Did my iMac or it’s HD just die? Can i be sure? Can only boot in recovery mode

[chestbox]

Have a late iMac 2012, was running high sierra.

Tbh, i accepted connections warned by little snitch, but it was when trying to open a bunch of websites in firefox that i always use in chrome, so i did not think much of it. i’m not sure if this is relevant or not, but its the last thing i did before everything started lagging and i had to force quit everything and shutdown my mac. Yet again, i could just have too much stuff open? Excuse my ignorance.

After, it would just shut down a few times when trying to boot until eventually it booted in recovery mode, which is all it does now.

I could not run first aid, getting the error “first aid process has failed. if possible back up the data on this volume.”

Now whenever i try to run first aid, it just freezes. Mostly with the message “it should be 1 instead of 2”

It works on the disk container (i think thats how its called). But on the disk itself it just freezes.

I tried accessing safe mode but just get the not allowed sign (🚫) and it boots in recovery mode again.

In disk utility it also shows me that my HD has around 650gb free, but i barely had 100gb free before this.



Wtf happened? Is my data gone? Or just the os and the installed software?

Any recommendations on what i should do? Is installing the os again safe, for whatever data is still on the drive?

Im completely lost about this

 

[DeltaMac]

This would be the time that you boot to an external drive, with a system installed on it -- such as High Sierra.
Boot to that, then try Disk Utility/First Aid on your internal drive. You will sometimes get different results from that, compared to what you have now, which sounds like you are booting into internet recovery. It will show a rotating globe during boot, instead of the usual Apple icon, meaning that you are booting through your internet connection to Apple's remote servers.
If you don't have a bootable full system, maybe you have a bootable USB with a macOS system installer. That would also give you another choice for Disk Utility.

But, it sounds like you have a simple hard drive failure. Is this the original hard drive, maybe the 1TB size?
The intermittent shutdowns during boot is another symptom of a possible failing hard drive. (Runs checks on the drive during boot - if it fails a test, it tries again. After 3 attempts, you get a hard shutdown.)

 

[chestbox]

I really appreciate the reply!

I dont have a bootable system on an external drive, neither do i have a bootable usb thumb drive.

Will get one asap. Is one recommended over the other, or is the process easier for an ext drive vs a thumb drive? Is it possible under my circumstances to install an OS directly to the drive? Or must it be done from a working mac?



I actually dont get the spinning globe, so I’m assuming its normal recovery mode?



And yes, its the original 1tb HD. Im pretty sure i tried 3 times before it went into recovery mode.

 

[DeltaMac]

Ah, yeah, you'll need some kind of external, whether a thumb drive (for a macOS installer) or better yet an external USB drive of some kind. I have drives that have both: a bootable installer partition, and a bootable system installed from that installer on its own partition. I have drives that have multiple sets of installers and full system installs. (I can boot just about any Mac back to, well, really old Macs. I haven't done any beyond about 20 years old for a long time, but I probably have something in a box somewhere.)
You would need another working Mac to make a bootable installer, but I have read about users who used a Windows PC to make a bootable installer for a Mac. I have never been successful with that, but I've got too many Macs here. I don't need to try a "foreign" computer for a workaround.
Bootable USB with a macOS installer are not too hard to find... like this
If you have no other sources, it should be worth the (possible) risk...