I am running a 5 year old iMac and Yosemite. The machine suddenly has failed to complete a start up. The screen goes to the grey apple, without the start up chime, and the progress bar freezes at about 30%. How do I fix this? Can't get to the disk utililty. Any help gratefully appreciated. Thanks. P.S. I am not a technical person...
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Start up screen hangs when progress bar is about 30%
- Thread starter Zeny
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Here is a link to some Apple start up key combinations:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255
I would try to Reset NVRAM first, then SMC reset, then Safe Mode, and finally Recovery mode. Safe or Recovery mode will allow you to get to Disk Utility.
Do some experimenting with the start up key combinations to see if you can get a response. Trying different start key combinations could eliminate software vs hardware problems. If you can't get any response from start key combinations, then that would point to more likely a hardware problem. Do you have good backups?
The no start up chime is a concern and could point to a hardware problem.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255
I would try to Reset NVRAM first, then SMC reset, then Safe Mode, and finally Recovery mode. Safe or Recovery mode will allow you to get to Disk Utility.
Do some experimenting with the start up key combinations to see if you can get a response. Trying different start key combinations could eliminate software vs hardware problems. If you can't get any response from start key combinations, then that would point to more likely a hardware problem. Do you have good backups?
The no start up chime is a concern and could point to a hardware problem.
CoastalOR, thanks for your response. I shall work my way through the key combinations later today. Do I understand you to say that the process of using these start up methods can go some way to fixing problems? I am Time Machined so if things go pear shaped then I have always got that. Thanks again, I will let you know how I progress.
Co
Thanks for your suggestions CoastalOR, I followed your advice and Reset NVRAM and this restored the opening chime, I then did an SMC reset (which I think is a power unplug and replug...), I then did a start up from OS X Recovery which gave me access to disk utility. I did a disk scan/repair and a permissions scan/repair and all went find. I did however pick up a message which read " Warning: SUID file in Systems/Library/Core...has been modified and will not be repaired." I completed the repairs despite of this and then did a system restore from Time Machine. Everything seems to have built back to where it was and after a shut down and restart things seem to be OK.(although it takers about a minute from seeing the grey apple to the system being open for business). A big thanks to you for pointing me in the direction of a fix. I just need to know whether the warning message I saw on the disk repair is something I need to sleep over. Thanks again.
I'm glad you got things working. I thought resetting NVRAM might restore your start chime, that is why I recommended that step first. I had the same problem (no start chime) with a new Mac mini and Apple Support had me reset the NVRAM.
You can ignore the " Warning: SUID file in Systems/Library/Core...has been modified and will not be repaired." message, there is not a problem. Here is a Apple list; Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore