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Can't get into my Mac.
- Thread starter tim.engen
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The flashing (?) on a folder means that your Mac can't find a bootable system.
That can mean several things:
1. The hard drive has failed. (If the boot drive is original, it may have simply worn out, or the drive bearing have failed, making the drive run too slot, several other possibilities, but all end up meaning that the drive may need to be replaced)
2. The system software is corrupted, maybe some important system file has been accidentally deleted, so the boot system is not complete. So, this might be fixed simply be reinstalling the operating system. If you still have the original system installed, then you may still have the DVD that came with your Mac when new - probably OS X 10.6. Assuming the DVD drive still works, you can reinstall from that original DVD. If you have kept updating, and your 8 year-old Mac has something recent, like Sierra or High Sierra, you may have the installer for that. Usually, you can boot to the recovery system, but a failed hard drive may not work well enough for that. There's a possibility that you can reinstall using the Internet recovery option, but that may not give you a reinstall for the system that you now have installed, but could work with an older system.
But, if the hard drive is failing, this may all be a waste of your time (because it won't do any good to try to install the system on a hard drive that is failing --- you can't fix a failed hard drive, you can only replace it.
That can mean several things:
1. The hard drive has failed. (If the boot drive is original, it may have simply worn out, or the drive bearing have failed, making the drive run too slot, several other possibilities, but all end up meaning that the drive may need to be replaced)
2. The system software is corrupted, maybe some important system file has been accidentally deleted, so the boot system is not complete. So, this might be fixed simply be reinstalling the operating system. If you still have the original system installed, then you may still have the DVD that came with your Mac when new - probably OS X 10.6. Assuming the DVD drive still works, you can reinstall from that original DVD. If you have kept updating, and your 8 year-old Mac has something recent, like Sierra or High Sierra, you may have the installer for that. Usually, you can boot to the recovery system, but a failed hard drive may not work well enough for that. There's a possibility that you can reinstall using the Internet recovery option, but that may not give you a reinstall for the system that you now have installed, but could work with an older system.
But, if the hard drive is failing, this may all be a waste of your time (because it won't do any good to try to install the system on a hard drive that is failing --- you can't fix a failed hard drive, you can only replace it.
You don't NEED a DVD installer. That would be only if you would need to reinstall your original system (Snow Leopard), which would leave you with a system that's not particularly useful on a daily basis.
What you DO need is a bootable installer for the system that you have NOW, or at least one that gets you close to a recent system.
There's some options for that. You can download the installer on another Mac, and use that to create a bootable installer that you can use on your old Mac.
You can find bootable installers for a lot of OS X systems on eBay, usually in the form of a USB flash drive, often about $15 to $20 for one system installer.
What you DO need is a bootable installer for the system that you have NOW, or at least one that gets you close to a recent system.
There's some options for that. You can download the installer on another Mac, and use that to create a bootable installer that you can use on your old Mac.
You can find bootable installers for a lot of OS X systems on eBay, usually in the form of a USB flash drive, often about $15 to $20 for one system installer.
Without more info on the actual machine it's hard to say, but at 8 years old, your hard drive most likely died. I hope you had a good backup, if not, you've just lost everything on the computer and learned a lesson about keeping a backup.Hi all I can't get into my Mac. What can I do about this? It is 8 years old. I can't afford a new Mac. This just flashes I can't type anything.
The last couple years backing up wouldn't work either. I plugged in the external hard drive or whatever it's called I didn't do anything. My Apple ID wouldn't work either while it did on my iPad
