iMac won't boot

[maxtoncollins1]

At my school, a friend of mine brought in his iMac so we could use it for music production. We set it up and got it working but in a few days when we went to turn it on it only showed the apple logo with the spinning wheel and nothing happened. I've tried starting it in safe mode, single-user mode, verbose mode, and I've even tried resetting the PRAM. When trying to boot in single-user mode it says a disk0s2: I/0 error. What does that mean and is there anyway we can fix it?

PS: It's also running snow leopard if that helps.

 

[GGJstudios]

You could have a faulty drive.

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on

 

[LaWally]

Do you have an installation disk? You can try booting from that. Press C during startup. Once you're in (hopefully) you can run disk utility on the drive if it sees it.

Your HDD might be dead.

EDIT: I see GGJstudios got to you first with a more complete list of things to try. Good luck.

 

[maxtoncollins1]

Do you have an installation disk? You can try booting from that. Press C during startup. Once you're in (hopefully) you can run disk utility on the drive if it sees it.

Your HDD might be dead.

EDIT: I see GGJstudios got to you first with a more complete list of things to try. Good luck.

I think it was accidentally unplugged while on. Another guy tried unplugging his laptop charger without looking and pulled out the iMac's instead. Could that kill a HDD?

I'll bring the installation disk and see if that works tomorrow.

 

[LaWally]

I think it was accidentally unplugged while on. Another guy tried unplugging his laptop charger without looking and pulled out the iMac's instead. Could that kill a HDD?

I'll bring the installation disk and see if that works tomorrow.

Unplugging the iMac would not "kill" the hard drive, but it could certainly cause problems if the iMac was unplugged during a write to disk operation. In any event disk utility may be able to repair it for you.

Do you have a good backup of your data on the drive?

 

[maxtoncollins1]

Unplugging the iMac would not "kill" the hard drive, but it could certainly cause problems if the iMac was unplugged during a write to disk operation. In any event disk utility may be able to repair it for you.

Do you have a good backup of your data on the drive?

I don't think so. It only had a few things saved on it though. Will what was saved on it be lost after using disk utility?

 

[LaWally]

I don't think so. It only had a few things saved on it though. Will what was saved on it be lost after using disk utility?

You should only lose data if you have to go to the extreme step of reformatting the HDD and reinstalling SL.

 

[maxtoncollins1]

You should only lose data if you have to go to the extreme step of reformatting the HDD and reinstalling SL.

Well I put in the snow leopard disc and it wouldn't read it. I tried multiple times holding c and waiting as it turned on but nothing would happen. It took a couple of tries to get it to eject it too. Is there anything else I can try before having to take it to apple?

Also we tried connecting it to another iMac to view the files and whatnot and it didn't let us see them.

 

[LaWally]

Well I put in the snow leopard disc and it wouldn't read it. I tried multiple times holding c and waiting as it turned on but nothing would happen. It took a couple of tries to get it to eject it too. Is there anything else I can try before having to take it to apple?

Also we tried connecting it to another iMac to view the files and whatnot and it didn't let us see them.

That's strange that it would not read the install media. You're using a wired keyboard, right?

 

[maxtoncollins1]

That's strange that it would not read the install media. You're using a wired keyboard, right?

Yes. Im using a wired keyboard and a wired mouse. the keyboard is working because I can make it enter single user mode and reset the pram.

 

[LaWally]

Yes. Im using a wired keyboard and a wired mouse. the keyboard is working because I can make it enter single user mode and reset the pram.

Looking like take it to Apple is the next step, I'm sorry to say.

 

[maxtoncollins1]

Looking like take it to Apple is the next step, I'm sorry to say.

Oh well. Thanks for your suggestions.