boot from install disk locks up

[gax]

Running 10.6.8 on an 2009 Intel Duo core iMac. Was having some re-booting issues so re-set SMC, which got her going again. Ran Disk Utility and it says the HD "was found corrupt" and needs repair, and to re-boot from the install disk, so I shoved in the install disc and rebooted, holding "C". Nothing happened. Just got a blank white screen. Tried rebooting again holding "Option" and could see the Install disk, but when I clicked on it, the mouse cursor froze and the machine became unresponsive.

Would very much like to repair the disk. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[oldscribe]

Hi and welcome,

I know this sounds silly, but did you put the correct disk in first?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Also, there were some models in that era that wouldn't boot from a retail Snow Leopard disc, or needed a specific revision/version - i.e. 10.6.3, or they required the original grey Apple installer disc that came with them.

C

 

[gax]

I am using the original grey install disk, v 10.4.10. I had installed upgrades since then to 10.6.8.

 

[gax]

If I cannot boot from this particular install disk, as Cory suggests might be the case, is their an alternate way to run disk repair?

 

[honestone]

Are you posting this from another Mac? If you are, and if it has a Firewire 800 port, you could boot the iMac into Target Disk Mode. Here's how you do that:

1. Connect the two Macs via a Firewire 800 cable.

2. Boot up the "good" Mac.

3. While holding down the T key on the iMac's keyboard, start up the iMac.

4. If all is well, you should see a disk image of your iMac's disk on the desktop of the good Mac. You can then run Disk Utility on the good Mac to do any disk repairs.

 

[gax]

Thanks honestone, but I am posting from the iMac itself. It is working, but needs disk repair. I do not at present have access to another Mac.

Does anyone know of another way to run disk repair? It's a bit annoying that the iMac itself tells me to run it from the install disk and then can't do it.

 

[honestone]

What you need is for some way to boot from either an external machine (with your machine being in Target Disk Mode), or if you had the more robust disk repair program Tech Tool Pro, you could do the repair right on your machine. Tech Tool Pro installs a small eDrive on your hard drive, and you can boot from it. That eDrive is isolated enough to do the repairs. Once that happens, you can then use Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive.

It might be worth the investment to get Tech Tool Pro, and use it on a regular basis for performing maintenance on your hard drive. Also, you should be doing backups to an external device, so that you can boot from it. While Time Machine is fine, I much prefer SuperDuper!, as it creates a bootable backup that is easy to boot from (on an external device).