Mac boot in Windows but boot fails

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Howie1963 Author

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9 points

Mac boot in Windows but boot fails

I have a 5 year old iMac running the latest MacOS. I have been running Windows 7 through Boot Camp for gaming. While running Windows my IMac crashed. Restart fails repeatedly. I have looked up resources online but all advice require me to use keyboard shortcuts on startup but the imac don’t recognise my Apple wireless keyboard so Command R or Command Option R don’t work. I borrowed a usb PC keyboard from my son and held in option and came to choose start up disk. (The screen looks funny, it has a strange lime green color around icons), I was prompted for my WiFi password. I then saw the internet recovery icon (with weird green color around the edges)

After the rotating globe it moved on to a little “wheel» spinning slowly. Now the screen just went black and it seems to have turned off.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on May 25, 2018 4:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 29, 2018 7:00 PM in response to Howie1963

There has been a recall on the 3TB disks on an iMac in the past. See Apple announces replacement program for 3TB hard drives in 2012 and 2013 iMacs | Ars Technica for reference. Can you check if your year/model falls within these?

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Answer 2

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2018 1:22 AM in response to Loner T

Part of my problem is that I don’t have an Apple USB keyboar,just a windows one, so any key combination involving “command” is out of the questio. Unless the Windows keyboard has got a key that my iMac will recognize as Apple “command”?

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Answer 3

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2018 3:57 AM in response to Howie1963

Just rebooted with resetting PRAM, started up in MacOS. Progress bar came halfway across before stopping. Then Internet recover mode started. At least the green tinge is gone. Then the Apple Hardware Test came up, I chose to do the extended test. We will see...

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 26, 2018 7:31 AM in response to Howie1963

Can you post the year/model of the Mac (do not post the serial number)? On a Windows Keyboard, the Windows key behaves as the Command key.

Do you have access to a second Mac where the bad iMac is located? If yes, we should try and boot the bad Mac in Target Disk Mode and inspect the disk configuration. If the bad iMac starts to boot in macOS but fails, it is unlikely related to the Windows crash. What is the macOS version on the iMac?

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Answer 5

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2018 8:59 AM in response to Loner T

I am thinking the same, tried to connect my MacBookPro but it has got Thunderbolt 3 and my IMac has Thunderbolt 2. But a friend is picking up a cable and an adapter in town, should get them in a couple of hours. Then we will see.

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Answer 6

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2018 12:54 PM in response to Howie1963

Booted up in target mode. Connected my laptop. Performed first aid with Disk Utility, no problems found. Tried restarting but no luck. Decided to reformat disk and remove partitions (make one partition). All seemed to go well until I came near the end of the process when it was only one partition and Disk Utility should complete its work Disk Utility became unresponsive. And every attempt to start up Disk Utility after that caused it to become unresponsive. I think the only conclusion I can think of is that the HDD is broken?

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 26, 2018 2:33 PM in response to Howie1963

Can you try to connect the two Macs with the bad Mac in target disk mode? We can check the status of the disk on the iMac via Terminal commands to check for issues. From Terminal, post the output of

diskutil list

once you have the Macs connected? Does your iMac have a 3TB hard disk?

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Answer 8

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 27, 2018 3:05 PM in response to Loner T

Hi!

A new development: I started up the iMac in target mode intending to try the terminal option. Lo and behold Disk Utility had no problem dealing with the disk this time. I tried to install MacOS on the iMac but realised that was the wrong procedure so I wiped the drive again. Then I used a program called "Install Disk Creator" that I downloaded from a link on Macworld.com to make a bootable USB drive.

I rebooted my iMac pressing "option" and selected the USB drive to boot from. It started booting but then stopped a little past halfway along the progress bar. Pretty much the way it seems to do whatever way I try to boot it. (I just tried internet recovery again and progress bar seems to stop at same place and then no movement). The Apple Hardware Test claimed memory and logic board checked out as OK. If it is not the HDD that causes the problem, what could it be?

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Answer 9

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 28, 2018 6:07 AM in response to Loner T

I tried to reboot from the MacBookPro HDD (in target disk mode). Started promisingly enough by asking me for the password (as the MBP HDD is encrypted) but then the same problem as before. Progress bar stopped moving just after it came half way and then the iMac rebooted again, next time it just stopped doing anything.

I am starting to suspect something other than the HDD is to blame?

But AHT said logic board and memory was fine, even after the extended test.

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Answer 10

Howie1963 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 30, 2018 2:50 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks. I wish I knew about this earlier. The program ended 2015, so will not apply to me now anyways.But thanks for all your time and effort.

I guess with a 5-6 year old machine that is already getting long in the tooth (graphics card especially lagging behind) I will just have to write it off.

Planning to buy an external monitor for my MBP as I struggle to be content with 13inch screen. And maybe invest in a gaming PC that can use the same monitor. Not buying another iMac as most of my desktop use turns out to be gaming related anyway and there are better solutions for that than the iMac.

BTW I wanted to use my trackpad and wireless keyboard for my MBP but as both are paired with my now dead iMac I struggle to connect them? Do you know a way to unpair them without the iMac? I posted a question about that in another channel here but no reply. Both trackpad and keyboard are Apple but they are the ones with replaceable batteries, no Lightning connector.

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 30, 2018 7:03 AM in response to Howie1963

Howie1963 wrote:

Thanks. I wish I knew about this earlier. The program ended 2015, so will not apply to me now anyways.But thanks for all your time and effort.

I guess with a 5-6 year old machine that is already getting long in the tooth (graphics card especially lagging behind) I will just have to write it off.

If you have an Apple Store close by, you may still be able to get the disk replaced. Talk to the Store Manager, if possible.

Howie1963 wrote:

Planning to buy an external monitor for my MBP as I struggle to be content with 13inch screen. And maybe invest in a gaming PC that can use the same monitor. Not buying another iMac as most of my desktop use turns out to be gaming related anyway and there are better solutions for that than the iMac.

If you plan to use a desktop for gaming, a PC is indeed a better option.

Howie1963 wrote:

BTW I wanted to use my trackpad and wireless keyboard for my MBP but as both are paired with my now dead iMac I struggle to connect them? Do you know a way to unpair them without the iMac? I posted a question about that in another channel here but no reply. Both trackpad and keyboard are Apple but they are the ones with replaceable batteries, no Lightning connector.

You seem to have found a good solution. 😉

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