I'm a complete idiot, help!

Sharpsilver

Sharpsilver

Sharpsilver

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Hello OcUk!

I need some advice on what to do with something which I just did and I feel stupid for doing it. REALLY stupid. :(

Up until about 25 minutes ago I had a fully functioning Mac OS X Hard drive and a partition for my Windows (Vista to be specfic). However I deleted and remerged my windows patition into the Mac OS X hard drive so that I could repreat the boot camp process with Windows XP Professional instead (I despise Vista). The HD is 300gb and I partitioned 175gb of it for the Windows XP prof and left 100gb for the remainder on Mac OS X.

The partitioning process went fine (apparantly) and I inserted my Win Prof disk and it automatically restarted to start the file copying/installation process.

Before however I could copy the files I had to format my Partition (175gb) to NTFS. I however, could only see a '131'gb 'partition1' and mistakingly assumed this was the partition I had made earlier and overode it with NTFS, It then started the file copy process ready for the installation. However after it had copied the files to the partition it went back to the screen that led on to me being able to edit my file types on the partitions. So I made another mistake and cancelled it assuming it was done and so restarting into what I thought would be the bootcamp partition would start the installation.

However on restart I was not able to choose startup disk by holding option and the screen simply stayed white. I then realised my error and that I had overwrote the Mac OS X part of the HD and there was nothing to boot to. So I'm effectively running on a computer with no startup disk.

Help. I really don't know what to do. I've got the install disks for both Macintosh and Windows but unsure of what to do.

Any advice will be EXTREMELY appreciated.
 
Looks like you'll have to boot from the Mac Install CD (I believe you hold C upon startup) and start afresh. You will perhaps have to use Disk Utilty from the CD and reformat the harddrive to a full size partition first.

Do you have any sort of backup?
 
I don't have a backup sadly.

I've tried holding down C with my Mac install disk 1 inside but it doesnt appear to be doing anything. Is there a certain length of time I should hold this down? Or maybe it's another command?
 
Nobody at all? I'm stuck at the white screen and none of the bootup commands are working. I've tried C with the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and the Leopard Upgrade Disc and the Windows XP installation disc. The X command won't work either. Can anyone help me?
Cheers for any posts.
 
I don't think you hold C, you put the OS X CD in and hold Alt on boot. Well I say hold, I press the right and left alt repeatedly as soon as I press the power on my Mac, you will then see the CD icon to boot from. Works for me anyway.

Edit: C should work actually, but holding the keys never work for me, keep pressing the key repeatedly instead.
 
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I mean the option key, I'm using a Logitech Windows/Mac keyboard here, its the Alt key on there.
 
Tried that solution. To no avail. Any other ideas? Or should we just comtact apple and see if they have any ideas.
To repeat: We accidentally formatted our Mac OS to an NTFS partition and now we just get a white/grey screen when we turn on the Mac. No symbols, no icons or menus etc etc. Have tried the C command and the "option key" command to no avail.
Any further help is appreciated.
Thankii
 
Are you sure you are pressing the keys in time, as I mentioned, for me anyway, holding the key does nothing, as soon as I hit the power button on my mac I start pressing the two alt/option keys repeatedly at as fast rate as I can, and this always brings up the startup disc menu (incl CD if you have it in the drive).

If I just press the keys at a slow rate I get nout and if I hold the key I also get nout.
 
I really have given up now. It seems that every possible command/suggestion solution has not been sucessful.

The Keyboard works. So it cant be that that's not allowing me to forceboot to cd or choose boot disk

upon pressing the power on and hearing chime I've tried every combo. Option/Alt, X, C, and fast tapping and holding keys down for several minutes at a time sometimes

It appears though that when I tap/hold down Alt/Option, or C, the cursor appears and then freezes depending on how long I've tapped or held the key. Sometimes if I stop pressing/holding/tapping keys on the keyboard as soon as the cursor appears it allows me the freedom to move it.. but theres nothing to click select or toggle. It's like it's trying to undertake the command, but then just fizzles out. When I try the commands I sometimes hear activity in the optical disk drive with (Mac OS X Install disk 1, Pre-leopard inserted) for a short period of time, as if it's being scanned/registered but then it just stops and then nothing happens.

I fear that I'm going to have replace the hard drive. The model is the late 2007 24" alluminium iMac model. Can hardly call upon my warranty since this was my error and I'm not even sure it's even valid anymore seeing as I bought this back in september/october 2007.

Any last suggestions before I take this handgun to my head? :(
 
When you hear the chime, if you hold down the option (alt) key you should get a list of bootable devices.

If you don't and if you bought the extra Applecare then you should contact Apple, or get an appointment to a genius bar because it really sounds as though you have a more serious problem. I don't see how the hard drive could be knackered as the system should show you a list of bootable devices. Your optical drive could have failed, or you could even have a dodgy install DVD.

At this stage, Apple are your best bet.
 
