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Help! I can't boot up my iMac!

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Oxo, Oct 15, 2006.

  1. Oxo

    Oxo New Member

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    I've been using a Mac almost every day for about 20 years but I'm still a naif user because it's so unusual when something goes wrong. I'm so addicted to Macs that I have two iMacs on my desk and I'm writing this on the older one. The dud is only 4 months old and is running the latest OS 10.8.4 (I think). This morning it was running very slowly so I decided to do a restart but only a black screen appeared with the words: Launched. "Can't exec/bin sh for single user: input/output error"
    I've zapped the pram but it didn't help. Now what? Any suggestions? Or must I take it back to the seller?
     
  2. athanasios

    athanasios New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 15 2006, 08:33 PM) [snapback]333046[/snapback]</div>
    Sounds like you have some files missing on your harddrive (or at least your OS thinks they are missing). This can be caused either by a harddrive failure or simply be a directory issue.
    Carefully read the following document and follow the instructions related to 10.4.x AND the section about not being able to boot into the OS.
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

    Alternatively you can start up your "defective" iMac in Target Disk mode (reboot holding T) and connect it via Firewire to your other iMac to diagnose and/or recover data.

    Good luck,
    Alex

    P.S. You may have better luck posting your question in the Apple Discussion forum:
    http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa?categoryID=1
     
  3. wb9tyj

    wb9tyj 2017 Prius Prime Advanced

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    Try holding down "apple key and "s" on reboot...this will put you into line code
    after the screen scrolls...type in fsck -y to repair disk...then when that's complete
    type "reboot"...then it will restart and hopefully it will boot up...
     
  4. EricGo

    EricGo New Member

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    Boot from a system DVD if you can, and then repair your hard drive with the included applications:utilities:Disk Utility program.
     
  5. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

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    It was buried quite deep in the website, but I finally found this:
     
  6. mdmikemd

    mdmikemd Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 15 2006, 01:33 PM) [snapback]333046[/snapback]</div>
    Slightly off topic, I've been using PCs since I got the IBM PCjr over 20 years ago. This year I'm thinking of getting an iMac. Anyone here made this switch in the past recently and how did it go?
     
  7. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mdmikemd @ Oct 15 2006, 07:42 PM) [snapback]333256[/snapback]</div>
    I've been using PCs since I traded in my Kaypro 2X for an 80286. I ordered my first Mac, a 64-bit iMac, the day they were announced (I came within a hair's breadth of buying the old iMac the day before the new one was announced!) My new computer arrived just under 2 weeks later. I don't remember exactly when that was.

    There have been some frustrations, but there always are with a new OS, and the iMac has been the least frustrating new computer I have bought. My old Compaq printer is not supported for the Mac, so I took the opportunity to upgrade to a laser printer.

    WordPerfect is not available for the Intel Mac (it's available only for the non-Intel Mac) and that was a big disappointment. MS Word is available, but I won't use that, on principle, so I'm using NeoOffice, which is a beta version of OpenOffice for the Mac. OpenOffice itself is available for Mac in the X11 environment, but I have not gotten that installed, and I've heard conflicting reports on the advisability of using it.

    There are ways of running Windows on the iMac, but I bought the Mac to get away from Windows, so I choose not to use any of those.

    I had to install third-party solutions to view WMA video, and to do the sort of batch renaming of files that Windows has built in. Chessmaster is not available for the Mac, but I did find a chess program that works well enough.

    I didn't like the mouse, but my Logitec trackball plugged in and worked without installing any software. I lose the horizontal scroll of the Mighty Mouse, but for me that's an acceptable trade-off because I don't like a conventional mouse.

    Garmin does not yet have software to update my StreetPilot on the Mac, but their web site says they are working on it and will have it available soon.

    Overall the transition was smooth. I'm still getting used to it, and I still have a few things to figure out, but I'm happy to have made the switch.
     
  8. priusenvy

    priusenvy Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(athanasios @ Oct 15 2006, 12:05 PM) [snapback]333054[/snapback]</div>
    If you take a look at the source to launchd (which anyone can do as the source is freely available from Apple) you will see that what you wrote is not correct. Basically, launchd does an execv() of /bin/sh and the next statement following it (which will never be executed unless execv() fails) is a call to syslog() to print out that error message. So if /bin/sh was simply missing, the error would be ENOENT, and you'd see "No such file or directory" rather than "input/output error".

