Spinning disk at start up then stalls

This morning I woke to a spinning disk icon on my 2007 Mac Pro. I've restarted it several times but can't get past that part. Also of note is that is the graphics displaying the spinning disk icon is broken up as if the video drivers aren't properly installed. I don't have a second Mac to help me run a diagnostic. I'm down to my iPhone 4 for Internet resources.

Bootable backup (clone)?
Lion Recovery Mode
Boot from either of those would let you repair your drive or try Safe Boot
Graphic drivers are not separate, they are part of and built into Lion.
Let's hope you had it on UPS (1000VA and up).
pull the hard drive in question. hopefully you kept 10.68 handy as a just in case.
3GB (2 x 512, 2 x 1GB) is bare minimum, especially for Lion and your system.
And what gpu? I don't see that mentioned or how old or new upgrade.

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Time Machine starts normally, then stalls and freezes iMac

Hello.
Time Machine always worked fine on this system.
Now-it starts to back up, then freezes after about 45 mb. When this happens, the toolbar at the top of the screen ("File", etc.) disappears, I can't run any other functions, and have to push the power button to crash the system.
I have:
--deleted the time machine preferences file
--turned off Virus Barrier background scanning
--tried from scratch with a new back-up disc (same problem)
--done all Software Updates
--repaired permissions
--booted up from the OS X disc, and "repaired disc" on the hard drive.
--deleted "in progress" files on the back-up disc, and started over.
I have seen others with what sounds like a similar problem, but I can't find a suitable solution among the discussions.
Any help much appreciated.
Thank you.

On the MacBook, there was a specific file ("developer pckg") that was crashing back-up. I deleted the file, and I'm back in business.
In the iMac, things seem more complicated, and additional attempts at back-up not only stall--they also freeze the whole computer.
__At the start of the back-up the log reads:__
Oct 5 11:20:35 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Backup requested by user
Oct 5 11:20:35 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Starting standard backup
Oct 5 11:20:35 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Master Back-Up/Backups.backupdb
Oct 5 11:20:36 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Macintosh HD
Oct 5 11:20:36 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Backup content size: 110.6 GB excluded items size: 3.9 MB for volume Macintosh HD
Oct 5 11:20:36 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 132.93 GB requested (including padding), 263.08 GB available
_*Then, there is a VERY long string of "bad alias" messages, and then the back-up freezes at 45.2 mb:*_
The back-up doesn't actually cancel itself--I did that.
The last several lines before the freeze at 45.2 mb are:
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x2201e84, size 13392, CSStore size 1851417683
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x2201fe0, size 14392, CSStore size 1932476755
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fd800, size 19561, CSStore size 793999731
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fd970, size 11896, CSStore size 1700881516
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fdbbc, size 29299, CSStore size 1667593007
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fde98, size 30050, CSStore size 1869967971
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fdfa4, size 28263, CSStore size 2004299383
Oct 5 11:21:37 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fe0d4, size 30050, CSStore size 1702326130
Oct 5 11:21:41 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fdaf8, size 29539, CSStore size 1668246831
Oct 5 11:22:11 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 com.apple.backupd[259]: LaunchServices: bad alias at 0x21fdaf8, size 29539, CSStore size 1668246831
Oct 5 11:23:40 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Copied 2 files (45.2 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Oct 5 11:23:45 Susies-Magnificent-New-iMac-2 /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[259]: Backup canceled.
THANKS for having a look!

Beige g3 begins start up then stalls

Beige G3 with 120gb hard drive, acard aec-6280m, radeon 9200 card maxed out memory USB PCI card G4 zif accelerator. Worked great for 3 or 4 years then I upgraded to a iMacG5 and loaned the Beige to a friend. He had it for a year or so and it quit working. It powers up monitor comes on HD spins then the monitor turns off and it tries again and then the monitor turns off again and the HD still spins but thats the extent of it. I've taken all the cards that I added out put a small 10gb HD in and started it up on the original G3 CD and it works fine. But when I turn it on without the CD it starts up and goes through all the startup motions and looks like it's good to go but the mouse will move the arrow around but it's frozen. One other thing my friend said the sound went out and it doesn't chime when starting up. Any help will be welcomed. I would like to give the computer to a brother-in-law. That is if I can get it to work again.

I removed the 120GB HD and the Acard AEC-6280M controller card and installed a 14 GB HD with OS9 installed. Now when I start up the monitor stays on and the computer freezes after I click on the icon that says the computer was shut down improperly, the mouse will still move the arrow around. It will boot up off the OS CD. Next I decided I had installed OS9 incorrectly so took everything off and installed OS8. Computer seems to run great on OS8 then I installed OS9 and had the same freeze up. Reinstalled OS8 tried to play a CD no sound clicked on the volume and another freeze up. Removed CD burner upgrade and reinstalled original CD player and replaced ATA type cables. Beep actually sounded on startup but sounded kind of sick but CD would not play but did not freeze up. Could be on to something but not sure what. Any help will be appreciated.

