Imac OSX 10.4.11 Not booting- scoured forums still no answer!

[ilan34]

Hello all!

I am resigned to posting this question as after 4 days of scouring the forums I have still not found a solution for the problem.

It started when Safari was always freezing up and slowing down the imac. We tried to run an update, and when we restarted imac was stuck on the blue screen. We tried to restart again and it was stuck on the gray apple screen with the endless spinning of the pinwheel.

This is where I went through reading all the various forums and it seems that other people have also had this problem while running updates.

1. Tried to reset PRAM and NVRAM, Still no luck.
2. Tried to boot into safe mode- the imac just keeps turning itself off.
3. booted via the disc installation- ran disk utility- tried to repair permissions- it completed yet after restart same problems. Tried also to run disk repair but got an invalid node structure message (which apparently is argued whether it is an hardware issue, or a software issue).
4. Tried to run repair permissions again but there was no progress with the utility after a 2 hour wait.
5. Finally resigned to reinstalling the OSX (with an archive so as to not lost programs and data) with the 2 installation discs. However keep getting errors during install which won't let us reinstall the OS- I choose the HD to install, it processes the installation disc for about 30 mins, then it says preparing for installation, and verifying destination volume. It then almost immediately stops and says that there were errors installing the software and "please try installation again".


Now I definitely do not want to run a full reinstall and format the whole drive, but nothing seems to be working. Is the HD zapped? Any suggestions to as any other solutions? Apple care is long expired and money is tight so not looking like a viable option + this is what they basically advised us to do, and I am worried that in such serious issues they will immediately declare a new HD is needed.

Please help, I am completely stumped and the wife cannot work on any of her design projects with no computer...

 

[MacForScience]

Hello all!

I am resigned to posting this question as after 4 days of scouring the forums I have still not found a solution for the problem.

It started when Safari was always freezing up and slowing down the imac. We tried to run an update, and when we restarted imac was stuck on the blue screen. We tried to restart again and it was stuck on the gray apple screen with the endless spinning of the pinwheel.

This is where I went through reading all the various forums and it seems that other people have also had this problem while running updates.

1. Tried to reset PRAM and NVRAM, Still no luck.
2. Tried to boot into safe mode- the imac just keeps turning itself off.
3. booted via the disc installation- ran disk utility- tried to repair permissions- it completed yet after restart same problems. Tried also to run disk repair but got an invalid node structure message (which apparently is argued whether it is an hardware issue, or a software issue).
4. Tried to run repair permissions again but there was no progress with the utility after a 2 hour wait.
5. Finally resigned to reinstalling the OSX (with an archive so as to not lost programs and data) with the 2 installation discs. However keep getting errors during install which won't let us reinstall the OS- I choose the HD to install, it processes the installation disc for about 30 mins, then it says preparing for installation, and verifying destination volume. It then almost immediately stops and says that there were errors installing the software and "please try installation again".


Now I definitely do not want to run a full reinstall and format the whole drive, but nothing seems to be working. Is the HD zapped? Any suggestions to as any other solutions? Apple care is long expired and money is tight so not looking like a viable option + this is what they basically advised us to do, and I am worried that in such serious issues they will immediately declare a new HD is needed.

Please help, I am completely stumped and the wife cannot work on any of her design projects with no computer...

Did you verify the disk not verify permissions the other verify that checks your file system.

Any additional startup chimes?

If not your hard drive may be toast.

-Simon

 

[ilan34]

Regular startup sounds as usual (one chime)

Did both verifies of disk after I tried to repair them- No success.

Also is there a chance that my SUPERdrive is also problematic and this is the reason why the install is failing? A while back I had a CD in the drive that was stuck and only able to get out after a few months.

Is there a way to re-install the OSX from a USB drive or something else? Is it actually possible to boot from an external USB 2.0 HD?

Would a complete wipe of the HD lead to the same problems in the future? Would it be reasonable in investing in a disk recovery program if most chances are that the HD is on it's way to failure and that the diskwarrior will also wipe my drive anyways....

 

[Fishrrman]

You do not seem to be considering that you may have experienced a HARDWARE failure of the internal hard drive.

If that's the case, you ain't gettin' OS X installed on it until you replace it with a good one.

Can you boot from an external source?

Where's your backup drive?

 

[ilan34]

Hi Fishrrman

I have considered HD failure a long time ago- I just don't want to fix it until I rule out all the possibilities.

I have read on forums that some people were able to fix this issue using some of the methods I have tried.

My last shot is to try purchasing diskwarrior and see if that works- otherwise need new HD.

I can boot from the install DVD but I can't run the install- although that could be due to issues with the DVD. Can I boot from a different macbook using the install DVD in their and try to install? Is there a way of doing this? Is there a way of creating an image of the install disc on a THUMB drive or external HD?

Please advise, would be much appreciated...