Mac Mini Hangs on Startup
Hello, I have to start by saying that I am a Mac novice, very experienced in Windows but know next to nothing about Macs. Problem is: recently I was downloading updates to the OS as prompted by Apple and received an error during the download/install process. The system attempted to reboot and now hangs during the reboot process. I initially get a screen with the Mac apple symbol and a small circle at the bottom then after about 30 seconds the screen turns a solid shade of blue and the mouse icon shows up. I tried to restore from my original install disks and when I boot from the install disk, holding the Alt(option) key, I eventually get a screen that has three icons, on the left is a circular arrow, in the center is a hard disk symbol, and on the right is a right arrow. When I press the right arrow it goes to the frozen screen, when I press the other two icons, (disk and circular arrow) nothing happens. Help, any suggestions?
If you system is corrupted, you can restore your system by putting in the install DVD and hold down 'c' key. Then just reinstall you system.
ASKER
Hi, thanks for the suggestions, I was able to boot my system into safe mode by holding down SHIFT during the boot. Followed the suggestions in Apple knowledge base item http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464#symp1. Walked through the simple ones rebooted and same problem. Once I get booted in safe mode the system seems to function properly. I tried running the disk utility once the system booted and it hangs and says a required background process or utility is missing. Any other suggestions? I would rather not restore unless I have to, my experience says that takes me from bad to worse...... :-)
Welcome your ideas.
Welcome your ideas.
Try all of the suggestions in that Apple KB article.
It's much more effective to run the disk utility from the installation CD/DVD.
Just boor the system from cd (holding down the c after power-up)
and select the disc utilities in the menu.
Just boor the system from cd (holding down the c after power-up)
and select the disc utilities in the menu.
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If resetting the PRAM will not allow you to boot, then try booting from the OS X install disk by booting while holding down the C key. Once booted, instead of re-installing, pull down one of the menues to Disk Utility and this time instead of Repair Permission, select Repair Drive.
Let us know how you make out.