roberpri

Q: OS X Mavericks Crashed My iMac.

Shame on me. Should have checked web before attempting install. Tried to install OS x Maverick on my iMac... it locked up my system. Didn't fully install. The keyboard and the mouse were not functioning. I was finally able to try to restore from a Time Machine backup. This hasn't worked. Now I'm caught every time the system comes on it attempts to install OS X... but then tells me it wasn't able. I'm caught in the OS X Installer screen. Tried doing backup from Time Machine on external drive to iMac. It won't. HELP!!!! 

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 30, 2013 6:26 PM

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Q: OS X Mavericks Crashed My iMac.

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Oct 30, 2013 6:28 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 10 (271,755 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 30, 2013 6:28 PM in response to roberpri

    Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain or Lion from Scratch

     

    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

     

    Boot to the Recovery HD:

     

    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

     

    Erase the hard drive:

     

      1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.

     

      2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the

          left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

     

      3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on

            the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on

          the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

     

      4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

     

    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button.

     

    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

                because it is three times faster than wireless.

  • by roberpri,

    roberpri roberpri Oct 30, 2013 6:41 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 30, 2013 6:41 PM in response to Kappy

    Unable to get COMMAND and R keys to work. Tried OPTION key and picked Recovery. It takes me to the OS X Utilities screen and my keyboard and mouse disconnect. I have the standard USB keyboard, NOT wireless, but a wireless mouse. At this point I can only TAB through "Restore from Time Machine Backup," "Reinstall OS X,""Get Help Online" "Disk Utility." ENTER on keyboard not working so I can't make a selection. Earlier when I attempted to recover from Time Machine Backup, now what was named my Mac HD is titled "Time Machine Backup" Before trying your feedback I was in disk utility and tried to restore but because the from and target are both named Time machine the system won't let me. Earlier it ran through 8 hours of restore from my Time Machine Backup... but it didn't work. Everything is still locked up.

  • by Peter Moyer,

    Peter Moyer Peter Moyer Oct 31, 2013 12:50 AM in response to Kappy
    Level 4 (1,350 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 12:50 AM in response to Kappy

    Kappy, I had the issue of Mavericks not being installed due to a damaged HD. Your instructions plus a recent TM backup got me back in business. Thank you......

  • by anasazi4st,

    anasazi4st anasazi4st Nov 2, 2013 10:54 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2013 10:54 PM in response to Kappy

    I will augment Kappy's advice with a suggestion for anyone with the "Mavericks cannot install, [hard drive disk XXYYY] is damaged. Restart your computer, use Disk Utility to repair your disk, and then try installing Mavericks again"--or words to that effect. If you are using FileVault 2, you'll want to reformat your allegedly damaged hard drive WITHOUT encryption enabled--"Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)" is what you'll want from the drop-down menu (if you had FileVault 2 enabled before, you'll likely be presented with the "Mac OS X Extended (Journaled--Encrypted)" option--skip that one).

     

    I tried all the other suggestions after the Mavericks install first hung up and turned my MacBook Pro into a paperweight with its OS X stuck (even the clock stopped). I repaired the disk--first with Disk Utility, then Disk Warrior...then I reformatted the drive, even wrote zeroes to all the sectors (which takes about 6 hours on a 1TB hard drive!). Still, I got the "drive damaged, cannot install" message. Then, on a gut feeling, I reformatted the drive with encryption off, ran Disk Utility and tried repairing the disk (I had been getting red error messages with Disk Utility about boot sectors being bad or unaccessible, etc.)--this time, Mavericks installed right away with no glitches.

     

    So--disable encryption, if you have it, and re-format. We'd like to believe that Apple and the software it produces should know the difference between disks that are encrypted (WITH ITS OWN ENCRYPTION SYSTEM!) and those that are actually damaged...but that's another discussion for a different time.

  • by carp69,

    carp69 carp69 Nov 6, 2013 1:23 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 1:23 PM in response to roberpri

    My MacBook Pro also crashed.  Talked to Apple on the phone yesterday for several hours with no fix but a great deal of knoledge.  The problem probably started when I upgraded to Mavrick. 

     

    I found a direction on Ehow to plug my mac directly into my Time Capsul whch was amazingly simple:

     

    Instructions

    1

    Insert one side of the Ethernet cable into an open networking port on the rear of the Time Capsule device until the cable clicks in place.

     

    2

    Find the Ethernet port on your Mac. On Mac laptops, the port is usually found on the left side of the body. On Mac desktops, the port is usually found on the rear of the tower.

     

    3

    Plug the opposite side of the Ethernet cable into the port on your Mac to establish a connection to the Time Capsule device.

