iMac startup problem

[mingjie311]

Hey iMac Users.
I am on OS X Mavericks and recently something happened therefore I had to reformat and reinstall mav. So, i reformatted the main hardrive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and reinstalled Mav on my main HD. However after booting, it went directly to the recovery screen. So i tried reinstalling it again and the same thing happened. What shocked me was, this time I held the alt key while booting up and it only displayed the Recovery partition drive, while my main HD was not there for me to boot up. Please tell me what happen and ways that I could do to solve it? Thank you.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hey iMac Users.
I am on OS X Mavericks and recently something happened therefore I had to reformat and reinstall mav. So, i reformatted the main hardrive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and reinstalled Mav on my main HD. However after booting, it went directly to the recovery screen. So i tried reinstalling it again and the same thing happened. What shocked me was, this time I held the alt key while booting up and it only displayed the Recovery partition drive, while my main HD was not there for me to boot up. Please tell me what happen and ways that I could do to solve it? Thank you.

When you formatted, did you set the partition to GUID?

 

[mingjie311]

When you formatted, did you set the partition to GUID?

Nope

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey iMac Users.
I am on OS X Mavericks and recently something happened therefore I had to reformat and reinstall mav. So, i reformatted the main hardrive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and reinstalled Mav on my main HD. However after booting, it went directly to the recovery screen. So i tried reinstalling it again and the same thing happened. What shocked me was, this time I held the alt key while booting up and it only displayed the Recovery partition drive, while my main HD was not there for me to boot up. Please tell me what happen and ways that I could do to solve it? Thank you.

Let's back up a bit. What happened to cause you to want to reinstall? There may be an underlying problem there causing this.

So you just did a command-r boot and erased Macintosh HD then clicked reinstall OS? That should work.

 

[yjchua95]

Nope

Well there's the problem. It has to be a GUID Partition Table.

 

[Weaselboy]

Well there's the problem. It has to be a GUID Partition Table.

Unless OP went in there and intentionally changed that setting in the options tab, when you erase to Mac OS Extended it is by default set to GUID. I think he has something else going on.

 

[mingjie311]

Let's back up a bit. What happened to cause you to want to reinstall? There may be an underlying problem there causing this.

So you just did a command-r boot and erased Macintosh HD then clicked reinstall OS? That should work.

I reinstalled because my mac won't boot up. When i switch it on, there will be this gray bar that loads up to 1/3 and it just switches off. So I hold the alt key button when i switch it on, get to recovery drive, reformatted my main hard drive and reinstalled mav. But after reinstalling, it boots directly to the recovery drive and the main hard drive is not selectable when I press alt key during boot up, however it is still visible at the disk utility

 

[Weaselboy]

I reinstalled because my mac won't boot up. When i switch it on, there will be this gray bar that loads up to 1/3 and it just switches off. So I hold the alt key button when i switch it on, get to recovery drive, reformatted my main hard drive and reinstalled mav. But after reinstalling, it boots directly to the recovery drive and the main hard drive is not selectable when I press alt key during boot up, however it is still visible at the disk utility

That sounds more like you have a failing disk drive to start with and reinstalling is not going to help it.

 

[rkaufmann87]

That sounds more like you have a failing disk drive to start with and reinstalling is not going to help it.

I tend to agree with this, you need to run Apple Hardware Test 3 times back to back. You must run AHT in extended mode to get any meaningful results. If any error codes appear that confirms there is a hardware problem.

 

[mingjie311]

I tend to agree with this, you need to run Apple Hardware Test 3 times back to back. You must run AHT in extended mode to get any meaningful results. If any error codes appear that confirms there is a hardware problem.

How do i do this test?

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest:
1. Boot to the recovery partition
2. Use Disk Utility to re-intialize the internal drive (HFS+, journaling enabled, GUID partition format)
3. Re-install the OS.
4. If you have data backed up to another drive, connect when prompted and "bring it over".
5. If you don't have a backup drive, create a new account.

But -- if you don't already have a backup drive, YOU SHOULD. It can be a Time Machine backup, cloned backup, whatever.

If it was a bootable cloned backup, created with CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, you wouldn't be having any of the problems you have now.

Instead, if you get into an "I can't boot!" situation, you just connect the bootable backup, reboot, get to the finder, and try to resolve the problem that way.

 

[Weaselboy]

How do i do this test?

This link will show you how to run AHT.