iMac 27" won't start up - need help

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Hi All,

I have a 27" iMac running Lion. I just received a notice that I had an update and it asks me if I wanted to install and restart which I did. Unknowingly, my wife plugged her iPhone into my iMac while it was still updating and then I received an error message thatthey update was not successful. My computer then froze up so I tried to force restart by holding down the power button and then restarting.

It would not restart and got stuck at the gray screen with the spinning gear below it. After reading a few posts on the forums, I tried a number of things to try to resolve the issue including holding down the shift key, option key,shift + option command + option, option + Command+ R + P, and nothing seems to be working.

On one startup, I did have the option to select the startup disk and I chose the internal HD rather than the recovery disk (most likely that was a mistake). I could also get the error restart to chime 3 times with the option + Command + R + P but nothing happened.

Now I can't get any response from the computer at. I do have a bluetooth keyboard so I am wondering if it is just not connecting. Tried replacing the keyboard battery but no luck with that. Also tried removing the additional RAM that I installed a couple of years ago.

Nothing seems to be responding now and on every restart I am simply getting the gray screen and spinning gear.

Does anyone have any other options I can try? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Hook up a wired keyboard, reboot the iMac and hold down the command + r keys as soon as you hear the bong sound. That should get you into the recovery partition. From there you can choose to reinstall Lion. Reinstalling Lion will not wipe out your docs or data. After reinstalling, be sure to update Lion to the latest.

And from now on, use Time Machine to make backups before doing any updates. And buy an UPS for your iMac. :)
 
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Hook up a wired keyboard, reboot the iMac and hold down the command + r keys as soon as you hear the bong sound. That should get you into the recovery partition. From there you can choose to reinstall Lion. Reinstalling Lion will not wipe out your docs or data. After reinstalling, be sure to update Lion to the latest.

And from now on, use Time Machine to make backups before doing any updates. And buy an UPS for your iMac. :)

Thanks chscag. Sorry for the delay in replying. Had a lot of errands to run and un around town trying to find a wired keyboard. I did find one and that seemed to have done the trick.

I was able to navigate to the recover page. I tried to just reinstall Lion but my HD was unrepairable so I had to erase and reformat the hard drive amd am now restoring from the previous Time Machine backup. Hopefully, I'll be able to recover everything. Fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Stephen
 
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After cmd+r, i must enter password? Cant remember

Hello,

Got the Same problem, but if i reboot then CMD+R, i need to fill in à password.

I have know idea witch password i need te fill in.

The reason for this is that my iMac (2010) wont start normaly.

I got the iMac seconde hand

Please help!!
 
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Hello,

Got the Same problem, but if i reboot then CMD+R, i need to fill in à password.

I have know idea witch password i need te fill in.

The reason for this is that my iMac (2010) wont start normaly.

I got the iMac seconde hand

Please help!!


I don't remember if I had to put in a password but I am sure it would have been the administrator's password that you need to fill in to install any software.
 

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