OS X 10.6 startup issue

[raydixon9]

upon startup i see a gray screen, the apple logo, and spinning gears. Then the apple logo turns into a circle with a line through it and stays that way forever. I call apple support. They got me to run disk utility by booting from install disk. Then running repair disk and repair permissions. Then boot into safe mode and computer works fine...for a few restarts then does the same thing. Any ideas? Thanks.

Ray

oh yeah early 2009 model 24"imac, 8gb, 3ghz,

 

[benthewraith]

upon startup i see a gray screen, the apple logo, and spinning gears. Then the apple logo turns into a circle with a line through it and stays that way forever. I call apple support. They got me to run disk utility by booting from install disk. Then running repair disk and repair permissions. Then boot into safe mode and computer works fine...for a few restarts then does the same thing. Any ideas? Thanks.

Ray

oh yeah early 2009 model 24"imac, 8gb, 3ghz,

When you go into System Preferences -> Startup Disk what does it say?

 

[raydixon9]

system preferences

ask me to select a drive with which to startup
mac hd, os x disc, or network drive

 

[5DollaFootlong]

make sure you have mac hd selected.

 

[raydixon9]

mac hd selected

on restart still get "no" circle but i can reboot into safe mode then restart and it works fine, but next time i restart I get the "no" circle

 

[5DollaFootlong]

i think you should boot with your snow leopard disc, and repair disk. if that doesn't work, backup your files, and do a clean install

 

[Darth.Titan]

Definitely do a backup ASAP. Sporadic problems like this can indicate a failing hard drive.

It could also be a glitchy driver or kernel extension since booting to safe mode solves things. If that's the case a clean install will do you good.