iMac 2012 Won't boot after DP9 Installation

[claude]

Hi,

maybe a coincidence but after installing DP9, i went straight to exploring the new features. Worked fine.

At one point i did a reboot because for some reason DP had become a little flaky. And since i hadn't rebooted clean after the DP9 install i thought i'd start fresh...

My iMac won't restart, i get the Apple Logo then a "empty" symbol and a folder with a question mark.

I did a Disk Warrior repair on the boot drive and DW4 says that the drive is in good shape...But booting is impossible.

Now i started the iMac in Target mode and i'm doing a Carbon Copy Cloner pass...

To be continued...

Anyone had any similar issue?

Claude

iMac 2012
OSX Yosemite(latest V)

[Aramis]

I do own an 2012 iMac but I am waiting for an external disk repair (ssd) to try DP 9 .
So, I am very curious about your problem ?

[claude]

Hi Aramis,

well it's a mystery... There was nothing else to do but reinstall Yosemite. I didn't have to erase everything though, so it was a minor hassle...

So far so good.

Judging from the very low response to my post i think my case is far from being generalized.

Best,

Claude

[mikehalloran]

Disk Warrior is crap. Does nothing and can't fix anything. Didn't cause your problem either, just wasted your time. Onyx is just as bad. TechTool Pro has its uses but won't help either. You did something that hosed the OS. It's fixable but might take some time.

You don't give any information on what else you have done so that when you installed DP, your system blew up. No matter, let's see if we can get you up and running.

Hopefully, you did not create your boot drive by cloning from another drive. If so, the first three of the following suggestions might not work.

These are listed in order of how much time it takes:

Try a Safe Boot by holding the Shift key on start. I don't expect this to work but it might. If so, shut down and reboot.

Run Apple's Disk Utility from another drive. Run it on the entire drive, not the partition. You may have to run it many times since it fixes one problem at a time.

Reinstall the OS. The easiest way is to Option-Boot. Hold the Option key while starting. The hidden repair partition will appear. Select that. Reinstall the latest version of Yosemite on your iMac -- you will be downloading it from the App Store. It takes an hour on my Mac, longer if you have slow internet. If you get an install error (rare) you can access Disk Utility from the repair partition. This will work unless you created the boot drive from a clone. Cloning a drive does not create a repair partition.

If you don't have a repair partition, reinstall the OS after booting from another drive. Again, this will work.

Restore your drive from a Time Machine backup or a clone. If you restore from a clone, reinstall the OS from the App Store when you are done. This will install a repair partition. This will take many hours.

[claude]

Hey Mike!

Thanks for the detailed reply.

As i mentioned in my last post, i did reinstall Yosemite. Did it by being booted from an external drive.

I tried Command-R while booting (Restore) Weird thing is the only option i had was to re-install Mountain Lion?!? Probably the OS that came with my machine originally...

When i did the option key boot routine, the hidden partition did not appear.

I'm with you regarding Disk Warrior/Disk Utility/Techtool Pro etc... I ran these tests many times from all different booting scenarios that where possible and the results showed that my faulty drive was in perfect health?!?

Thanks again Mike! I see you have a lot of experience with all this, hope it's because you are tech savvy and not because you're very unlucky with your drives ; )

Best,

Claude

PS Oh and BTW, i just installed DP9 noodled a little bit with the mute MIDI function(finally!!!) and then hit restart...And you know the rest of the story.

[mikehalloran]

I have a small side business repairing and maintaining Macs.

In addition, I do a lot of testing for others and myself. I have seen that circle with the line many times, sometimes on purpose.

Since you can boot from another drive, just download a complete install from the App Store. Download only, then install on the problem drive. This will also update your repair partition.

[Aramis]

Hey Mike!

Thanks for the detailed reply.

As i mentioned in my last post, i did reinstall Yosemite. Did it by being booted from an external drive.

I tried Command-R while booting (Restore) Weird thing is the only option i had was to re-install Mountain Lion?!? Probably the OS that came with my machine originally...

When i did the option key boot routine, the hidden partition did not appear.

I'm with you regarding Disk Warrior/Disk Utility/Techtool Pro etc... I ran these tests many times from all different booting scenarios that where possible and the results showed that my faulty drive was in perfect health?!?

Thanks again Mike! I see you have a lot of experience with all this, hope it's because you are tech savvy and not because you're very unlucky with your drives ; )

Best,

Claude

PS Oh and BTW, i just installed DP9 noodled a little bit with the mute MIDI function(finally!!!) and then hit restart...And you know the rest of the story.

Just to be certain !!!!! Was the Apple disk utility reporting your drive good ?
Reading you, I would expect the Apple Utility reporting the boot part being wrong and everything else good ?

[claude]

@Aramis

Disk Utility said that everything was perfect. It sure wasn't...

@Mike

Having reinstalled Yosemite(Not a clean install because that would mean dozens of Authorizations to be redone!) everything works fine ATM. But, if i press option while booting i don't see a recovery partition. Why would that be? Is there a simple way of adding a Recovery Partition without having to do a Clean Install?

Thanks again!

Claude

[FMiguelez]

You can create one with an app like CCC.

When cloning a bootable drive, the app will notify you if there's no repair partition, and offer to create one for you.

[mikehalloran]

Disk Utility was correct. I'm certain by your symptoms that there is nothing wrong with the drive. If it says that the boot blocks are ok, they are.

You hosed the OS, not the drive. Disk Utility can sometimes fix minor OS issues such as interleaved files and directory issues but can't fix major ones such as corrupt or missing .kxt files (almost certainly your problem).

The fix is to reinstall a fresh copy of the OS. This will remove .kxt files that don't belong and reinstall correct ones. Removing unsigned and corrupt .kxt is new with Yosemite.

[mikehalloran]

You can create one with an app like CCC.

When cloning a bootable drive, the app will notify you if there's no repair partition, and offer to create one for you.

I have never seen that with CCC, Super Duper! or TTP (I have all three). It's certainly a good idea, though and if CCC is doing it, that's a good thing. That still doesn't make cloning a boot drive a good idea for any reason other than archive.

One should reinstall the OS to create the partition and fix certain issues caused by cloning a boot drive.

[Aramis]

You can create one with an app like CCC.

When cloning a bootable drive, the app will notify you if there's no repair partition, and offer to create one for you.

I have never seen that with CCC, Super Duper! or TTP (I have all three). It's certainly a good idea, though and if CCC is doing it, that's a good thing. That still doesn't make cloning a boot drive a good idea for any reason other than archive.

One should reinstall the OS to create the partition and fix certain issues caused by cloning a boot drive.

Using CCC, I always do a clone once per month on a second drive on my ( Music Computer )
This way, if something goes wrong on my regular disk , I am ready to boot on a spare music system .
There is so many ways to do this

[mikehalloran]

@Aramis

Disk Utility said that everything was perfect. It sure wasn't...

@Mike

Having reinstalled Yosemite(Not a clean install because that would mean dozens of Authorizations to be redone!) everything works fine ATM. But, if i press option while booting i don't see a recovery partition. Why would that be? Is there a simple way of adding a Recovery Partition without having to do a Clean Install?

Thanks again!

Claude

huh? No reason to do a clean install. Has nothing to do with the repair partition.

Is this drive the internal disk or is it USB or thunderbolt?

[claude]

@Mike

It's the internal 3TB HD that came with the iMac originally.

Claude

[mikehalloran]

And the other drive that you are using?