Power outage, boot partition is damaged..what do I do?

fml..I've had a few power outages before but I think this time did it. I'm running dual boot with both windows 7 and mac with boot camp. I can get to the page where you can select which operating system you want to boot in but once the starting windows page comes up it just freezes and I can't get past it (same for booting in mac, it freezes at the page with the circular loading bar). If I try running with the "windows startup repair mode" a bar loads for a while, then a green bar comes up with the windows logo and then after that it all goes black. So I looked this problem up and I'm assuming that my boot partition is damaged. I have a windows 7 and mac os cd but none of them can load in. Would a usb, external cd drive work?
I also read online to try using a Linux cd. I have that too, so should I try that?
And I'm guessing there's no way to save any of my files on the hard drive?

Interesting problem. It's good you looked up a few things before posting here - if it were me (and I have no direct experience to offer) I'd want to know if everything "looks good" under Disk Utility. That is, boot to your OSX install DVD, select Language, wait for the toolbar to appear and click Utilities then Disk Utility. I'm thinking you will "see" your partition showing your OSX & Windows install. You could check your OSX disk and perhaps "Repair" it. That is one possibility. The Linux idea has potential for Boot To Disk operations - but so does rEFit Boot Disk (see it on Google). It's a lot of learning curve. Your files are still there. You can pay someone to "save" them to storage (both OSX & Windows) or you can download software that also does a great job (the better ones cost money). Finally - remember it is possible on a healthy machine to erase your OSX part (Disk Utility) by itself and perform a fresh install (losing all your OSX data and personal files) without harming the Windows side at all. In your case this is a slight risk and it depends on whether or not everything things still "look good" from the Disk Utility (Boot) as mentioned at the top of this post.
These are merely ideas to play with that may or may not work. If your recovery is critical, you need better information than what I offer here, but I'm just posting to say you have lots of options. You can explore on your own at a risk, or get someone with real experience and skills.
I invite others chime in on this one - lots of luck!
Message was edited by: NA Smith

Similar Messages

  • DAMAGED x86 Boot Partition...

    After installing Windows 2000 my x86 Boot partition got damaged.
    Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem.
    I can boot from the solaris partition from the installation disks but I would like to fix the x86 Boot partition so that I don't have to use the CD everytime I want to boot Solaris.
    Thanks for your help!

    When you installed Windows 2000, I'm thinking it made IT'S system partition the active partition. You should be able to use Disk Administrator to set the Solaris boot partition active. Hopefully the Solaris boot partition has recognized your FAT/NTFS partition(s) so it will show up in the boot program menu. If not, you may have to get like Boot Magic or some freeware equivalent...

  • E4500 firmware corrupt after power outage

    Latest firmware with CCC corrupted after power outage. I reseet the e4500 several times and tried to reload the firmware and still no good. Only way I got it back up is to install the older non-CCC version 2.37. Strange all was fine until the power outage. Not sure if I should even bother to upgrade to 2.38 again.

    Yes, power outages may caused some damage either on the hardware or software of the any device especially if there's some activity going on inside the device the time of the interruption. If everything is fine with the old version then there's really no need to update it but if you've noticed some issues, better upgrade to the newer version so to fix any problems.

  • After a series of very short power outages in my town our Imac boots with the pinwheel going and a progress bar, then the users screen comes up but our passwords no longer opens up desktops, just returns to the users choice screen.  What should I do?

    I'm on the choose a user screen and when I enter the password the screen goes white then returns to choosing a user. The system is rebooting differently when I tried turning off then back on, the pinwheel screen has a progress bar and it takes minutes instead of seconds.
    what should I try?

    You can try an SMC reset, especially if there was a power outage.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    If the issue seems like it just doesn't want to accept the password you'll need to boot to the install disc/recovery partition of the hardrive by holding the 'option' key while booting up. There should be a utility in there to reset your password.

