grey screen of death

[glocke12]

I have Mid 2010 27" imac running OS Lion that is giving me the "grey screen of death"...It starts up, gives me the apple logo, spinning gear, and a status bar and does not go any further.

All attempts to boot in different mode via a BT KB fail, and I didn't have any lick with a wired KB either (wired KB is from a windows machine though).

This did happen once before, and I eventually was able to get to the point where I could wipe the HD and backup from a TM backup, but Im not able to do anything now.

Any suggestions? Also, am I better off taking this to the Genius Bar or a computer store/repair shop that works on Macs...

[glocke12]

wait a minute...just found an email from Apple from back on oct/2012 that says the drives in these can go bad...could that be what my issue is?

[burninggarlic]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot

Either 3 or 5 works, you will be able to back it up from Disk Utility.

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This is a typical HDD failure. Apple has the iMac 1 tb seagate HDD replacement program. But they are not responsible for the data.

[glocke12]

Originally Posted by burninggarlic

http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot

Either 3 or 5 works, you will be able to back it up from Disk Utility.

----------

This is a typical HDD failure. Apple has the iMac 1 tb seagate HDD replacement program. But they are not responsible for the data.

i tried both, niether worked

[burninggarlic]

Originally Posted by glocke12

i tried both, niether worked

What about have an OS X ready external HDD then boot it via usb connection?

[Brian Y]

Originally Posted by burninggarlic

What about have an OS X ready external HDD then boot it via usb connection?

That may work, but if the HDD is failing badly it can prevent the machine discovering external drives (it spends so long trying to work out what the internal drive is, it never reads the USB ones on boot).

Personally, if it's in warranty, get Apple to put a new HDD in. If it's OOW, then put a new one in yourself. The iMac HDD program doesn't apply to 2010 machines unless I'm mistaken.

[burninggarlic]

Originally Posted by bma

That may work, but if the HDD is failing badly it can prevent the machine discovering external drives (it spends so long trying to work out what the internal drive is, it never reads the USB ones on boot).

Personally, if it's in warranty, get Apple to put a new HDD in. If it's OOW, then put a new one in yourself. The iMac HDD program doesn't apply to 2010 machines unless I'm mistaken.

Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Frankly, I have pasted this link many times in this forum.

[Brian Y]

Originally Posted by burninggarlic

Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Frankly, I have pasted this link many times in this forum.

Ah awesome - I thought it was just the 2011s - good to know .

My 2011 had an affected Seagate drive, but pretty much as soon as I got it I changed the HDD to a larger one so I didn't bother getting it changed.

[glocke12]

Originally Posted by burninggarlic

Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Frankly, I have pasted this link many times in this forum.

yeah i dont spend much time on the forums these days...

got a ten am appt. at the genius bar today, will be taking my imac with me to have the drive swapped out.