sorry to bother you but my dad just messaged me. He is retired in Germany from Nato base there. he has an iMac 20" 2009. its like new he uses it for finance and films. he said it just wont come on when he presses button on back. he has checked all cables... i am doing research for him. i am due to fly to germany to see parents soon in a month or so..... i can't think what it could be. thank you Kim
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac Pro
Have you father unplug the power cable from the back of the iMac for about 15 seconds. Then plug it in and try booting up.
If it boots up he has a failing power supply and it will shut down by itself soon.
That machine is so old (Apple considers it obsolete) that he probably won't be able to get it fixed. So it's time to get a new Mac. Tell him he should try to get a full backup of the boot drive so he can transfer the user data to a new Mac.
If the machine won't stay on long enough to get a full backup he can probably open it up and remove the hard drive, not worrying about getting back together again. Then get an adaptor cable for the bare drive so he can get the data off of it for a new Mac.
Have you father unplug the power cable from the back of the iMac for about 15 seconds. Then plug it in and try booting up.
If it boots up he has a failing power supply and it will shut down by itself soon.
That machine is so old (Apple considers it obsolete) that he probably won't be able to get it fixed. So it's time to get a new Mac. Tell him he should try to get a full backup of the boot drive so he can transfer the user data to a new Mac.
If the machine won't stay on long enough to get a full backup he can probably open it up and remove the hard drive, not worrying about getting back together again. Then get an adaptor cable for the bare drive so he can get the data off of it for a new Mac.
See if you can boot the iMac into Target Disk Mode . If you can then you'll be able to address the drive via another Mac to copy data files off of it.
If it won't boot into Target Disk Mode then the drive is dead and you won't be able to get any data off of it.
You are completely right. He did mention it may be time to upgrade. He did say he checked cables but not sure about power cable i will ask him.
You are right about data will need to get off ::))
i will contact dad now. i have been looking at iMacs for his birthday in Aug or fathers day. As he bought me my Macbook years ago only fair to get something for parents as only ones you have ::)) i saw this but it didn't say what year - Apple Imac 21.5 Intel i3 3.1Ghz 8GB 250GB
thank you both so so so very much appreciated
Kimla10 wrote:
i saw this but it didn't say what year - Apple Imac 21.5 Intel i3 3.1Ghz 8GB 250GB
If you get a refurbished iMac only get it thru Apple. They rebuild them like new and they have a new iMac warranty.
Also if you get a 21.5" iMac get one with 16 GB of RAM and a SSD drive. The 8 GB of RAM and rotational drives just do not cut it for anything other than surfing the web and sending email. If you dad is into editing videos then 16 GB is a must.
Depending on your budget look for a refurbished 27" iMac with an SSD. You can up the RAM yourself for about ⅓ of what Apple charges by getting the RAM modules from either Crucial.com or MacSales.com (OWC).
thank you so so much everyone! Apple Germany sent dad somewhere to get a part it needs. he said Apple Kaiserslautern said something about parts btw machines aren't always compatible which i thought strange. i have been looking at shops on ebay Germany for him plus he has still access military Apple shop on base so looking at Macs there as its cheaper than off base Apple shop. so loads to consider but we are on the case thanks to everyones help which is so much appreciated.
God bless you all and have a wonderful day
the iMac is dead but parents being parents well now i need to get his info off his harddrive and put on icloud drive. does anyone at all know if Apple can do this? i tweeted Apple but they gave me info about a place in US. i'm in UK and dad is in Germany - Kaiserslautern area.
thank you
If the hard disk is dead that also means the data is gone. Please urge your folks to begin using Time Machine which only requires and External Hard Disk to backup to. In the US many experienced users prefer the OWC Mercury Elite Pro due to their high quality, reasonable pricing and ease of maintaining. As your folks are in Germany OWC has international distribution. To find a distributor that is closer to them please click OWC Europe to begin finding one.
You can use any External Hard Disk however please do not be tempted by the cheap external enclosures that WD, Seagate, Toshiba use, they tend to put price first and quality a distant 2nd, in other words what value do you put on your data?
Best of luck to you and your family.
I am going to assume that your dad has to done a backup to the computer. Apple can not help you. As noted above, it may be possible to remove the hard drive and put it into an external mounting for access. There are services that do this, but they are very expensive. This is precisely what it is necessary to have a computer properly backed up.
His iMac is a rather old one. The problem could be any of several failures of the Mac's components. Eventually all computers will fail. Have him take it to have it checked out.
2009 iMac won't turn on anymore