Macbook pro blue screen with spinning disk, won't start up. desperate!!!

macbook pro blue screen with spinning disk, won't start up. desperate!!! i'm a student and have a paper due tomorrow.
my macbook was really sluggish so i ran a hardware test. it said NO PROBLEMS. i did restart. my current login and password were REJECTED.
then the macbook went into blue screen and it just sits there and flashes to gray and back to blue and the white lines that make up the circle icon just spin and spin. i am DESPERATE to get this running so i can print my paper. please email me directly to my cell phone because i can't access computer. using someone else's computer to request help. DIRECT EMAIL PLEASE thank you.
<Email Edited by Host>

Hi ...
my current login and password were REJECTED
Try resetting your admin password > Mac OS X: Changing or resetting an account password

Disk re-starts after spin-down

Hi,
After a recent -Syu, my unused spare disk re-starts after it is stopped in /etc/rc.local by /usr/bin/sdparm -C stop /dev/sda. The upgrade included udev, initscripts, klibc-udev and yslog-ng. If I do /usr/bin/sdparm -C stop /dev/sda again in a terminal, the disk stops and starts again, running unnecessarily.
Any ideas please?
My thanks in advance.

neok wrote:
Hi,
After a recent -Syu, my unused spare disk re-starts after it is stopped in /etc/rc.local by /usr/bin/sdparm -C stop /dev/sda. The upgrade included udev, initscripts, klibc-udev and yslog-ng. If I do /usr/bin/sdparm -C stop /dev/sda again in a terminal, the disk stops and starts again, running unnecessarily.
OK, I tried using hdparm -Y but I still have the same problem, in fact the disk starts even sooner, right after it starts spin-down! (with sdparm it starts after it completely stops spinning). I have tried hdparm -S 1 but there was no effect. I don't know if it will spin-down after a longer delay than the 5 sec specified though.

Spinning disk

I am relatively new to Final Cut Pro. Everything has been working fine until last night. I was trying to import a still picture into my project and when I selected the pic I got the spinning disk. It would take sometimes 10 minutes or more to import the picture. It usually takes only seconds. Can someome tell what my problem may be or what to check in my set up. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.

Those images are much, much larger than necessary for video work.
You will speed things up if you downsize them to something closer to DV resolution (aka 720x480). If you are planning on some pans and zooms then account for the extra screen real estate you'll need (for example: a 2x zoom might start with an image 1400x900 or so)
a couple of other thoughts:
How much RAM do you have? Less than 1gb is an issue.
What are your settings in System Settings>Memory & Cache?
- application should not be more than 80% unless you have 4gb or more RAM.
- Still Cache might need to be bumped up given the size of your images.
good luck.
x

I have lots of spinning wheels on start up and changing between applications

I get lots of spinning wheels on start up and when changing applications. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.
Reset the System Management Controller.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.
Otherwise, take the steps below when you notice the problem.
Step 1
Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.
Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.
Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?
Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)
Step 2
If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long.

IDVD partial encode, then stalls/quits

Now trying for third time: I've added 3 clips to the project and when Burn is clicked and 4.7 GB disc inserted in drive, (Pioneer DVD-RW 107D), the encode starts and goes pretty much maybe 3/4s of the way through and then stalls, with the progress bar stationary for several hours. Apparently it then quits, since when I come back to look, it says iDVD unexpectedly quit - or some such nonsense.
What is going on? If my fault, I need to know, but I've followed the directions as carefully as possible. When restarting it seems as if the program is doing the encode all over again.
The 3 QuickTime clips' filesizes are 4.19, 2.76 and 9,94 GB. At first attempt to encode and burn, a drop down dialog states that it's too big to burn and suggests modifying the encoding value. I go to Project Info and change Best Performance to High Quality. This seems to satisfy, and on clicking Burn, I insert disc and it seem to get going - encoding all over again, each time. At some point - as mentioned above, the crash or stall seems to occur. Is there a way to check if any files have been encoded, before doing it all over again?
I thought Apple products were supposed to work. I'm getting tired of this....any help appreciated (very much!)
I think this is iDVD v. 8 - came with iLife '08 suite.
thanks

Read Bengt Wärleby's post in this topic: Multiplexing Error: Apple Support Communities
Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
OT

What is the colored spinning disk, and why does it appear, and how do I get rid of it?

What is the colored spinning disk, and why does it appear, and how do I get rid of it?

