Repair disk grey screen

i'm trying to repair disk
it asks to install the cd installer and restart which i tried but i get a grey screen and then blank. i had to restart and hold mousepad and eject to get the cd out then it boots up again or else its just grey screen then blank
am i doing something wrongly?? pls help thanks

AbbyBaby wrote:
Hi Benjamin thanks for your reply
i tried holding the c key but nope no luck
the install disc reads when i'm logged in so its probably not the optical drive and its not scratched i've checked
i recently got this laptop with 10.6 installed
is there a third party software perhaps that can help me??
Well, there is always the option of booting into single-user mode and running fsck. Details can be found via this link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417

Similar Messages

Repair disk greyed out?

this may be a no-brainer, but i'm stumped. i recently installed Tiger onto one of my disk partitions (i'll refer to the partition as 'B") so that i could use DiskWarrior to repair the startup disk ("A").
Prior to this, when I was running DW off the CD it was taking very long, appeared to hang on step 6 for 24 hours.
the workaround worked great, repaired the disk in a matter of minutes.
now however, i'm not sure if i've altered my system configuration.
i was a bit freaked when after installing Tiger on the partition it restarted with the partition "B" as the startup. i changed the startup back to the original "A" and thought all was well.
now however, i think i've noticed another change.
in disk utility, the "repair disk" button is greyed out for "A"
"A" shows Verify Disk Permissions, Repair Disk Permissions, and Verify Disk as options but NOT Repair Disk
"B" however allows for all the options
(Side note, I have 2 other partitions as well, now they only offer "Verify" and "Repair Disk", whereas I'm certain they used to allow for all options previously. Also, I've added an external HD during these changes. Maybe that's a factor?)
Many thanks if anyone has any thoughts. This resource is truly indispensible!
Dual 1.25 GHz Power PC G4, 2MB L3 Cache per processor, 1GB DDR SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.4) also Rev B G3 iMac collecting dust

I know DW takes a looooooong time to run. I've never seen it take 24hrs.
DiskWarrior has an update for Tiger, You might check to see if you are using the newest version for DW.
sometimes the computer sees whatever version your Mac has on its various drives and chooses the newest version to startup.
I have 3 HD's an ext 40GB, a 120GB, and the original 80GB drive the Mac came with. OS9.2.2 on the 120GB, OSX 10.2.7 on the 40GB. and the main drive has OSX 10.3.9. I am sure Tiger works similar, the computer will make a choice to boot up with the newest OS, unless you tell it which OS to boot with. I may very well be wrong... just my observation from trial and error.
I aim to remove my 10.2.7 when I get Tiger in next few months. consolidate my 9.2.2 & 10.3.9 on the 120GB and put Tiger brand new on the 80GB.
So if things never work right, I can always reboot onto the old Panther.
Of course when moving OSX system, always use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, unless you like installing the OSX brand new everytime. OS9 is not as anal retentive.
Verify/Repair Permissions is Very different from Verify/Repair Disk.
your Disk Repair thing will never repair the startup/boot disk. If you are want here is good way to go...
Boot off your OSX install discs. When it gets to the Install screen it asks what langauage you wish to install. Goto the File Menu and choose to Quit the installer. normally is an Option to use the Disk Utility. Then You should be able to Verify and Repair disk all you want on both Partitions without issue.
Non-OSX disks will not allow Verify/Repair Permissions, but you can Verify/Repair Disk to hearts content on them.

