iMac will not boot from USB, CD

[eazy]

I have an iMac 27" in for repair here is the problem: the hard drive is bad, it was booting from HDD now it won't boot at all. I've tried unplugging hard drive and booting from usb and cd. I've tried every boot combination possible. Holding all will only display hard drive, if hard drive is unplugged it it will bring up a grey screen with cursor. I can boot into single user mode but will not do much because the HDD is bad. The only boot options that do anything are: netboot, PRAM reset, etc. Holding C will not boot, option will only bring up hard drive if it's plugged in as stated earlier. This problem really has me stumped, maybe someone can shed some light. Thanks in advance.

 

[DoubleVision19]

I have an iMac 27" in for repair here is the problem: the hard drive is bad, it was booting from HDD now it won't boot at all. I've tried unplugging hard drive and booting from usb and cd. I've tried every boot combination possible. Holding all will only display hard drive, if hard drive is unplugged it it will bring up a grey screen with cursor. I can boot into single user mode but will not do much because the HDD is bad. The only boot options that do anything are: netboot, PRAM reset, etc. Holding C will not boot, option will only bring up hard drive if it's plugged in as stated earlier. This problem really has me stumped, maybe someone can shed some light. Thanks in advance.

Have you tried booting from Firewire? The only other option would be if you had a Mac Server with Apple Service Toolkit installed, the you can boot via ethernet to run a full diagnostic check.

 

[tom vilsack]

-dvd disk your trying to boot from is good?

as DV19 said...try booting from firmware

"Option"+"Command"+"o"+"f"

then at prompt try to boot dvd disk

boot cd:,\\:tbxi

edit: me bad..intel imac doh!

 

[eazy]

Have you tried booting from Firewire? The only other option would be if you had a Mac Server with Apple Service Toolkit installed, the you can boot via ethernet to run a full diagnostic check.

Haven't tried firewire because I couldn't find enclosure for it, I'll go buy one and try it out... I guess anything at this point couldn't hurt. I've been always able to bring up boot menu on previous macs never had an issue unless cd drive is bad but usually USB boot works fine

----------

-dvd disk your trying to boot from is good?

as DV19 said...try booting from firmware

"Option"+"Command"+"o"+"f"

then at prompt try to boot dvd disk

boot cd:,\\:tbxi

I think i may have tried the open firmware thing and it didn't seem to don anything. I'll try it again when I get to office. I'll try that from command prompt. I used some kind of command to boot from dvd it was:

bless –device /dev/disk1s1 –setBoot –nextonly

bless –device /dev/disk1s2 –setBoot –nextonly

Apparently this didn't work. Either

----------

Have you tried booting from Firewire? The only other option would be if you had a Mac Server with Apple Service Toolkit installed, the you can boot via ethernet to run a full diagnostic check.

I haven't bought a mac for my office yet.. I have several pc's and windows/linux servers available. Any PC software available for to do a netboot for mac that you guys know of? I suppose i can Google it but haven't had much luck with Google searching form mac answers. Typically takes me to questions that are completely unrelated to my issues.

 

[eazy]

I'm unable to boot into open firmware. I hold the command,option,o,f and it goes to the spinning wheel apple logo, if I use this key combination with hard drive unplugged I get a flashing grey folder with a question mark. This is very odd to me it seems. There doesn't seem to be very many advanced mac users on this forum... At least that's my impression from the amount of views and only 2 people can give me options that I haven't tried already. If there are, please throw some suggestions my way

I just read there is no open firmware on intel based macs.

This iMac is:
Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 27-Inch (Late 2009)

 

[DoubleVision19]

I'm unable to boot into open firmware. I hold the command,option,o,f and it goes to the spinning wheel apple logo, if I use this key combination with hard drive unplugged I get a flashing grey folder with a question mark. This is very odd to me it seems. There doesn't seem to be very many advanced mac users on this forum... At least that's my impression from the amount of views and only 2 people can give me options that I haven't tried already. If there are, please throw some suggestions my way

I just read there is no open firmware on intel based macs.

This iMac is:
Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 27-Inch (Late 2009)

If you are able to at least boot into Normal mode, via System Preference, Startup Disk, can you set the Target mode to an external device? (Make sure that the external device is detected first before you can select it)

 

[tom vilsack]

sry about open firmware idea...intel imac me not thinking

try pluging harddrive back in....unplug everything connect to outside (keyboard,mouse power cord ect) and wait at least 10 min...then try booting from dvd

 

[eazy]

If you are able to at least boot into Normal mode, via System Preference, Startup Disk, can you set the Target mode to an external device? (Make sure that the external device is detected first before you can select it)

It used to boot up normally, but now the wheel just spins at the apple logo.. The hard drive has gone out almost completely I believe which makes it un-bootable.

 

[eazy]

sry about open firmware idea...intel imac me not thinking

try pluging harddrive back in....unplug everything connect to outside (keyboard,mouse power cord ect) and wait at least 10 min...then try booting from dvd

I've tried this as well as removing RAM and booting with either RAM chip with no success. I guess my only other option is to try to do a network install. Is it possible to create bootable mac image and HDD and install from HDD with mac image on the same drive? Maybe create a seperate partition?