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Gray screen, Apple logo, spinning wheel

jeditor

jeditor

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 18, 2016
22
0
hello all, I’m not sure if I’m in the right place. I have an old Mac, about 10 years old. I don’t know what it runs! I can’t get it to start up and have a very important old project on it. When I turn it on it gives the chime, goes to the gray screen with the logo and a loading wheel. It just stays there for ever. I have tried unplugging, unplugging all external drives (it does have a few internal that are still connected) starting in safe mode and those haven’t worked. I know I’m not helping my situation by not knowing the system stats. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.
 
Press and hold cmd + r at boot, that let's you boot the recovery mode. Or press and hold the Alt key and select the recovery partition.
Recovery mode came with os X 10.7 Lion, if your Mac doesn't have the recovery partition, your OS is below 10.7, probably 10.6 Snow Leopard.
What does that mean? With a recovery partition you can either repair your main OS or reinstall it.
Anything below 10.7 is a bit harder to repair, if possible at all, as you'll need the install media (DVD).

What Mac model exactly is it? If you don't know and can't read the serial number on the bottom to identify it, tell us at least if it says anything with "*power*" on the display bezel or something like "MacBook*". If it's the latter, then you can also try an SMC reset via the key combination ctrl + alt + cmd during power on
 
amagichnich said:
Press and hold cmd + r at boot, that let's you boot the recovery mode. Or press and hold the Alt key and select the recovery partition.
Recovery mode came with os X 10.7 Lion, if your Mac doesn't have the recovery partition, your OS is below 10.7, probably 10.6 Snow Leopard.
What does that mean? With a recovery partition you can either repair your main OS or reinstall it.
Anything below 10.7 is a bit harder to repair, if possible at all, as you'll need the install media (DVD).

What Mac model exactly is it? If you don't know and can't read the serial number on the bottom to identify it, tell us at least if it says anything with "*power*" on the display bezel or something like "MacBook*". If it's the latter, then you can also try an SMC reset via the key combination ctrl + alt + cmd during power on
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1531256490][/doublepost]
B6B38F74-4AA1-4AC3-B57B-48C18960E80F.jpeg

Hi there, thank you. I’ll will try that but before I do I thought I would pass on the info of the computer that I found. It’s an old desktop, picture of info below:
 
jeditor said:
hello all, I’m not sure if I’m in the right place. I have an old Mac, about 10 years old. I don’t know what it runs! I can’t get it to start up and have a very important old project on it. When I turn it on it gives the chime, goes to the gray screen with the logo and a loading wheel. It just stays there for ever. I have tried unplugging, unplugging all external drives (it does have a few internal that are still connected) starting in safe mode and those haven’t worked. I know I’m not helping my situation by not knowing the system stats. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.
Click to expand...

Try following the instructions here:

http://www.everythingmacintosh.com/tech-notes/repair-your-hard-disk-in-single-user-mode/

In this mode you are performing diagnostics before the hard drive is used - it might flush out any fixable problems.

If you absolutely need that data, remove the hard drive and put in another machine to read from or buy a SATA/USB adaptor and do the same.
[doublepost=1531293983][/doublepost]
z970mp said:
Technically, this thread should be moved to the Mac Pro forums, as this is not a PowerPC.
Click to expand...

Though, realistically the OP will get more help our side of the fence :)
 
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Reactions: z970 and amagichnich
jeditor said:
[doublepost=1531256490][/doublepost]View attachment 769953

Hi there, thank you. I’ll will try that but before I do I thought I would pass on the info of the computer that I found. It’s an old desktop, picture of info below:
Click to expand...
Okay then, on the image is the info I asked you for: MacPro 2.4
As @z970mp pointed out it is most likely a 2010 model, meaning that it came with Os X 10.6.
Did you try to hold the Alt key while booting?
 
amagichnich said:
Okay then, on the image is the info I asked you for: MacPro 2.4
As @z970mp pointed out it is most likely a 2010 model, meaning that it came with Os X 10.6.
Did you try to hold the Alt key while booting?
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1531322425][/doublepost]
amagichnich said:
Okay then, on the image is the info I asked you for: MacPro 2.4
As @z970mp pointed out it is most likely a 2010 model, meaning that it came with Os X 10.6.
Did you try to hold the Alt key while booting?
Click to expand...

Hi there, I did, I also tried the control S and got this message:
[doublepost=1531322482][/doublepost]
Dronecatcher said:
Try following the instructions here:

http://www.everythingmacintosh.com/tech-notes/repair-your-hard-disk-in-single-user-mode/

In this mode you are performing diagnostics before the hard drive is used - it might flush out any fixable problems.

If you absolutely need that data, remove the hard drive and put in another machine to read from or buy a SATA/USB adaptor and do the same.
[doublepost=1531293983][/doublepost]

Though, realistically the OP will get more help our side of the fence :)
Click to expand...


Hello! Thank you. I tried but didn’t get the “your drive is okay” message, I don’t think. I got this:
 

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