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09.21.2006 at 07:13PM PDT, ID: 21998736
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8.0

Mac Mini Will Not Boot

Asked by SandyTheSpacedragon in Networking Hardware for Macintosh

Tags: , ,

My Mac Mini (Core Duo 1.67) will not boot, which is annoying.

I get a flashing question mark on a folder icon on startup and it progresses no further.

It does however start from CD unaided (without having to C-poweron).

Apple Hardware Tools (D-poweron) says everything is OK.

The reinstall CD starts and I can get to the part that asks me to install OS X, and/or use the disk checker. Both the installer and disk checker tell me the machine has no hard drive - it just doesn't see a hard drive as present.

Zapping the cmos (alt-command-p-r) didn't help.

I then gave up and handed it to the office IT people. They took the drive out (it appears to be a standard 2.5" 60GB fujitsu SATA hard drive, also used by PC laptops) and shoved it in a PC. The PC detects the drive and can view the contents (via low level disk diagnostic software; Windows XP itself just says "I don't do Mac filesystems, want me to format this for you so I can use it?")

IT guys think it's a drive controller failure, or a loose connection (though they can't see one) or some weird firmware corruption. We can't upgrade the firmware as the mac wont boot and we couldn't find a bootable firmware upgrade CD.

So, is this a "Back to apple" job or is there something we have not done?

Thanks,

Sandy
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[+][-]09.22.2006 at 05:15AM PDT, ID: 17576914

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About this solution

Zone: Networking Hardware for Macintosh
Tags: mac, mini, boot
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Solution Provided By: dalesit
Participating Experts: 2
Solution Grade: A
 
 
[+][-]09.22.2006 at 10:30AM PDT, ID: 17579223

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[+][-]09.22.2006 at 12:49PM PDT, ID: 17580186

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