iMac stuck in boot loop

[osakamitsu]

Hello, everyone. I hope you can help me. My iMac that Is probably a couple years old now is stuck in a boot loop. I have booted into recovery and ran first aid on everything available. It all comes back successful but then will still not boot. I have also reinstalled the OS from the recovery and nothing changed. It will boot into single user mode, though I do not 100% know what I am doing in single user mode, I do see some messages where it says it failed to get some stuff. I found some videos on YouTube showing how to repair a drive in single user mode, I tried but it tells me permission denied. And this is where I am stuck now.

I would really appreciate any help. There are files I really really would like to not lose…

 

[Fishrrman]

Try INTERNET recovery.

Power all the way off. Pull the plug out of the wall if you have to.

Then...
Press and HOLD DOWN
Command-OPTION-R
... and press and release the power on button.

KEEP HOLDING THOSE KEYS DOWN until you see the msg "starting internet recovery" or if you are asked for you wifi password (enter it if asked).

The internet utilities take a while to load, be patient.

Can you get to the internet utilities?

 

[Papanate]

Hello, everyone. I hope you can help me. My iMac that Is probably a couple years old now is stuck in a boot loop. I have booted into recovery and ran first aid on everything available. It all comes back successful but then will still not boot. I have also reinstalled the OS from the recovery and nothing changed. It will boot into single user mode, though I do not 100% know what I am doing in single user mode, I do see some messages where it says it failed to get some stuff. I found some videos on YouTube showing how to repair a drive in single user mode, I tried but it tells me permission denied. And this is where I am stuck now.

I would really appreciate any help. There are files I really really would like to not lose…

First run Apple Diagnostics to see if any of the hardware is failing - if not then completely Erase your harddrive - then reinstall - can’t help you if you don’t have a Time Machine backup.