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Barbara M - Computer not booting

B

Barbara M

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2012
12
0
ok, i am COMPLETELY lost :( and confessedly ignorant....trying to figure out why my mac that was working fine, is now not wanting to boot...have tried reading forums and following steps, but either don't understand exactly what to do or afraid going to really mess something up :/ bought it used...is "old" relatively speaking but was working fine...grand daughter did a shutdown in what i think was the wrong way....just turned it off with the power button.... tried to start again recently and won't load completely get to stage with blue screen that has the OS Xand "loading" bar that is filled in with blue....and rotating multicolor circle...but the loading bar has a small white space at the end and it never will go on and complete loading....HELP, please....in SUPER simple language :/

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i can get to the installer screen, but afraid where to go from there and/or can get to/open disk utility and have done some of the functions, but again i'm afraid just lost :/

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can also get to choose start up disk function ....there are three choices...network startup (which i don't think i can use) ...Mac OS X, 10.3.3 ON eMac Restore DVD (which i would think to use except...) then i have the choice Mac OS X, 10.3.9 on Macintosh HD.....(this to my fairly ignorant self looks like an upgraded version???) just not even sure where to go from here???
 
Barbara M said:
ok, i am COMPLETELY lost :( and confessedly ignorant....trying to figure out why my mac that was working fine, is now not wanting to boot...have tried reading forums and following steps, but either don't understand exactly what to do or afraid going to really mess something up :/ bought it used...is "old" relatively speaking but was working fine...grand daughter did a shutdown in what i think was the wrong way....just turned it off with the power button.... tried to start again recently and won't load completely get to stage with blue screen that has the OS Xand "loading" bar that is filled in with blue....and rotating multicolor circle...but the loading bar has a small white space at the end and it never will go on and complete loading....HELP, please....in SUPER simple language :/

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i can get to the installer screen, but afraid where to go from there and/or can get to/open disk utility and have done some of the functions, but again i'm afraid just lost :/
Click to expand...

Ok, you said you could get to the installer screen, and that's fine. But do you have the original installation discs? If so, insert the disc and then hold down the power button until the computer shuts off. Once it's off, press the power button again and hold down the "option" key until it gives you the option to boot from the CD.

Do that and then open disk utility. Once in that application, select the Macintosh HD and then on the right, select repair disk. Once it finishes the repair and verification, shut it down and then restart it normally to see if that worked.
 
trying this...

ok, i've done the repair disk, do i also need to click on the verify disk? and when you say shut down normally and reboot is "shutting down" with the power button the normal way to shut down? thanks!!!!

as typing this in green under "repair attempted on 1 volume" says "HFS volume repaired"
 
Barbara M said:
ok, i've done the repair disk, do i also need to click on the verify disk? and when you say shut down normally and reboot is "shutting down" with the power button the normal way to shut down? thanks!!!!

as typing this in green under "repair attempted on 1 volume" says "HFS volume repaired"
Click to expand...

Awesome. You can click verify disk if you want, but I wouldn't say it's necessary given the fact that you've repaired it already. And no, shutting down normally would be using the Menu Bar to do that. Then once it's shut down, give it a few seconds(maybe even a minute) and then start it up again.

And please let me know how that goes.
 
yes, i know what a floppy drive is....have the dvd reboot in right now if need....but can't get the menu bar to let me use the shut down function :/

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basically won't let me access the main menu bar at all...
 
Barbara M said:
yes, i know what a floppy drive is....have the dvd reboot in right now if need....but can't get the menu bar to let me use the shut down function :/

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basically won't let me access the main menu bar at all...
Click to expand...

Well then just shut it down by holding down the power button. It's not the best way, but it is designed to do that. Then restart it after that.
 
shoud i quit the installer first also? ...leave disk in or remove before shut down?
 
did as directed....but didn't take dvd out before hand, just reopened/loaded to the installer screen/function..
 
Barbara M said:
did as directed....but didn't take dvd out before hand, just reopened/loaded to the installer screen/function..
Click to expand...

Ok, then restart the computer again, but this time hold down the "option" key to give you the option of booting into the Macintosh HD as it normally should. Then once it boots into the OS, eject the disc.
 
no it doesn't ....the ONLY way i can seem to get ANY drop down menu options at all is too restart with the install/restore disk inserted and the C held down as it boots... otherwise all i still get is the blue screen...Mac OS X with gray two toned apple and the loading bar (has blue scrolling/loading inside it) that looks like it's going to go ahead and complete loading but doesn't....should i go ahead and carry out the install function?

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and with that i have to unplug it...and restart ....just using the button to turn off/sut down and restart doesn't work :(

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shut, not sut :/...tired and frustrated with this :/
 
Barbara M said:
no it doesn't ....the ONLY way i can seem to get ANY drop down menu options at all is too restart with the install/restore disk inserted and the C held down as it boots... otherwise all i still get is the blue screen...Mac OS X with gray two toned apple and the loading bar (has blue scrolling/loading inside it) that looks like it's going to go ahead and complete loading but doesn't....should i go ahead and carry out the install function?

