Snow leopard iMac fails to start up have time machine - what next?

I have an iMac which is powering up the showing a spinning icon and the apple logo. But it goes no further. I have tried presiing shift on start up and zapping the pram but no improvement.
For a while the iMac has been failing to start up but always did second time round.
What is the strategy here? I have an external drive with time machine backups and the snow leopard install disks. I also have access to extra external hard drives and a mac mini.
What would you recommend and what is the issue?

Hi ukcfuser;
Where is Time Machine backing up to?
Hopefully not your system disk because it may have filled it up which can prevent you Mac from starting.
I would suggest that you boot from the install DVD for your Mac. Let us know that results of that.
Allan

Similar Messages

  • Using snow leopard 10.6 snd can't get time machine  to back up

    Every time I try back up my computer with time machine a error message comes up and says unable to complete backup, an error occurred while creating the backup folder. How do I fix

    See if the late great Pondini's site can help you http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • I am running Mac OS X and need to back up before installing Snow Leopard , can I back up to my Time Capsule?

    I am running Mac OS X currently and need to upgrade to Snow Leopard.  First I need to back up my computer.  I have a Time Capsule that automaticallyt backs up Snow Leopard and above but do not have Time Machine on this system.  How can I back up what I an currently running?

    Do I download these?  I am not particularly good at this, so any help would be great.  What I know now is that it is recommended to back up current comuter before installing snow leopard, but I have no idea how to do this.  I know I can go from 10.4.11 directly to Snow Leopard but am afraid I will lose data. 

  • I migrated everything from my Snow Leopard iMac to my new Lion iMac and now whenever I launch an Adovbe app like Photoshop the Adobe Manager pops up and wants my serial numbers or to start a trial version. I don't have my CS5 serial

    I migrated everything from my Snow Leopard iMac to my new Lion iMac and now when I launch anything in CS5 like Photoshop the Adobe Manager pops up and wants my serial numbers or to start a trial version. I don't have my CS5 serial numbers but wouldn't they migrate over with everything else?

    but wouldn't they migrate over with everything else?
    Are these PowerPC apps that ran on Rosetta with Snow Leopared?
    If so you need to read these articles...
    Lion upgrade questions and answers:  Apple Support Communities
    What applications are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"? What upgrade or substitute options are available for common incompatible applications? @ EveryMac.com

  • My Imac fails when I try to upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8.  I have to boot up from disk.  Does anyone know how to overcome this problem?

    My iMac fails when I try to upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8.  I have to boot up from disk.  Does anyone know how to overcome this problem?   I need to upgrade in order to install latest software.

    It would be lovely to know what your talking about. Upgrading from Snow Leopard does not involve discs.
    Upgrading to Lion
    If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mavericks, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
    You can purchase Lion at the Online Apple Store. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax.  It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
         Lion System Requirements
           1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
               or Xeon processor
           2. 2GB of memory
           3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
           4. 7GB of available space
           5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
    Upgrading to Mountain Lion
    To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase a redemption code at the Online Apple Store: OS X Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. Use the code to redeem a download of Mountain Lion from the App Store. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
         OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
           Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
             1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later.
             2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model
                 Identifier 5,1 or later.
             3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
             4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later.
             5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
             6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
             7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later.
    To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
         Are my applications compatible?
             See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
    Upgrading to Yosemite
    You can upgrade to Yosemite from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Yosemite can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.
    Upgrading to Yosemite
    To upgrade to Yosemite you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download Yosemite from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Yosemite is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
        OS X Mavericks/Yosemite- System Requirements
          Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Yosemite
             1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
             2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
             3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
             5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
             7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
    To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
         Are my applications compatible?
             See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.

  • FaceTime fails to connect snow leopard imac

    The setup is a home network with ethernet to an up-to-date snow leopard iMac and the WiFi on the same subnet, running off of a Linksys wft54g with the latest firmware. uPnP is enabled on the router.
    From a Macbook Air with Lion on a network at work, I can call and receive FaceTime calls to the iPhone on the home WiFi network.
    However, FaceTime rings but fails to connect on the iMac.
    So, Facetime to/from iPhone is going through the same home router over the same network using the same DNS, etc.. and it works.
    But Facetime to/from the iMac does not. I've tried with the firewall on/off on the iMac as well as google DNS, etc., with no luck.
    If the Lion MBA is on the same network, all works fine.
    Any ideas? What is different about Facetime btw iPhone and snow leopard iMac that causes this difference?
    Much appreciated.

