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sleepmode virus

Last two days my iMac won't come out of sleep mode. I wind up with a question marked folder blinking. I install the system disk and restart and things seem to straighten out strangely as I can eject the disk and keep going. I've tried to run disk utility off the disk but it's not compatible with the Snow Leopard I'm using.

All I can conclude is that I managed to get that malware bug from an email someone sent me. Time Machine won't let me restore my system folder.

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 7:32 PM

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57 replies

Jul 5, 2015 4:02 AM in response to broadway al

This is not malware. The folder with a blinking question mark indicates that no bootable system can be found. There are a wide variety of possible causes for this, ranging from a dying hard drive to your startup disk selection being lost for some reason.


If you're unable to get it to start up from the Snow Leopard boot disk so you can run Disk Utility, you will probably need to contact Apple for assistance. Hopefully you have your data backed up, as there's a good chance that this issue may mean that something is seriously wrong with your hard drive.

Jul 5, 2015 8:43 AM in response to Eric Root

My problem is enhanced by the fact that I don't have access to a system disk. I'm running 10.6.8 on a first generation intel dual core. The only disk I have is

the system disk that came with the computer Tiger. I just tried the terminal command but nothing happens. No response to that command. When I was able to get the imac started I put the system disk in and held down the c key and the computer would start. I assumed that I was running off the disk but never saw the log in menu. Here are a few of the weird things that would happen with the Tiger disk. If I could get to Disk Utility on the dock I could see I wasn't on the dvd as the "repair disk" was dimmed. I've tried to use DU on the system disk but told it's incompatible with SL. I've restarted and put to sleep and awoken and things seem ok. It's when I let it sleep over night I get the blinking folder. Last night I shut it down and this am the blinking folder.

To prove to myself the drive has something to do with it I installed an unrelated DVD into the drive, not smart, which I couldn't get out easily. Using a credit card during a start up the imac ejected the disk and the apple logo appeared proving it really didn't matter which disk was in the drive but that there was one there to kickstart the necessary iteration?

Jul 5, 2015 9:35 AM in response to broadway al

It's completely normal for Disk Utility to gray out "Repair Disk" when you're trying to run that command on the same drive you're currently booted to. The command has to unmount the drive to do a Repair Disk, and you can't unmount the startup drive out from under yourself.


Since you don't have a disk to reinstall Snow Leopard from, you need to purchase it. It's $20 from Apple. Once you have that, you can boot to the DVD and run Repair Disk on the hard drive. However, as Thomas noted, I'd be concerned the hard drive is dying. Back everything up as soon as you can.

Jul 5, 2015 11:50 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I understand completely. I used to explain this by using a brain surgeon trying to work on his own brain. I was hoping to just grab my system folder in Time Machine and drag it onto my hard drive. Can't mess with the system folder either.

I just noticed that my startup disk in preferences had a choice of two. One being the one on my hard drive and the other choice a network.

Since neither was chosen I chose my hard drive and will see, eventually if it made a difference.

The irony of all this is that I received an email from someone who said they never sent me it. When I got it I had no reason to suspect anything so I click on the website. It opened to a Doctor something about weight loss. When I questioned him he got all PO'd at me for not recongnizing it for what it was. The thing that made me suspect malware was the address embedded in the mail changed when I replied to him. I managed to get the first address and pasted it under the second trying to explain all this to him and my server wouldn't let me forward this mail. No matter what I did. Something is really fishy.

Jul 5, 2015 1:06 PM in response to broadway al

There are no known types of malware that can affect a Mac simply by clicking on a link. Being sent to a garbage web site doesn't have anything to do with malware. It's just unscrupulous advertising, like the zillion Rachel Ray and Dr. Oz emails that go out every day.


The email from your friend, which was never sent by him, was due either his email account being hacked at his ISP, or was simply one of thousands of email addresses that get spoofed every day by spammers. Like your instance, you can't actually respond to many of them because the header information doesn't go anywhere that's real, so your ISP bounces it as undeliverable.

Jul 5, 2015 3:24 PM in response to broadway al

This problem has nothing at all to do with that e-mail. Simply receiving and reading an e-mail cannot infect you. Neither can simply clicking a link in an e-mail, so long as you don't run any apps downloaded from the site the link goes to.


As for the problem, it sounds like you not only don't have the right disk (you will need a Snow Leopard boot disk to repair the drive at this point) but you also have a bad optical drive. I'm not sure what you were doing with a credit card and the CD slot, but would advise not doing it again in the future if you value either your optical drive or your credit card!


Have you ever had to replace the hard drive in that computer? If not, considering the age of that computer, it's highly likely that the hard drive is dying or dead, and will need to be replaced. (Or the entire computer will need to be replaced, but be aware that upgrading from Snow Leopard to Yosemite will not be a painless proposition... you're going to need to replace or upgrade most of your third-party apps, and some things you rely on may no longer be available in any form for modern OS X systems.)

Jul 5, 2015 3:54 PM in response to broadway al

I want to thank you and kurt for the reassurance about the email. I know something must have gotten a hold of his contacts and I'm not the only one he told me. Right now the imac is running flawlessly as far as I can see. I know this computer is getting old and it's so hard when Apple stops supporting do to progress. I got a G3 when they first came out and ran it all the way up to 10 after a processor upgrade and firwire and slave cable but the writings on the wall without a dualcore2. It's just the legacy all over again. I'm experimenting to see what I can do to keep things on track until I go shopping etc. I do so much with this iMac.