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and with that i have to unplug it...and restart ....just using the button to turn off/sut down and restart doesn't work :(

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shut, not sut :/...tired and frustrated with this :/
Click to expand...

The install function would reformat and then reinstall the OS which means you would lose all your information. If that's ok with you, then it might not be a bad idea. I honestly don't know why the steps I offered didn't work.
 
i just bought this second hand...don't really have a lot saved on it at this point... don't know if the previous owner does...so as long as would "function" not really concerned about losing any items

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ok, it's telling me i cannot install Mac OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click Options to change settings. A newer version of Mac OS X is installed...which is what i had anticipated, so where do i go from here, and is there really much difference in the two versions?

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my choices are Anrchive and Install...and with this can either preserve users and network settings or not.....OR i can Erase and Install .....and then gives choice if erase and install of formatting disk as either Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or UNIX File System....SOOOOO lost, lol
 
If you're not worried about losing anything then do an Erase and Install, using Mac OS Extended (Journalled).
 
thanks :))) will try it :) how long should it take?

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someone on another site said something about their being a difference in which disk you put in when you're trying to get this to run...is there anything to this that i should try before i do the full reinstall?
 
Barbara M said:
i just bought this second hand...don't really have a lot saved on it at this point... don't know if the previous owner does...so as long as would "function" not really concerned about losing any items

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ok, it's telling me i cannot install Mac OS X on this volume without changing your install settings. Click Options to change settings. A newer version of Mac OS X is installed...which is what i had anticipated, so where do i go from here, and is there really much difference in the two versions?

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my choices are Anrchive and Install...and with this can either preserve users and network settings or not.....OR i can Erase and Install .....and then gives choice if erase and install of formatting disk as either Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or UNIX File System....SOOOOO lost, lol
Click to expand...

As long as you don't mind losing whatever information is on there, than I would erase and install. You can always upgrade the OS later if you want. And yes, MAC OS Extended(Journaled).

Nermal said:
If you're not worried about losing anything then do an Erase and Install, using Mac OS Extended (Journalled).
Click to expand...

Agreed
 
and to upgrade the system later i would need to what? buy a new version? ...not planning on using this system online...
 
Barbara M said:
and to upgrade the system later i would need to what? buy a new version? ...not planning on using this system online...
Click to expand...

Yes, you would have to buy a new version, but you can probably find a snow leopard disc online using another computer. Which iMac is it by the way? And which OS are you going to be installing? Because depending on which iMac it is, it might not even be able to run the latest OS and would make upgrading the OS a moot point.

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Barbara M said:
thanks :))) will try it :) how long should it take?

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someone on another site said something about their being a difference in which disk you put in when you're trying to get this to run...is there anything to this that i should try before i do the full reinstall?
Click to expand...

I think everything you're doing is fine.
 
it's an eMac desktop and i'm installing 10.3.3...the hardrive showed the current version as 10.7 something i think....can't remember right now...

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when i pull up the disk utility it shows the macintosh HD and then it also shows a 37.3 GB ST340015A....that looks like it has partitions??? clueless here really, lol

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and while we're here...what does the mount and unmount do? and what does the enable or disable journaling do?
 
Barbara M said:
it's an eMac desktop and i'm installing 10.3.3...the hardrive showed the current version as 10.7 something i think....can't remember right now...

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when i pull up the disk utility it shows the macintosh HD and then it also shows a 37.3 GB ST340015A....that looks like it has partitions??? clueless here really, lol

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and while we're here...what does the mount and unmount do? and what does the enable or disable journaling do?
Click to expand...

How did the other owner get OS X Lion on that computer? Crazy. And the standard HD(if yours is the 2005 model with a 1.42 GHz PowerPC) is 80GB. I would just reformat the whole thing and not worry about the partitions. Mount just means attach or connect, unmount means the opposite. Journaling is indexing the information so that searching is much faster.
 
Nermal said:
The "10.7 something" would probably be 10.4.7 or similar :)


It's more of a log of filesystem changes, making recovery faster after a crash. The search index is completely different.
Click to expand...

The 10.4.7 makes more sense. And this logging also makes more sense. Thanks for the correction.
 
Hello,

Hopefully you're making progress.

If you haven't already erased the hard drive, I have 1 more suggestion for you. Turn on the computer and hold the shift key until you see the apple logo. This will boot into safe mode.
I have used this to fix a partition that won't boot before. Loading the minimum amount of drivers seems to un-stick whatever was causing the startup to hang.

If you've booted off of the install disk, then the 'shut down' menu option is greyed out. If you quit the installer, the computer will shut down (or restart, I don't recall).

If you want to do a clean install, then you need to boot off of the install disk.
Use disk utility to delete all of the partitions on the hard drive.
Create a new partition.
Exit disk utility.
Use the install disk to install OS X onto the partition you just created.

Good luck!!!
 
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