Imac wont boot

Hi at macforums!

I have an imac that doesnt boot. It was going a bit slow so i threw away alot of widgets in the dashboard then I uninstalled logmein which was taking along time to startup.

Right after that i turned the imac off and restarted. i see a white screen and grey mac logo and the circle turning for ever.

So i started googling on my ipad. I tried fsck -fy in unix. It says block count 64 should be 62 and there are 2 more errors which i cant remember. It also say errors cant be fixed.

i tried the orginal dvd to archieve and reinstall. After blue progress bar goes through the first dvd it says error in install. Try again. i then tried my snow leopard dvd. Says can install already from start.

I tried pram and other stuff ive read on forums. Nada works.

Because it happened right after i uninstalled applications and after removing widgets from dashboard and after I change seetings to not run applications on start up ( third party appplication) I am a firm beleiver that its not a harddrive failure. Im still hoping its software but what can i do? Most important on the drive are digital photos ive been taking for a coule of years of familly. These i really want back.

And suggestions?

Before reinstalling did you try to run disk repair using the disk utility from the install disk ?
Can it repair the disk or not ?
And what if you try to reinstall after disk repair .

Actually i tried archieve install first, didnt work so then i tried disk utility. Im trying it again and tried verify disk permissions. A whole list of stuff wrong but it hangs at 80 procent through so i stop the process then do repair disk permissions and i corrects about 80 procent through then that hangs and i stop that. Then i do verify disk says incorrect block count, it should be 62 instead of 64. Then its say the underlying task reported failure on exit. So then i click on repair disk. Says the same things plus 1 hfs volume checked
1 volume could not be repair because of error

I now tried archieve install again and it says there are errors installing software. Please try installing again.

By the way dobby, thanks for trying to help me.

If it can not repair the disk than it seems logical you're drive is failing .
I know it is to late now .
But making a backup can spare you a lot of trouble .
Do you have a external disk laying around ?
If so install OSX on the external drive .
Boot while you hold down the option key and try to save you're data after booting

Ok, when i reboot holding the option key I get an icon with dvd and one with the hdd, i then choose the hhd icon(?) and i see the apple and a progress bar. the progress goes a few procent, then the progress bar disapears and now i have only the circle turning forever again.

Macalover69 said:

Ok, when i reboot holding the option key I get an icon with dvd and one with the hdd, i then choose the hhd icon(?) and i see the apple and a progress bar. the progress goes a few procent, then the progress bar disapears and now i have only the circle turning forever again.

Click to expand...

But you're still trying to install on the internal hdd
And what I mean is try to install on a External HD .Meaning USB or Firewire HD
After the install process to the USB or Firewire HD hold down the option key to boot from the USB or Firewire HD

When i try installing on external drive the install process says, you cant install on that drive. I have the external drive connected by usb, then i boot with the original install dvd. In the install process it asks to select a destination. i have to options, the Macintosh HD and my external. The external has a red exclamation. When i click the external it says, you cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. mac OS X cannot start up from this volume.

So now what?

I see now that i can install to a external, i used the old dvd install, this dvd said i cannot installl mac os x to the external. I then switched dvd to the snow leopard, this time it say i can install to external but it say all info on the external will be lost. So i will buy a new external drive tomorrow. Im in time zone +1 GMT.

Question is now after i succesfully install Mac os x oon an external, how to i get in to my crashed internal HD?

Finder option Preference option General check the HD
Than it shows all you're HD .
To copy the file that still can be read just drag and drop it from one HD to a other

Great dobby, ill see if i can salvage anything.

Everything is still intact on the internal hd! I have salvaged the most important stuff! Thanks a million dobby!! You saved my week and most of all u helped me save my familly photos. Thanks!