Imac will not see my hard drive on start up, wants to start from network start up disk that does not exist. How to get rid of it? So there is just one choice / my hard drive.

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Imac will not see my hard drive on start up, wants to start from network start up disk that does not exist. How to get rid of it? So there is just one choice / my hard drive.

I have a Intel duo Imac. Everything has been running relatively smoothly for a few years now. All of a sudden my computer will not start. I get the flashing folder with a question mark.

When I go to Start up disk in my system perfernces while the computer is on. I see 2 possible choices. One is my hard drive with the operating system shown. The other is a non-existant Network Start up disk with a question mark in it ( looks like a hard drive with a question mark and it say's its a "network start up disk).

All I think I want to do is get rid of the Network startup with the question mark. I can not find anywhere how one can just remove an old or non existant start up disk without reformatting.

I believe this came from a clients hard drive who had a network system on it. We no longer have that drive. It no longer exists. But a latent icon shows up in start up disk.

When I go to change the start up disk. I can change it to either the hard drive or the network with the question mark. But when I select my hard drive and then got to restart the computer. I get the flashing folder with a question mark on start up. I have also seen the flashing globe a couple times.

When I attempt to run disk utility from may install disk ( holding down "C" on start-up ). Disk utility does not see my hard drive. Just the Apple install disk with the disk utility on it.

What can I do to remedy this short of re-installing? Will a program like Disk Warrior or Tech Tool help?

iMac (24-inch Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 13, 2014 6:21 AM

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Answer 1

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baltwo

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Mar 13, 2014 2:21 PM in response to binerdesign

The network icon has always been there, so ignore it. Your int HD is wonky. Boot with the install disc, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and repair the disk and its permissions. If that doesn't fix the problem, you'll need to reinstall the OS.

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Answer 2

binerdesign Author

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Mar 13, 2014 2:37 PM in response to binerdesign

Thank you. That's what I thought will need to happen.

One more question. I tried using the Apple install disk that came with the computer. It's an OS 10.5.6 disk. It does not see my 10.6.8 system internal hard drive to repair. All it see's is itself 10.5.6 disk. Do you think I can use a 10.8+ disk utillity since that is a higher system it will see the 10.6.8. Where the 10.5.6 does not?

I don't want to turn the computer off for fear I'll get the question mark again. P-Ram got me going last time but for how long I don't know? It would be nice to be able to turn the computer off for the night and startup as usual to give it a rest and try to reset itself.

Thanks for your help, I know I will eventually need to re-install. But I am in the middle of a project with tight deadlines and all I can do right now is back-up. Trying to migrate to another computer temporarily to finish the job. That's a lot of extra work in the short time also.

Just trying to put a band-aid on it for another couple weeks.

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Mar 13, 2014 2:43 PM in response to binerdesign

If DU on the original install disc can't see the HD, then the HD's fixing to go south. I don't think using the 10.8 DU would fair any better. Best to backup to another HD and stop using the machine.

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