Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OS X loads grey Apple progress bar on startup everytime!!

E

emediately

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2009
48
0
UPDATE:
ISSUTE SOLVED.
Went to the Apple store, explained my problem and they brought out a new iMac for me. Did a retail swap instead of going through the Genuis Bar. I'm so happy =) =) Got a brand new iMac. This time, I disk Disk Check right away, and it says hard drive appears to be OK. No grey progress bar anymore! :D :D The problem was probably b/c the hard drive was defective. It had nothing to do with the unsafe shutdown, or pressing shift, etc...


--------------------------------------------------------------

I have a iMac 27'.. Purchased it 2 weeks ago.

I think I did an unsafe shutdown.. Or I pressed "shift" while booting, or something.. Idk and I also have WinXP installed on BootCamp. However for some reason now every time I startup my Mac, it loads with the grey Apple horizontal progress bar with a little loading animation on top. It's so annoying. This didn't happen after no firmware upgrade or anything. And I don't have any extra hard drives attached. Nothing. Everything is fine. Everything used to work. Even with BootCamp before. I think this happened after an unsafe shutdown or something. And also, my Mac has over 500GB free space still, so that's not an issue.

The progress bar at startup Takes 5-6 min extra to boot up. After it, the Mac OS X loads and everything is fine but that's not what my problem is. My problem is why should I be getting the stupid progress bar EVERYTHING I load my Mac?

I tried booting with installation disk, then going to Disk Utility but NOTHING. I click repair, and after 5 mins some error pops up saying backup your files when you can then reformat the disk.

Oh btw, Anytime I click Repair Disk it goes, then says: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required. And after that it says: "Disk Utility stopped repairing "MY DISK NAME HERE". Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backend-up files.

Maybe the hard drive is damaged or defective. Any help?
 
emediately said:
Even with BootCamp before. I think this happened after an unsafe shutdown. And also, my Mac has over 500GB free space still, so that's not an issue.
Click to expand...

Happens, need to repair the drive either with disk first aid or fsck.

Unsafe shutdowns can damage the file system, sometimes to the point of needing a 3rd party repair utility (usually when b tree damaged).

Might get lucky and only have some orphaned nodes which can sometimes slow drive access down a bit.
 
The progress bar is from an attempt to fsck the disk, which may not be succeeding. Disk Utility's repair function confirms that fsck is definately NOT succeeding. As Disk Utility mentioned, your OS X install is essentially FUBAR, and it is likely due to a failing the disk itself.

tl;dr Your hard drive is dying. That happens sometimes. Not your fault, not Apple's fault. Make preparations now while you still can. Backup everything you care about on both OS X and Windows, then take it down the Apple Store. They will replace the disk for you.
 
Failing disk?

Unsafe shutdown? But on my old Windows PC it runs through some chk disk every time I do unsafe shutdown and after it completes everything is fine. And here on the iMac it causes HD damage? Naw, I don't believe it.. Anyway I'm trying the fsck method right now.
 
emediately said:
Wtf? How many times in my old PC, I do the unsafe shutdown, Windows runs through some chk disk and everything is fine. And here? Wtf? Obviously it's Apple's fault. I paid 2k for a stupid iMac 27inch, 2 weeks ago. Wow.. Oh my God. I'm trying the fsck method right now.
Click to expand...

It had nothing to do with OS X or anything you did, like unsafe shutdowns. The drive was physically defective from the factory. Hard disks are finicky things, being mechanical and so high-precision. This sort of thing is just a fact of life with computers. It happens. I'm sorry the first time it happened to you was with your new, first Mac, but life sucks sometimes. In any case, Apple WILL repair the machine for free. In fact, considering how new it is, they may simply swap you out for a new one, fix the drive, and sell the old one to some lucky bastard on the online refurb store.
 
Nothing to do with unsafe shutdowns?

Why did this happen though as of now? Like I've been using the Mac for like 2 weeks already, everything was fine. Until now? They'll repair it? Even if I don't have AppleCare?

