HELP...I think my IMac just died :(

[WatchYourStep 0]

And I had just ordered a external hard drive to back stuff up :(

When I turn it on I just get the gray screen and it doesn't progress from there. I'm guessing bad hard drive.

So I put the start up disc in and it wants to re-install leopard but I don't want to risk losing the data on the hard drive if I can salvage it.

Any suggestions???

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[WatchYourStep 0]

I just tried starting it in safe mode and I get a flashing folder with a question mark on it...

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[stitch 0]

Perfect time to buy a $500 PC.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[shropshire 0]

Quote

Perfect time to buy a $500 PC.

So a posh one then?

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[Misternatural 0]

First
Read the dudist manifesto and don't flip out.
then
Owners manual- for both pieces of hardware.
I would disconnect the new drive, which seems to be the origin of the problem here, restart using one of the methods outlined in the manual,(I am not familiar with the I mac) make sure the correct statup disc is selected. May be as simple as your I Mac was trying to format this new hard drive. The things usually fix themselves from my experience with a proper restart.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[WatchYourStep 0]

Thanks. I haven't plugged in a new drive. I was just saying that I think my hard drive may be fried and I was just in the process of ordering a back-up drive in case this happened.

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[stitch 0]

WAIT !! You've been running a computer without an external back-up ? Shame, Shame.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[Misternatural 0]

Ah understood-Well hard drives are mechanical devices and they do fail but no need to go there yet- so what is going on now? have you read the restart options for your rig?

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[WatchYourStep 0]

Yep read the books and still no luck.

Just made an appointment to take it in tomorrow...

"You start off your skydiving career with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience up before your bag of luck runs out."

[Misternatural 0]

Sorry bout that... never had to take a patient into surgery myself in 15 years of use- usually it's a peripheral or the installation of a new app that throws me off but nothing a fresh startup can't solve, or a new battery.

at least the PC people will have something to chew on today

good luck, let us know what the doc says.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[ryoder 1,393]

Quote

Perfect time to buy a $500 PC.

Right.
When the Mercedes wears out, you want to replace it with a Yugo.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Nightingale 0]

I had the same problem with my iBook. You may not have a completely bad drive, and just an issue with the files that allow your computer to boot, and the rest of your files may be intact. Of course, your whole drive may be fried.

This is what I did (after a trip to the genius bar at the apple store, where they told me how to do this and sold me a firewire cable):

Do you have an iBook or a MacBook as well as your iMac, or access to a friend's Mac? if so, plug in your iMac to the other Mac using a firewire cable, with the iMac off and other Mac running.

Then, boot up the iMac holding down Command-T. You'll get a giant orange symbol on a grey screen, and this will allow you to access the hard drive of the imac from the ibook as if the iMac is an external hard drive, and you can grab your essential files and pull them over to the laptop and burn them to a CD.

If you can grab your data, do it, and then make a Genius Bar appointment at an apple store. They have a device there that can restore the OS on your computer, and they sometimes do it for free since it's just a software fix and doesn't require parts, whether or not your computer is still under warranty.