Stuck at gray screen. Does OS X install wipe the hard drive?

Im stuck at the gray apple screen when I start up. Already reset the PRAM with no luck and couldn't boot up in safe mode. Have the install disk but want to know if it'll wipe the hard drive before I do that. Please assist.

Hey, Running.
I hate to say it, but things don't look very bright here. It looks as though your HDD is in the midst of failure (I/O error and exiting with SIG 8). If your machine is under warranty or APP coverage, you'd do very well to take it to a Genius Bar or authorized repair centre and have the machine checked. If you have a valid backup from which to restore, your second best option at this point is to put in a new hard disk and restore from Time Machine. If you don't have a backup and you're dealing with critical data that simply can't be lost, you'll want to contact a data recovery service. Alternatively, you might try using some recovery software such as Disk Warrior. I consider that a last resort.
Sorry for the trouble!

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I downloaded Yosemite OS X and when I try to select my HD (the disk) where I want to install it, the hard drive doesn't have enough space. What can I do and still have all my files? I haven't backed up...

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Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
I recommend that you also make a backup before proceeding. Just quit the installer.

HT3986 i purchased windows 7 from amazon and i just received it. they sent me windows 7 home premium "OEM System Builder Pack". the instructions say "Intended for system builders only". also says " must be per installed on the hard drive of a fully assemb

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When my screen goes to sleep and then the hard drive goes to sleep why won't the screen wake up?

I can repeat this 100% of the time. If I let the screen go to sleep (or I manually put it to sleep) and I shut the computer so the hard drive goes to sleep (or if the hard drive simply goes to sleep on the timer), when I open the Macbook Pro the screen will not wake up, although I think the hard drive does as the back light on the keyboard turns on. Any ideas on why this is happening. My computer is 4 weeks old...a bit frustrating. The best answer I have gotten is get a new one for Apple...or completely re-install the OS.
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The reason why it's happening is not obvious and can't be determined without more information. The fact that you can reproduce the problem makes it a lot more tractable.
As a first step, boot in safe mode (shift key down at startup.) Can you reproduce the problem now? If so, note the time, then reboot as usual (not in safe mode) and look in the system log for error messages at the time the screen failed to wake up.

When does my music go into the hard drive?

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Thanks

If you downloaded music from a music service, its automatically on your hard drive, you just need to point your music programs to the location of your music file.
If you've imported music to iTunes and have iTunes organize the files, iTunes will organize the files in the iTunes music folder.
If you installed a separate drive for music, then you need to point iTunes to the location of that drive. You do this by going to the preferences option and clicking on the advanced tab, there you can set the drive that iTunes will store and search for music.

Installing Win 7 on Boot Camp won't install to the hard drive

Hey, I'm installing Windows 7 64-BIT onto my Mac,
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I inserted the Win764BIT dvd I made, BootCamp prompted for it, I clicked OK...
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Can anyone help me with this?
Kind Regards
Message was edited by: Steelbom

There should be a selection screen, and try #2. I think that is called EFI Boot. I can't, because of EFI32 1.1, and 64-bit Windows and Apple are looking for UEFI 2.x / EFI64.
I had Windows Vista, and installed Windows 7 to another hard drive partition with the DVD written to disk (8GB) on another partition. Install off hard drive was fast, and never even boot from DVD.
For people with trouble with the boot selection:
http://sergiomcfly.blogspot.com/2008/04/select-cd-rom-boot-type-when-installing. html
I tried to put together a 'journal/faq' of my own experience with 7100, which isn't perfect but has some tips and links.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970&tstart=0
About GPT -
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT-on-x64.mspx
If you really get stuck on the boot selector, this may help:
http://jowie.com/blog/post/2008/02/24/Select-CD-ROM-Boot-Type-prompt-while-tryin g-to-boot-from-Vista-x64-DVD-burnt-from-iso-file.aspx
but you really shouldn't need that, your 2008 Mac Pro should do fine.

Why Does iTunes Continuously Read From the Hard-drive?

