Need help urgently with Start Up

[GrantMeThePower]

Hi guys,

Got into work this morning and was greated with the grey screen and a flashing folder icon. Great way to start a Monday.

I rebooted, held Option, and got through to internet recovery.

I open disk utility.

I see disk0 and under that my hard drive that says "Mac OS X Base System".

If I click on that, only Verify Disk is available. Repair Disk and the perissions buttons are all greyed out and unselectable.

When I click Verify Disk, the result says "The volume Mac OS X Base System appears to be OK".

I don't know what to do now. Please help. I am the ******* who needed a Mac at work and IT only supports Windows and now I can't get anything done. Thank you in advance for any insight.

Grant

 

[Weaselboy]

Assuming you did not install any software or hardware that precipitated this, it sounds like you have a bad drive there.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Update-Ok, one more thing. I decided just to click "Reinstall OS X" from the internet recovery screen. I just kind of wanted to see what I see. I went through clicking ok to the agreements and whatnot, but when it said "select disk" it didnt show me any disks. Not even the one mentioned in the first post seen in the Disk Utility.

Thanks again

----------

Assuming you did not install any software or hardware that precipitated this, it sounds like you have a bad drive there.

Like the drive is dead and needs to be replaced?

If that is the case, how does it see my drive and the verify disk says it appears to be OK? Is there a chance the drive is recoverable?

 

[NT1440]

Update-Ok, one more thing. I decided just to click "Reinstall OS X" from the internet recovery screen. I just kind of wanted to see what I see. I went through clicking ok to the agreements and whatnot, but when it said "select disk" it didnt show me any disks. Not even the one mentioned in the first post seen in the Disk Utility.

Thanks again

----------



Like the drive is dead and needs to be replaced?

If that is the case, how does it see my drive and the verify disk says it appears to be OK? Is there a chance the drive is recoverable?

It sounds like the hard drive itself is ok, but the volume (partition) that the system resides in has been damaged irreparably.

 

[Weaselboy]

Like the drive is dead and needs to be replaced?

If that is the case, how does it see my drive and the verify disk says it appears to be OK? Is there a chance the drive is recoverable?

Yep... that's what I am thinking. It sounds like DU is only checking the small part of the disk it can see and the rest is not visible to DU.

If there is critical data on there you do not have backed up you might be able to recover some of it with a utility like Disk Warrior, but it is not cheap.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

It sounds like the hard drive itself is ok, but the volume (partition) that the system resides in has been damaged irreparably.

Does that just mean it won't boot, but I can boot from another drive and get back my data via migrate or something, or is everything on there hopeless?

In other words, lol, what do I do now?

I do not have a spare drive on hand, but I could go pick one up if need be, or I could make an apple genius bar reservation.

I've been very good with windows (ie i build all of my own HTPCs and gaming systems and know how to work with that OS) but I am new to solving mac problems...mainly because I never have problems with it

 

[NT1440]

Does that just mean it won't boot, but I can boot from another drive and get back my data via migrate or something, or is everything on there hopeless?

In other words, lol, what do I do now?

I do not have a spare drive on hand, but I could go pick one up if need be, or I could make an apple genius bar reservation.

I've been very good with windows (ie i build all of my own HTPCs and gaming systems and know how to work with that OS) but I am new to solving mac problems...mainly because I never have problems with it

I'd replace the drive, and plug in the old one using a program like Disk Warrior to hope for something recoverable as Weasel outlined above.

 

[sumer]

Does that just mean it won't boot, but I can boot from another drive and get back my data via migrate or something, or is everything on there hopeless?

In other words, lol, what do I do now?

I do not have a spare drive on hand, but I could go pick one up if need be, or I could make an apple genius bar reservation.

I've been very good with windows (ie i build all of my own HTPCs and gaming systems and know how to work with that OS) but I am new to solving mac problems...mainly because I never have problems with it

Sounds like the partition map on the drive is messed up. I've had similar problems and Disk Warrior has fixed it by rebuilding the drive or ,mounting it so I can get all of my data.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Figured it out (after I already bought a replacement of course)

It was the hard drive connection in the Mac Mini that had come off, but only part way. It was just barely touching still. That is probably how it saw there was a hard drive, but couldn't access it.

I have no idea how that would happen with a stationary unit, and now I'm a bit at a loss of what to do, but I wanted to thank everyone here for their help!