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Q: I installed OS 10.6 on my imac with OS 10.4 - The screen is black with a "?" mark. What should I do to repair?

I installed OS 10.6 on my imac with OS 10.4 - The screen is black with a "?" mark. What should I do to repair?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Feb 24, 2012 12:56 PM

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Q: I installed OS 10.6 on my imac with OS 10.4 - The screen is black with a "?" mark. What should I do to repair?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Feb 24, 2012 12:59 PM in response to itormin
    Level 10 (271,367 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 24, 2012 12:59 PM in response to itormin

    I hope you have a backup because most likely you need to erase the drive and do a fresh installation.

  • by Radiation Mac,

    Radiation Mac Radiation Mac Feb 24, 2012 2:20 PM in response to itormin
    Level 5 (4,656 points)
    Safari
    Feb 24, 2012 2:20 PM in response to itormin

    You CANNOT advance directly from OSX 10.4 to 10.6.  You have now corrupted your file system and will probably have to completely erase your harddrive and do a fresh installation of OSX, and then import your backup apps and data..

     

    Hope this helps

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Feb 24, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Radiation Mac
    Level 10 (271,367 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 24, 2012 2:24 PM in response to Radiation Mac

    "You CANNOT advance directly from OSX 10.4 to 10.6."

     

    This is not correct. However, upgrading as such means you must have a pristine Tiger system to avoid upgrade problems that can lead to corruption. Like any upgrade it requires a delicate touch, but it's quite doable. You just need to know what you're doing.

  • by Radiation Mac,

    Radiation Mac Radiation Mac Feb 24, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 5 (4,656 points)
    Safari
    Feb 24, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Kappy

    Thank you, Kappy, for the clarification.  I learned something and stand corrected

  • by noondaywitch,

    noondaywitch noondaywitch Feb 24, 2012 2:58 PM in response to Radiation Mac
    Level 6 (8,147 points)
    Feb 24, 2012 2:58 PM in response to Radiation Mac

    Just to reinforce Kappy's statement - I've now upgraded eight various Macs for other people from 10.4.11 directly to 10.6.3 with the retail disc (bought by them of course).

     

    Only two of those failed to install in place, but of course, I ensured they were backed up and an erase and install worked in both cases. (I've still no idea what the differences were to cause this).