Won't boot OSX, how to open disc tray to put in repair or install disc?

My iBook G3 600 won't boot to the desktop, it hangs on the startup/spinning wheel. Can someone suggest a variety of good common sense solutions?
Also, how does one open the disc tray (to put in the original install and/or repair disc) if the tray won't open by pressing F12 during the failed startup?

Hi Ronda.
Thanks for the target mode article. An earlier attempt to run the iBook G3/10.4 as a target disc resulted in the MacBook Pro not being able to recognize/see the G3's drive, which seems to confirm my suspicion that there is major corruption or disc failure on the iBook.
My needs now seem to center around data recovery (if possible) and then attempting to replace the iBook HD.
As regards data recovery/disc repair, have you used or had success with TechTool Pro 4? I have TechTool Deluxe as part of my MacBook AppleCare program and may decide to upgrade to the Pro version, if merited. The app should work with my G3, which runs OS 10.4 (but not 10.5).
Also, have you attempted a HD replacement on a G3? iFixit.com offers detailed instructions. While it seems do-able for a layperson like myself, it does involve a near complete disassembly of the case, shield, housing, etc.
Finally, and apropos of nothing, have you attempted to put 10.5 on your G3? My understanding is that 10.5 exceeds the G3 specs.

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E-Mac won't boot up - need to open CD tray

My e-Mac will not boot up. I had this problem last week and resolved it over the phone with tech support. Now I know how to resolve it, but I can't get my CD tray open to insert the CD to archive and install.

dana ga...
First open the Apple logo cover with your fingernail or even with some balled up tape to stick on it and gently pull it open. Next looking at the physical CD drive you should see a small emergency eject hole that is normally off center to the left. You can insert a straightened paperclip to carefully unlock the tray and gently pull it open. Add needed CD and gently push the tray into the drive. Boot with the C key-cap depressed and you should be in control.
...Ron
PS... I was writing this in the process of your response to Dave. You may wish to keep this handy for future reference.

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@Thomas: good shot -- the problem is scsi related but not as simple as card compatibility
@Ali: as I said, firmware is uptodate. Rev2 has NewWold ROM so KB Article you refer to does not apply.
I spent a few hours fiddling with hardware, starting by installing the card I used in G4 to install OSX. It worked just fine in G3, so I rebuilt original configuration step by step. To make the story short, I have 2 SCSI drives and 1 ATA drive. If both SCSI drives are on the same bus, the boot hangs. If I put them on two different buses, OSX boots fine. At first glance it looks like SCSI ID conflict but it ain't -- each drive has a unique ID. Also, G3 boots fine into OS9 with both drives on the same bus. The OSX boot hangs also if I put a SCSI scanner on a bus with a hard drive, but works fine if I put it on another bus. No such problems under OS9. So, it seems that each SCSI bus can handle only one physical device under OSX.

Mac won't boot. How can I copy files off HDD before reinstalling OS

This morning the Mac failed to boot. I used the OPTION /boot procedure and tried to repair the boot disk, but the disk utility failed to complete the repair, indicating it could not be repaired.
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1. The volume was write-locked because it's corrupt. This invariably means that the drive has malfunctioned.
2. You can choose an alternative boot volume by holding down the option key at the startup chime.

WINDOWS 8.0/8.1 Won't Boot/'Drive Locked' ? - Before doing anything drastic (like format and re-install...

Beg or borrow a WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION DISK to recover Boot Entry/ies
Loads quicker than WIN 8 DVD and repairs (quick) whereas WIN 8 [PRO/RP/CP & 8.1 PRE]
never have in 18 months of tryouts (have multiboot installations)
Try it out, won't make things worse - Windows 7 Installation DVD

@iceblue678
You certainly can, but if you're running Windows 8 or 8.1, you already have a DVD/USB
Installation device.
However, if something goes wrong, and Windows won't boot, the WINDOWS 7 DVD
could be your first port of call
It may avoid having to format (optional) and reinstall, thus losing your settings and Applications
AND Data
Don't really understand the point you're making just as you don't seem to understand the post
May have expressed it badly, for which apologies...

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You can eject the tray by holding the mouse button down while it boots. Try a USB mouse & keyboard if you have one, but a bluetooth one should work.
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My 27" iMac (2009) won't boot OSX from the internal drive

Here's a fun problem. After installing Sophos anti-virus and starting a (VERY slow) full scan, a day or two later I found my iMac frozen at the screensaver. It was completely unresponsive so I did a hard reboot, at which point it got as far as starting to boot Lion (apple logo on screen, spinning indicator showing) before stalling indefinitely in that state with the indicator spinning.
I restarted and booted from the recovery partition, launched disk utility, and discovered that the SMART status of the drive was "failing". The machine would still boot from the recovery partition and my boot camp partition, but I assumed that the disk failing was why the OSX partition wouldn't boot (the recovery partition worked, as did the windows 7 bootcamp partition). I replaced the factory-installed internal HDD with another of the same make, model, and capacity (Seagate 1TB), and performed a restore from the Time Machine backup on my Drobo.
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You have a serious drive issue that likely can't be repaired that way.
Follow the data recovery efforts here, your drive still works and thus data can be recovered, won't be easy
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3172
If you have your data off the machine, to a storage drive (or earlier with TM)
then hold command r keys and use Disk Utility to Erase the Lion Partiton with Zero option, and reinstall Lion from Apple's servers.
use the same name (important), different password ok Software Update fully
install your programs from fresh orignal sources and return files into their respective folders
once your stable, read the backup proceedures here etc.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents
note, don't move your computer while it's operating

MacBook Pro mid 2009 won't boot OSX

Since today i have a strange problem booting into Mac. This is how it started out:
I was inside of Mac, and decided to reboot to Windows, to play a match of MW2. I forgot to use the ALT button, so Mac was already booting. I used the on/off switch to turn it off before i started it again. This time i did use the ALT button, and i booted into Windows. I decided later on to boot back to OSX, and it didn't give me any problems.
I wanted to mount a DVD ISO file to watch, and when i mounted it my user account got logged off. I logged back in and tried it again, same problem.
I decided to reboot the system, but this time something wierd happend. Along with the Apple logo i got a grey progress bar, wich went till about 25%. After this bar dissapeared it was just the Apple logo with the rotating gear, and it didn't go any further.
I tried using the installdisk to repair my OSX partition, but whenever i try to repair i get the following:
Repairing volume completed.
Updating startup support partitions where necessary.
Error: Diskaid cannot repair this disk
(original messages were in dutch, so in translated it. Could be different from the english messages)
Diskaid also shows my OSX partition as grey, instead of the normal black. I can't seem to be able to activate tis volume in Diskaid
After this i tried running Apple Hardware Test, and it didn't give me any errors.
The strange thing is that Windows(bootcamp ofcourse) runs fine. It's Mac OSX that cannot boot.
I don't have backups, and no Time Machine either. Is there a way to get my OSX back up again without having to reinstall everything? Especially because of certain installed Audio Units. I don't have the original license codes anymore of same AU's, so it would be a real pain if i need to reinstall this again.
I'm using this mac:
MacBook Pro 15"2,66GHz mid 2009
500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
Hope you can help, i really need this one to be back up as soon as possible!
Thanks in advance!

Your options are:
1. DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory. Or,
2. Erase & Install

Macbook Pro won't boot OSX after Yosemite upgrade 10.10.3

I downloaded the update to 10.10.3 this morning before driving my daughter to daycare. When I came back, my Macbook Pro had rebooted into Windows 7 (Boot Camp). I restarted it by telling it to reboot to OSX, but it boots Windows again. If I turn it off completely, and then turn it on again, there's no chime... just a black screen for about 30 seconds, followed by "Starting Windows". I'm about to reboot to try resetting NVRAM and SMC, but I don't know if that's going to work without the chime...
I really need OSX to get going, so any help appreciated.