Macbook wont show any startup disk, grey screen

Hey there! Here is what I did, and what I get.(Sorry for my bad English) I wanted to have 3 partitions for my macbook, one for msc osx, one for windows, and one for shared data. I've started with bootcamp. I've created partition, then canceled installation of windows 8. then I've added third partition from disk utility, then I've restarted computer, started installation of windows 8. I've noticed that third partition is showing as unlocated memory,(but it's shown in mac os x) during installation of windows 8. After finishing installation of win 8, I've gone through disk managment from control panel, and created local disk from that third unlocated memory, then from my computer I saw that my third partition isnt accessable.. then I've removed it from disk managment, so its again unlocated memory. Then I've restarted computer, but computer didnt started anumore.. it's shows grey screen, then after about 15 seconds, it's showing black screen, then trying to start windows 8, then it's shows blue screen with icon, then restart again, and again.. on start when I'm pressing option key, nothing happens, also nothing happens when I'm pressing option + s. I've tried to start recovery mode, by option + r. that one worked, in disc recovery left part I can see my 3 partitions.. but I cant do nothing with them, I've tried to erase third partition, but I got error, about partition map.. I've tried to use reinstall os x, but when I need to select partition to install, there is no any partition, also when I'm trying to select startup disk, it didnt show anything,( mac os x, windows..). Any idea what to do? It's my first time using mac, and soooo disapointed.. any help? Thanks in advance.

Have you tried Internet recovery?
Hold the command and option and r keys down on a wired or built in keyboard. Boot the machine and you will see a globe spinning as IR loads.
Next select Disk Utility and the disk0. Click Erase and if there is a slider, move it one or two spots to the right for a 0-3x secure erase and mapping off of bad/damaged sectors on the boot hard drive (SSD no need).
Once finished, check Partition that Option:GUID and Format is OS X Extended Journaled and the name is MacintoshHD or else make it so and click Apply.
Quit and install the OS X version that is provided with Internet Recovery, it depends upon what originally came on the machine.
(taken from advice of ds store. Thanks)
You can then migrate your data back from your backup.
Pete

Repair disk greyed out in disk utilities

I am trying to repair my harddrive using disk utilities but its greyed out. if you verify the disk it says.
Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
Any ideas how to proceed

You cannot do this from the same start-up disk. Reboot from your install disk (holding down the C key). Once it opens, select your language, and then go to Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select your hard disk as before and click Repair.
Once that is complete reboot again from your usual start-up disk.
More useful reading here:
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417?viewlocale=en_US
For a full description of how to resolve Disk, Permission and Cache Corruption, you should read this FAQ from the X Lab:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html

Grey screen after tiger to snow leopard upgrade

I've just upgraded my macbook from tiger to snowleopard via leopard. All seemed to work OK until the snow leopard login screen. It just hung there with the beach ball. I shut down and restarted and since then all I get is the grey screen.
I've tried:
a safe boot ----- result grey screen
boot from disk --- grey screen
resetting PRAM and eventually after leaving it for 20 min it booted from the disk. I then went to disk utilities and tried repairing. It failed and I got a message telling me to backup and format the disk.
So then I tried backing up via firewire target disk, but the host computer can't see the harddrive of the macbook (it does see the snow leapard installation dvd thats still in the macbook).
Any ideas on how to retrieve the data on the macbook? or is it a lost cause?
thanks

[See this read.|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2990] The message is try to do a repair install of Sno by installing Sno over whatever part of Sno is on your internal drive.

Im having trouble getting my macbook pro to boot up after a fail safe boot, im getting as far as the grey screen with the apple loggo. so im trying to run a disk repair but is saying the disk is locked, how do i unlock disk??

Im having trouble getting my macbook pro to boot up after a fail safe boot, im getting as far as the grey screen with the apple loggo. so im trying to run a disk repair but is saying the disk is locked, how do i unlock disk??

Some clarification may help.
You say you cannot boot normally. It shows a gray screen with the Apple logo.
Did you say it will boot successfully in Safe Mode (boot, then hold down the Shift key)?
How did you boot the machine to run Disk Utility? (Which keyboard combinations)?

Help need my mac pro for school..it has Grey screen..spinning wheel...repaid disk ok...repair disk permission all repaired but one warning...