Problem is...nothing happens when holding alt... tapping alt.. or doing a random combo of taps between the two alt/option keys. Stays white then cursor appears and then freezes.

I've got a external USB Optical drive that I could plug in and give a whirl... it may get around this issue of the disk possiblity not being identified.
 
Progress! Sort of..

I plugged in my USB external optical drive and inserted OS X Install disk 1 and upon the chime held down C... I was greeted by a icon of a folder with a question mark in it..that flashed numerous times then disapeared. I assume this means there is nothing to boot to or the disk is not being recognised as a boot location?

Before this when I plugged in the USB external optical drive it did not work, I then removed my 2gb stick of RAM to leave the stock 1gb it came with within and to see maybe if it did anything... and it did.... this also shows that the optical drive within the mac seems to not not anaylse the disk... however even with the external usb optical drive it seems to not analyse the disk either..

any sugesstions?
 
Disconnect EVERYTHING other than the monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Now insert the OS X boot disc (make sure it's not the apps disc!) and hold c after the chime.

If nothing works you could try booting from a Windows disc.
 
Tried what you said. Still no luck. :(

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I rang Apple UK Tech support to confirm my suspicions that my Applecare is now void/out and apparantly it's out by 'quite a while'. The lovely irish lady then offered to sell me a one off-incident package thing for £35 off so which is no use since I've followed all the Apple Support guides and command solutions with no sucess and I cant see the point in spending that much on over the phone support of which I'll be told to do things I've already researched upon.

I then phoned my local retailer and their costs for asessment, repair and service would probably end up with me having to pay about £80 at the minimum, this is for the assessment. I'd then probably told i'd either need a new hard disk, set of installation disks, or a replacement optical drive.. (Some of my assumption theories!)...And at wose case... it would cost me about £150-200 to get the HDD replaced including all charges...Just one of the possiblities... but it might not even be the hard disk... but I just don't know.

I'm gonna be spending upwards of about £1,300 soon on a brand spanking New PC setup with all the bells and whistles and I need to consider whether it's best to send it off to be repaired and possiblity spending over a hundred and fifty quid or more to get it assessed and repaired... or wait till the future and pay for repairs...I'm not really to fussed about not being able to use my mac again... I've learned one thing from this little experience.

Dont screw up a Mac. :)
 
Try this:

1. Turn the machine off. Take the power cable out from the back of the mac. Hold the on button, on your mac, and count to 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, take your finger off the button.

2. Plug the cable back into the machine. Hold down ; Alt+CMD+P+R and turn the machine on still pressing down on these keys. Do not let go until after the grey apple logo appears.

3. Put the apple cd back in the machine and see if you can boot from it. Maybe holding C or the apple option (alt) button on stand up.
 
Tried your method xrs. All it seems to to do however it contneously reboot with the chime every time then turn off, and repeat. I decided to stop holding the Alt, CMD, P, F Command down after the first 5 restarts out of fear of damaging this already screwed mac. However it appears now that the chime is noticably louder compared to before. Appears the only thing holding the command did.

.......

woe is me. Anymore suggestions before I finally give up? And just wait to be able to afford my Peecee?
 
The Optical Drive seems to work.
The Hard Drive isn't knacked, just not able to to boot to because of the Formatting incident
The Apple Keyboard works. The Mouse (is a logitech plain optical mouse) and doesnt seem to be causing the problem.
Removed all non-stock RAM. (However not tried swapping the stock 1 gig stick over to the second RAM slot)
Tried both Tiger install disks, the Leopard disk, Windows Prof and Vista disks, to try and get on. It appears that when the Leopard/Windows disks are inserted it comes up with the flashing folder question mark icon and when I insert the Tiger install disks no icon appears when I hold down 'C', which may indicate it's the install disks that are knacked.
I've tried inserting a external optical drive not solving the issue.
I have removed all USB connected hardware and left only the keyboard connected.
I have tried (as far as I'm aware) every possible command that will either get me onto the boot disks option screen or leading me towards it.


The only thing I havent tried is a fresh set of install disks. Think it's worth the investment..?. May end up saving me £££ to get this thing repaired. It's perculier though, because I reformatted the entire system a couple of weeks ago and the disks worked fine then..... and seem to not work now.
 
DSC02368.jpg
http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt95/Sharpsilver/DSC02368.jpg
 
To choose your boot device it should be the holding down the CMD key during the boot cycle - as everybody has said above. It can take a while to pick up the DVD however. My Mini for example can take a good couple of minutes from a cold boot to 'find' the DVD - proper frustrating and I only found out by complete fluke when getting the rage with it.

You could always try connecting the hard disk to another machine to check it's still functional.

If you formatted/partitioned the drive with the Windows disk it will have the wrong type of partition table - it won't show up on the install routine. You'd need to run Disk Utility and re-partition it.

Probably not much help - I feel your pain when something so simple goes wrong it's proper annoying :confused:
 
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