When good Macs go bad: Steps to take when your Mac won't start up

#1 Macworld

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 03:30 AM

Post your comments for When good Macs go bad: Steps to take when your Mac won't start up here

#2 ConnorMeeblings

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 05:18 AM

I had an '06 iMac that we thought was having a logic board problem but really it was just the hard drive. We almost bought a new one but saved over $1000 by just buying a replacement drive - and thankfully I back up religiously.

#3 cpcmeo

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 05:18 AM

"But having these steps and awkward key combinations committed to memory, or saved to an iPad, or stuck on your refrigerator—that can make coping with your next Mac disaster considerably less stressful."

This article is going directly into Evernote and syncing to all my devices!

#4 ConnorMeeblings

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 05:19 AM

But seriously, a BSoD photoshopped onto a Macbook??

#5 zeta2099

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 05:41 AM

Yeah... I don't know if you notice Lex but using a Blue screen of Death (from windows) is not convincing me that you are serious

#6 LexFriedman

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 06:19 AM

Quote

Yeah... I don't know if you notice Lex but using a Blue screen of Death (from windows) is not convincing me that you are serious

Crashing Macs are serious business. I injected a tiny stroke of levity for those who noticed. I am deadly serious about resurrecting dead Macs.

#7 joeubertech1

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 07:02 AM

As a tech for fifteen years, this is one of the worst lists of suggested steps to take when your computer is no longer starting up.

Amongst other things, you should never "Fsck for fsck’s sake". More data is lost from the repeated running of fsck, than any other step. Brute force recovery of data is lunacy.

-1

#8 mconn02

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 07:27 AM

Back in the day, tech professionals like myself had a reputation for being some of the worst offenders when it came to protecting our personal data. Time Machine makes this concern so automatic it's delightfully silly. Just turn it on and forget it. There is really no reason any modern mac user to lose significant data today.

That being said, while I won't be as harsh as the previous poster, I will say thanks for giving an overview of steps that users like myself can take a deeper dive into and integrate into our own troubleshooting skill-sets.

#9 JimB

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 07:34 AM

Lex,

Be sure to get back to us with the final result. Disk Utility is not always wise about hard drive health. I'd be curious if the logic board replacement actually does fix the issue.

In this case, I'd have recommended booting and running from an external drive. If it's the logic board, you'd see the same issues.

#10 michaelgpalma

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 08:02 AM

"I'd have recommended booting and running from an external drive."

Perfect JimB. This is what I would do FIRST. Since booting off of an external drive will help rule out/in hardware it also allows you to recover data just-in-case.

#11 technologist

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 08:22 AM

Quote

Crashing Macs are serious business. I injected a tiny stroke of levity for those who noticed.

Yup, Macworld just trolled us.

This post has been edited by technologist: 11 December 2012 - 08:23 AM

And now a word from our lawyers.

#12 morespace54

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 08:57 AM

Quote

"I'd have recommended booting and running from an external drive." Perfect JimB. This is what I would do FIRST. Since booting off of an external drive will help rule out/in hardware it also allows you to recover data just-in-case.

Well that's a good thinking but in my case, the (internal) HD wasn't available. So no luck with the "allows you to recover data just-in-case" part.

BTW Lex, booting-up from a USB drive, trying to run Disk Utility on the "drive’s friendlier name" which is grayed-out... What does that tell you? I can run DU but it takes, like, forever (had to cancel it after an hour and a half). DU just displayed the barber-pole without ever kicking-in the progress bar...

#13 leicaman

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 09:30 AM

When you're geeking out in single user mode (i.e. Terminal after pressing Command + S to get to fsck) make sure that before you type "reboot" to type:

/sbin/mount -uw

Not sure what it does exactly, but OS X's instructions say to do it. It's right there on the single user mode screen.

Eric

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

#14 michaelgpalma

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Posted 11 December 2012 - 10:16 AM

Quote

"Well that's a good thinking but in my case, the (internal) HD wasn't available. So no luck with the "allows you to recover data just-in-case" part.

Well in all fairness if there are mechanical issues (ie it won't even spin up) software is not going to fix it regardless. I use DataRescue software to recover data even if the volume won't mount, but if it doesn't spin then you get to spend thousands...

But continuing to try and boot off the screwed up disk isn't what I would consider the prudent choice, unless there is no other option available to you.