Imac won't boot after kernel panic? (please help)

[katslo]

Hello everyone, I recently bought an old 2008 Imac off a family friend. The Imac has been performing brilliantly for the 2 month's since I bought it, and has succeeded where my old windows laptop failed in enabling me to complete my university coursework. Using programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.

However 3 days ago, I was watching something on YouTube and the Imac suffered a Kernel Panic. Being that I am new to owning a Mac I had never experienced, or even heard of a kernel panic before, and so I panicked.

Since the kernel panic, the Imac will not boot up. It will switch on, make the chime sound and the apple logo appears as before. But it only gets to roughly 1/3 along the loading bar and just stops.

I have researched this problem and have tried everything I think I can try, and at this point I need help, from somebody who knows what they are doing.

I have disconnected everything, keyboard, mouse etc, and it made no difference.

I have entered safe mode (cmd - s) and entered fsck -fy. The first time I did this it said the Macintosh HD appears to be OK. But just below it says, the volume has been modified.

I read that following this response I should type in the same (fsck -fy) which I did. The response comes back the Macintosh HD appears to be OK.

I then type in reboot, and it just acts the same. Switches on, chime noise, apple logo, and still only gets to 1/3 along the loading bar.

Recovery Mode.

I am not able to enter recovery mode by holding down (cmd - R) I can only get the option to enter recovery mode by holding down (alt) on start up.

I select recovery-10.10.1 and it goes to the loading bar again, but ultimately will not enter recovery and just freezes at the same point on the loading bar.

Safe Boot.

I have tried to safe boot by switching the mac on whilst holding down shift, but no luck there either.

Verbose mode didn't offer me any clues either, but obviously I don't really know what I'm looking at.

I'm new to macs and no tech whizz kid at the best of times, but following my research on the matter, over the last few days, I'm thinking either the HD needs replacing, or I need to perform a fresh install of the OS?

I don't even know if it is possible to reinstall the OS when the computer won't boot up?

Would disc warrior be wort a try? I would really appreciate some advice on this matter please?

If possible I would like to have an idea of whats going on before I tell the person I bought it off.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Poncho]

Don't panic.

Have you tried booting up in Target disc mode? To do this hold down the apple key and the 'T' key. If this works correctly then you will see a firewire logo bouncing around the screen.

This means you can then attach your 2008 iMac to another Mac using a Firewire cable and your Mac's had drive will appear on the secondary Mac as a yellow hard drive. You can then drag off any data you want from your original Mac's hard drive onto the secondary Mac and then set about working on it.

Try repairing the disc of your 2008 Iamc using Disk Utility on the secondary Mac.

Or you can install a fresh install of OS X onto the 2008 iMac, again from the secondary Mac.

Don't have a secondary Mac?

As long as you have a copy of OS X on a DVD you can put the DVD into your 2008 iMac and boot from this. Look in the menu bar when you have done this and you should see Utilities, where you can access Disk Utility and do what I suggested above from here. Or you can install OS X from the DVD. A couple of ways to do this: nuke and pave, or just install the OS.

 

[katslo]

Don't panic.

Have you tried booting up in Target disc mode? To do this hold down the apple key and the 'T' key. If this works correctly then you will see a firewire logo bouncing around the screen.

This means you can then attach your 2008 iMac to another Mac using a Firewire cable and your Mac's had drive will appear on the secondary Mac as a yellow hard drive. You can then drag off any data you want from your original Mac's hard drive onto the secondary Mac and then set about working on it.

Try repairing the disc of your 2008 Iamc using Disk Utility on the secondary Mac.

Or you can install a fresh install of OS X onto the 2008 iMac, again from the secondary Mac.

Don't have a secondary Mac?

As long as you have a copy of OS X on a DVD you can put the DVD into your 2008 iMac and boot from this. Look in the menu bar when you have done this and you should see Utilities, where you can access Disk Utility and do what I suggested above from here. Or you can install OS X from the DVD. A couple of ways to do this: nuke and pave, or just install the OS.

Hello Poncho, thanks for your response.

I tried what you suggested (apple key / T) and nothing.

I don't have a second mac so I will have to get a copy of OS X DVD. Hopefully the guy who sold me the mac will have a copy I can use.

Edited to add: I don't have anything important on the mac that isn't backed up elsewhere so it doesn't matter if I lose all files etc. I just need the mac to work lol

Very helpful response, thanks again.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hello Poncho, thanks for your response.

I tried what you suggested (apple key / T) and nothing.

I don't have a second mac so I will have to get a copy of OS X DVD. Hopefully the guy who sold me the mac will have a copy I can use.

Edited to add: I don't have anything important on the mac that isn't backed up elsewhere so it doesn't matter if I lose all files etc. I just need the mac to work lol

Very helpful response, thanks again.

The HD has probably crashed and needs to be replaced.

 

[katslo]

Quick update.

I have now tried to reinstall the OS via USB but it hasn't worked

I press option/alt as it turns on and I get an extra option (installer) which shows in orange.

I select installer and the loading bar appears, but then freezes at the same point it doe's when I try to boot the Mac without the USB.

Anybody have any idea what could be wrong?

I am starting to think it really might be a hardware issue now.

Would appreciate any input please?

 

[rkaufmann87]

Quick update.

I have now tried to reinstall the OS via USB but it hasn't worked

I press option/alt as it turns on and I get an extra option (installer) which shows in orange.

I select installer and the loading bar appears, but then freezes at the same point it doe's when I try to boot the Mac without the USB.

Anybody have any idea what could be wrong?

I am starting to think it really might be a hardware issue now.

Would appreciate any input please?

Very simple, replace the HD! It has crashed.

 

[katslo]

I think you're probably right.

I only thought it wasn't the HD because I had heard that when you can still hear the chimes on start up, it generally means it isn't the HD.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[chrfr]

I only thought it wasn't the HD because I had heard that when you can still hear the chimes on start up, it generally means it isn't the HD.

You'd still hear the chime even if the computer had no HD. It definitely sounds as though the disk has failed.

 

[katslo]

Right OK well at least I know now lol

I appreciate all the responses, thanks.