to the editor.
If you go to the Open With screen I showed in message #3 and browse to the actual editor as given above, it should show up in your list.
If it doesn't, then Windows is playing up again - and we have to take extra steps.
Brian

About a month ago, I began periodically getting the spinning wheel while trimming, adding titles or transitions, etc. It lasts for about 15 seconds and then goes away. This seems to happen once every minute or two. I have more than enough RAM/Power.

About a month ago, I began periodically getting the spinning wheel while trimming, adding titles or transitions, etc. It lasts for about 15 seconds and then goes away. This seems to happen once every minute or two. I have more than enough RAM/Power, etc. About every other time I use FCPX it will spontaneously close (typically when editing a title). None of these things were happening previously. I have lots of projects that I store on Promise Pegasus drives via Thunderbolt. I only keep a few projects and the associated events open in FCPX at a time, otherwise I use Event Managaer X to keep track of them. Can anybody give me any suggestions as to why this is occurring and what I can do to remedy it? I have the latest version of FCPX as far as I can tell. This is driving me mad and costing me significant time while editing. By the way, I am doing just basic editing. Essentially trimming, cutting and adding some transitions and a few title screens. Thanks in advance for your help.

These apperarances of the spinning wheel tend to be related to some io operation that takes too long. Maybe the finder is trying to reach a network server that became unavailable.
I would try clearing caches and do an overall maintenance with an utility like OnyX.
Also, trashing preferences does no harm and is often the first troubleshooting measure when FCP X misbehaves.

My imac won't load properly and gets the spinning wheel for everything!? Help!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for