  • IMac won't boot after power outage

    I got a power outage a couple of hours ago. And now my iMac won't boot. When I power it up, it gets pass the white screen with the apple logo. The screen than turns blue with a spinning cursor. The cursor spins for about 10-15 minutes and stops but the normal login screen never appear and it won't boot into the desktop either. I just got a blue screen.
    I have boot into the install Disc1 and did the disk repair and premission repair but it didn't help.
    Any idea?
    Sidney

    Oh man, what a disaster!
    I tried to do an Archive and Install but the installation hanged at the end of disc 2 after running an iWeb script (according to the install log) with about one minute left. I have waited for two hours but it just hanged there with all the drives spin down.
    To make the problem worse. There was no way to quit the install at that point because all the menu items were disabled. The only way out was to power off. But when I powered it back on, it booted right into install directly asking for the disc 2. If I put the disc in it will install again and hang at the same spot.
    Disc 2 contains iLife. I know Apple wanted to make things simple but why can't they give me an option to skip it? After all, iLife was already installed.
    I finally got it working by booting from disc 1 and did a clean install. It took me all night to re-download all the updates and reinstall many applications. Fortunately, I have my address book, calendar, and most of my works backed up to .Mac so it wasn't a total lost.
    On the bright side. Now my iMac is working better than before. I used to have problem getting auto sleep to work but now it works perfectly. Safari also had problem accessing charts (but Camino was fine) in a few web sites like schwab.com. Now everything works.
    Lenn and David. Thanks for all your helps.
    Now I am looking for a better backup solution so that the recovery won't be this painful if disaster strikes again. Any suggestions?
    Sidney

  • There was a power outage while I was asleep and my Imac was on. Now it is comatose, no sign of life no matter what I do. Help anyone?

    There was a power outage while I was asleep and my Imac was on. Now it is comatose, no sign of life no matter what I do. I pressed the power on button for over a minute and nothing happened. I unplugged the cable and changed the wall socket too but nothing happens. I hope My hard disc is not damaged and the data is not lost. How do I determine this with no technical knowledge?

    Try an SMC reset:
    Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) on Intel-based Macs:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964  and
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237?viewlocale=en_US
    Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

  • What can happen to an intel-based iMac when a power outage occurs while it is on and I unplug it to avoid a surge when power comes back?

    The power went out today, while I was using my intel-based iMac (2008) and I rushed to unplug the power from the wall, before the poser could surge back on. Did I do damage?
    I have a surge protector that it was plugged into, but I thought just to be safe I should unplug!
    Thanks, Group!
    artdough

    Good point!
    Art a surge protector (a good one) is designed to provide contant power to the devices that are plugged into it. This is good in the event of a surge of power up or down however in the event of a complete power outage they're of no value.
    A UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) is just that, it has surge protection like a surge suppresor however it also has a battery integrated into it. The battery is designed to provide enough power for a user to do an orderly shutdown. In addition most UPS's can also plug into your iMac via a USB cable. Then you can set energy saver preferences that you cannot see now. For example you can set how long the computer should run in the event of power going off. You can also set if you want the computer to reboot or not when the power comes back on etc. For about $100 you can get a fine UPS that will add an additional layer of protection for your computer and give you extra peace of mind.

  • Power outage before Mac finished updating.  What should I do?

