iMac won't boot from OS Install CD for disk repair

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Hi folks,

After having my iMac a few months, I enabled (and subsequently disabled) FileVault and things have never been the same. I verified my disk using DU, and it said that I need to boot from a CD and run a repair on the volume.

I'm trying to boot from the original install/restore CD that came with the iMac - I hold option at startup, select the CD, the apple logo changes to a halt sign, and then the machine boots up into my regular OS - not the CD.

Is there another way to repair the volume? What am I doing wrong, and how can I boot to the CD so that I can run a repair? I picked up a MBP recently as well and tried booting to the OS CD that came with that as well and get the same result - a halt sign and the iMac just boots to the hard drive.

Any insight would very much be appreciated. FV made my system all sorts of unstable, and I'm constantly getting Finder crashes and random App hangs.

Thanks much!
 
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Hold down the C key when booting to boot from the install disk
 
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I'll say it 1000 times - as will everyone else - FireVault is a vary bad idea for personal computers. It seems you learned this the hard way though...
 
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Pop in the original install disc, not the one that came with the MBP as it will NEVER boot. Reboot and immediately after the chimes hold down the 'C" key and not the Option key. Hopefully you will get the Installer page, go to Utilities and run Repair Disk. Hopefully that will fix your problem, if not you will be in for a reformat and clean install so trust you have everything backed up to an external drive?
 
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I'll say it 1000 times - as will everyone else - FireVault is a vary bad idea for personal computers. It seems you learned this the hard way though...

Yep, definitely learned this the hard way. It didn't help that my iTunes library was in my Documents folder and was around ~250GB either, but we live and we learn. I used it on my MBP as well (both at the same time) and spent the next day unencrypting everything. Shame, because it seems like such a good idea if it wasn't so dodgy.

Thanks for the input all - turns out it was a matter of patience on my end. The ex-Windows guy in me was used to hitting the key once. Holding it down through the entire boot cycle did the trick, and after a repair my Finder/app woes have (so far) been non-existant.

Cheers! :)
 
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Hey, I'm trying to run repair from DVD also and can't boot from DVD with "C".

Is it the same thing to hold "Option" while booting.. .. and select the OSX DVD from the grey screen there?

Will that bring my to Disk utility to Repair the disk?
 

chscag

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Yes, hold down the OPTION key as soon as you hear the chime. If the disk is OK and your optical drive is working, you should see the disk as a boot selection. Once it boots to the disk, click on the top menu "Utilities" and from there select "Disk Utility".
 
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Hmm it gives me the option. Clicked it. It gives me the pinwheel loading kind of thing.. but not the rainbow one.. you know. .. the circle bar one. lol. just checks the disk in the drive. over ten minutes.. How long should it take?
 
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Ten minutes would be fine and trust you got a message in green indicating the drive is okay?
 

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