My Mac will not boot.

Hello.

I have a problem. My Mac will not boot up. It is stuck on the opening screen.

I have left it for about 10 mins, switched it off, unplugged all of my USB cables but no joy.

I have checked the OSX trouble shooting notes and all of the steps suggested other than rebooting the computer, require me to be in the operating system before I can do anything but of course it will not boot up.

It started when I uploaded some photographs from my camera but I couldn't import them to Aperture 3 because the program could not see them in the designated folder so I decided to restart the computer and that is when the trouble started.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Phil F

You could do a restore from your Time Machine backup (because OF COURSE you were backing up with Time Machine) to get to before the trouble started.

You didn't mention trying to start up from your system DVDs so you might want to try that as well ... that would really help determine if the hard drive has gone bad or if its a more serious issue.

There's the problem you see. I was indeed backing up my system but if I cannot get it to boot up I cannot interact with it so I don't know how to do a system restore without being able to boot up. I also do not know how to get into safe mode. Basically I am stuck in that respect.

Also, I did not get any system disks, DVDs or CDs with my Mac. There was only paperwork in the box. I don't know but I can say that it cam pre-installed with OSX Lion and if that is only available for download then I wouldn't get a disc anyway would I?

Cheers

Phil F

Apple - OS X Lion Recovery - Introducing Lion Recovery

Boot holding down Command+R. See if you can get to the recovery partition. Report back.

If you look at that menu on the URL above, there is an option for Restore from Time Machine backup.

Okay I have called Mac UK and we have gone through all of the troubleshooting but they are now convinced it is something fundamental to do with the operating system. They have booked me an appointment on Monday at the local Apple store so I am pretty confident we'll get this problem sorted. I am a bit surprised the Mac went faulty like this but so far, I can't fault the support both from you lot here on the forum and from Apple.

Thanks Chas you've been brilliant.

Cheers

Phil F

Thanks Travis I'll get onto that when I get the chance. Even if it has to go to the shop it's all lessons learned.

Cheers

Phil F

I'm sure the Apple techs will get it sorted out for you, but honestly, the one thing I don't like about Lion and the new distribution system is the lack of a boot drive. In my opinion, they ought to include a bootable copy (the $69 version of Lion) on USB with every new Mac.

Regardless, they probably have reasons why they don't. But, I would reccommend the first thing you do after they get you iMac back on its feet, is to either make your own USB boot/recovery drive (directions around here somewhere, will try to remember to find and post in this thread) or make a bootable clone of your HD using Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.

Actually, I would do (and have done) both in addition to my Time Machine back ups.

EDIT: I now see the directions for making a bootable USB were in Dennis' link (should have read that first).

Thanks Razor I will do that as soon as I is up and running again.

Cheers

Phil F