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24 inch iMac wont boot to OSX

m11rphy

m11rphy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 26, 2009
642
372
Hi All,


A friend has a 24 inch iMac (No idea of Year / Model) When you turn it on you get a white screen with the apple logo and a grey progress bar. The progress bar take about 30 min to complete and then the iMac shuts off. I have tried to boot into safe mode but the same behaviour is repeated. I managed to get in to disk utility and tried to repair the hard drive but this had no effect. The only option I can think off is to format the drive and reinstall OSX, however we the drive has all of his family photos on and he has no back-up.


Has anyone got any recommendations on how to back up the drive or any other Ideas to get the iMac to boot OSX?
 
If you live close enough, I would take it in to an Apple Store and have them A)Diagnose the problem, and B)Make a backup of the drive to a USB hard drive that you inform your friend to buy and take in with it.
 
I wouldn't format the exisiting drive - that would destroy your friends data. I would format a new hard drive, put whatever version of os x on that, then use a data recovery tool (Disk Drill or Tech Tool Pro) to try and recover your friends pictures/data.
 
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Razzerman said:
I wouldn't format the exisiting drive - that would destroy your friends data. I would format a new hard drive, put whatever version of os x on that, then use a data recovery tool (Disk Drill or Tech Tool Pro) to try and recover your friends pictures/data.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to download old versions of OSX? Im sure there is no way this thing will run High Sierra
 
Razzerman said:
It is possible, but your friend hopefully still has the discs his mac came with. I'd take out the original drive, put the new drive in, and boot/install from the original disc(s). If it is a 24" imac, it may well boot from Tiger (Mac os 10.4).

Also, have a look at this - it may be of use https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/127186/No+boot+from+any+device+(DVD,+HDD,+etc.)
Click to expand...
If the internal hard rive is gone would the mac be useable using an external HD as the boot drive?
 
Yes, but the external HD will need to have an operating system your friend's imac will recognise. Start by identifying which 24" imac it is. Personally, I'd be trying to boot from DVD and install the os from there to the new drive. An external hard drive caddy would be of use, either for installing the os onto, and/or extracting data from the original drive.
 
m11rphy said:
If the internal hard rive is gone would the mac be useable using an external HD as the boot drive?
Click to expand...

That to me seems the best (easiest, cheap) option to try.
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m11rphy said:
If the internal hard rive is gone would the mac be useable using an external HD as the boot drive?
Click to expand...

Yes that would be an option but I have just read through the ifixit answer posted above and wholly recommend following that procedure through, it tests all the parts of your computer's boot procedure, its very good.
 
The 24" white Intel iMac (it could be an earlier g5, does it have screws on the back?) was last produced in early 2007. So... it's 10+ years old.

Not worth paying to have fixed.
I wouldn't recommend it -- and I OWN a 2006-vintage white 24" iMac (that still runs).

If you don't mind opening it up, it's possible to physically REMOVE the internal hard drive, put it into a USB3/SATA dock, and try to mount it on the desktop of a "working" Mac and access (and "copy off") the data that's on it.

You can't mount a Mac-formatted drive on a PC without special software.
 
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