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IMac fails repeatedly - Hardware, Firmware, os Software?

I have been having problems with this computer - long boot time, poor response, no boot. At a suggestion I removed Norton, booted from the backup partishion. Repaired the disk and reloaded Mountain Lion. It worked for a few hours and then the disk corruped again. Not sure what is wrong. I am running now from clone on a portable disk.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Early 2008

Posted on Jan 19, 2013 10:52 AM

Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 19, 2013 11:23 AM

Sounds like the internal is failing. In DU, is the drive showing SMART status verified? Look in Console for I/O errors.

18 replies

Jan 19, 2013 11:21 AM in response to Community User

If Norton was properly uninstalled, then it's something else causing the problem. I've never run Norton (or any other anti-virus) on my Mac, but I'd guess it has to have an uninstaller in order to properly remove it from your system.


When you say the "...disk corrupted again..." what are you seeing that leads you to believe the disk is corrupted?

Jan 19, 2013 11:44 AM in response to WZZZ

WZZZ - SMART STATUS VERIFIED, not sure how to get to console as I am booted from the back up now.

Mike - I ran disk utility again after another failure and there were errors again. The system is running fine now from the passport backup disk.

Jan 19, 2013 11:47 AM in response to MacMikeInOK

I think that Norton is a red herring. Too many anti-Norton people on this site. My second iMac is running fine with norton still on it. I did remove it with the software from the Norton Web site, so it should be a non-issue.

Jan 19, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Community User

When you run Disk Utility, are you then running Repair Permissions or are you running Verify Disk or Repair Disk?


Since yours is an early 2008 iMac, how much RAM do you have installed? Although Apple says 2GB is the minimum, I would say performance would be lousy at best with only that. To run Mountain Lion on your iMac with any level of responsiveness you need to have 4GB of RAM installed. (It's a relatively inexpensive upgrade, by the way...go to macsales.com or crucial.com to see what the cost would be...it will be well under $100 for sure).


If it's not a hardware issue (and Wzzz may be correct that your internal hd is failing), you should be able to get your iMac running full speed again by booting from the recovery partition (hold down the command and r keys and restart) and start all over with a clean install. Then move what you need from your backup drive back to your iMac internal drive.

Jan 19, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Allan Eckert

Sorry, the DU repaired them and they are gone now. One was a bad index, and there were several others. I will try booting from the internal disk again later and see if they reoccur.

Jan 19, 2013 11:59 AM in response to MacMikeInOK

Hi Mike,

I have 8GB of RAM, I upgraded from 4 when I installed Lion last summer.


If it continues to run from the external, I will try the internal disk again see whre that leads.

Jan 19, 2013 12:02 PM in response to Community User

Bob, there's a reason so many of us are "anti-Norton" as you said. It's because there are so few viruses out there in the wild that affect Macs that the odds of picking one up are verrry slim. If someone's used to running a PC, though, it's hard to break them of the notion that they MUST run anti-virus on a Mac.


I can't say I will NEVER pick up a virus in the future, but I've used Macs since 1984 and never had a Mac infected. Maybe I haven't used Macs long enough, though? 😁

Jan 19, 2013 12:03 PM in response to MacMikeInOK

Missed the first part of your question - I repaired the disk first and the permissions second. There were errors in both. When the problem reoccurred the permissions were still ok but the disk was corrupted again.

Jan 19, 2013 12:09 PM in response to Community User

LOL....actually, I did fool around with the Lisa when I worked as a salesman at a local computer store back when I was in the Navy stationed in New London, CT. Owning one, however, was WAY above my meager income back then! Heck, I had to sell all of the high-end stereo gear I'd picked up over the years at that point to buy my first Mac...which had a whopping 128KB of RAM!

Jan 19, 2013 12:24 PM in response to Community User

Missed the first part of your question - I repaired the disk first and the permissions second. There were errors in both. When the problem reoccurred the permissions were still ok but the disk was corrupted again.


Bob, unless you can find an installed application that's causing your disk problems, I would guess you either have an internal drive that's on its last legs, or your OS got corrupted somehow and you need to reinstall it againg.


You could, of course, invest $99 in either Tech Tools Pro or Disk Warrior to try and fix what's going on with your internal hard drive.....but......


....don't those iMacs in the Apple Store look all shiny and new? Wouldn't one of them look great on your desk at home? 😀

IMac fails repeatedly - Hardware, Firmware, os Software?

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