hello, it's my first post. I have searched a little, and done some reading here and tried some of the solutions but they haven't worked. about a week ago I got the spinning rainbow circle, I turned it off from the back and when I turned it back on it was stuck on the grey screen with progress bar. I left it for a while, the bar went and was replaced with a grey circle spinning.
I have tried a lot of things, running from the cd to use disk utility. but after going through that, verifying and repairs all I got was a message saying I should back up and re-install, I think that's what it said. I cannot run in safe mode. one suggestion I read said to try linux. I had no idea what it was but after some reading thought it was worth a go. I ran it off a disk, not installed. I used ubuntu. once booted up I was able to see the macintosh hd. it said there was 55gb free which I think was about right. when I went to user and my name, all the folders, movie/pictures/music etc all had a x on them and when I clicked on any they all said I didn't have permission etc....
the trouble is this has been going on for over a week, I do want to try and fix it myself but I feel like i am going round in circles, I don't know what I can try or not, I think I am being too cautious but I have a lot on the imac I don't want to lose.
many thanks.
I have tried a lot of things, running from the cd to use disk utility. but after going through that, verifying and repairs all I got was a message saying I should back up and re-install, I think that's what it said. I cannot run in safe mode. one suggestion I read said to try linux. I had no idea what it was but after some reading thought it was worth a go. I ran it off a disk, not installed. I used ubuntu. once booted up I was able to see the macintosh hd. it said there was 55gb free which I think was about right. when I went to user and my name, all the folders, movie/pictures/music etc all had a x on them and when I clicked on any they all said I didn't have permission etc....
the trouble is this has been going on for over a week, I do want to try and fix it myself but I feel like i am going round in circles, I don't know what I can try or not, I think I am being too cautious but I have a lot on the imac I don't want to lose.
many thanks.