As far as the terminal command one of you gave me (since I don't have access to a system disk) is it because of the snow leopard version I'm using the command didn't do anything?

The credit card was out of desperation as I put a disk in that had nothing to do with the system. I read if you wiggle a piece of something to the point where you stall the disk it will, and did, eject the disk. I'm talking barely past the seal to the spinning edge. I was trying to answer my question as to why, when I inserted the system disk I could eject it and continue running the computer as though nothing was wrong.

Jul 5, 2015 6:59 PM in response to broadway al

broadway al wrote:


Right now the imac is running flawlessly as far as I can see. I know this computer is getting old and it's so hard when Apple stops supporting do to progress.


As long as that machine still does everything you need, there's no need to upgrade. As Kurt pointed out, you can still buy a replacement Snow Leopard disk, and you can replace the hard drive if necessary. (I'm puzzled a bit when you say it's running flawlessly now, though... if it went from flashing question mark to working flawlessly without you really doing anything to fix it, that's probably a sign of an intermittent hardware failure.)


However, even if it is now working flawlessly, or you decide to replace the hard drive and optical drive if necessary, you will sooner or later be forced to upgrade to a newer system. Older hardware will fail sooner or later, and although you'll be able to replace it with second-hand hardware from places like eBay, the quality of that hardware will get poorer and poorer over time, and the costs will likely go way up for hardware in good shape.


Thus, you need to start planning NOW for what you will do when your hardware dies. And once you eventually replace that hardware, you should think about what you would do if your machine died at least once annually, and prepare for that eventuality each time. That way, you'll never be taken off guard if, for example, you drop your Mac in a pool or it falls off the desk.


As far as the terminal command one of you gave me (since I don't have access to a system disk) is it because of the snow leopard version I'm using the command didn't do anything?


No idea, as I don't know what Terminal command you're referring to. I'm guessing something from one of Eric's links?


The credit card was out of desperation as I put a disk in that had nothing to do with the system. I read if you wiggle a piece of something to the point where you stall the disk it will, and did, eject the disk.


Wherever you read that, make a note right now to remind yourself to never take technical advice from that source ever again! That was some of the worst technical advice I've heard in a really long time.


As Lanny points out, there's a much easier way to pop a disk out, and you should note that you are perfectly free to put disks that have nothing to do with the system into your optical drive. It should read CDs, and depending on the machine, may also read DVDs. If it's a disk it can't read, it should spit it back out. If nothing convinces it to release its grip, it's probably a hardware issue, and putting a credit card in just risks damaging both your credit card and the disk you inserted.

Jul 5, 2015 7:16 PM in response to thomas_r.

I let my imac fall asleep and it's back to the missing disk mode. I pulled the plug and tried 3 times with the system disk installed holding the c key till finally I got a restart. I went to "start up disk" and noticed the lock was no longer locked. The last time I confirmed the startup disk was chosen as "OS 10.6.8" I made sure the lock was locked and now it's not. How is that possible?

BTW holding the left button (side) of the mouse during start up didn't, did not eject the disk. I wanted to see if that were true. Right now my system disk is in the drive but I can't figure out what actually happened when the computer started up not needing the disk anymore.

Jul 5, 2015 7:37 PM in response to broadway al

Both items indicate failing hardware. When you bring the Mac back out of sleep mode, the hard drive has to spin back up. It's not doing that, so the Mac says it can't find a system disk. You're lucky it came back to life after a couple of restart tries.


Backup your data NOW before you lose it. Given that the drive balks at spinning up after being put to sleep or shut down, I would not turn the Mac off or put it to sleep until the data has beed backed up.


The optical drive is also dead or dying. Jamming a credit card into didn't help.

Jul 5, 2015 8:40 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt I have Time Machine shut off as of yesterday but isn't everything backed up? Also will I have to deal with 32 bit vs 64 getting a new iMac?

Would it be possible to run this machine off a thumbdrive?

I remember not too long ago running Disk Utility repair disk and getting the "disk appears to be ok" message. I don't know how it was that I did that.

If I run "verify disk" I get "appears to be ok" too.

The terminal command thing requires that I restart in single user mode. On Tom's reply the Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck - Apple Support the situation I'm in fits this FSCK perfectly. So since I'm backed up maybe I should try it?

Jul 6, 2015 4:40 AM in response to broadway al

The fsck command is used by Disk Utility, but Disk Utility is the preferred method. However, in cases like this, you can use fsck from within single-user mode to check and repair the drive. Hold down command-S at startup to enter single-user mode, which is a command-line mode. When the command prompt appears, execute the following command:


/sbin/fsck -fy


To reboot the computer, use the "reboot" command.


However, as I've said, I strongly suspect that you have failing hardware. If that drive is original (ie, it is the same one that originally came inside that Mac, and hasn't been replaced), even if fsck fixes things, you need to question whether you want to trust that drive. If it is failing, that can corrupt data, and then the corrupt data can make its way into your backups. If that goes on long enough, you could end up with data loss despite having a good backup strategy, as corrupted files replace good files in the backup.

sleepmode virus

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