frozen mac

[jethros mum]

my mac froze and i turned it off and turned it back on but i have a blank screen any suggestions please ?

 

[honestone]

Need to know 1) what specific Mac model you are using (be sure to include the complete model designation, along with the year), and 2) the OS you are using (be specific about this; if it's the latest version of Mavericks, you would say OS 10.9.5). With that information, we can probably help you.

 

[jethros mum]

Need to know 1) what specific Mac model you are using (be sure to include the complete model designation, along with the year), and 2) the OS you are using (be specific about this; if it's the latest version of Mavericks, you would say OS 10.9.5). With that information, we can probably help you.

not sure osx 10.5 i think ive had it about 5 years

 

[jethros mum]

not sure osx 10.5 i think ive had it about 5 years

 

[honestone]

not sure osx 10.5 i think ive had it about 5 years

Unfortunately, without more information, it is going to be difficult to help you.

Are you generating these responses from another Mac that you own? If you are, then you could (possibly; again the lack of detailed information makes it difficult) connect the problematic Mac via a Firewire 800 cable to the "good" mac (would be good to know what model that is, along with the OS you are running on that machine), boot the problematic Mac in Target Disk Mode, and then use some tools on the "good" Mac to try and repair the bad one.

Also, when and if you get the "bad" Mac to boot up, go to the Apple menu, select "About This Mac", and you should be able to provide the information I asked for. One other issue: you sure are running an "old" OS, OS 10.5 (Leopard).

 

[Kaveman]

you will need to boot for either the DVDs that came with the Mac, or if it's newer hold down the Option Key while it boots to go to the Recovery Partition.

then do an Install in Place.

 

[jethros mum]

ive had it about 5 years its osx 10.9.5 i think

 

[Kaveman]

hold down the Option Key while it boots to go to the Recovery Partition.

this should work then???

 

[jethros mum]

this should work then???

thank you

 

[honestone]

Since you are using the latest version of Mavericks, 10.9.5, there's an excellent chance that Kaveman's suggestion will work. Here are more details as to how you proceed after you boot into the Recovery Partition:

http://www.imore.com/how-use-mac-recovery-system-restore-mavericks

Once you get it back up and running, you should really think about a backup of your system to an external drive. There could come a time where you try and reboot to the Recovery Partition, but that does not work, due to possible problems with the internal disk itself. Time Machine is OK, but an easily bootable backup like the one created with SuperDuper! could be better. If you don't use you machine "that much", and especially if you don't use it for you job, even though a SuperDuper! backup is not from the "latest" state of your Mac, at least you can get back up quickly. I myself, every Saturday, always use SuperDuper! to back up both of my machines, and I do two such backups for each machine to two separate external hard drives.

 

[honestone]

One thing I neglected to mention about SuperDuper! backups. If you use the software in "free" mode, the backup it creates does not contain the Recovery HD partition. So, with a restore, you won't have that. But, that can be solved by downloading and installing the excellent Recovery Partition Creator (newest version 3.8). Here is the link to get it:

http://musings.silvertooth.us/2014/07/recovery-partition-creator-3-8/

Note that this product is not, at this time, compatible with Yosemite. But, it will most likely be updated soon.

Of course, if you paid for SuperDuper!, or use Carbon Copy Cloner (not available for free), the Recovery HD partition will be on the backup.