My iMac (Mid 2010, 27") won't startup.
Hello,
I have a mid 2010 iMac 27" computer. Recently it's been behaving strange and now it won't really start up. When I try to turn it on, I get the grey screen, then after a while I get the apple logo and spinning disc. It usually then just hangs at that point. Sometimes I've been able to get it to startup fully and show the desktop, but then the finder seems to be frozen up and I just get the spinner.
I also have a dual boo with Windows 7 on the machine so I decided to see if I could boot into that (Figuring that might tell me whether it was the OSX instal or my hardware) and it wouldn't boot up either. It would sit at the windows logo on startup for over 10 minutes.
Do any of you have any advice for me? I am assuming my hard drive is bust. Would you agree? If that is my problem what should I do to fix it? Bring it into the Genius bar to get the harddrive replaced?
Also how would I get my data off of the hard drive? Can I boot to a linux usb disk and somehow get to the macitonsh HD to get my files off? Will the genius bar recover data for me when they replace the hard drive?
Thanks for any information any of you can provide!
Aditional notes: I upgraded to 16gb (mac approved) ram 2-3 months ago. Also Over the last 1/2 a year occasionally when I'd come home my iMac would be frozen up and the fans would be spinning at full speed.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6), 27", 16gb ram