guimers8

Q: iMac G5 won't boot, flashing folder icon, disk not found

Hi fellow Mac users,

 

My mother's G5 iMac suddenly stopped booting after no significant event. Here is some information :

- When the Mac boots up, I get a flashing folder icon.

- When running the extended Apple Hardware Test (from the original Tiger DVD), I get no error, even the hard drive (Mass Storage) seems to be fine.

- When I boot on the Leopard DVD, the hard drive doesn't show up in disk utility.

 

I think the hard drive is broken, do you agree or is there something else that I am missing ? I am confused because the test says nothing about the hard drive.

 

Thank you for your help

Posted on Jan 4, 2013 3:13 PM

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Q: iMac G5 won't boot, flashing folder icon, disk not found

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Klaus1,

    Klaus1 Klaus1 Jan 5, 2013 2:55 AM in response to guimers8
    Level 8 (48,831 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 2:55 AM in response to guimers8

    This may help:

     

    iMac G5: Fails to startup

     

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2173?viewlocale=en_US

  • by mrbear235,

    mrbear235 mrbear235 Jan 5, 2013 4:55 AM in response to Klaus1
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 4:55 AM in response to Klaus1

    Try doing this:

    After the chime (the apple startup sound) hold down command+R until you get a list of options. Chose the last option. Then click Macintosh HD and click repair (or repair disk permissions if that is available).

    If that doesn't work then you may have to get a new iMac. If it was on time machine you should be able to get all your data back.

  • by guimers8,

    guimers8 guimers8 Jan 5, 2013 6:54 AM in response to mrbear235
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 6:54 AM in response to mrbear235

    @ Klaus1 :
    Thanks. I tried but everything is fine on this side, the first three LEDs are On and the last is Off as expected.

    But the article is about iMacs that display nothing.

     

    @ mrbear235 :

    Pressing cmd+R does nothing. I get a grey screen and the computer eventually reboots after a while.

     

    The computer seems fine appart from the fact that there is no hard drive detected. But shouldn't the Apple Hardware Test say something about it ?

  • by guimers8,

    guimers8 guimers8 Jan 5, 2013 11:53 AM in response to guimers8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 11:53 AM in response to guimers8

    Additional information : I tried hooking up a small 2.5" SATA HD (from a macbook pro) onto the iMac G5 to see if it would show up in disk utility when booting on the leopard DVD ; but it doesn't.

     

    Which I think is a very bad news, because a computer unable to mount a hard drive is quite useless.

     

    Any thoughts ?

  • by AlmightyTreeGod,

    AlmightyTreeGod AlmightyTreeGod Jul 10, 2013 7:35 AM in response to guimers8
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 10, 2013 7:35 AM in response to guimers8

    I'm having a similar issue with a Mac Pro G5... Flashing folder icon on boot, hardware test passes, but when going to install the OS, it doesn't show anything for a destination. I'm going to try a different hard drive and probably a different cable as well... if anything works I'll post again.