#Imac spinning wheel circle with slash mac

IвЂ™m sure there are many other tips and suggestions on the topic of Mac startup problems please let us know some of your ideas and experiences in the comments. For more details see How (and Why) to Clone Your Mac Hard Drive. This not only allows you to check, fix or copy data off the primary boot drive but continue working immediately when you have disk problems. You can also use a clone of your Mac hard drive to boot a cantankerous system. Intel Macs can also boot from a USB flash drive which contains a bootable disk image, this can be very handy in an emergency.

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Once the installer begins you canВ run Disk Utility (from the Utilties menu) or perform an Archive & Install.

#Imac spinning wheel circle with slash install

If your Mac has an optical drive ( aka SuperDrive вЂ“ most do) you can boot from an Apple software install CD or DVD вЂ“ insert your disc, restart and hold down the C key. Boot Mac from another drive to troubleshoot More good info aboutВ kernel panics can be found at The-X-Lab. If that doesnвЂ™t work try disconnecting peripherals, removing RAM, PCI cards, etc. Try a Safe Boot to disable non-Apple extensions. It is accompanied by the screen slowly darkening from top to bottom before a multilingual warning appears:ДЄ kernel panic can happen at virtually any point in the boot process and may indicate a corrupt OS, an incompatible kernel extension, or a hardware problem. Mac crashes can take on all sorts of appearances вЂ“ the Spinning Beach Ball being perhaps the most familiar вЂ“ but Apple has succeeded in scaring the bejesus out of many users with this dialog. Presented in your native language, or something close.ДЄ kernel panic is an Operating System crash with an historically colorful name. вЂњYou need to restart your computer.вЂќ No ifs, ands, or buts. Safe Boot may help too, as that bypasses non-essential fonts and user startup items which you can then remove from your User Library folder Kernel panic Setting up a second, emergency admin account on your Mac is helpful for troubleshooting account problems. Corrupt Fonts or bad Preference Files (.plist) are common culprits.

A hang at a blue screen, at the login window, or at the image of your blank desktop often indicates a Problem with a User Account. Mac blue screen or blank desktopДЄfter the Operating System has finished loading the loginwindow process manager takes over and deposits you at your desktop. If that doesnвЂ™t work, an Archive & Install may be needed.

DiskWarrior is also worth a shot (this is by far my most used disk utility). Rebooting your Mac in Safe Mode can sometimes get things working well-enough that a second, normal reboot then works normally Hold down the Shift key at startup to boot in Safe Mode. It may also be having trouble accessing an internal or external hardware component, but this is less-likely.

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What this means for us mortals is that when a Mac stalls at the Apple logo or the logo with a spinning gear, it probably has a corrupt Mac OS X installation. Shortly thereafter it transfers command to the almighty (and controversial) launchd process. Once the spinning gear appears the BSD kernel (Darwin) has assumed command and begins loading device drivers.

When the Apple Logo appears your Mac has found a valid system disk, and Mac OS X begins loading.

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You can also try Apple Disk Utility or another third-party utility like TechTool Pro or Drive Genius to try to repair the disk.В If the drive is OK after repairs but the Mac still wonвЂ™t boot, do an Archive & Install of Mac OS X to replace the operating system. This can indicate a corrupt installation of Mac OS X or a failed (or failing) hard drive.ДЄ pass through the excellent DiskWarrior utility is highly recommended for any disk-related startup problems. The flashing question mark or a circle/slash means your Mac canвЂ™t find a valid startup disk. Leaving a failing drive struggling too long can cause further damageДЇlashing question mark with folder, or circle/slash Sometimes switching on/off a few times can help, but donвЂ™t push things under these circumstances. This can indicate a failed or failing hard drive.

Sometimes a Mac will power on but the hard drive will squeal, whine very loudly or make ticking sounds. If your Mac doesnвЂ™t make any noise at all when switching it on, or if you hear the fans running but nothing else, you may again have a power supply or logic board failure. Listening to your computer may seem a bit metaphysical, but can provide helpful clues to startup problems. Sometimes plugging in the computer and letting it sit for 30-60 minutes recharges the battery enough to permit booting. A dead or dying PRAM battery can prevent a Mac from booting or cause erratic behavior. If the date and time reset each time you unplug the Mac you need a new PRAM battery. Macs also have another battery, called the PRAM (or NV-RAM) battery, that saves things like network settings, choice of startup drive, etc.