What strike the most concern into the hearts of Mac users ? When the electronic computer fails to depart up at all . It ’s hard not to wonder whether you ’ll ever see the table of contents of your strong drive again — specially if you ’ve failed to back up your drive !

For this article , I ’m skipping hardware - related symptoms , such as a complete loss of great power or a display that does n’t light up . rather , I ’ll concenter on the more common situations , where your Macbeginsto set about up unremarkably but horse barn at some point before the desktop seem . Here ’s a set of guideline for reuniting with your data point . Try each step in turn , until one succeeds :

1 . Try PatienceSometimes the Mac will take an outstandingly long time to start up . await a while , and the Mac may compensate itself .

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(A)See review. (B) Part of OS X, in /Applications/Utilities. (C)See review. (D)See review. (E)See review. (F)See review. (G)See review. (H)See review. (I)See review.

2 . RestartOK , you got a cup of java and take the newspaper ’s front Thomas Nelson Page , but your Macstillhasn’t take up . Try starting one more metre . Things often puzzle out better the 2nd time around .

3 . Do a Safe BootRestart and forthwith press the shift key , to initiate a Safe Boot . Hold the fracture key down until a blue screen appears . This triggers a shotgun collection of potential fixes . OS X pass a disk - repair command , deletes potentially buy font cache files , disables file call extensions ( locate in the System folder ) , and preclude item in your Login Items lean ( located in your Accounts preference pane ) from load . ( If you ’re using Panther , the leaning will be called Startup Items . )

If you come after in start your Mac to start up in this minimalist mode , restart immediately ( this time without activating Safe Boot ) . The disk repairs and cache cleaning alone may have fixed the trouble .

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(A)See review. (B) Part of OS X, in /Applications/Utilities. (C)See review. (D)See review. (E)See review. (F)See review. (G)See review. (H)See review. (I)See review.

4 . Investigate Your Login ItemsIf you ’re still in trouble at this point , it ’s going to take a number of investigator oeuvre to estimate out what ’s going on . For example , if the startup unsuccessful person fall out after you ’ve logged in to your account ( and the desktop has appeared ) , the most probable causa is a Login Items conflict .

Go to the Accounts preference pane and press the Login Items tab . Write down the name and location of all the items name there . Then select each one and tap the negative - sign ( - ) button at the bottom of the Startup Items window . Next , exit ( Apple menu : Log Outuser name ) and then back in . Replace the item one by one , logging out and back in each time , until you ’re ineffectual to initiate up . When this happens , the last item you add is the probable culprit . If your Login Items list is long , you may castrate this process by place only items add to your Mac just before the onset of your problem .

5 . renovate the DiskMac still not start up properly ? When you do a Safe Boot , OS X attempts to repair your disk , but it offers no feedback as to what fall out . You do n’t sleep together if it found and fixed problem or if it ran into problems itcouldn’tfix . If the Safe Boot fails to pay back the problem and your Login Items have been ruled out as a drive , it pays to try using Disk Utility ’s First economic aid to fix the disk ( see Seeking First Aid for education ) .

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6 . Disconnect PeripheralsNow essay disconnecting all USB and FireWire devices ( except your Apple - render keyboard and mouse ) . Restart the Mac yet again . If you’re able to come out up , you may have had a difference between OS X and one of the unconnected devices .

You may be able-bodied to reconnect all the devices and habituate them , but if you leave them associate , your Mac may fail to start up the next clock time you try . The only way to cure this problem is by updat - ing the devices ’ driver software system or firmware . ( Firmwareis the set of programming instructions stored on the hardware itself ; it remain unaltered unless it ’s specifically modify by a microcode updater usefulness . ) Check the fellowship WWW site for details .

7 . Reset PRAMRestart the Mac yet again . This sentence immediately press Command - pick - P - R and hold the keys down until the Mac chime a 2nd time . This reset the information in the Mac ’s parameter RAM ( PRAM ) to its default values . The pushchair is a special region of RAM where data point is retained even after you shut down the Mac . The PRAM stores an assortment of systemwide parameters , such as your metre - zone background and loudspeaker system mass . reset the PRAM can clear certain startup job .

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8 . Reinstall atomic number 76 XIf all else has miscarry , it ’s time to break out your OS ten record and do a sweet installing of the operating system itself . Although this is a time - consume intervention , you ’ll likely find it to be the only curative if your symptom is a persist blinking question - mark icon at startup ; this designate that your Mac does n’t believe there ’s a valid variant of OS X installed on your drive .

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Your Mac medicine locker is already stocked with one utilitarian , all - purpose therapeutic — Apple ’s Disk Utility . This built - in creature has of the essence repair feature and is always updated for the latest interpretation of OS X. But what else should you keep around in typeface of emergency ?

For directory problems Disk Utility ca n’t fix , DiskWarrior is my option , although TechTool Pro and Drive Genius offer other helpful feature . ( Intel Mac owner demand to hold off for cosmopolitan versions of all of these public-service corporation . ) For recovering textual matter and images from damaged data file , File Juicer is tops . When you ca n’t even start up from the drive , and if you do n’t have championship , Data Rescue can keep your Roger Bacon . XRay and FileXaminer are great choices for delete Unix permissions without taking a trip to Terminal . The all - around utility TinkerTool contains my favorite intermixture of Finder tweaks , functioning enhancements , and upkeep feature . OnyX and Tiger Cache Cleaner do some of the same things , but each also offer unparalleled characteristic .

Mac Medicine Cabinet

( A)See critical review . ( B ) Part of OS X , in /Applications / Utilities . ( C)See recapitulation . ( D)See review . ( E)See review . ( F)See revue . ( G)See critical review . ( H)See review . ( I)See review .

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