Help need my mac pro for school..it has Grey screen..spinning wheel...
I think I have mountain lion OS X....I have done I think almost every suggestion I've seen in discussion boards.
Boot in recovery repaired disk...ok...repair disk permission...all repaired but one warning...I've tried to reinstall lion (without losing data) and it Got all the way to one minute to be done and then the time change back two hours and kept doing this all night long. I haven't done a back up due to no external for time machine.
I hope someone can please help me I've been going crazy for a week now trying to figure this out. I use my computer for school and I'm currently very behind from in my school work thank you
Also I've checked my available space 424.91 free of 750 gigs....disk is verified

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Try holding the Shift key while your Mac is starting to start into safe mode. Then, after starting in safe mode, open Finder, select Go menu (on the menu bar) > Go to Folder, and type /Library/StartupItems. Then, empty this folder and restart the Mac.
If your Mac starts after doing this, it was a problem with a third-party app that starts automatically when you turn on the computer. It won't start automatically anymore after doing that

Help: grey screen with progress bar at startup, no success repairing in disk utility

I got my MacBook pro in December 2011 and never had an issue with it until this same thing happened in February 2013.
Basically, what happens is the computer starts to run really slowly, so I forced shut down. When I tried to power it back on, I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off. I tried to some research to figure out how to fix it myself (grateful for my ipad as a back-up computer) but I'm afraid I'm stuck now.
I tried running disk utility from recovery mode to verify and repair disk, but I only got errors saying "disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files." When this all happened in February, I bought an external HD for the Genius Bar dude to back up my files and do whatever he did over the course of 3 days to repair my system. Apparently it was only a temporary fix. However, like an idiot, even with all of that hassle, I never set up Time Machine (I know, I know, spare the lecture. I definitely will this time around). I'm really not too concerned about the data on my drive because most of my important stuff is on USB storage/my work computer. However, there are pictures on there that I'd really like to salvage.
So, before I do the walk of shame back into the Apple Store, can anyone offer a guide for saving my stuff and repairing my hard drive myself? And, if I have a worst case scenario on my hands, how expensive will it be to buy/install a new hard drive?...or just how to prevent it from happening in the future? Thanks in advance.

Klt10415 wrote:
I can't get past a grey screen with a progrerss bar that doesn't move for about a minute, and then the computer just shuts back off.
The fsck drive check at boot is failing to fix your drive, gets stuck and the hardware shuts down the machine if a OS isn't loaded in time.
"disk utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed up files."
Yep, it will either have to be replaced or zero erased and completely reformatted and everything installed again.
Erase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's
How to reformat a used Mac
I never set up Time Machine
However, there are pictures on there that I'd really like to salvage.
That's ok, the TimeMachine likely would have backed up the corrupted data and fail to properly restore anyway.
Since you can boot from RecoveryHD, that means you can install OS X on a blank external powered drive and boot from it and access the internal drive for your files. Or as a last restort install Data Rescue ($100) and that can read even deleted files off the drive bypassing the file system etc.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive

Disk repair and Apple Hardware Test says HD has no problem but grey screen still persists on MBP

5 days ago while on vacation, my MBP just froze with the grey screen, apple logo and spinning gear.
I performed all that was instructed on the following discussions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
except Archive and Install installation of MAC OS X and Erase and Install MAC OS X since I was able to save my files in my husband's MBP via Firewire Target Disk Mode. At this point, I am still apprehensive in erasing my files and installing again the MAC OS X.
When I did the Disk Repair under the Disk utilities, it says that my Mac Os X is ok. (It also said ok when I did the fsck -fy when I till did not have my CD when I was on vacation)
I also tried the Apple Hardware Test (AHT) to further l test the hardware of my MBP and performed an extended checking and after an hour, its says that my HD has no problem.
Yet, after all these, when I restart my computer, it still has the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel!
Can anyone tell me what else can I do??? Appreciate any help!

