Help! I Messed Up Big Time!

[phototechlady]

I was tired that night, I plugged in an incompatible exterior hard drive to my iMAC, one that is compatible with Windows Vista (brand new and unused). Since that night, my iMAC has frozen all the programs including FINDER. The only thing showing up is Skype but it is not working...FORCE QUIT is not working either. I rebooted three times but no change. What can I do?

Humbled and ashamed.

 

[macintel4me]

Plugging in an external HD, compatible or not, shouldn't make your iMac flake out like that. Not even close. I am assuming you unplugged the hard drive when you rebooted.

Regardless, you can always just reinstall Mac OS X assuming you have a back up. If you don't then you you can take your iMac HD out and copy over the data on another Mac. That's a lot of work with an iMac, but it's possible. The Apple Genius Bar should be able to take of your sick computer if you want someone to help.

Good luck!

 

[geoffreak]

Brand new hard drives have no formatting, so it won't matter which OS you use it under. If your Mac is messed up after plugging it in, there is something wrong with it.