# G5 iMac - Hard Drive Crash... or what?



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Hey there... my younger brother's iMac has crashed, per the following note he sent via email @ library computer:

*Here be what happened: I was on twitter, yahoo.com email, facebook and was opening a link. Before I started to open the link, an 'updated' firefox box came up, which i downsized as didn't want to do it then. While the link was trying to open, I got the rainbow circle of death. After about 5 minutes and seeing it wasn't going away, I tried to "force quit" using my keypad commands to bring up the force quit box, but nothing. I tried a few more times, nothing. So being frustrated and unable to shut it off with the back power on/off button, I shut it off at the powersupply/surge protector.

When i try to restart it next and every time after that, i get the mac 'ding' noise as normal, my keyboard 'capslock' button blinks and then a whiteish screen comes up and stays. After 3 minutes, it flashes to a yellow for a millisecond, then goes to a gray screen. After about one to two more minutes, I get the little file icon that alternates from a 'smiley face' to a question mark. I never have use of any of my peripherals like mouse or keyboard. I have no commands available. So I just turned it off with the power on/off button at the back of the iMac.

The iMac is a G5, 20"

Thanks for any help you all can provide!*

Reason why state in the title if this is a HD crash, is due to prelim info he received from Apple support... I don't know if I buy that thought, but suppose it could be possible. Any other thoughts?

Thanks


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## peterh40 (Apr 15, 2007)

1. Find the Mac OS X disc 1 and boot from it (insert disc, reboot and hold down C key)
2. Go through first 2 or three screens on wizard and you should see a menu at the top
(do NOT go through with the install)
3. Select Disk Utility on the tools or utility menu
4. Do a repair of the hard disk
5. Reboot and see if it boots ok this time.


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

peterh40 - thanks, just sent your recommendations to him... appreciate the help!


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