help ! my mac is stuck on the gray apple with the spinning wheel below it.

[cfont40]

mac is stuck on the gray apple with the spinning wheel below it.

I cant boot to safe mode none of keys i have tired work.

i was reformating my system and the min i hit restart after the install the grey apple poped up then the spining wheel spins but nothing is happening .

 

[chscag]

Which Mac? Year and model? Which version of OS X? And do you have your original recovery install disk (unless you're using Lion)?

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

First up zap the PRAM bu booting and immediately holding down the Option, Command P and R keys all at the same time and keep held down until after the third chime. If no joy reset the SMC by turning off, unplugging from the mains for a few minutes and then try booting again.

How were you doing the reformat? From a system, install disc? If so was the disc a full retail install DVD and not a silver grey disc from another computer which will never work.