Hi. I have recently discovered an odd behaviour from iTunes: instead of reading an entire song from the harddrive and storing it in ram during playback, iTunes reads small chunks of data very frequently. For example, when playing a 128Kbps song the HD reads 68KB chunks approximately every 3 seconds, and when playing lossless WAVE files the HD is constantly reading at 200KB/s. I found this out by having iTunes open and playing music while having all other programs closed, and monitoring the disk activity from Activity Monitor (and I'm sure that it's iTunes that was reading from the HD because when the music was paused the HD was idle).
So, my question is why would iTunes do this? This seems like an extremely inefficient use of the harddrive for several reasons:
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- This will slow down other applications that need to make heavy use of the HD because iTunes will be constantly interrupting anything else that is using the disk (this is especially true for Photoshop or any other program that uses lots of swapfile space)
- It puts unnecessary wear on the HD heads
- It is dangerous for laptops, which can easily get thrown around or bumped. Momentarily reading a large chunk of data and leaving the HD idle for the majority of the time will be much safer for the HD heads
- Hard-drive-based portable music players read large chunks of data infrequently because it is well-known that this saves power and protects the HD in these devices.
So... is there any reason that iTunes is exempt from these reasons??
-Eric

I too have wondered about this. You'd think with 1.5GB RAM that itunes would take 3MB of it and leave my drive alone for a few minutes. I don't really feel comfortable doing drive intensive activities such as file copying while itunes is running.

Hello, I am selling my macbook silver 2.4gHz, and would like to re install and wipe the hard drive. however, i insert the snow leopard dvd( that came with my new 15" 2.3gHz), follow the support steps but after one screen, it says it cant instal - restart?

^______________________________^^^____________________________________^
What can i do.., btw im a bit of a newby for this stuff!

The grey installation DVDs supplied with Macs are specific to the computer they are supplied with. They cannot be used to install on any other Mac.
Either erase and install the OS on the old MB from it's own grey DVDs, or go and buy the retail Snow Leopard installation DVD ($29 in the US, £26 UK).

Why does iTunes sort files on the hard drive differently to on the iPod?

Hey guys! im using itunes 8.2 and my new iPod classic 120GB.
I updated all my music in iTunes so that it is now perfectly organised on my iPod. The ipod appears to organise its artists using the "artist" field not the "album artist". because of this i decided to use "artist" like the album artist and "album artist" like the usual artist field so that i still had the names of some of the featuring artists etc (example: i have a song by Air featuring Beth Hirsh. normally this would have "artist" = Air feat. Beth Hirsh and "album artist" = Air. but as the ipod organises the other way around I swapped them over.) This all went fine and my iPod is perfect, as is the itunes library itself as i just sort by "artist" and it keeps everything as i like it.
As I had managed to get that in order I thought I would then let iTunes organise the music on my hard drive. Frustratingly iTunes then decided to organise everything on the hard drive by "album artist"! which means i've got 2 folders for my Air album one under Air and one under Air feat. Beth Hirsh.
Basically what im asking (after all that waffle) is 1) why is it different and 2) can i change it?
if there is a way of changing it (which im sceptical of considering apple tend to tell you whats best and then have done with it, as they are more often than not right!) then im assuming there is more chance of changing itunes than the ipod.
Any help will be much appreciated!
thanks Andy

The problem you've run across has been inherent in iTunes & iPod software for quite some time - I suspect they don't consider it an issue or it would have been addressed by now. See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums for suggested workarounds for this and other organisational issues, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
tt2

How to wipe the hard drive on a screen-dead Powerbook G3?

The display on my 1998 G3 Wallstreet Powerbook recently went black and the computer made a noise that I understand is called The Chimes of Death, although the hard drive still makes whirring noises. My local and trustworthy Apple repair service assures me the Powerbook wouldn't be worth repairing even if they could get the parts for such an old machine.
Is there a way to wipe the hard drive and make my data irretrievable before disposing of the computer?
If there's no way to wipe the hard drive, I'd like to find out: (1) How to remove the hard drive. (2) The best way to destroy the hard drive or at least make it forever unreadable (can my shredder eat it?). (3) The correct way to dispose of a Powerbook that has heard the Chimes of Death. (From what the repair service says, I assume nobody would want it as a donation.)

Turtlewiz,
I would not be so quick to pronounce it dead:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14438
I would try the suggestions in the above article. Will it boot to a CD?
As far as wiping the drive, it is easy as long as you can see a display so you can follow the steps necessary. You just open Drive Setup in the Utilities Folder on the CD > select 'zero all data' in the Initialization Options; do it a few times if concerned.
Removing the HD is relatively easy: Just lift off the keyboard and the heat sink, then remove the HD.
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/3.0.0.html
Hit the HD a few times with a hammer and nobody will bother with it...it has a glass platter.
Nothing to offer on the recycling except Good Will may still take it as "non-working" since there are Mac users looking for such bargains.

Stuck on gray screen on install of snow leopard server....

