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Old iMac Core Duo - flashing question mark error

M

mattparish

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 8, 2012
3
0
Hi
I have a broken iMac "Core Duo" 2.0 which has the 'flashing question mark in a folder' startup error, however, I have replaced the hard drive with one that starts up in a G5 tower so I do not think it is a hard drive issue. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Matt
 
Thanks for the quick response. Yes I have tried some of the things mentioned but I need to read through carefully and see if I missed any. When the iMacs hard drive was in the G5 tower I reinstalled OSX 10.4.8 from a CD which I believe came with another identical iMac that we have, but this didn't work either.
 
mattparish said:
Thanks for the quick response. Yes I have tried some of the things mentioned but I need to read through carefully and see if I missed any. When the iMacs hard drive was in the G5 tower I reinstalled OSX 10.4.8 from a CD which I believe came with another identical iMac that we have, but this didn't work either.
Click to expand...

As mentioned before, maybe not in enough detail, your G5 HDD with 10.4.8 will contain a version of Mac OS X made for PPC Macs (as there was no Universal Binary Retail version of 10.4) and the HDD will use "Apple Partition Map" as partition map scheme, which is only bootable on PPC Macs. Intel Macs use the "GUID" partition map scheme to have a bootable HDD.

2012_02_08_pA1_DiskUtility_partitionmapschemes.png
 
Maybe not clear to the original poster:

If the disk you replaced is in working condition(recognized by the imac), you still need to reinstall the OSX. Start your installation, go to the disk utility and erase that drive(GUID Partition), before installing.
 
Well I firewired it to my working iMac (of the same spec) and ran Disk Utility and DiskWarrior on the hard drive which passed all the tests. So I guess I just need to try and instll the operating system again using GUID. Unfortunately I am not sure where the iMac installation CDs are. I have a single user version of Leopard, would this work?
 
mattparish said:
Well I firewired it to my working iMac (of the same spec) and ran Disk Utility and DiskWarrior on the hard drive which passed all the tests. So I guess I just need to try and instll the operating system again using GUID. Unfortunately I am not sure where the iMac installation CDs are. I have a single user version of Leopard, would this work?
Click to expand...

The possibility is the logic board is fried too. Had a Macbook that exibited this same behavior. HD was fine and the OS was installed properly.
 
Your best bet for pulling this off properly is to get the original install disks for your Imac. With the model number, you can call Apple and order them. A few years ago I did this, and was able to get install disks for my mother's ancient G4.

A word of warning, on the older Imac Core Duo (2006 models), they do have issues with over heating. After you get it up an running, install some fan control software, and crank up the fans. It also helps if you regularly clean the crud off the intake screens on the bottom and back of the Imac.
 
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