    HI. I have a macbook air 1.3 ghz intel core i5 / 4gb 1600 mhz ddr3, and i use OS X mav 10.9.4.
    Today i tryed to conect facetime either to another same macbook air or iphone 5 and i cant see my camera image.
    Facetime opens and i can get audio but no image at all.
    Preferences are not available on menu. if i click, it goes gray (notjing shows up) then its impossible to see it.
    I have tryed reinstaling os x and also reset smc and nothing worked so far.
    I open photo both and image not showing also. open skype and camera preview not showing.
    Could it be a problem with my camera? if so, why cant i log in my facetime preferences??
    Tks

  • I have a desktop imac with snow leopard 10.6.8 OS  I have a time capsule that shows all restore dates of 2009 but there is a Jan 2012 restore that is faded looking and will not open to be restored.

    I have a desktop imac with snow leopard 10.6.8 OS
    I have a time capsule that shows all restore dates of 2009 but there is a Jan 2012 restore that is faded looking and will not open to be restored.
    Thanks for any help you may give.

    Whatever is in the Finder window wasn't backed-up on that particular backup.
    See the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15A

  • I backed up 6000  photos from Snow Leopard iMac v.10.6 to new Western Digital External Engine "My Book." In attempting to COPY the pictures to My Book in order to free space on HD, I made a mistake. When I first dragged the iPhoto 11 Library folder to My

    I backed up 6000+ photos from Snow Leopard iMac v.10.6.7 to new Western Digital "My book" successfully, I think! But when I attempted to COPY my photos to it in order to free up space on my HD, I made a mistake. When I dragged the iPhoto (11) Library to My Book and re-named it to "iPhoto Library.old" nothing happened. So I dragged it again, re-named it again (same name--that was the mistake, I guess!) and then it took about an hour+ to do its thing. When finished and I launched iPhoto by holding down the Option key, the dialog window listed two libraries: "iPhoto Library.old" and iPhoto Library.old (default)". So now what? It seems that I still have the originals when I open iPhoto, and do I have two copies, also? Should I delete one of them and if so, which one and how? Or should I eliminate both of them and start over again? And if so, how do I do that? Right now, neither my HD nor the My Book have changed the number of GB available or free since before I began this process. Will the numbers only change after I actually delete my original Library AND empty the Trash? I appreciate any light you can throw on this subject for me. I could lug it all to the local Genius Bar, but now I'm afraid to unplug anything for fear I'll lose everything! Thank you, you wonderful, bright people. (An 83-year-old Grandma, trying to keep up a little, at least)

    Oh my! Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing. But I do know that my goal was to do both---backup AND free some space. My iMAc is old (2006) and I upgraded it a year or so ago to Snow Leopard. I didn't think I had the capability of backing up without an external drive, but  maybe I do since I upgraded. Do I?
    But I bought this My Book mostly for freeing space because I like to make cards in Photoshop and I'm forever running out of space when I get too many layers (don't really know what I'm doing there, either).
    Is there some way that I can rectify my mistakes and start all over?
    Thank you so much for  beng so prompt with your reply and patient with mine. I tried for so long to see the dialog box with the library listings. When I launched iPhoto, even with holding down the Option key, it kept immediately launching into the full screen. Finally, after an hour of doing it over and over again, it worked when I held the key down for 5 minutes. Then when I was typing my reply, I kept getting a message to "Request Time Out." Didn't know how to do that, so kept hitting the OK button and kept typing for another half minute. Finally, when ready to send, Safari couldn't do it. "Try again" exasperated me until I realized I would have to begin again and use Firefox. When I got there and ready to type, I got the message  that my message had been retrienved and did I want to use it?!!
    So your kindness is very much appreciated.

  • How do i set up a new lion imac from a snow leopard imac using time machine?

    How do i set up a new lion imac from a snow leopard imac using time machine?

    Connect the two via Firewire cable - Transferring files between two computers using FireWire. Boot the old iMac into Target Disk Mode. Boot the new iMac normally.
    If you are starting the new iMac for the first time then do the above before you turn on the new iMac. After you turn on the new iMac you will begin in the Setup Assistant. When you complete the registration screens you will be offered an opportunity to migrate your data from another Mac. Follow the instructions to migrate your old Home folder, third-party applications and support files, and system preferences to the new iMac.
    If you have already gone through the Setup Assistant and created an initial admin user account, then you do the connection step but will use Migration Assistant in the Utilities folder of the new iMac.

  • I currently have OSX 10.4.11 and need to upgrade my software. I do not have Time Machine yet. My processor is an intel Core 2 duo. Do I have to upgrade to snow leopard 10.6.8 before upgrading to Mavericks?

    I currently have OSX 10.4.11 and need to upgrade my software. I do not have Time Machine yet. My processor is an intel Core 2 duo. Do I have to upgrade to snow leopard 10.6.8 before upgrading to Mavericks?

