Can't re-install Leopard. Trying to reinstall the OS because computer locks up. It is a 2008 iMac that came with Leopard. Upgraded to Snow Leopard. Tried to archive and install from original DVD that came with iMac. Installation failed, so tried and

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Can't re-install Leopard. Trying to reinstall the OS because computer locks up. It is a 2008 iMac that came with Leopard. Upgraded to Snow Leopard. Tried to archive and install from original DVD that came with iMac. Installation failed, so tried and

Computer locks up, so I want to reinstall the OS. I had upgraded to Snow Leopard.

Tried to do an archive and install from the DVD that came with the computer, but that failed.

Tried to do an erase and install, but the install stops somewhere near the end, 13 minutes to go. Tried several times, same result.

Can't reboot from the install disk, it just ejects the disk and I get the flashing question mark.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 30, 2013 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 30, 2013 12:24 PM in response to Tdtuttle

Hmmm, problem could be a failing Hard Drive.

Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...

/sbin/fsck -fy

Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.

(Space between fsck AND -fy important).

Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

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Answer 2

Tdtuttle Author

Level 1

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Apr 8, 2013 4:26 PM in response to BDAqua

I think my hard drive is toast. When I boot in single user mode, I get the following text:

CSRHID Transition Driver: start booting in single user... will wait for window server

Then the following text appears, repeating itself over and over, except that the numbers (indicated by "xxxxxxx")

SAM Multimedia: READ or WRITE failed, SENSE_KEY = 0x03, ASC = 0x02, ASCQ = 0x00

disk1s3: I/O error.

0[level 3] [READUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [Err No 51] [IDType READ] [PB1kNum xxxxxxxxx] [LB1kNum 0] [FSLogMsgID xxxxxxx] [FSLogMsgOrder First]

0[Level 3] [READUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [FSLogMsgID xxxxxxxxxx] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]

These messages keep repeating with the numbers (xxxxxxxxx) changing with each iteration.

Does this indicate a bad hard drive?

Thanks.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Apr 8, 2013 7:03 PM in response to Tdtuttle

It sure seems so, though it's not impossible that something else on the Bus is contributing, like the Optical drive.

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