Repairing permissions will help as will running the UNIX commands. This widget will do all but the pram.
http://db.tt/Lob4XtPB Maintenance Widget One of those links will get you the widget.
To reset the pram hold the Command+Option+P+R when starting up, wait through 4 startup sounds before letting go.

IPhoto spinning disk

IPhoto 5.0.4
I cannot move pictures from IPhoto to any other application nor can I display my pictures in anything but thumbnails. ÒHelpÓ willl open but wonÕt search.
I removed the preference pane for IPhoto and restarted. No help.
I reinstalled IPhoto. No help.
All I get when I click on a thumbnail is the Òspinning diskÓ,
Would appreciate any help anyone might provide. Jim

Hi Jim,
since you have so few images (not that we can find any yet) let's create a new library.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and choose it.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!
Hopefully there will be images in that old library. Also do a search for iPhoto.db. This file is in every iPhoto Library folder so if it comes up in the search, check the path to each of the search results to see where another iPhoto Library is. If you find another library, use the File>add to library to import the images that might be in that library.

Download starts but then stops...

So I've read other forums and searched this website for one, but I still can't find the answer. Whenever I try to download the file it will start but then after some time get stuck on a percentage(different every time) and then stop all together. I've tried using different browsers and a download manager, I have plenty of storage space also. It still won't work
I've heard that this may have something to do with my internet and secruity? Or something? Can someone tell me how to fix that? My technical skills are very very low and this is the first time I've used a mac.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up a guest account” (without the quotes) in the search box. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem(s)?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode* and log in to the account with the problem. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
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.
*Note: If FileVault is enabled under OS X 10.7 or later, or if a firmware password is set, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2.

09 I Mac goes asleep ends up with a spinning disk on the screen and the mac will not respond has to be rebooted

09 I Mac goes asleep ends up with a spinning disk on the screen and the mac will not respond has to be rebooted

First this:
In EnergySaver deselect "put the hard disk to sleep when possible". You must logout after the setting to make this effective.
This probably will not solve it, but let it be deselected.
When the issue is still there:
Open Terminal;
copy/paste following command (after every command hit "enter" key)
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
when the answer is not 3 write it down;
then copy/paste following command
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
reboot
Open Terminal;
copy/paste following command
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage
after that type EXIT in Terminal and close Terminal.
This does following for you:
it will set the hibernatemode to zero: the sleepimage (a copy of the complete ram) will not be written and the space on the HD is freed up.
This sleepimage does not do anything for you but taking time at sleep/hibernate and startup. It is an old remnant of earlier days.

Something going seriously wrong with my install of CC. The CC desktop app won't show what apps I have, and when I select that tab the wheel spins for a while and then the app quits. I am running Yosemite 10.

Something is seriously wrong with my install of CC desktop. The icon won't show up in the upper bar as it always has. When I start it from th finer it starts, but when I select the Apps tab is spins for a while and then quits. Tried re-installing it from Adobe downloads. Same behaviour. What's up?

Rdgates55 have you utilized the solutions listed in App doesn't open | Progress wheel spins continually? If so what version of the Creative Cloud Desktop application are you using?

Spinning Disk image constantly reappearing

Last week, I installed the drivers for my HP OfficeJet Pro L7555 All-in-One onto my laptop running Windows 7 64-bit. Ever since, I keep seeing this spinning disk image that will appear in the center of my screen randomly throughout the day. It has an HP logo in the top of the image. It is extremely annoying. I have tried restarting the computer, but that does nothing. Short of uninstalling the HP software and junking the printer, is there any way of stopping the image from appearing all the time?

Hi Michael
My bet: You have used the Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie.
Try another way.
a) Close iMovie
b) find the project icon/folder
c) Ctrl-click on it and Show package.
d) in this there are a folder -> Shared Movies -> iDVD
e) in this there are a QT movie nnnnnnn.mov
f) drop this into an open theme in iDVD and save it as a desktop image
(if iDVD prior HD/5 You have to add a hack to make this possibly
named HPfurz and install it)
Test this with Apple DVD-player - OK then burn it with iDVD
or Toast if You have and dont want to re-code the movie.
Yours Bengt W

Spinning disk icon

everytime i plug the ipod the spinning disk appears again. I read here in a discussion someone says it is a scanning type of precedure. But how do i get the ipod to function normally and avaid it to perform that task everytime i plug it in. Once it did let me access, mean i saw it in my desktop and itunes. the music had been ereased but the datas (i use it as a hard disk) was still all there.
I was happy because i thaught i had lost everything but the next time i plugged it in, it did show up as planned but started scanning the disk again. Someone knows how to solve the problem. Let me know i am stuck.
thanks

In itunes go to
Preferences-->Ipod
check if it is set for Automatic or manual - it sounds like it is set for Auto - change it to manual

Spinning disk at start up then stalls

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