    For execv() to fail with errno set to EIO (which is the error code that will produce the "input/output error" message) the most likely explanation is damaged file system or failing disk drive. According to the man page for execve:

    [EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
     
  9. athanasios

    athanasios New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Oct 16 2006, 08:20 PM) [snapback]333537[/snapback]</div>
    While you are technically correct, the original poster made it implicitly clear he is not a software developer and/or able to read source code. To him the result is all the same. His system cannot start up and he cannot get to his data. All I gave him where a few simple things he could try before having his harddrive replaced (if needed). I believe this may serve him better than technical essays......

    But hey, feel free to show off how smart you are. ;-)
     
  10. Oxo

    Oxo New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(athanasios @ Oct 15 2006, 02:05 PM) [snapback]333054[/snapback]</div>
    Thanks for all these replies (not only this quoted one). Isn't PriusChat wonderful to get such comprehensive comments so quickly?!
    I followed the various procedures diligently, including trying to boot up from the Instal Disk. But still nothing has worked (and now I can't get the CD out). So I phoned the dealer - a big departmental store which has on the bill "parts and labour guaranteed for 2 years." No interest was shown and I was merely given the Apple Help phone number. So I waded through the various options "Key 1, key 3. etc etc." and listened to noises which I think were intended to be music for 20 minutes and then got a man with a strong Indian accent. He was probably in Mumbai. His immediate reply when I told him the story: "You have a hardware problem" and he gave me the address of a local authorised Apple repairer so I'll take it there in the morning. Big worry now of course is that I might lose everything on my HD. I do try to backup regularly but maybe a couple of weeks have passed without a full backup, although I bak up daily if I'm doing a very time-consuming job.
     
  11. EricGo

    EricGo New Member

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    Ouch. I'm sorry my advice turned out so poorly.

    Now that I think about this a bit more, you have to explicitly tell the macintosh to boot from the optical drive rather than the hard drive. On most modern macs this is by holding down the 'c' key while booting, but older macs required different key presses.
     
  12. Oxo

    Oxo New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 15 2006, 01:33 PM) [snapback]333046[/snapback]</div>
    Thanks for all replies. I tried the various suggestions but eventually had to take it to a Mac repairer and I got it back today with a new hard drive (£184, inc tax) ($350) but I don't have to pay this as it is still under guarantee. But of course I've lost everything on the old HD. I did have it connected to an older Mac on my desk through a router and so I have most of my stuff backed up but the connection was unreliable so I have lost a few things and must now think about the most reliable and easiest way to connect them for my back-ups.

    If anyone also has two Macs running side by side like this I'd be interested to know how they're linked. Would a direct firewire cable be simpler and easier than going through a router?
     
  13. EricGo

    EricGo New Member

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    Hi Oxo,

    IP over ethernet is much more established and time tested than IP over FW, so I doubt that route will improve matters.

    I'd think about one of these solutions:

    1. NAS
    2. An external HD that you physically move by replugging the FW cable.

    I hope this advice is better than my last offering !
     
  14. Oxo

    Oxo New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Oct 28 2006, 03:04 PM) [snapback]340022[/snapback]</div>
    EricGo

    I think I've now solved the problem by reading one of Apple's replies on their enormous Help forum. I had missed the point that you have to open "personal file sharing" in system preferences and when I'd done this the connection worked at once with ethernet cable through my router. I was about to buy an external hard drive or a firewire cable but this won't now be necessary.
    I am grateful to you for your replies to my problem but as a mere user of Macs I am not familiar with the various abbreviations that some Mac people use, such as IP and NAS in the above. Time was when I read Mac magazines and picked up some of the more arcane abbreviations and vocabulary but I got to the point where my Macs were doing what I needed and behaving themselves well so I stopped the mag reading and as a result have become even more ignorant since then.
    I'm not alone in my ignorance though! I know a few other Mac users who know even less than I do and even ask for my help sometimes. One of these occasionally pays an 'adviser' quite hefty fees for sometimes coming in and sorting out a problem. (These are home users, not commercial).

    Steve Jobs, please note! (Does he run a Prius?)