URGENT !! Blue screen on login, user account on imac won't work

[NickVal72]

Hi all,

Got a major problem, my wife has a lot of university work on her user account on a 2007 20" Intel iMac running leopard OS, and she cant get to her work. When trying to log in to her account, it goes to a blue screen for about 10 minutes then goes back to the login screen. Anyone know a way we can get to her work in documents ( and also salvage the photos on there!)? To make things more difficult the dvd wont accept discs so cant even re-install the OS!
She has not put the work in a shared account OR backed it up on a pen drive!
Thanks

 

[Macman45]

Hi all,

Got a major problem, my wife has a lot of university work on her user account on a 2007 20" Intel iMac running leopard OS, and she cant get to her work. When trying to log in to her account, it goes to a blue screen for about 10 minutes then goes back to the login screen. Anyone know a way we can get to her work in documents ( and also salvage the photos on there!)? To make things more difficult the dvd wont accept discs so cant even re-install the OS!
She has not put the work in a shared account OR backed it up on a pen drive!
Thanks

Sounds like the only way you are going to get at that data is by removing the HDD from the Mac...Some steps to take first:

Try checking the status of the drive via Disk Utility.:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782


If this requires repair, follow the prompts on-screen.


You could also try an SMC re-set:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964


If neither of these steps correct the issue, it's likely that you have a failed or failing HDD...Removing it and putting it a caddy might allow you to copy the data from the drive.