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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Imac Frozen Grey Apple
njnhg1 - Jul 13, 2005 - 3:58 pm
My imac froze up this morning. It has the grey apple and white screen. I have followed a lot of the other forums which stated to do everything from zap the pram to reinsert the osx startup disc. No luck. When I insert the start up disc to reinstall and save the existing files it states that I do not have enough memory left on my hard-drive and need to remove items from it.
As I cannot get into the hard drive I am caught in a catch 22. I have been getting a ton of disc is full errors over the last 3 weeks and constantly had to reboot the computer to access Entourage for my email because of disc is full errors.I am using mac osx 10.2.8.
Can anybody help?
As I cannot get into the hard drive I am caught in a catch 22. I have been getting a ton of disc is full errors over the last 3 weeks and constantly had to reboot the computer to access Entourage for my email because of disc is full errors.I am using mac osx 10.2.8.
Can anybody help?
kcartesius - Jul 13, 2005 - 5:41 pm
Hi,
obviously, the disk is full, and when you have rebooted, some space has become available because the operating system removes some temporary files upon reboot. Your files are probably OK, but we need to free up some space for anything to work properly on that machine.
There are a few pretty technical ways to get access to the disk, but booting into UNIX and removing files that way can easily go wrong in major ways. If you have another Mac there, you may be able to boot your iMac into "target disk mode" (by pressing the letter T at startup). If this works, you will see a moving FireWire icon on it's screen. You can then connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable and (after again booting the iMac into target disk mode), see the iMac's hard disk on the other Mac. Here's some info: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage..._mode_ben.html
If this won't work, please consider the following:
If you have ever considered buying an external hard disk to be used for backup and extra storage space (that you obviously need), this would be the ideal time to do it. You could then install a fresh OS X on that external disk, boot from it and move some stuff from the internal disk onto it and then find your Mac in good working condition again.
If that is not an option, you can get access to the internal disk using an emergency boot CD if you just have temporary access to another Mac on the internet and a CD burner. I can help you find a boot CD image online, or a dealer can provide you with a physical CD. http://www.charlessoft.com/ has them, for example (be sure to pick the right version for the machine you will be creating the CD image on).
Assuming you really need all your files and are constantly out of space, getting an external (or bigger internal*) drive seems like the only option that will work in the long run.
Please let us know what you think and we'll take it from there.
Klaus C
*If the iMac i still under warranty (or Apple Care), a dealer would have to install a bigger disk and transfer your files to it. If not, an iMac is not the easiest box to open, and you would still need some temporary storage when swapping disks - unless you have some external unit; a good idea after all?
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ichat: jazzfixer
obviously, the disk is full, and when you have rebooted, some space has become available because the operating system removes some temporary files upon reboot. Your files are probably OK, but we need to free up some space for anything to work properly on that machine.
There are a few pretty technical ways to get access to the disk, but booting into UNIX and removing files that way can easily go wrong in major ways. If you have another Mac there, you may be able to boot your iMac into "target disk mode" (by pressing the letter T at startup). If this works, you will see a moving FireWire icon on it's screen. You can then connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable and (after again booting the iMac into target disk mode), see the iMac's hard disk on the other Mac. Here's some info: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage..._mode_ben.html
If this won't work, please consider the following:
If you have ever considered buying an external hard disk to be used for backup and extra storage space (that you obviously need), this would be the ideal time to do it. You could then install a fresh OS X on that external disk, boot from it and move some stuff from the internal disk onto it and then find your Mac in good working condition again.
If that is not an option, you can get access to the internal disk using an emergency boot CD if you just have temporary access to another Mac on the internet and a CD burner. I can help you find a boot CD image online, or a dealer can provide you with a physical CD. http://www.charlessoft.com/ has them, for example (be sure to pick the right version for the machine you will be creating the CD image on).
Assuming you really need all your files and are constantly out of space, getting an external (or bigger internal*) drive seems like the only option that will work in the long run.
Please let us know what you think and we'll take it from there.
Klaus C
*If the iMac i still under warranty (or Apple Care), a dealer would have to install a bigger disk and transfer your files to it. If not, an iMac is not the easiest box to open, and you would still need some temporary storage when swapping disks - unless you have some external unit; a good idea after all?
--------
ichat: jazzfixer
njnhg1 - Jul 13, 2005 - 6:10 pm
Thanks for the reply. I have a usb zip drive that connects via one of my usb ports on the computer. Can I use this to take off some of the itemms on the hard drive.
I dont at the moment have access to any other imacs.
Will the zip drive work?
Thanks John
I dont at the moment have access to any other imacs.
Will the zip drive work?
Thanks John
kcartesius - Jul 14, 2005 - 5:10 am
Hmm, I'll have to recycle this issue back to the general pool. Any other tech will see why, and to them I say "I really tried".
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ichat: jazzfixer
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ichat: jazzfixer
njnhg1 - Jul 14, 2005 - 8:31 pm
Okay I have made some progress. I got the computer to boot from the mac 9.1 startup software disc. I then cleaned up the hard drive and created almost 1gb of space. I then reinstalled mac osx software (it said it needed the whole 1gb oif space)to do a clean reinstall except for saving the original settings..The computer then restarts but only sits in classic mode. It seems to have completely lost the osx startup disc option.I can now boot the computer up but only in Classic mode.
How to I get back to osx and my normal startup?My hard drive now says it has about 237mb of free space.
Any help is appreciated.Thanks JM
How to I get back to osx and my normal startup?My hard drive now says it has about 237mb of free space.
Any help is appreciated.Thanks JM
otherguy - Jul 16, 2005 - 2:48 pm
There's an issue where older iMac's won't start up to OS X in certain situations.
How old is your iMac?
How old is your iMac?
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