dead Imac

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Need Help with my Imac. My wife said it was working fine in the afternoon, when I tried it in the evening, it was sluggish so I tried to restart. Would not respond so I shut down using power button. At subsequent boot up I get the apple logo with the progress wheel. I tried using the disk utilities from installer disk but the hd does not mount so I cant do the disk repair. Without the installer disk in the imac the screen is just a blank white screen. Is there any hope? My wife and I didnt do any backup.
 

Raz0rEdge

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2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
Welcome to Mac-Forums

How old is this iMac and had you been hearing any new sounds from the iMac that wasn't present before? Does it sound/feel like the HD is spinning up and subtly clicking? Not being able to see the HD in Disk Utility certainly doesn't bode well for its health.

If the HD has failed, that would mean a trip to the Apple Store to have it replaced with another disk and re-installation of OS X on it.

Now not having any backup is going to be an issue for you since you might have just lost all of your data. If there was any really important on that you can try plugging the HD (once extracted from the iMac) into a external dock and try to access it. If that doesn't work, your only recourse would be a data recovery house that cost you quite a bit to get your data back..

As future reference might I suggest that you look into Time Capsule, a very cost effect and easy way to get a backup going with Time Machine that will at least keep your data in tact..
 
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Too many to list. Typically use an Intel iMac for most of my stuff and a Mini for web video.
We use a product for system and drive testing called Scannerz. Yesterday we got an e-mail from the company announcing the release of a hard drive testing book that's free. You can get it at this site (no cost):

Software and Computer Systems Company, LLC

Go to the downloads section, then download the book "Hard Drive Troubleshooting" (catchy name, eh?). In any case it has a section on catastrophic failure. The book has everything from simple tests to system evaluation by component disassembly, but a lot of the stuff in it doesn't require any tools or software.

It provides some step by step instructions that you can try, but seriously, it does sound like your drive died on you.

Hope this helps.
 

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