    My Mac was in the process of installing updates via Apple Software Update. For this update session, a restart was required - i.e. a message box popped up and said I had to restart to finish installing updates. So I clicked the button on the message box that would cause the Mac to restart.
    After clicking the button, and before actually restarting, my Mac logged out of my account and went back to the default "space" desktop image where it finished some more updating (i.e. there was a message box with a growing blue bar representing the percentage of the update process that was finished).
    Unfortunately, the blue bar had almost reached the end when my Mac suddenly shut down. It had not restarted, but actually shut down, and I couldn't turn it back on again. I checked my phone, microwave, refrigerator, which had all also turned off, and realized there had been a power outage while my Mac was updating.
    After I got the power back on and turned on my Mac, the Mac seemed to start up normally and work fine. I tried Software Update again because I thought it might allow me to fully retry the update since it didn't finish fully due to the unfortunately timed power outage. However, it said that my software was fully up-to-date.
    I have tried a few programs out so far and it seems to work fine for the most part. The only thing I've noticed is that Safari has been acting a bit strangely. For example, the cursor no longer changes into a hand over hyperlinks; instead it remains as an arrow. Second, whenever I click on any search result on Google, I get the following message (in this example, I clicked on the first search result for my search for "test"): "Redirect Notice The previous page is sending you to http://www.test.com/. If you do not want to visit that page, you can return to the previous page." Third, the full version of Gmail no longer works and I have to use the HTML version. I'm not sure whether these are glitches in the newest version of Safari or if they are a result of the computer not finishing the update process properly.
    I haven't tried all software out yet, and I don't remember the full list of software being updated, so issues may potentially exist in other software caused by the update not finishing properly.
    One other thing that occurred was that the first time I shut the computer down after turning it on after the power outage, a message popped up on the "space" desktop image after logging out, which said it was updating the system cache or something. But now the computer seems to shut down normally.
    This might be a newbie question, but what could I do to address this issue? Thanks for any help.

    Perhaps. You can always reinstall the OS from the install discs you got when you bought the machine. After you have done that re-install 10.6.3.
    The #1 thing you do before any major update is make sure you have a back up of your system. I know I'm preaching to the choir but perhaps this is something you can take to the person that stopped that from occurring the first time.

  • [solved] power outage on SSD - can't boot anymore

    Hi,
    I just had a power outage, battery was unplugged. Boot process stops on the rescue prompt.
    The last line of journalctl -xb says :
    Failed at step EXEC spawning /bin/plymouth: no such file or directory, error 2
    My system is installed on a SSD, Crucial M4 250GB.
    Last edited by OlaffTheGreat (2013-09-21 15:41:41)

    Well, I see a lot is beeing said about run levels and systemd. Like many of you, if I had the use of init, I have to learn more about systemd before to be at ease. For the moment I'm still quiet buffled.
    For now, I can give you relevant red or bold lines I find in journalctl -b --full.
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: Notice: NX (Execute Disable) protection cannot be enabled: non-PAE kernel!
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA M4-CT256M4SSD2 040H PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 500118192 512-byte logical blocks: (256 GB/238 GiB)
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sda: sda1 sda2
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access Single Flash Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 7744512 512-byte logical blocks: (3.96 GB/3.69 GiB)
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sdb: sdb1
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian kernel: EXT4-fs (dm-2): mounting with "discard" option, but the device does not support discard
    Sep 19 11:09:43 obsidian systemd-vconsole-setup[200]: /usr/bin/loadkeys failed with error code 1.
    Sep 19 11:09:44 obsidian kernel: intel_rng: FWH not detected
    Sep 19 11:09:44 obsidian kernel: ACPI Warning: 0x00000828-0x0000082f SystemIO conflicts with Region \PMIO 1 (20130328/utaddress-251)
    Sep 19 11:09:44 obsidian kernel: composite sync not supported
    Sep 19 11:09:46 obsidian systemd[1]: var.mount: Directory /var to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.
    Sep 19 11:09:50 obsidian systemd[1]: Unit fancontrol.service entered failed state.
    Sep 19 11:24:33 obsidian systemd-tmpfiles[2944]: stat(/run/user/1000/gvfs) failed: Permission denied
    For the "discard" option, I will open a thread about SSD if I don't find further informations.
    Does the last line show it can't turn on the user ?

  • I've noticed a delay to boot up time on my 2011MBP SSD after power outage but bookmark tests show same performance

    I shoul add that the MBPS was plugged into surge protector at the time but there is a noticeable seven seconds added to the normal boot up time and the grey wheel does not appear when booting up.

    as to why it happens - could be any number or reasons - got changed by mistake if you booted holding the options key, could be just a simple bug or when you restarted your macbook when it locked up on you or it could've been that power outage you mentioned when your SSD was busy doing something...
    it doesn't happen often and when it does - now you know where to go...
    good luck and hopefully all is good and it wouldn't happen to you again...
    have a good day