    Assuming your computer has the minimum system requirements yes, upgrade to 10.6.8 and then open the Mac App Store and upgrade to Mavericks. You can only get SL 10.6.x from Apple's online store, it is $20. Prior to upgrading to 10.6.x get an external HD and use a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper and make a bootable clone of  your system to safeguard all of your valuable data. In the event you have a problem the backup will be invaluable!!!!!
    Considering your computer is at best a 2007 iMac I would STRONGLY recommend upgrading your RAM to 6GB, the maximum a 2007 machine can accommodate. You can buy this from either Crucial or OWC  (www.macsales.com).
    Another option is due to the age of your computer is considering buying a newer machine.

  • If i have Time Machine backed up on an external hard drive, do i just plug the drive into another macbook pro and all my stuff is in the new computer?  also, does it matter if the new computer is running Lion when the backed up info came from Snow Leopard

    If i have Time Machine backed up on an external hard drive, do i just plug the drive into another macbook pro and all my stuff is in the new computer?  Also, does it matter if the new computer is running Lion when the backed up info came from Snow Leopard 10.6.8?

    No and Yes
    Don't use TM for this purpose, clone your drive to an external, plug the external into another MBP and reboot from it. Please note that booting a machine that came with Lion may not be possible from a drive with Snow Leopard.

  • HOW DO I INSTALL  DISK OF MY NEW  10.6 SNOW LEOPARD ? NEW MAC DO NOT HAVE DVD ACCESS .  BUT  I  WORK ON  OLD MAC 10.4.11 TIGER  THAT  DO  HAVE  DVD ACCESS .  HOW DO I CONNECT   NEW AND OLD  TO MAKE IT WORK ? THANKS

    HOW DO I INSTALL DISK OF NEW 10.6 SNOW LEOPARD ? NEW MAC DO NOT HAVE DVD  ACCESS .  BUT I WORK ON OLD  MAC 10.4. TIGER  THAT DO  HAVE DVD PLAYER .  I KNOW  THAT SHOULD  BE  EAZY .  THANKS

    You'll need to provide some more information .... what current mac mini do you have? Click on the apple in the left corner of the menu bar, click about this mac, and what does it say for processor, memory, and os x version?
    When you say you have no DVD, do you have the mac mini server or is the DVD broken?
    You can't do anything with 10.6 Snow Leopard on a PowerPC mini, however, if it is an Intel-based mini, you could probably hook up the systems in target disk mode to install 10.6.

  • Hi there, I've upgraded my Snow Leopard iMac to Yosemite 10.10.1 and would like to install windows 8.1, but bootcamp keeps telling me my mac only supports windows 7. Is there a way I can change that, please?

    Hi there, I've upgraded my Snow Leopard iMac to Yosemite 10.10.1 and I would like to install Windows 8.1 using bootcamp. However, there's a pop-up saying that my Mac is only supporting Windows 7. Is there a way to change that, please? Thanks

    Please find your Mac Model Identifier from About This Mac -> (More Info) -> System Report -> Hardware and compare it to the following list. If your model identifier appears in this list, you can only install Windows 7.

  • I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion.  how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

    I have Time Machine that I used to back up my old computer. It was running snow leopard. My MacBook died, so I got a new one which is running Lion.  how can I restore the data from the time capsule to my new Mac?

    In technical support, sometimes you have to make educated guesses. I'm sorry that you were offended.
    iTunes does prompt when it is going to erase a device, and the message is clear.
    She said in her message that she was able to successfully sync the old ipad. This indicated to me that itunes wiping the data was not an issue, because either it had been setup at the apple store (in which case it doesn't actually wipe the ipad despite saying it will*) (*based on a single case I saw), or because the itunes media folder was migrated.
    Furthermore, my solution was to tell her how to backup her ipad (by either doing it manually, or as a last resort, by deleting the corrupt backup -- that she couldn't access anyway.)
    I got that last part of the instructions from the "Taking Control of your iphone" book which I found samples of when I did a google search for "corrupted backup itunes".
    She marked this as a solution, so it worked for her.

  • Working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

    working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

    Well first you have to figure out what is wrong with the machine and solve that problem first.
    Your post is very vague on what occured, and there are many types of "crashes" it really depends upon what see on the screen and what the hardware does, we can't see it to tell you, so you have to tell us.
    I suggest you run through these user tips and provide more information about your hardware.
    Disconnect the TimeMachine drive for now
    ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
    Help us to help you on these forums
    Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
    If this is going way over your head, there are local PC/Mac techs that will assist you for a fee, Apple only does hardware repairs and is advised to use them if you discover it is, especially if under warranty/AppleCare.
    Hard drive and RAM upgrades can be handled yourself or by a outside tech in many older models of Mac, but don't expect Apple to cover the new parts.
    Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's

Maybe you are looking for