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Leopard and Snow ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it. I use DiskWarrior for that instead.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on PPC Macs but are on some Intel Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs, on the main drive, or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive.
That's why I like clones better then Time Machine. You can just bootup on them and use your Mac.
On the DiskWarrior thing, I use DW once a month to try and catch errors in my system from getting too far out of hand. It has repaired every little and big issue I have ever had with my three Macs.
And I have had times when Disk Utility's Disk Repair says everything's fine but my system was still having issues. Disk Utility, in my experience, cannot be totally relied on to find and report all issues. It just isn't robust enough.
I run DiskWarrior, it does find errors, repairs them and I'm back in business. I swear by it!
DALE

My husband(less technologically inclined than I am), decided to delete programs from our iMac, now it has a grey screen and won't get past it. If I insert the Application Install DVD, to repair the disk, will I loose all my pictures and music?

My husband(less technologically inclined than I am), decided to delete programs from our iMac, he turned it off and now it has a grey screen and won't get past it. It won't start in safe mode and when I If I insert the Application Install DVD, to repair the disk, will I loose all my pictures and music?

With a corrupt disk, the install procedure is most likely going to fail.
How old it the disk?
You might be able to reformat it to fix the problem. Of course that means you lose all of your data.
The other alternative is to get a new disk drive and put that in your Mac and install OS X
Then put the old disk drive in an enclosure and see what can be recovered from it.
Allan

TS3243 My Desktop Mac won't startup, it turns on to the grey screen flashing question file. I have been able to startup from the snow leopard install cd but once I try to repair within DU the disk never appears in the side panel. The only thing there is "

My Desktop Mac won't startup, it turns on to the grey screen flashing question file. I have been able to startup from the snow leopard install cd but once I try to repair within DU the disk never appears in the side panel. The only thing there is "Media"... What can I do? Help!

If Disk Utility cannot see your drive it doesn't look good.
You could try DiskWarrior. It is expensive but can often fix directory structures where DU cannot.
Replacing the drive is also a strong likelihood. If you don't have a fairly recent backup, then it might be worth buying DiskWarrior
additonal notes;
Gray screen appears during startup

Stuck at "grey screen of death", disk I/O errors, Facility com.apple.system

Good morning everybody!
Yesterday, my MacBook Air revB crashed upon trying to open an mp4 video. I had to press and hold the power button until switch-off. After this, the machine wouldn't start in either normal or safe mode, but was stuck on the grey screen with the Apple logo and the spinning wheel. A start attempt in verbose mode revealed the error "[Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 6] [IOType Read]", occurring twice. After this, some normal startup posts appeared, but each after a very long time, and preceded by the name of my harddisk and "IO error". Therefore, the system hung doe to not being able to read from the disk what it wanted to read for start-up. I booted into single user mode and used the find command to search "com.apple.system.fs" from root. It was not found. I verified the find command by searching something else, and that was found. Now I renamed my User folder in single user mode and rebooted in verbose mode. The Facility com.apple.system.fs persisted, but afterwards the system booted normally, no chain of disk IO errors. I deleted the User folder that had been newly created due to renaming the old one, and changed the old one's name back to its original value. Afterwards, the system booted normally without any errors, including the "com.apple.system.fs" one. The S.M.A.R.T. status of the disk was and is "SMARTOK". In order to find this out, I opened the console, whereupon the system crashed again. Only after 20 min of 1 s-long windows of opportunity (when the beachball disappeared) was I able to force-quit the console by invoking alt-cmd-esc, and the system continued to respond normally. There are obviously corrupt log files producing the very same read errors that had originally caused the system to hang during boot. Does anybody now what is going on?
The best,

Hey there,
I reread your original post... The problem to me is that what you did to make it boot again doesn't make much sense. Nothing in your home directory prevents the system from booting.
You said that the system hung when you had Console open. Most of the log files shown there are in /var/log, /Library/Logs some are also in your User directory in ~/Library/Logs, you could try deleting everything inside...
Why renaming your home folder changed anything is a mystery to me. The only theory I have is general file system corruption that got repaired during one of those bootups due to an automated fsck. That or the system deleted and recreated invalid plist files.
Mac OS has important files in /Library and /System/Library. The ones in System belong to the System and are not supposed to be touched. The ones in /Library are open for Applications to add their own System-wide Configuration settings etc. The same structure exists in your home directory ~/Libary. Usually the most interesting areas in your home directory are ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences. However as I previously said nothing in your home directory would keep the system from booting. It would always go to the blue screen before the login screen would appear (even when you have auto login on).
Good luck!