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. All other data will be preserved.
*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

IMac won't boot OsX Partition after Bootcamp install/uninstall.

Hello,
I have bought 2 late 2012 21.5 iMacs last year and have used both the same way. Here is what happened with one of them recently.
Fisrt af all I've installed bootcamp 1 year ago in both iMacs without issues and was ok so far, and was using exclusively Windows 7 partition. The trouble iMac started with some startup issues during boot/reboot (screen was frozen with green/grey horizontal lines), but worked fine after following manual start up.
Lately I've been trying to boot from OsX partition and it freezes in the apple logo every time.
I have already done the SMC / PRAM procedures, without success.
I have tried to download and do a fresh OsX install (Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite). Can't boot from Mavericks / Yosemite flash drive install (both freeze at apple logo - horizontal lines), and only had partial success with one Mountain Lion 10.8.5 flash drive install that booted all right and the first part of the installation process was ok, but after the initial reboot, it happened to freeze the same way before.
The iMac failed to boot in safe mode (stops booting at 25% and then freezes on apple logo), and show no issues with AHT tests.
I can boot in single user mode, but it reboots after a few seconds. I noticed some errors messages during this boot.
It fails to boot in verbose mode, showing a few lines of errors (images attached), and then freezes in a green horizontal line screen.
I can still boot from Bootcamp flash drive and Ubuntu Flash drive, and install both OS. The only issue is with OsX itself. I have used Gparted in Ubuntu to Format the hole partition to HFS+, and can't find any errors in hard drive tests.
I thought about buying a thunderbolt cable and try to do a Clone of my other iMac, but don't know if it will work.
Any other tests/suggestions about this issue?
Regards,

Fixed the problem with this setup
Of course this means i just lost 4GB.
Let me tell the full story.
In the beginning, long ago, once upon a time. My iMac had 2x2GB ram sticks which were in the two DIMM1 Banks. I then told myself "I WANT MORE RAM BECAUSE LOLZ". So i bought 2x4GB ram sticks. The two empty slots were Bank 0/DIMM0 and Bank 1/DIMM 0. and I added them in there. having done that, I booted OS X up, worked great, had 12GB, everything was shiny and beautiful. Soon after I wanted to try it out on windows. I restarted my computer and BAM the blinking cursor just sits there, being stubborn and all. I then told myself "holy balls, this new ram i got is bonkers" (them words, I blame the language filter). Then after giving it a little thought, i just asked myself if it was because I had ram from two different manufacturers. I removed my old ram, which has nice Samsung stickers on them, and booted it up on windows. Still had the same problem, I then decided that maybe this is all really mentally challenged so to win I had to think like a retard. I took my new ram and inserted it in the same slots where my old ram sticks were (DIMM1 Banks), booted windows up and IT WORKED.
I still hold all of my WHYs on this subject but I will keep messing around to see if I find a better solution than just leaving both DIMM0 banks empty

How to OPEN downloaded Photoshop Elements 10 on my hard drive disc?

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 10 DOWNLOADED ONTO MY HARD DRIVE DISC BUT DOES NOT SHOW AS ONE OF THE PROGRAMS ON MY COMPUTER AND I CAN NOT OPEN IT SO THAT I CAN USE IT...
WHAT TO DO?

Thank you for your support, Jeff!
Had to download again and this time did not have any problems in opening it.
I do feel frustrated with the uninspiring gray background of this software
and a few other things and would like to switch to some other software that
is more for DESIGNING than for fixing and editing photos.
For instance, which software would have the ability to create greeting
cards of my own, not just by attaching
photos to previously designed cards?
Many thanks,
Liliana Mahadevi

I have a virus. I would like to wipe hard drive clean and re-boot osx. how do I do that?

help?

Well, if you want to erase and install here's how it is done:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard 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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
      the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

Won't boot OSX, how to open disc tray to put in repair or install disc?

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