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iMac won't boot - please help!

Can anybody please help? I tried to install an Adobe Creative Cloud app yesterday, after trying a few times the install was keep failing so I restarted. Since then I cannot start my iMac. It keeps going to the Apple screen and the progress bar gets all the way to the end then it shuts down - I can't even get to the password screen. I have no idea what I'm doing but after Googling:


I have tried to boot in Safe mode but it doesn't work.


I can start up in Recovery mode. I have tried the disc repair option in disk utility using 'first aid' but I get the following error on osx: The volume osx could not be verified completely. File system check exit code 8. Updating boot support partitions for the volume as File system verify or repair failed. Operation failed ...


I have also tried to repair the disk in Single User Mode with fsck but I get the follwing error: disk 0s2: 1/O error The volume osx cannot be verified completely.


I have also tried to reinstall OS X from Recovery mode but when I select the disk to install OS X it won't let me restore because it says 'this disk is locked'.


Can anybody please help? I have not used Time Machine before and I have absolutely no back up of anything (I am an idiot) ....is there anyway to back up my data from OS X utilities please? I have no access to any other Mac.

It was working perfectly until I tried to install Adobe Creative Cloud!


Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I an at a loss and worried about loosing all of my files.

Please help.

Many thanks, Nicola

iMac

Posted on May 25, 2016 12:41 PM

Reply
10 replies

May 25, 2016 1:08 PM in response to Nicola-J

Hi,


It sounds like you are trying the right things.


Try a NVRAM reset How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

You may notice the volume of the Bongs changes. This is natural and show it is working.

Like Safe Mode it accesses some items that other maintenance does not.


A few things that might help.

Do you have an External Drive at all ?

Is it empty or have enough space to Install a version of the OS on there ?


Can you remember if your Mac User Account is the Admin One or has Admin Permissions ?


In this type of issue there are people much more skilled than I am.



User uploaded file

9:08 pm Wednesday; May 25, 2016


​  iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

May 25, 2016 1:18 PM in response to Nicola-J

Hi,


If you had one it would have provided an opportunity to Install the OS on to the other drive if you had one which may have "unlocked" the Main drive enough to effect Repairs or a Reinstall.


As I said someone else may know instantly how to solve the Exit code 8 straightaway.



User uploaded file

9:18 pm Wednesday; May 25, 2016


​  iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

May 25, 2016 1:51 PM in response to KiltedTim

Unfortunately I literally don't know anyone with a mac - only Windows. I have an iPhone and iPad but I'm guessing they will be no use.

There are files on there that I can't bear to lose. Can I salvage them if I buy an external hard drive?


I have tried the NVRAM reset. It didn't appear to change anything but now I can't boot in recovery mode?

I've tried 'cmd' + 'R' and also the 'alt' key on start up numerous time but it just goes to the Apple screen, all the way to the end of the progress bar and then shuts down. I've tried to boot in recovery loads of times.

I feel sick at the thought of losing my files 😟

May 25, 2016 4:38 PM in response to Nicola-J

Whether you can salvage them or not is completely unknown at this point. You may be able to. If you can't bear to lose your data, you can pay a professional data recovery service to see if they can recover the data for you.


In the future, you should really make regular backups. It's not a matter of if a drive will fail, only when it will fail.

May 26, 2016 12:43 AM in response to KiltedTim

Lesson regarding backing up has indeed been learned!

Thank you both very much for your replies.

If anyone else is having this issue I booted single user mode and did a force fsck_hfs by running:

fsck_hfs -y -Rc -d /dev/disk0s2

This fixed 1 error. I still couldn't boot normally so I mounted the hd by running:

/sbin/mount -uw /

(again in single user mode). I can now boot normally and back up all of my files via Time Machine. Such a relief!!!

Here is the info: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/56461/repair-disk-from-single-user-mode -fsck-fails

I have no idea if the hard drive is failing, and I don't know what checks to perform.....But that's tomorrows problem!

I'm just so pleased I can back up.

Thanks again 🙂

May 26, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Nicola-J

Hi,


Good to hear you have managed to get that far.


If it was a new drive I hope you partitioned it in two.

This way Time Machine can be on one "1/2" and the other can be used to Install the OS so that you can have a Start up Disk that works.


The Time Machine Back up can them be "Installed" on the new drive and whilst booted into that you could try repairing the Internal drive.




User uploaded file

7:59 pm Thursday; May 26, 2016


​  iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 iPhone and an iPad (2)

May 26, 2016 2:56 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thank you for that - that makes a lot of sense.

I didn't buy a new drive in the end, I looked at options today but decided to go with an online back up.

I'm actually looking at IDrive now and was just about to purchase... (meaning I still haven't actually backed anything up yet :/)


Reading your reply I think I'll just buy an external hard drive. I did read that using /sbin/mount-uw / the desktop will boot and might look normal, but the drive might still be corrupt and if so, may or may not be able to be repaired.

I've left the mac on since last night and won't let anyone go near it lol ....I'm going to buy an external hd tomorrow and get this backed up! At least I'll have the option of installing the OS.

Thank you, Nicola

iMac won't boot - please help!

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