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Mac Mini Intel won't boot

M

mdntblu

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2004
61
0
I have a Mac Mini that my sister gave me because she said it stopped working.
She said she wanted me to get all her photos off of it.
Its a Model A1176 1.66/2X512/80/COMBO/AP/BT

I tried playing with it and it powers up, shows the Apple on a grey screen with a spinning little icon.. It does that for about 30 sec and then turns off.

I opened it up, took the hard drive out, put it into an external USB case and hooked it up to my Windows PC and loaded MacDrive 8 software. Got the drive to be recognized on the PC and backed up all her photos.

Is there anything I can do on the PC to get it to boot up on the Mac Mini?
 
mdntblu said:
...Is there anything I can do on the PC to get it to boot up on the Mac Mini?
Click to expand...


no, but since you already have the photos off, you're gold. boot the mini from the restore disc (or retail 10.5 disc) without the hard drive and see where you get. if the mini will boot without the hard drive, then there is a good chance that you have a failing HD or corrupt system. if that's the case, shut everything down, re-install the HD in the mini and run disk utility to erase the drive, then re-install from the recovery disc.

fwiw, you don't need the top cover on, but you need all the cables reconnected to boot.

my take would be, if it boots from the recovery disc, then replace the HD with a new/big/fast model since it's already apart, and reload from scratch. good to go, smash the old drive and recycle if available. or keep it in the external usb thingy after a full erase/check. i'd still smash it...

if it won't boot from the recovery disc, then the logic board is suspect, or the cable, or the memory, or...

best of luck.
 
4JNA said:
no, but since you already have the photos off, you're gold. boot the mini from the restore disc (or retail 10.5 disc) without the hard drive and see where you get. if the mini will boot without the hard drive, then there is a good chance that you have a failing HD or corrupt system. if that's the case, shut everything down, re-install the HD in the mini and run disk utility to erase the drive, then re-install from the recovery disc.

fwiw, you don't need the top cover on, but you need all the cables reconnected to boot.

my take would be, if it boots from the recovery disc, then replace the HD with a new/big/fast model since it's already apart, and reload from scratch. good to go, smash the old drive and recycle if available. or keep it in the external usb thingy after a full erase/check. i'd still smash it...

if it won't boot from the recovery disc, then the logic board is suspect, or the cable, or the memory, or...

best of luck.
Click to expand...

Problem is I don't have any discs because she just gave me the computer and keyboard/mouse. I need to find a recovery disc somewhere or if there is a way to download it and burn it on a disc.
 
I would first ask for the OS X disc, then run an Archive and Install installation (the button to choose this is on the HDD selection page in the installer) making sure that the preserve users checkbox is ticked. That should give her a working OS X install while preserving all of her stuff, apps, and settings if the hard drive is indeed okay.
 
PurrBall said:
I would first ask for the OS X disc, then run an Archive and Install installation (the button to choose this is on the HDD selection page in the installer) making sure that the preserve users checkbox is ticked. That should give her a working OS X install while preserving all of her stuff, apps, and settings if the hard drive is indeed okay.
Click to expand...

Can I use a Mac Book Pro disc? If so what are the steps? She has 2 Mac Book Pro ones. Disc 1 and Disc 2.
 
Not that I am endorsing any kind of copyright infringement, but considering you do already own Mac OSX, I find no harm in torrenting a new disk to allow you to reinstall.

It would be a shame to have to rebuy something you already own
 
mdntblu said:
Can I have Apple send them to me for a cost?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you call them, they will send you the discs, they are around $35.

kryptonianjorel said:
Not that I am endorsing any kind of copyright infringement, but considering you do already own Mac OSX, I find no harm in torrenting a new disk to allow you to reinstall.

It would be a shame to have to rebuy something you already own
Click to expand...

That way would leave you without iLife, and since there has already been trojans in other Mac torrents, why not build one into OS X?
 
r.j.s said:
Yes, if you call them, they will send you the discs, they are around $35.



That way would leave you without iLife, and since there has already been trojans in other Mac torrents, why not build one into OS X?
Click to expand...

True, they've found some trojans in some mac torrents, but thats why you do your research before you download. torrents with positive comments and high votes and many seeds prove the validity of a torrent
 
kryptonianjorel said:
True, they've found some trojans in some mac torrents, but thats why you do your research before you download. torrents with positive comments and high votes and many seeds prove the validity of a torrent
Click to expand...

While true, it's still illegal.
 
r.j.s said:
While true, it's still illegal.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. If I own a CD, I can download any and all of those songs to my computer, and thats perfectly legal, because I can claim it as a format shift or a personal backup. Same would apply to software
 
kryptonianjorel said:
I don't think so. If I own a CD, I can download any and all of those songs to my computer, and thats perfectly legal, because I can claim it as a format shift or a personal backup. Same would apply to software
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean you can just download those songs from the internet because you lost the original CD though.
 
Ok everyone, my sister finally found the MacMini original discs that came with the computer. So I loaded it all up and after like hours of work and installing all the updates, etc the computer wouldn't boot again.

So I tried to do a disk repair and it was all jacked so I suspected it was the hard drive. Bought a brand new 80gb SATA 2.5 drive for $17 on eBay.

Just installed it and am now currently loading the OS again from the MacMini Original Discs.

Another question I have though - once it's all loaded what version will it be of the OS? The whole reason for this mac is to load iPhone SDK on it. But now I'm thinking that after doing all this the iPhone SDK won't run on this version of OSX.

Will I be able to buy the Snow Leopard for $29 and upgrade it in Sept? Or will I have to buy a more expensive version since this one is so old? I believe it's Tiger 10.4.8 or something.

Also can I get a Disc with Leopard instead and use that?

Thanks
 
Just wait until Snow Leopard shows up, that way you can get a Mac Box Set with Snow Leopard, iLife '09, and iWork '09 for about $169.

Sort of silly to buy Leopard right now and then turn around and buy Snow Leopard, spend the same amount and not update all the other apps.

Edit: Snow Leopard for $29 is an upgrade version, like the other upgrade versions of old it checks to see if you are running Leopard ... otherwise you will need to buy the universal upgrade which just checks system specs.

Isn't the first time Apple has sold upgrades for this price, they used to do it all the time with the Up-to-Date program ... only difference is that they are expanding the number of people that can buy it to all leopard users instead of just those buying machines after the announcement.
 
sounds similar to my problem

I have a MacMini that also will not start up. I see a flashing apple icon alternating with a "prohibit" symbol. I suspect that I let the HD get too full.

I inserted the original install CD but cannot get any further than this. I did run disk verify and it is fine. Any suggestions? The mini is about 3 years old.
 
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