  • Mac mini won't boot after power outage

    I have a Mac Mini Server which runs all the time in my house. We had a power outage a couple fo days ago but I didn't happen to check the mac mini until today. I found it at the login screen, and proceeded to log in. Everything was slow and taking way too long. Finally it froze. I restarted, but this time I got to a grey screen with a progress bar (no progress shown).
    At this point one of two things happens - either it switches to a spinning wheel forever, or it just shuts itself off. I've restarted many times and it seems to randomly choose one of those outcomes. I tried resetting the SMC by unplugging, waiting, and then plugging it back in, but this had no effect. I want to reset the PRAM, but it doesn't seem to work, although that might be because my keyboard is not an Apple keyboard. I'm trying to get another ekyboard to try, but besides resetting the PRAM, does anyone have any suggestions?
    Thanks.

    Try booting to the OSX disk that came with the Mini
    and run disk utility and try Repair Disk on the boot drive.
    Also, if you have a bootable clone, try that.
    If you have another Mac, another thing to try is
    getting the Mini to start in Target Disk mode and connect
    via Firewire to the other Mac and try a repair disk that way.

  • Help! P6N wont boot after power outage.

      We had a power outage this morning and after the power was restored I reset my UPS. Now my system is almost dead. The only indications of life are that the HD access light, and the power light flash at a 1 Hz rate. I tried resetting the BIOS (SW3), but no change.
    Motherboard: MSI7320 (P6N)
    CPU: Intel Q6600
    RAM: 4Gb OCZ Platinum

    try with a different power supply first.
    remove all components...
    test a RAM stick by stick a time
    left it boot only with minimal processor, a stick of ram and a graphic, maybe if you have.
    you can leave not to put your hard disk / optical devices at a moment.

  • I had a power outage, my battery powered surge protector worked.  But now when I turn on my Apple TV, I cannot get beyond the computer and setting screen, and see the Apple TV options screen.  What step am I missing.  Internet is working.

    After the power outage, turned on TV and tried connecting to my Apple TV, but directed to a screen with a computer Icon and a Setting Icon.  Can't get past this screen to my TV options screen.  Internet is connected???  How to I get to my TV options?

    Yes I had already reset my internet connection and had no progress.  However, while I was trying to figure out a solution I used my Apple TV to listen to music from my computer.  Then I went back and tried again and the TV icons appeared - and Apple TV was working

  • Need help opening file damaged in power outage

    I am a teacher using PM 7.0.2   My computer uses Windows XP.  I was working on a big PM project and had just saved my work a minute before and then we got a huge power outage.  Now the file will not open.  I've tried opening both ways - here are the messages.
    Yes à Cannot open file.  There is no mini-save version   8009:20484
    No à Cannot complete action.  Closing publication, some work may be lost. Open the previously saved publication.    8026:20551
    If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it.  Thank you.

    Lets see if I remember this.
    Try making a copy and moving it to a new folder. Try renaming the copy with .p65 or .pm6 extensions. If you have access to pagemaker on a mac try opening it there.
    You probably know this now, but always make incremental copies of your pagemaker files, rename the file as you go along 01file.pmd, 02file.pmd, etc. Pagemaker files will corrupt, even without a power outage, and it is nice to have a previous version available.
    Battery Backups and external backup drives are a good things too.
    Jay

  • After several power outages, there is only a white screen, an apple in the center and a time strip after the strip is complete it turns it self off what is this problem

    I have a 27in Mac desk top, its about a 2009, after several power outages and the computer pluged up and on now when turn it on it shows a white screen, apple in the center and a time strip toward the bottom when the time strip goes to the end of the cycle it shuts its self off.
    The only thing we have tryed which was from a forum which was simular problem was, command-option-p-r, hold them down til the screen was back up, we try several times it did not work, please,please some-one help we use this computer for our job.

    Also the trick you used, is known as resetting the PRAM. Not always the best of ideas for Macs older than 4 years.  But I'm glad it worked for you.  There is a battery which will eventually need replacing inside that would actually make that technique stop your Mac from working until replaced.

Maybe you are looking for