J the Ninja said:
It had nothing to do with OS X or anything you did, like unsafe shutdowns. The drive was physically defective from the factory. Hard disks are finicky things, being mechanical and so high-precision. This sort of thing is just a fact of life with computers. It happens. I'm sorry the first time it happened to you was with your new, first Mac, but life sucks sometimes. In any case, Apple WILL repair the machine for free. In fact, considering how new it is, they may simply swap you out for a new one, fix the drive, and sell the old one to some lucky bastard on the online refurb store.
Click to expand...
 
emediately said:
Why did this happen though as of now? Like I've been using the Mac for like 2 weeks already, everything was fine. Until now? They'll repair it? Even if I don't have AppleCare?
Click to expand...

Same reason why your 2 week old car can get a flat tire. **** happens.

Of course they'll repair it.
 
emediately said:
Why did this happen though as of now? Like I've been using the Mac for like 2 weeks already, everything was fine. Until now? They'll repair it? Even if I don't have AppleCare?
Click to expand...

AppleCare is only needed for free repairs past the 1 year mark. If it's less than a year old, you are covered. If it's within the return period, you should be able to get an outright replacement instead of leaving it at the Genius bar for a few days while they replace the drive. And it is not uncommon for hard drives to run fine for a few weeks then suddenly go belly-up. Like I said, they're delicate and finicky things. It's impossible to make them all work according to spec. Every batch has some that will fail prematurely. That's why you back up.
 
I will try one more thing. It's called Disk Warrior. And I'm not worrying about backing up data. I have everything on my external drive.

OR, maybe I should try REFORMATTING the HD? And reinstalling OS X? Or you think there's no point? Or it won't work?

Oh and btw, thanks for your time and replies. :) You're atleast some help. not like Blaine. :D Jkk..

J the Ninja said:
AppleCare is only needed for free repairs past the 1 year mark. If it's less than a year old, you are covered. If it's within the return period, you should be able to get an outright replacement instead of leaving it at the Genius bar for a few days while they replace the drive. And it is not uncommon for hard drives to run fine for a few weeks then suddenly go belly-up. Like I said, they're delicate and finicky things. It's impossible to make them all work according to spec. Every batch has some that will fail prematurely. That's why you back up.
Click to expand...
 
You could give reinstalling a shot. It will probably work temporarily. It might work permanently, it might not. If the problem really is the disk itself, that won't do anything. There is always a chance something inexplicably went wrong with your OS X install. Then again, you could also be using up your return period and loose the chance to get this resolved with a simple machine swap.

Disk Warrior is for data recovery. Since you have everything backed up already, forget about it. Reinstall if you want, or just forget about it and resign yourself to an RMA (it's always a good feeling when you do that, kind of like when you cave to the fact that you're ill and call in sick to work.) If you have an Apple Store nearby, drop by their page on Apple.com and schedule an appointment with the Genius bar. If you don't have a local store, or aren't sure, drop by this page, it will help you get some repair options:

https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
 
I'll try reinstalling OS X.

I'll give reinstalling a shot. Although I don't see why it can work "temporarily". I believe if it repeats what it was doing, then it's the HD itself. If not, then it prob had something to do with me messing it up somehow. Idk.. I hope reformatting, & reinstalling will solve the issue. However I don't see WHY it should be the HD itself. Nothing went wrong with my OS X install, as I never reinstalled OS X, it came preinstalled already.

RMA? I do wish I could return it, however I'd have to wait till Monday and etc, plus why not try reinstalling..

J the Ninja said:
You could give reinstalling a shot. It will probably work temporarily. It might work permanently, it might not. If the problem really is the disk itself, that won't do anything. There is always a chance something inexplicably went wrong with your OS X install. Then again, you could also be using up your return period and loose the chance to get this resolved with a simple machine swap.

Disk Warrior is for data recovery. Since you have everything backed up already, forget about it. Reinstall if you want, or just forget about it and resign yourself to an RMA (it's always a good feeling when you do that, kind of like when you cave to the fact that you're ill and call in sick to work.) If you have an Apple Store nearby, drop by their page on Apple.com and schedule an appointment with the Genius bar. If you don't have a local store, or aren't sure, drop by this page, it will help you get some repair options:

https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
Click to expand...
 
Often, if you reinstall on a dying hard drive, it will appear to be back to normal for a few days or weeks, but then things will start to go downhill again.

Also, I believe the Genius Bars are open on Saturday, along with the rest of the store. Check the hours for your local one.
 
