Time to hit the Genius bar?

[petercl]

My iMac (5 yrs old) is stuck at the apple logo and the spinner stops. I tried resetting the PRAM, starting from a CC Clone, recovery disc and safe mode. They all result in the stalled spinner.

All software is totally up to date (Mavericks, etc...) and all periferals were unplugged.

Is there anything else I should do before I lug it to the store?

Thanks!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Try cloning your drive to an external and booting from there? Sounds like your internal HDD might be dead.

 

[Bear]

My iMac (5 yrs old) is stuck at the apple logo and the spinner stops. I tried resetting the PRAM, starting from a CC Clone, recovery disc and safe mode. They all result in the stalled spinner.

All software is totally up to date (Mavericks, etc...) and all periferals were unplugged.

Is there anything else I should do before I lug it to the store?

Thanks!

Yes, think about how much you're willing to spend on a repair before buying a new Mac.

Try cloning your drive to an external and booting from there? Sounds like your internal HDD might be dead.

If the HD is dead, how can they clone it? As it is they said they already tried booting from a clone and that didn't work either.

 

[petercl]

Thanks Bear- The HD is cloned and it did not start from that either (as you mentioned.) I also have an active Time Machine that I cannot access.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Thanks Bear- The HD is cloned and it did not start from that either (as you mentioned.) I also have an active Time Machine that I cannot access.

Thanks for your help!!

You can't access your Time Machine backup if you boot from a CD/DVD and try to do a restore from there?

 

[petercl]

You can't access your Time Machine backup if you boot from a CD/DVD and try to do a restore from there?

I'll give that a shot. The only OSX I have is Snow Leopard, can I use that? Or burn Mavericks from my MBP?

 

[Bear]

I'll give that a shot. The only OSX I have is Snow Leopard, can I use that? Or burn Mavericks from my MBP?

You could try booting from the optical disc to see if that works. Or as stated below, try and boot from your Time Machine disk.

You can't access your Time Machine backup if you boot from a CD/DVD and try to do a restore from there?

Actually since 10.7.2, Time Machine drives that are connected via firewire/usb/thunderbolt have a recovery partition on them. If you hold Option key while booting it will bring you to a boot disk selector screen.

 

[keysofanxiety]

My iMac (5 yrs old) is stuck at the apple logo and the spinner stops. I tried resetting the PRAM, starting from a CC Clone, recovery disc and safe mode. They all result in the stalled spinner.

All software is totally up to date (Mavericks, etc...) and all periferals were unplugged.

Is there anything else I should do before I lug it to the store?

Thanks!

Recovery HD>repair disk through Disk Utility (not sure if you've already tried this?)

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Actually since 10.7.2, Time Machine drives that are connected via firewire/usb/thunderbolt have a recovery partition on them.

That is sweet!

I admit I wasn't much of a TM fan initially, just took too long and made everything hang. But decided to give it another shot the other day with my NAS as my TM backup and I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with how much smoother everything runs these days.

 

[petercl]

You could try booting from the optical disc to see if that works. Or as stated below, try and boot from your Time Machine disk.

Actually since 10.7.2, Time Machine drives that are connected via firewire/usb/thunderbolt have a recovery partition on them. If you hold Option key while booting it will bring you to a boot disk selector screen.

I'll try from a disc. The recovery disk doesn't boot...I just hang like everything else. It's probably a failing hard drive, when it start it, it makes noise for a good minute or two.

 

[blueroom]

5 years is about right for HDD failure.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I'll try from a disc. The recovery disk doesn't boot...I just hang like everything else. It's probably a failing hard drive, when it start it, it makes noise for a good minute or two.

What about through running fsck check through Single User Mode? Does it say the file system's been modified?

 

[petercl]

What about through running fsck check through Single User Mode? Does it say the file system's been modified?

I haven't done that yet, I'll give it a try.

Thank you