Resolved OS X crashing(?) at log out

[7thson]

I'm at a loss here. I have a Mac Mini running 10.8.5 that gets stuck/crashes when I log out. It gets stuck on the gray screen that shows just before the log in screen. I have to restart the Mini several times in order to get the log in screen to appear. What usually happens is the first couple times it starts booting to the gray screen with the apple and then the pointer will turn to a spinning disk. I've tried repairing permissions in disk utility, which seemed to help for a bit, then not. I've tried disconnecting peripherals one by one and restarting, again with temporary positive results. I don't think anything I've tried has actually helped at this point and it was just coincidental that it "got better." I'm ready to call Apple and hand over $20 to see if they can suss this out, but maybe someone here has a clue. I know I sure don't. When I bought this almost a year ago, I migrated over from an Intel iMac. It didn't start doing this until Sept-Oct.

2012 Mac Mini, i7 2.3GHGz, 4gb ram

 

[Weaselboy]

It sounds like the drive is dying. Try a command-r boot to recovery and from there use Disk Utility to do a repair disk and tell us what errors you see.

 

[7thson]

It says: The volume Macintosh HD appears to be ok. Thankfully. I'm thinking I'm going to need to do a clean install. Should I reinstall ML before upgrading to Mavericks to avoid bringing the issue along? I am concerned upgrading straight to Mavericks will just exacerbate the issue.

 

[Partron22]

It says: The volume Macintosh HD appears to be ok.

Appears
You have a back up drive, just in case?
They're pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[7thson]

Appears
You have a back up drive, just in case?
They're pretty cheap nowadays.

Yes. Time Machine.

 

[7thson]

Resolved

I reinstalled the OS from recovery mode and brought all my files back from Time Machine bit by bit, checking to make sure the problem didn't resurface. Eliminated a bunch of clutter from over 7 years, and not surprisingly, I have more disk space now. One hiccup did occur in that I had to change the permissions for most of the backup files. I didn't know about that, but Apple did, and that soothed my nerves.