Mac mini won't boot!

[domhoenig]

Hi all, panicking here!!!

My 2012 Mac mini will not start, it's been running GREAT for a year nearly...

I have installed a Samsung 830 SSD and vengeance RAM. It's been working flawlessly with this in since it arrived.

It worked great this morning and I've just turned it on now and get the grey screen of death with apple logo and the forever spinning wheel....

Tried booting up in safe mode and recovery mode and these don't seem to be doing ANYTHING.

This is a work computer (recording) so I rely on this!! I need help as to what it could be...

I could take it to the Genius Bar and send it off as I have apple care but will they look at it as I have an after bought SSD? Really in a panic here and could do with some sound advice!!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Unplug everything but monitor, mouse, and keyboard and try to boot it. I've had a very occasional issue with the Mini not wanting to boot properly with a bunch of USB devices plugged in, only happened twice so I've been able to narrow down what device is doing it.

 

[Omnius]

Hi all, panicking here!!!

My 2012 Mac mini will not start, it's been running GREAT for a year nearly...

I have installed a Samsung 830 SSD and vengeance RAM. It's been working flawlessly with this in since it arrived.

It worked great this morning and I've just turned it on now and get the grey screen of death with apple logo and the forever spinning wheel....

Tried booting up in safe mode and recovery mode and these don't seem to be doing ANYTHING.

This is a work computer (recording) so I rely on this!! I need help as to what it could be...

I could take it to the Genius Bar and send it off as I have apple care but will they look at it as I have an after bought SSD? Really in a panic here and could do with some sound advice!!

is it showing the question mark showing that it doesn't detect an HD? If so, it sounds like you didn't connect the hd fully and it's come loose.

 

[domhoenig]

hello! I've unplugged all peripherals...and still won't boot!

also, it's a grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning loading wheel. that's all I get and it just doesn't load at all!

at my wits end! I can't even get it to boot into recovery mode...

 

[53kyle]

hello! I've unplugged all peripherals...and still won't boot!

also, it's a grey screen with the apple logo and the spinning loading wheel. that's all I get and it just doesn't load at all!

at my wits end! I can't even get it to boot into recovery mode...

I am thinking that your hard drive is corrupt but you could try swapping out with your original ram and see if it boots. Otherwise, if you can't enter recovery mode, I don't know how to try repairing your hard drive. Put it in another Mac with physical install disks or retail disks compatible with it?

 

[domhoenig]

it's a SSD, it's all within warranty (I think) so should be able to get a replacement...do we think the 1tb mechanical drive I have will be OK? I should be able to boot into target disk mode and find out right???

 

[philipma1957]

do you have the oem drive you pulled?

you should

do you have an external case for it?

you should

did you leave the oem with its osx intact ?

you should have

did you clone the internal ssd to an external as a backup?

you should have .

not to be mean or an I told you so. it just that this problem is really easy if you did some of the above.

so back to this question do you have the oem hdd in an external drive? if you do turn the mini upside down and lift the sata connector to be sure the ssd is not attached.

once you do this plug the oem drive into the mini via a usb jack if the oem is in a usb case. then boot. the mini will look for the oem drive and boot.

 

[domhoenig]

I haven't backed that up! only problem is I have a project I've been finishing today that will be saved on the internal 1tb drive....this drive SHOULD work. I should be able to take this drive out and mount it in a external closure and copy the files over to a new mac?

 

[Omnius]

I haven't backed that up! only problem is I have a project I've been finishing today that will be saved on the internal 1tb drive....this drive SHOULD work. I should be able to take this drive out and mount it in a external closure and copy the files over to a new mac?

Failure to back up is a massive no-no. As I said before. It sounds like your internal HD isn't properly connected and it just came loose. That's probably the number one issue and occasionally I've seen it just do the beachball as it looks for a HD. However. I would sincerely suggest you just boot from the HD either externally or internally and see if the mini recognizes you SSD as working.

randomly just testing if it works without USB stuff plugged in really isn't a big test at all and doesn't confirm or eliminate much of anything.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I could take it to the Genius Bar and send it off as I have apple care but will they look at it as I have an after bought SSD? Really in a panic here and could do with some sound advice!!"

The best thing to do right now, would be to plug in your bootable cloned backup of your internal drive, and see if it boots that way. If the problem is a "drive problem" inside, it should boot right up in two minutes.

Have you tried this?