6 core 3.3 ghz, Mac Pro, running snow leopard server.
I need to change from my current RAID5 config to RAID0. How I wanted to proceed;
1) make TM backup
2) reinstall 10.6 server from installer disk (not the machine specific one, as I lost it, and apple made me pay for a new copy even though Im still under applecare)
3) change RAID config during install
4) repopulate from TM during install
Unfortunatly.....
The installer never got past the initial apple gray screen (no time bar either).
So.....
I tried cloning the installer disk to an external usb, and booting from that.......no luck
I tried removing all my drives except 1 (3 were in raid 5, 1 was stand alone), and trying to boot off both the the usb and the dvd, no luck.
(note, when I hold down option during startup, it does see the dvd installer in the drive, and it allows me to boot from it, it just never starts the installer)
Then I tried...
Cloning a minimum version of my current system onto a usb, booting from that, then formatting my 4 drives and RAIDing them to RAID 0.
Then booting the installer.....no luck
Then I repopulated the new RAID0 array with my minimum system version, so that I had an OS back on the RAID array
Then booting the installer......no luck
(and reset PR all the time....)
I do not want to go through and drag and drog hundreds of folders from TM to the new system.
I want to resintall from scratch, and have the installer repopulate from my TM backup (because that's its job!)
any suggestions?
(frustrated)
-a

"Look at that article. It says if you have a Mac OS X 10.6 running on your Mac's Hard Drive, and double-click on Install Mac OS X Server Icon on the DVD, it will give you a INSTALL button instead of a RESTART button (beacues you have a LATER version of Mac OS X already Installed on the Hard drive)."
Yes, that's what I see now, and it hangs as stated.
Even if it says "Install" when you click "Install" it then goes on to inform you, that it will restart to begin the installation (where it hangs)
BUT I also tried WIPING the entire system (no OS whatsoever), reformatting the drives using a bootable usb (so NO OSX running on my Mac's hard drive), and it still hung.
The bottom line is, no matter how you install, it has to restart the machine in order to unmount the startup disk, and boot from the DvD.
Booting from the DvD, makes it hang
"Do you have your "bare-bones" Mac OS X fully updated to 10.6.8? If not, I suggest you do that first."
Yes it is.

MacBook stuck at gray screen during start up

Lately my 2008 model MacBook has been freezing up. When I shut it down, it starts up just fine, however, the last two times I've shut it down, it gets stuck at the gray screen during start up. The first time, I was unsuccessful with a Safe Boot, however I was successful using CommandOption+PR to reset my NVRAM/PRAM. It has been working fine for the past two days, but it froze again this evening. I tried Safe Booting, removing peripherals, resetting the NVRAM/PRAM and I even was able to repair the disk and the permissions, but still, I am unsuccessful during a start up.
When I did try to "Perform an Archive and Install installation of Mac OS X", it said my computer was not able to install 10.5 (I run 10.6) because it did not meet the system requirements.
As a final effort, I tried doing another SafeBoot, this time viewing the status. It has been stuck at a console screen that reads "disk0s2: media is not present...." for about ten minutes now, if that helps at all.
Any advice on how to fix this would be highly appreciated. And yes, I have read the Gray screen article
Zach Irwin

Your hard drive may be damaged or requires reformatting. You might try this to start:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
If you still are unable to restart or if DU cannot repair the drive or the SMART status is not "verified" then you can try reformatting the drive to see if that fixes the problem, otherwise you will have to replace the drive.
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
And, you cannot do an Archive and Install of Leopard over a Snow Leopard installation. You have to reinstall using the Snow Leopard installer.

IMac with gray screen (one seen during display not the one with an apple)

I have an imac with a gray screen (not the gray screen with apple that you get for hard drive/motherboard trouble)
Someone said it may be the video card but Idk if that is right.
Let me know if you can help!
Thanks!

Mac book is starting up funny. I have a flashing folder and question mark or just a grey screen. IT at university is backed up all week and said it's the hard drive! Ugh need help in class now will be calling ASAP! Help please.

I get either a grey screen or a flashing folder question mark. IT at my university said it wouldn't be till after the weekend and than still a few days to get it fixed so she told me to try to back it up myself because that's the only sure fire way to ensure I get all my Info. So any hints or help? They did a hardware test and they think it's my hard drive. I did a r+command restart
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Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD:
Boot From The Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

I'm getting the grey screen during start up and can't boot the computer. I did a cmnd R but worried it would automatically wipe my hard drive and reinstall OS. Is there a risk at cmnd R will result in wiped HD without me actively making that choice?

I'm getting the grey screen during start up and can't boot the computer - MacBook Pro with lion.
I did a command r after doing some research but got nervous that it would automatically wipe my hard drive and reinstall OS.
I was nervous because it asked me for language for software use before any options were presented (such as repair via disk utility). It looked similar to an OS install.So I powered off....Is there a risk at command r will result in wiped HD without me actively making that choice?

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is
three times faster than wireless.

Stuck at gray screen. Does OS X install wipe the hard drive?

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