Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Big trouble? Help please

trellaine

trellaine

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
154
19
West Coast
I have a mid 2011 iMac with updated operating system. I also have an external drive with an operating system. Their was a big power loss in my city, 50,000 homes. When I power on the Mac I get a folder with a question mark which means no operating system found? I am able to boot up using the operating system from the external drive BUT the pop up says it’s not initialized? So the only thing I see in the finder is “remote disc”. :(

Does anyone know what’s happening ? Or how to hopefully at least get the external drive working and showing?

thanks
 
Sounds like your drive didn’t survive the power loss/surge. When you boot using the external drive, does your internal drive appear in disk utility? Or will it still not boot using an external, the wording is a little confusing in your post.
 
first, thanks for your reply. Secondly, my communication sucks with technology. Nowhere does my internal drive show. The only thing showing is my external drive. I’ll post a picture of what it shows. I now wonder how to get my computer to boot up from the external drive and keep the data that’s on it.
 

Attachments

  • 7C50847C-1B8D-4F26-BBF3-7E0F8B7ABC38.jpeg
    7C50847C-1B8D-4F26-BBF3-7E0F8B7ABC38.jpeg
    458.5 KB · Views: 323
DeltaMac said:
In that Disk Utility window, click on the View icon, and choose "Show All Devices"
Click to expand...
Nothing else listed. :(...... it does look like the external drive is ok and data is there. When I boot up from the external drive I get the following “the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer” and the external drive shows in the finder as “remote disc”. Thus i Can’t access data. I hope I can get data back from the external drive. Thanks

i can still use Chrome despite all this.
 
Ok, I’m seeing a drive called ST-m13... media. That may be your internal drive, or it could be something else. Can you try to click the mount button in disk utility, or run first aid?
 
profcutter said:
Ok, I’m seeing a drive called ST-m13... media. That may be your internal drive, or it could be something else. Can you try to click the mount button in disk utility, or run first aid?
Click to expand...
No idea what ST-m13 is but it’s only 4.14gb. First aid runs fine, no errors. Mount is greyed out. My Samsung (external) I can run first aid without errors. Mount is greyed out. The Samsung is showing 283gb used space and 215gb free space.
 
Just a follow up. I’m booted up and using Chrome. When I open the finder it shows the default applications. And also shows 30 mp4 which I downloaded and these sit on my external drive. Weird?
 
The ST_M13FQBL media is your internal hard drive, probably a Seagate spinner. More than likely the Macintosh HD partition is broken. What you're seeing (4.14GB) is probably the EFI partition or the unbroken part of the drive.

Now you say you're booted up. Booted up from what? The Samsung T5 or the internal Seagate?
 
Samsung T5. I had operating systems on the internal drive as well as external. The only data I see is a few vid files. Tonnes are missing. As well all the applications I added are missing. And as mentioned before the Samsung t5 is listed under devices as remote disc. Thanks
 
Also weird my fan is running so loud. Yikes. Must be toast. I was just hoping I could get everything that was or is on my Samsung.
 
trellaine said:
Also weird my fan is running so loud. Yikes. Must be toast. I was just hoping I could get everything that was or is on my Samsung.
Click to expand...
Since you lost your internal HDD , You also lost the HDD Temp Sensor, or at least the sensor doesnt know the HDD is Bad so it's running full speed since it can't check the HDD temperature.
This also happens when You replace the internal HDD with a third party HDD.

Download SSD Fan Control so You can at least make the fan go Slow and quiet.
 
Last edited:
Aww ok so the internal is gone? :( and regarding the fan. Its only happened once and I think the computer shutdown. Would that make sense?
 
Okay, it does sound like the Seagate has crashed. Since you have a 2011 iMac, getting into it to change out the HDD is not as difficult as the newer iMacs are. Keep in mind about the temp sensor that was mentioned above.

Any new HDD you replace the Seagate with will need the temp sensor or you can bypass it if you use a SSD instead. There are good instructions at both www.macsales.com and www.ifixit.com.
 
  • Like
Reactions: trellaine
Is that why my finder shows my Samsung as remote? becasue I have no internal drive? And any reason I lost some data on the external drive after the power outage.
 
trellaine said:
Okay. Thanks very much for all your help and guidance. I turned the Mac off. Due to the fan.
Click to expand...
Hoy can still use it, download an app called SSD FAN CONTROL, it and the HDD fan put a value of 1100 rpm in manual mode. That Will do. When You replace it , if You don't provide the sensor, You can select Smart mode and the app Will do the job monitoring the disk and controlling the fan according to the temp. You just need to select the app to Start along with the system.

 
  • Like
Reactions: trellaine
Ok thanks. I’ll have a look. Much appreciated. Done. :)

It’s too bad about my internal drive. Damn power outage.
 
Last edited:
my Mac goes to sleep and doesn’t come back on. Although I see the green light flash on the external drive.
 
OP:

Can you boot to INTERNET recovery?
Command-OPTION-R
...at boot.

This is different from "the recovery partition". Not the same thing.
It takes a while to load.
If you're using wifi, you'll need your wifi password.

Give it a try and get back to us.

From internet recovery, try going to disk utility, choose show all devices.
If you see the internal drive (ST_M13FQBL), click on it and try the repair disk option.

Was this a fusion drive iMac?
It's possible that something has gone wrong with the "fusion" itself.
But... if it's a fusion drive you should see TWO internal drives:
- small SSD
and
- platter-based HDD
(we seem to be seeing ONLY ONE of the two internal drives).
 
Thanks. I’ll try that. I added the external drive about a year ago, installed the OS hoping it would speed things up. It didn’t make much difference. I only use the external as space. So not a fusion. I think the most confusing thing is I had lots of files on the external drive. After the outage most files are gone. I find that strange and wonder where the rest went. My external storage shows a lot more is used. I guess the rest of the files are corrupt?

ill try your suggestion, it can’t hurt. I’m pretty sure the internal drive has stopped. I haven’t been able to see it since the power outage. I only see that small media ST-M13. I’ve never ever seen that. I have no idea what it is or does. Fun times.

At this point I wish I could see al the data on the external drive.
 
Is it possible that you have multiple partitions (or in APFS speak: volumes, but it seems that your external SSD is HFS+-formatted) on that external drive? You say you never really used the OS installed on this drive but rather utilized it for storing data. It's feasible that you have a separate partition that you will have to repair and then mount manually since it might have become corrupted.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Can you boot to INTERNET recovery?
Command-OPTION-R
...at boot.

This is different from "the recovery partition". Not the same thing.
It takes a while to load.
If you're using wifi, you'll need your wifi password.

Give it a try and get back to us.

From internet recovery, try going to disk utility, choose show all devices.
If you see the internal drive (ST_M13FQBL), click on it and try the repair disk option.

Was this a fusion drive iMac?
It's possible that something has gone wrong with the "fusion" itself.
But... if it's a fusion drive you should see TWO internal drives:
- small SSD
and
- platter-based HDD
(we seem to be seeing ONLY ONE of the two internal drives).
Click to expand...

There is no option to repair. Only first aid. Which I’ve done before. See photo attached. What is the item under disk images? The operating system? Thanks
 

Attachments

  • F0AB23A6-11F8-498B-A87C-D4A31335CE4A.jpeg
    F0AB23A6-11F8-498B-A87C-D4A31335CE4A.jpeg
    362 KB · Views: 250
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back