Macmini 2007 with OS 10.6 seems to be dead

[nathaliacvieira]

Hi,
It's been 8 months since I updated from 10.4 to 10.6 and all of a sudden my mini doesn't start. The initial gray screen with the apple still shows up,, but a strange progressbar appears under the apple and the computer just shutt down before this progress is complete. Any ideas? Thank you a lot.

 

[Fishrrman]

Questions:

Is the hard drive inside the _original_ one? If so, being 6 years old, it could be failing.

Could your OS have become corrupted? Seems to me if your getting the "progress bar" at the bottom during startup, it indicates that _something_ wasn't right with the boot procedure, and the OS was "checking itself", or at least trying to.

Do you have a SECOND boot source?
Another drive you can boot from?

Aside: this is why I -ALWAYS- recommend on this forum that folks have at least a second, BOOTABLE drive created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

 

[nathaliacvieira]

Hi,

My HD still is the original one.

My cd drive doesn't work anymore, so I think I will have to try to reboot from an external HD. But when I try it (press option) and plug the external HD it can't be detected. Is it really possible to boot from an external HD?

Thank you so much.

 

[Fishrrman]

To "switch boot" from an external drive, try this:

- Connect the external drive
- Restart the Mac
- As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN
- In a few moments, the Startup Manager should appear. It shows you all the bootable volumes available.
- If the external drive you have _is_ in fact capable of booting the Mini, it should appear in the startup manager
- Use the mouse pointer, arrow key, or tab key to select the second drive, then hit return
- The Mac should boot from the other drive.

If you call up the startup manager, and still see ONLY your internal drive there, it would indicate that the System folder on the external drive is NOT capable of booting your Mac...

 

[nathaliacvieira]

It's too bad: I can only see my internal drive.

As I didn't create a rebootable flash drive before this crash, I think I will have to go to a Mac assistance. Anyway, I need to be sure if the problem is my HD.

Thank you a lot. Again.

 

[Nermal]

If you're getting a progress bar then it could be a firmware update failing to install. Try doing a Safe Boot and see whether it starts up properly.

 

[nathaliacvieira]

I have just tried this safe boot, but the computer just shutts down after I release the shift key.