I just had a very strange experience with my OSX 10.5.8 and would like to share with you. I would be grateful if anyone can explain what happened to my iMac.
Yesterday while I was running Max to convert some of my Apple lossless music files to MP3, my iMac (4GB memory, 2TB hard drive, OSX 10.5.8, boot camp partition with a Windows XP installed) froze - the display was turned off after I left it for a while and when I came back, I couldn't get the display back. Usually I just need to hit the space bar, then I would be asked to enter my password, then the display will be back to show me which file Max is working on. But this time I hit the space bar, I only got a sound, nothing happens - black screen. I tried other keys on my keyboard, all I could get were sounds. Mouse wouldn't wake up the display either.
I left my iMac running for a whole night, hoping somehow it would wake up this morning. But no, it wouldn't wake up. So I had to force shut it down by pressing the power button for a while. Well, disaster - it wouldn't boot anymore. It showed gray screen for a while, turned to black (seems shut down again), then booted into Windows partition. I tried safe start, it still booted into the Windows partition.
I then started it with the the installation DVD, ran disk utilities, and there was nothing wrong with the internal hard drive: "the Machintosh HD appears to be OK". However, when I ran "Startup Disk" utility, I didn't see the internal drive of my iMac as one of the startup disks. There were only the DVD, the Windows, and "Network Startup". I went back to run disk utilities, just confirmed that the disk had no problem. I ran "Repair Permissions". Still couldn't get the internal drive as a startup disk. I shut my iMac down, and then started it while pressing Option. Well, I only saw the DVD and the Windows. I ran Disk Warrior, which claimed that there were many mistakes and it repaired them all. Still I couldn't get my iMac's internal drive as a startup disk.
Finally I reinstalled the system on my iMac with the "Archive and install" option from the installation DVD. Ok it booted normally, showing me the login screen. I clicked on my home account, entered password, oops, it wouldn't accept. I was sure I didn't enter a wrong password. I then clicked another administrative account (I deliberately set up such an account to manage all the accounts of my family), entered password, successfully logged in. I reset my password of my home folder (with exactly the same password), then logged out. Then I successfully entered my home account.
Now I am using my iMac as normal, only feel that the performance seems sluggish. But I am not sure.
I would be grateful if anyone knows what is going on with my iMac. Specifically, should I erase the internal hard drive and do a clean install? Thanks much.
Yesterday while I was running Max to convert some of my Apple lossless music files to MP3, my iMac (4GB memory, 2TB hard drive, OSX 10.5.8, boot camp partition with a Windows XP installed) froze - the display was turned off after I left it for a while and when I came back, I couldn't get the display back. Usually I just need to hit the space bar, then I would be asked to enter my password, then the display will be back to show me which file Max is working on. But this time I hit the space bar, I only got a sound, nothing happens - black screen. I tried other keys on my keyboard, all I could get were sounds. Mouse wouldn't wake up the display either.
I left my iMac running for a whole night, hoping somehow it would wake up this morning. But no, it wouldn't wake up. So I had to force shut it down by pressing the power button for a while. Well, disaster - it wouldn't boot anymore. It showed gray screen for a while, turned to black (seems shut down again), then booted into Windows partition. I tried safe start, it still booted into the Windows partition.
I then started it with the the installation DVD, ran disk utilities, and there was nothing wrong with the internal hard drive: "the Machintosh HD appears to be OK". However, when I ran "Startup Disk" utility, I didn't see the internal drive of my iMac as one of the startup disks. There were only the DVD, the Windows, and "Network Startup". I went back to run disk utilities, just confirmed that the disk had no problem. I ran "Repair Permissions". Still couldn't get the internal drive as a startup disk. I shut my iMac down, and then started it while pressing Option. Well, I only saw the DVD and the Windows. I ran Disk Warrior, which claimed that there were many mistakes and it repaired them all. Still I couldn't get my iMac's internal drive as a startup disk.
Finally I reinstalled the system on my iMac with the "Archive and install" option from the installation DVD. Ok it booted normally, showing me the login screen. I clicked on my home account, entered password, oops, it wouldn't accept. I was sure I didn't enter a wrong password. I then clicked another administrative account (I deliberately set up such an account to manage all the accounts of my family), entered password, successfully logged in. I reset my password of my home folder (with exactly the same password), then logged out. Then I successfully entered my home account.
Now I am using my iMac as normal, only feel that the performance seems sluggish. But I am not sure.
I would be grateful if anyone knows what is going on with my iMac. Specifically, should I erase the internal hard drive and do a clean install? Thanks much.