     

    Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_8350793_connect-capsule-mac-ethernet-cable.html#ixzz2jtx 15cFT

     

    I did  comand>R, restart button, disabled my MacBook Pro WiFi then selected restore and found the list of backups  on Time Capsul and selected one from about three days back and 4 hours later back to normal.  Oh if you try to do a restore over WiFi it will take 20 hours.

     

    I am still trying to find out what caused the original problem and Apple is helping me with that so will see...

  • by roberpri,

    roberpri roberpri Nov 6, 2013 1:33 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 1:33 PM in response to roberpri

    All feedback appreciated. NONE of these helped. Maverick has completely locked up my iMac. I've been using apple products since 2007. I changed because Windows was so unreliable...inconsistent... seemed as if they were putting out trash. I fear Apple has finally headed in the direction of Windows. It seems that last few years they have just had a lot of problems with OS. For my current situation, no short cut methods go beyobd rebooting the system and allowing me to get to the disk utility, which now won't even erase - it tells me unable to unattach drive. I'm by no means a super computer user. Just a business class user. I had a WD external drive connected as my Time Machine backup. Otherwise, everything is standard with the machine - no after market / tweaking etc. I only hope I have the ability to resote some stuff. Photos of wedding... kids all in iPhoto. Lots of business stuff. Applications. One last call for help? Any ideas? Otherwise, I'll have to take my iMac paperweight into someone for repair.

  • by petermac87,Helpful

    petermac87 petermac87 Nov 6, 2013 1:38 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 1:38 PM in response to roberpri

    roberpri wrote:

     

    One last call for help? Any ideas? Otherwise, I'll have to take my iMac paperweight into someone for repair.

    I think that may well be the best bet. I think you well may be looking at hardware failure, probably just shown up with the strain of trying to apply a newOSX. Nothing to do with the actual Mavericks OSX. Luckily you have your system backed up fully from before you applied the upgrade.

     

    Good Luck

     

    Pete

  • by carp69,Helpful

    carp69 carp69 Nov 6, 2013 2:11 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 2:11 PM in response to roberpri

    I got the 2 T Time Machine.  Best investment ever.

  • by CMF1900,

    CMF1900 CMF1900 Nov 7, 2013 8:15 AM in response to carp69
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 8:15 AM in response to carp69

    Here is what worked for me ... Pull the battery with power cord unplugged ... Start with command r depressed ... Run disk repair for hard drive ... Restart from dr utility

     

    Had to do this twice. Once after download. Once after install.

  • by seanfrommoncton,

    seanfrommoncton seanfrommoncton Nov 7, 2013 10:17 AM in response to roberpri
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 10:17 AM in response to roberpri

    I am having the same problem with both my iMac and macbook.  The iMac was the first casualty....I turned it on and was greeted with the grey screen and a flashing "?".  Tried reboots and clearing memory, nothing.  This morning, I was working on my macbook (iMac still a paperweight - apple store appointment on Monday) plugged in the USB printer to print a document and walked away to fetch coffee....when I returned the macbook was powered off.  On power up, grey screen and apple logo. 

     

    ARRGH. The iMac is backed up to the TC, the macbook...not so much.

  • by roberpri,

    roberpri roberpri Nov 7, 2013 12:37 PM in response to seanfrommoncton
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 12:37 PM in response to seanfrommoncton

    JUST FYI - I had to take my iMac into get repaired. No Apple stores nearby to me. Went to Best Buy Geek Squad. $199 for a year's support fee. No more Apple upgrades for me..

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Nov 7, 2013 2:22 PM in response to roberpri
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 2:22 PM in response to roberpri

    So what did they diagnose as the problem?

     

    Pete

  • by roberpri,

    roberpri roberpri Nov 7, 2013 2:28 PM in response to petermac87
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 2:28 PM in response to petermac87

    I haven't gotten full diagnoses yet. 3-4 days I should have it back. The Mac HD couldn't be unmounted because it was the app running in disk utility. So couldn't erase and start over. Their solution is to reinstall Mountain Lion from disk. Then I'll run a Time Machine and recover. Luckily I used an external drive for my backups. In all fairness my iMac is a 2007 desktop. Not one bleep til now. Mavericks hard crashed it. Mavericks installed great on my Macbook Pro, that's what I'm working from for the moment.

  • by Miasoldman,

    Miasoldman Miasoldman Nov 7, 2013 2:36 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 7, 2013 2:36 PM in response to Kappy

    I keep getting a -5010F error when i try the command + r buttons. It takes me to internet recovery then after a while i get the error code -5010F appearing.

     

    Anyone know what that means ? I couldnt find it on the apple web site.

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