Imac Boots and then shuts down

Forum Newbie here... I've had my mac desktop for about three years now without any problems at all. About 3 weeks ago things started failing. 1st the a disk become stuck in the hard drive. The computer now cannot "find" the disk burner.

I thought I'd have some free time today to sit down and try to figure it out. I tried rebooting in safe mode but still the computer cannot find the hard drive.
When I tried to reboot in normal mode the compuetr started up, but shut down before getting to the welcome screen. I tried again, same thing, a third time, same thing.

I tried unplugging the power for a while and then tried again...nothing.

Any ideas? Im trying to avoid going to the apple store between now and the end of the year anticiapting the lines and crowds.

Any way to use my macbook to fix the desk top?



Thanks....

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Sounds like the drive is failing. Still got the original system install discs? Good they are vitally important. Pop disc one in and reboot holding down option after the chime and select Apple Hardware Test and run the extended test.

If all is reported as well, boot from your current install DVD in the same manner, holding down 'C" after the chime, and go to Utilities in the Menu Bar, Disk Utility and run Repair Disk and see what is reported, particularly if you are told the drive is failing.

Keep us posted on your progress?

Yes, I would but the computer cannot find the disk drive and there is a disk stuck in the drive.

BTW...the computer started this morning. I tried to run disk utility / repair disk. It wasn't an option so I tried verifiying first. This failed half way through and I received the following:

Verifying volume “iMac”

Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Invalid directory item count
(It should be 6 instead of 15)
Invalid directory item count
(It should be 0 instead of 1)
Invalid directory item count
(It should be 90 instead of 89)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume iMac needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.


Any ideas?

Z