Transparent screen descends "Must Restart Now"!

[kifried]

While checking my email this morning a black transparent screen descended from the top of the screen of my iMac and swept to the bottom of the screen. A little box popped up saying, in several languages "Must Restart Now". I followed the directions since I was locked out to do anything else and restarted. The computer reboot and I was at my home screen which soon thereafter froze again causing me to have to restart.

Now, the computer will not boot up. I hit the power key, the ping sound is made like it's booting and then after apple logo appears it suddently shuts off. I've put in the install disk and held down "c" while botting up and it has brought me to the screen where it wants to format the hd and reload the OS...

is this my only option at this point, my hd was not backed up so sadly I'd lose a bunch of stuff.
I'm running a 20" iMac that I purchased in april of 2008 that has not been upgraded, all original OS

any help would be greatly appreciated,

thanks, Ken

 

[MacDawg]

It is a kernel panic
The link is to the Apple Support article

 

[skunk]

You could start up from the DVD and try a Disk Repair from the Utilities Menu, or you could hold down Command+S on Startup and try a file system check.

 

[kifried]

ok

so, what does the command + s screen tell me. I have a lot of text that I don't know how to read? And, the kernel panic is right, that's the screen I saw. How might I resolve this issue then?

 

[MacDawg]

A place to start

 

[skunk]

so, what does the command + s screen tell me. I have a lot of text that I don't know how to read? And, the kernel panic is right, that's the screen I saw. How might I resolve this issue then?

At the prompt, press f s c k (space) - f. When the check is complete, press reboot (space) - n to restart. This will check that everything is in the right place without going through Disk Utility.

 

[lois228lois]

IMac :: Transparent Screen Descends "Must Restart Now"?

This may help for any one reading:
I had the same problem with my iMac.
When it would not fix upon restart, I treated it as a glitch.
Turned computer off again, then unplugged power cord and replugged back in very carefully to avoid spark. Then turned computer back on and now everything appears back to normal.

 

[fhall1]

This may help for any one reading:
I had the same problem with my iMac.
When it would not fix upon restart, I treated it as a glitch.
Turned computer off again, then unplugged power cord and replugged back in very carefully to avoid spark. Then turned computer back on and now everything appears back to normal.

You were lucky - most kernel panics aren't solved that easily (voice of experience)

 

[GGJstudios]

You were lucky - most kernel panics aren't solved that easily (voice of experience)

Actually, most kernel panics are fairly uncommon for most users and don't usually require any further attention. When you get recurring kernel panics, it's a problem, and not always easily solved, as you said.

In most cases, kernel panics are not caused by an issue with your Mac. They are most likely caused by an issue external to your Mac. If the kernel panic doesn't happen again within a few weeks, you don't need to troubleshoot further.

"You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) message appears (Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6)
Mac OS X 10.7 Help: If “You need to restart your computer” appears
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Understanding and Debugging Kernel Panics
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