don't DIY on your iMac

[Sepp]

Have the 27" model with 1TB HDD - did install my own SSD drive with OSX, and placed the home folder and all other stuff onto the internal stock HDD. Everything worked perfectly by then...

Last Saturday I swapped the 1Tb HDD for a 2TB Caviar Black: I first connected the Caviar externally to copy all the contents of the 1TB to it - I also did change the home folder location as explained in some online instructions. After that I powered the iMac down, and swapped the drives. The only thing I did after that was playing with the temperature sensor cable (I wasn't sure how to connect it right, but after trying the different possibilities I eventually got it right.

The machine was then up and running - everything was fine.

When I today got to my mac, it was turned off (I thought I had only put it to sleep, but I am not sure about that), so I turned it on, but it won't start into OSX.

The thing it did/does: The first time it went past the initial Apple logo, and then jumped to a light blue screen, where it remained, until I powered it off, and restarted it. Since then it does not come any further than the initial Apple logo.

I thought the HDD swap and the fact that the home folder is not on the startup disk might cause the issue, but why did it work several times before the error?

Any explanations or suggestions as what to try, to get more info before I have to rip it apart again?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Hellhammer]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot

Sounds like corrupted system file

 

[Bernard SG]

Try starting up from the Mac's installation DVD and perform "Repair Disk" and "Repair Disk Permissions" with Disk Utility.

 

[Sepp]

Thanks guys,

apparently the SSD was faulty - couldn't do a reinstall on it, repair didn't work out either, so I had to erase/reformat, and do a clean install.

Funny thing is: I paid quite some money, as I was assuming that SSD is the most reliable technology available...I was wrong!

Will need proper backup of OSX as well - all other stuff I have already taken care of.

I don't mind to reinstall all the software, but it's a pain in the butt - what is the best way to backup applications, and to have them ready, in case the SSD fails on me again?

Regards,

Joe

 

[endi78]

Thanks guys,

apparently the SSD was faulty - couldn't do a reinstall on it, repair didn't work out either, so I had to erase/reformat, and do a clean install.

Funny thing is: I paid quite some money, as I was assuming that SSD is the most reliable technology available...I was wrong!

Will need proper backup of OSX as well - all other stuff I have already taken care of.

I don't mind to reinstall all the software, but it's a pain in the butt - what is the best way to backup applications, and to have them ready, in case the SSD fails on me again?

Regards,

Joe

Time Machine

 

[Transporteur]

I don't mind to reinstall all the software, but it's a pain in the butt - what is the best way to backup applications, and to have them ready, in case the SSD fails on me again?

What you are looking for is a bootable clone of your boot drive. This can be done with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner, which I prefer.

 

[Hellhammer]

Funny thing is: I paid quite some money, as I was assuming that SSD is the most reliable technology available...I was wrong!

SSDs are still very new technology, i.e. far from being reliable. What makes them theoretically more reliable is that they have no moving parts so they shouldn't wear out

 

[Sepp]

I hope it was my fault - maybe I screwed up, when moving files from one HDD to the other. Everything is running smooth now - hopefully for the lifetime of my iMac.

Thanks for all your responses.