# iMac boot up failure



## rjlarson88 (Aug 9, 2015)

I have an iMac running Yosemite. when we boot up I do not get the chime but do get the Apple logo and a status bar that move very slow. Eventually we get a black screen followed by a white screen with a file folder with a question mark blinking. I tried a few time with same results. On one occasion that I saw there was some script that appeared in the upper left corner for about 2 seconds. Too fast for me to read. Turned it off for a few minutes and tried again. No luck. Would you please give me the benefit of your knowledge and some guidance? Thanks, I appreciate all the help.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

The File folder with a *? *means that the HDD has failed, or that the OS is corrupted. You will need to get Macintosh install media (eg) DVD or USB and boot off of it and get to *Disk Utilities* and check the permissions on the HDD. You may need to replace the HDD.


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## MartyF81 (Jan 23, 2013)

This can also mean that it has somehow lost which drive to use during startup. For example if you had tried to multi boot the computer with more than 1 OS... or were messing around in the startup drive area in the System Preferences. The computer will remember which partition it last boot into... and if that is gone... it gets confused.

When you turn on the computer, hold OPTION and see if it lets you select an OS or Drive to boot into. If you do this and you select the drive... you should be able to get to your desktop. Then you go into System Preferences and in "Startup Disk" area you can fix the setting to prevent this from happening again.


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## rjlarson88 (Aug 9, 2015)

Thanks to both of you. I will try MartyF81's simple solution first, if that fails move to Spunk.Funks. I will let you know what happens.


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## rjlarson88 (Aug 9, 2015)

I gave the options key method a few tries. I did get two locations to select from. They were the iMac hard drive and a recovery 10.10.3. I tried the recovery three times. Only improvement was i got the tone at the beginning when I turned it on after the initial attempt did not complete. The status bar goes about half way then stops. No indication there is anything else for me to do so I assume it just hangs up there.

I will try spunk.funk's suggestion or just truck it in to an authorized repair shop.

When I upgraded to Yosemite I did a download. I have no OS discs.

Thanks again for the help.


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## MartyF81 (Jan 23, 2013)

When you selected the iMac hard drive what happened? Nothing? Same error?

It could be the hard drive is dead like Spunk said.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

> It could be the hard drive is dead like Spunk said.


 If trying Recovery fails, that chances are great the HDD has failed.


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## rjlarson88 (Aug 9, 2015)

Woo is me. Thank goodness I backed it up the other day with an external hard drive. Could it be it is looking for that drive for some reason? It is no longer attached.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

It could be the HDD has become unattached, but it is very rare. There are Youtube videos that will guide you on how to remove the HDD, just type in your model # and replace HDD. Then you can test the HDD on another computer. If it has failed, then you will need to replace it and install Mac OS X


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