Apple Mac problem

sdg · **Posted:** Tue Aug 05, 2014 17:25

Today, the mac, when switched on, can up with a folder icon with a question mark on a grey screen. Stayed flashing like that.
Jen switched it off and tried holding command and R to reboot it following advice she read on the internet. It didn't work the first few times then said it was doing an internet reboot.

Now it sitting on this screen.

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Is it going to have wiped the memory? Is there anything we can do to salvage all our files?

For the last wee while it's been running mega slow in iPhoto but we've not used it a lot so not really worried about it.

asfish · **Joined:** 5th Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 3353

What has happened so far looks to be normal behaviour (in Bold in my quote) so follow the rest and as long as the HD isn't fried you should be able to repair the boot sectors.

Quote:

Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 or 10.8 partition.

When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?

If it is, then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.

If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 6:11

This is what's in disk utility.

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DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

Is media your boot drive?

asfish · **Joined:** 5th Dec, 2010 **Posts:** 3353

If you highlight the MAC OS X base system folder do you see a first aid button in the options?

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

The Base system is the mounted recovery drive. Media is the only physical drive detected

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:59

I think Jen might post, I'm not at home. Her last text to me said Can you ask on the forum if I reinstall Mac OS X will that keep all our files? It gives that option.
In disk utilities there is only a media drive and the first aid tab is greyed out.
Below that is disk 1 and Mac OS X base system, the first aid tab for that is alpo greyed out x

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:02

There is a first aid tab but it is greyed out. The Mac OS X base system shows file numbers ext when selected but the Media drive shows nothing. Does this mean it is not recognising the hard drive?

Once booted up it came up with a menu of Mac OS utilities. In this there is the option to reinstall Mac OS X, restore from time machine backup or disk utility. If I were to reinstall Mac OS X would this work?

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

reinstalling would wipe the partition, so don't do that yet.

Do you have a second hard drive hooked up? Internal or USB? The main drive probably wouldn't be called Media, unless it was specified as that. By default, it would be Macintosh HD or similar.

So yes, it looks like your main drive is not being detected.

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:39

Would you recommend taking it into an apple store?

sdg · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:41

I don't have another hard drive connected but do have one I can use

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

I was just wondering what the Media drive was. If that's the only drive, then it looks like your partitions have gone for a burton.

I'd take it to the store if it's convenient. Zio is obviously busy

Zio · **Joined:** 31st Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6093

Ha ha!

I've been watching this all unfold, but you've so far given the exact same advice I would, DavPaz!

sdg, if you've got an external hard drive you can use, and you're not worried about losing whatever may be on it, you can reinstall Mac OS X to that. Then you'll be able to boot the Mac off of it and check what's on this 'Media' drive and copy off any files you want to rescue. That's what I'd do in any case. Just make sure you definitely tell the Mac OS X installer to install to the external drive (normally shows up a copper colour) rather than the internal drive (which will be a grey colour).

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

Sorry for the thread necro, but I guess my question is technically an Apple Mac problem.

My MacBook Pro wants me to update to OS 10.15.4

My research tells me this version is not without its problems.

Mac owners: should I wait for a new-new OS version?

JBR · **Joined:** 2nd Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 3304

Do you have plenty of disk space? That's the main problem I've had - on the update to (I think) 10.15.2, the update downloaded and extracted itself, then ran out of space to actually install. Bricked computer. I have kept plenty spare since. Otherwise I like it - the podcasts app alone is great. That said, I don't do work on it, and I have a separate Air that is still on Mojave, for the sake of the games that no longer work on Catalina.

Annoyingly, on the latter, Steam can happily identify those which haven't been updated to 64 bit, but not which ones work (some do, some don't).

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

If you use any old software, avoid Catalina

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

I've got about 11GB free, so I will struggle. Currently on Mojave, as I'm not sure what benefits Catalina brings.

DavPaz · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 38659

Catalina benefits software developers who can force you to upgrade and blame Apple.

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Apple Mac problem

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