They may be open on Saturday's, but I won't be able to make it to the Apple store tomorrow as I work. Damn it. But I just am still not convinced that it's the HD. Hmmm..

J the Ninja said:
Often, if you reinstall on a dying hard drive, it will appear to be back to normal for a few days or weeks, but then things will start to go downhill again.

Also, I believe the Genius Bars are open on Saturday, along with the rest of the store. Check the hours for your local one.
Click to expand...
 
emediately said:
They may be open on Saturday's, but I won't be able to make it to the Apple store tomorrow as I work. Damn it. But I just am still not convinced that it's the HD. Hmmm..
Click to expand...

You may just have a hard drive with a few bad "sectors", meaning that most of the hard drive is fine, but some parts on the platters on the actual hard drive is bad. So mechanically, it still works. The parts that it tries to write to and read from, is probably why it's having errors.

So if you re-install, it may write to a different sector, appearing to be fine most of the time. But once it starts writing to that bad sector, you'll start to have errors again. I've only had one hard drive like that, so I ended up swapping it out. And this was on a PC by the way, not a Mac. :rolleyes:

I'd go ahead and swap out that machine with Apple, even if your re-install works. Better to be safe with a machine with no problems, than have a machine with problems. ;)
 
Thanks man for your help. I will definitely go to the Apple store. The cool thing is it's free. :) Even if I have no AppleCare.

fiercetiger224 said:
You may just have a hard drive with a few bad "sectors", meaning that most of the hard drive is fine, but some parts on the platters on the actual hard drive is bad. So mechanically, it still works. The parts that it tries to write to and read from, is probably why it's having errors.

So if you re-install, it may write to a different sector, appearing to be fine most of the time. But once it starts writing to that bad sector, you'll start to have errors again. I've only had one hard drive like that, so I ended up swapping it out. And this was on a PC by the way, not a Mac. :rolleyes:

I'd go ahead and swap out that machine with Apple, even if your re-install works. Better to be safe with a machine with no problems, than have a machine with problems. ;)
Click to expand...
 
What kind of progress bar are you getting? Is it a horizontal progress bar or a circular one? Apparently if you hold down the power button too long I've been told that it tells the computer to try and update the firmware or something on startup which gives you a progress bar even if you haven't installed any firmware. Whatever it does I got it a few times on my MBP when my battery ran out and after plugging it into an outlet I held down the power button too long when I tried to wake it up.

Nothing else was different but when I turned on my computer the next day I got a horizontal progress bar. The problem was repeatable every time I held the power button too long. I now just do a quick press of the power button and no more progress bar. When you did your unsafe shutdown did you hold down the power button?

I don't know if that is exactly your problem but I thought I might as well mention it in case it was.
 
DiskWarrior is not for data recovery. It repairs the directory when there is a corrupt or misplaced file. It is used most of the time to help booting issues like this one. I'd give it a shot.
 
Hmm.. Interesting..

Horizontal progress bar (grey) with a circular loading animation on top of the bar.. Look @ the attached pic.. And YES i did hold the power button! However, why would Disk Utility be telling me then that there's some disk errors? Hold on let me try playing around and trying to turn off the Mac without holding the power button for long..



EndlessMac said:
What kind of progress bar are you getting? Is it a horizontal progress bar or a circular one? Apparently if you hold down the power button too long I've been told that it tells the computer to try and update the firmware or something on startup which gives you a progress bar even if you haven't installed any firmware. Whatever it does I got it a few times on my MBP when my battery ran out and after plugging it into an outlet I held down the power button too long when I tried to wake it up.

Nothing else was different but when I turned on my computer the next day I got a horizontal progress bar. The problem was repeatable every time I held the power button too long. I now just do a quick press of the power button and no more progress bar. When you did your unsafe shutdown did you hold down the power button?

I don't know if that is exactly your problem but I thought I might as well mention it in case it was.
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • mms_picture.jpg
    mms_picture.jpg
    292.3 KB · Views: 844
Well, duh the Genuine Bar visit is free ofcourse, I mean the cool part is the actual repair (hard drive replacement) is free..

pkoch1 said:
Well, genius bar visits are always free, regardless of AppleCare status. It's the parts and labor that can get you ;)
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back