Won't boot, won't restore. Plz help!

[Machmikey]

I have a the iMac 27" 2010 with whatever the last update was. After that update,
I get white screen with loading bar then
Black screen with mouse icon parked in the upper left corner only then
Mouse disappears. Hard drive sound is it's working.

Already tried to start in restore mode planning to use timemachine on airport, but it won't populate, so no luck.
Tried safe mode. Aftrrer white screen it goes back to the black screen and hangs, so no luck either.
Tried to reset SMC & PRAM. no change.

Any help? I'm desperate.

 

[honestone]

Two possibilities: either your internal hard drive has gone bad, or there is directory damage. For the second one, there are tools you can use to try and fix it. But, it will not be a simple "turn the key" operation. It will take time and effort.

What Mac OS did you upgrade to? Also, if you have just been upgrading "in place" through a number of OS upgrades, and especially if you have done little, if any, disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, that is not a good scenario.

How are posting here, ie, what device are you using? Do you have access to another Mac with a Firewire 800 port? It seems your machine has such a port, so if the other Mac has such a port, you could boot the iMac in Target Disk Mode, and its internal hard drive (assuming it's not completely hosed) will appear on that other Mac's desktop.

 

[Ormond]

I have a the iMac 27" 2010 with whatever the last update was. After that update,I get white screen with loading bar then
Black screen with mouse icon parked in the upper left corner only then Mouse disappears. Hard drive sound is it's working.

Are you saying that you recently updated your OSX system software to the latest version?

 

[honestone]

No matter which version on the OS MacMikey "upgraded" to, I'm betting the upgrade was done in place. And, if that is how he has been doing for prior OS upgrades, along with little, if any, disk cleanup, maintenance, and repairs, and without upgrading any of his third party software for OS compatibility, that spells disaster.

 

[Machmikey]

Well. I was running El Capitan and with automatic updates set, it updated I assume because it had an error flag because I had firefox open. After I closed everything it updated. Then this problem.

I got 6 good years out of her, so I guess it's time I put her to pasture. Unfortunately though is I had a partition for windows where I could only run my pilot electronic logbook program. My biggest worry is to recover that data.

 

[Machmikey]

As honestone surmises, I suspect the hard drive failed. I'm guessing the update is just coincident with that. Luckily I have backups through time machine but that won't help me recover my partitioned files I don't think.

 

[honestone]

Well. I was running El Capitan and with automatic updates set, it updated I assume because it had an error flag because I had firefox open. After I closed everything it updated. Then this problem.

I got 6 good years out of her, so I guess it's time I put her to pasture. Unfortunately though is I had a partition for windows where I could only run my pilot electronic logbook program. My biggest worry is to recover that data.

Do you know anyone that has a Windows machine, so that you could possibly recover the stuff from the Windows partition?

 

[Machmikey]

I do know some Windows people, but way past mine or anyone I know skills levels. Do you mean from the old hd partition or the recovered from time machine?

 

[Machmikey]

Thinking my old iMac hard drive was toast, I bought a brand new iMac. Recovered it with time machine.
It worked fine for about a week, and now it has the same symptoms. Black screen with just the mouse cursor.
It will load normally in guest login thouh. Please any constructive ideas?