My iMac froze and now nothing works

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Level 1

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My iMac froze and now nothing works

I was making a copy of all my photos from Iphoto to an external hard disk. As I was moving them to the folder I accidentaly droped them in the desktop. When the status bar appeard I tried to cancel the action and the computer froze, so I rebooted it using the on/off button.

Now, when I start the Imac, the applications bar appears and the mouse moves but nothing works, I can't select any application, nothing shows up in my desktop and even the apple symbol doesn't work, I have to use the on/off button to turn it off.

I tried using the instalation cd, but now I can't eject it and it's all the same. I managed to check the disk utility and apparently my stuff is still all here, I can't lose all my work and personal folders.

Help please?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 4, 2013 6:30 AM

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Answer 1

roam

Level 6

13,637 points

Nov 4, 2013 3:31 PM in response to mimuclea

I can follow it up to the point where you dropped the photos, as that would have overloaded the system, but then I lose sight of why it froze and remains so.

Going back to the photos, how were you moving them to the external disk?

Was it, the single iPhoto Library you were moving, or was it a collection of individual images?

Have you tried starting in Safemode? This is where you restart holding in the Shift key. It takes longer than usual so you need to wait a little bit.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

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Answer 2

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Nov 4, 2013 4:35 PM in response to mimuclea

I tried using the instalation cd, but now I can't eject it

Hold down the mouse as you boot up.

Cures for an uncooperative CD/DVD drive

I managed to check the disk utility and apparently my stuff is still all here,

Did you also do any of this?

Disconnect all peripherals from your computer.

Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.

Select your language.

Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.

Select Disk Utility.

Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.

Click Repair Disk.

Restart your computer when done.

Repair permissions after you reach the desktop-http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963 and restart your computer.

I can't lose all my work and personal folders.

Why didn't you do back ups?

Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Use Software Update or the 10.6.8 combo to update your os and anything else that needs to be updated.

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Answer 3

mimuclea Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2013 2:38 PM in response to roam

Thank you so much for your help. It was in fact overloaded with the photos I dropped in the desktop. I started in safemode and deleted all those photos, which solved the problem. What seemed to be a frozen computer was in fact an over extended response time to the commands. For example, if I clicked on a folder to select it, it took roughly 1 minute to do it. As I deleted more and more photos the response time would improve. Thank you again.

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Answer 4

mimuclea Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 5, 2013 2:45 PM in response to CMCSK

Thank you for your feedback. I tried pretty much everything you suggested and nothing worked, only the safemode helped me solve it. I was actually beggining to back everything up when this happened....great timing, huh?

thank you again.

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Answer 5

roam

Level 6

13,637 points

Nov 5, 2013 3:02 PM in response to mimuclea

That's good news. I can imagine you with an armful of photos and then you tripped and they scattered everywhere. 😁 Moving them all contained in a folder would be a safer method. Next time. Thanks for posting back.

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