Grey Screen on Start up and Hard disk not working

Hi , I was working and suddenly some popping noises came out of the hard drive. I tried to save my work but i couldn't because it got "stuck". I had to turn it off and when I restarted a grey screen appeared without the apple logo. It won't start up and starting from cd, safe mode, single user mode don't work. I reset the PRAM too and nothing works. I'm worried about recovering the data... what should I do? I have work there that i need!!!
thanks

thanks for your reply. I took my powerbook to 2 apple authorized technical service and both of them told me that they couldn't get the data using disk warrior.
I already removed the hard drive and replace it with a new one. However I still want to recover data. I plug the hard drive to my home powermac with a usb connector and using disk utility and terminal i was able to "see" the drive but not mount it. In disk utility the drive appears as 0 bytes.
I want to try using Terminal or Single user mode to mount the hard drive, and/or repair it and try to recover some important files that I urgently need. Do you know how?

My MacBook Pro does not pass the startup grey screen. When I try to do a reinstall the computer doesn't even read the disk. I can't even boot in safe mode. I'm being told that it MAY be a motherboard issue, I'm just wondering has anyone else had this prob

I don't know what is wrong with my Mac. An authorized retailer can't pinpoint the issue.. Does Apple have a recall for motherboard failures? We have only had it for 2 years.

MimiBrooks,
try booting your MacBook Pro into Recovery mode by holding down a Command key and the R key as it starts up. Once the Mac OS X Utilities menu appears, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Does it get past the grey startup screen now?

IMac G5 won't boot. Attempted to install Leopard,wouldn't allow, then would not reboot in HD's Tiger, nor from OS DISK IN DRIVE. OPTION START shows both OS 's, but still won't boot from either. Grey screen , spinning pinwheel for 5 minutes, then shuts off

When I tried a custom leopard install(omitting all but canon printers), a window appeared that " I could not install OSX ON THIS DISK." I tried a full install again and a window appeared stating that " the HD was not formatted properly, would I like reformat in hfs extended HFS EXTENDED journalled and ERASE THE HD?" I use disk utility on leopard to reset the iMac to restart from the original Tiger OS on the HD, & that was when it refused to boot. During 1 attempt I even tried to boot with the C key held for many minutes to start fron the Tiger OS disk but the iMac wouldn't start the cd spinning. I did hear that familiar FIRMWARE UPDATE CHIME! but I was not upgrading firmware as none was downloaded, and Leopard did not tell me it required a firmware update first, when I attempted to install it. So: I get the chime when the power button is pressed. Option key finds the HD TIGER AND THE CD 's Tiger. I van choose both. But neither boots. Starting with the C key held doesn't boot. In every case the startup grey screen appears with the grey startup pinwheel, this continues for many minutes. Then it shuts itself off. Help help help. My son has Graduate School papers in progress, and I just fried his iMac. Thanks to all.

Simon:
Thanks very much for the suggestions! I tried your method of booting to the install CD while holding option (alt), and then running Disk Utility to repair the disk and the permissions. Even though it still told me the drive didn't need repairing, there were more permissions that needed repairing when booting this way (as opposed to when booting while holding the C key.)
Anyhow, after doing this, my computer restarted just fine from the hard drive. Mail works now and I'm about to try repairing permissions one more time, then shutting down and restarting again, this time without doing it from the install CD. Wish me luck...
OK. It booted up perfectly this time. I'm not quite sure why that worked, though. Anyone care to illuminate me as to why booting while holding option (alt) let Disk Utility do what it needed to, while booting while holding C didn't?
At this point I'm just curious. My problem has been solved!
Thanks again very much, Simon. I really appreciate it, mate.
Cheers,
--forkboy
iMac G5 20" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Repair disk grey screen

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