Startup hangs

Having just got my iMac home,it worked fine in store, it now comes up with Apple logo and revolving circle that just hangs. I've tried all options in the problem solving part of the book. Any ideas?
Phil

Hey pc

Is this a new or second-hand Mac? To make it easier for people to answer your question, please include the type of Mac (e.g. "MacBook Pro mid 2009" or "new Mac Mini"). If you're not sure, and can't look in the Apple menu under "About This Mac", then look on your receipt etc. or in the handy app Mactracker on a portable Apple device, or check Low End Mac website on another machine.

Asking for help without telling us this info is like asking someone over the phone for help with your car, without telling them what model it was, and what engine it used.

So, when asking for help about an Apple device, please tell us:

* model (e.g. iPhone3G, MacBook Pro mid 2009, brand-new Mac Mini)
* system (e.g. iOS 4.1, OSX 10.5.2)
* memory (e.g. 4GB RAM)

Without knowing this info, I'd suggest you take your Mac back to the shop if it's brand-new or under warranty. It shouldn't stop working when you get it home.

If you don't have that option, then you can restart the Mac from the system disk (which you should have). For all recent Macs, insert the disk, then hold down the Control and Command buttons while pressing the power button. (This is an forced restart.) Immediately press the C key and hold it down until the Mac is obviously starting up from the disk. (Holding down the C key during restart tells the Mac to start from the inserted CD or DVD, not from the hard disk.)

If this doesn't work, you have one sick Mac. Take it into the shop.

If it does work, you should start up into an screen which asks you to choose your language. Follow the prompts until you get to the stage where there's a menubar at the top of the screen. Look inside the menus.

(if your system has been set to use a trackpad or Magic Mouse, those tapping movements won't work here. You have to click physically: press down until the surface gives a bit.)

At this point you can decide to try and fix your disk, or reinstall from scratch. Unless you have important data on your Mac, scrubbing the disk (Disk Utility > Erase disk) and reinstalling from scratch might be a better idea. However, you can try fixing your disk (Disk Utility > Repair disk, then Disk Utility > Repair permissions) and restarting. See if that helps.

If not, you can scrub and reinstall. If you're using this machine for the first time, you're not losing anything, and you get rid of any problems on the disk. If you can't fix the disk and restart, and have important, unbacked-up data on it, you can ask tech support to recover your data, or look at the programs which can try to do that.

In any case, don't panic. Use the information and resources you have available. Your warranty includes phone support (for a new Mac). It's pretty rare for a new Mac to stop working like this, but the shop staff will be able to help you.

If the machine still won't work, and it's not under warranty, you have to decide if it's worth fixing. You'll find lots of troubleshooting info online: I've only given a very brief summary.

Good luck.

If this is brand new, ring AppleCare! you have free Apple support for 3mths on Software and 12 mths on hardware.