Mac mini won't boot

[elliot]

I have a Mac Mini (18 months old OS 10.3.7) which when turned on produces the gray screen with spinning wheel only. Nothing else happens. It started when I woke it up from sleep and clicked on my browser which wouldn't open. I restarted only to get this gray screen. I tried the option, X, command and command/option/o/f keys. Nothing.

I repaired the Permissions and disk. I didn't see a "startup drive" drive to repair. The message I got was:

1 HFS volume repaired
1 volume could not be repaired

There was a comment that some minor repair was needed. Anyway, didn't work.

Any ideas?

*

 

[mklos]

Do you have any disk utilities like TechTool Pro or DiskWarrior? If not, then I would invest in either or. It sounds like you need the filesystem to be repaired. If that still doesn't work then back your stuff up, and do a repair installation of Mac OS X. If that still doesn't work, erase the HD and do a fresh install. If that doesn't work, replace the HD. I dont think it will go as far as replacing the HD. Its most likely the file system is screwed up. Either TechTool Pro and/or DiskWarrior can tell you that and 99% of the time, fix whatever is wrong.

 

[elliot]

I'll look into that thanks, but how can I back up my stuff if I can't boot up my Mini?

 

[mad jew]

If you have access to another Mac you could try Target Disk Mode to recover your data.

 

[elliot]

I do have another Mac. This sounds promising. I just need the 6 to 6. Thanks.
I'll do a erase/install after I recover my data. That should do it.

 

[elliot]

Target didn't work but I did an archival install, retrieved all my data then a clean install. Working now. Thank!

 

[mad jew]

Excellent. It's strange that Target Disk Mode didn't work though.

 

[harixvirex]

Mac Mini Gray Screen - A solution which works at last

I have submitted a solution for this....

Check and revert...