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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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 Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 7:52 am Post subject: My Mini won't boot |
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Lately I've been having a problem, 5 or 6 time in last couple of months, when I've left my Mini unattended for a few hours. When I come back to use it the mouse will not respond. It is an Apple Magic Mouse and the batteries have been replaced. I usually end up powering off the Mini and then booting it back up. This has been working with no problems until yesterday. Now when I boot I get the Apple logo and then the spinning circle. This lasts for about 15 seconds and then it stops spinning and the Mini just sits there in this state. I'm afraid that the disk is toast, just looking for thoughts.
Anyone have any thought on the Magic Mouse?
By the way, the disk is a Seagate 500G XT. I've had it for about a year and I've never had any of the problems I've noticed being discussed on this board.
Thanks, Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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philiparcario
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Joined: 19 Jun 2006
Posts: 4567
Location: Howell NJ USA
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Bandit Bill
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Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 5793
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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To me it sounds like you are having issues with the mini/hard drive not the mouse.
Working in Apple retail, having sold hundreds and hundreds of Apple Magic mice. I personally think they are good mice. It's the first Apple mouse that I have liked. They don't make for a very good laptop mice though. They are not that durable if you drop them. The battery door will come flying off.
You can get Logitech bluetooth mice (no USB dongle). I own one and like it a lot.
Back to your issue. Look at the mini as the issue. I'd have a technician look at it if you want the issue resolved quickly. You are not going to know what the issue is until some troubleshooting takes place.
Are you looking for troubleshooting tips? |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Philip
With the exception of the recent locking problem, the Magic mouse had been working flawlessly.
I do not have a recent clone but I do have Time Machine running all of the time, I've recovered from Time Machine in the past, all it requires is patience. I do agree that it looks like it may be a drive issue.
Thanks for the input.
[Edit] By the way, I do have the keyboard you mentioned, I like the fact that it has the extra keys and only wish that Apple would have also made a Bluetooth like it instead of the one they do sell. I feel somewhat shortchanged about that.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Bandit Bill wrote: | To me it sounds like you are having issues with the mini/hard drive not the mouse.
Working in Apple retail, having sold hundreds and hundreds of Apple Magic mice. I personally think they are good mice. It's the first Apple mouse that I have liked. They don't make for a very good laptop mice though. They are not that durable if you drop them. The battery door will come flying off.
You can get Logitech bluetooth mice (no USB dongle). I own one and like it a lot.
Back to your issue. Look at the mini as the issue. I'd have a technician look at it if you want the issue resolved quickly. You are not going to know what the issue is until some troubleshooting takes place.
Are you looking for troubleshooting tips? |
BB
Thanks for the input. I agree, it does appear to be a hard disk problem. I do have a Lion dvd around here, I'm just going to boot up with that and see if I can see anything with Disk Utility, any suggestions would be appreciated.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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billb
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Joined: 18 Jan 2009
Posts: 1300
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:10 am Post subject: Bad Hybrid HD |
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That Seagate Hybrid Hard Drive isn't known
as being very reliable. When you get the Gray
Screen with a spinning wheel your mini is looking
for a Hard Drive with your OS on it to boot from.
The fact that it doesn't boot is a strong indicator
that the Boot Drive is bad. If its under warranty
Apple should replace the Hard Drive with an OS
on it. You can then restore from your Time Machine
drive when you first boot your new drive.
Wait a minute, you had to have installed that
Segate Hybrid drive. So, nothing is probably
under warranty. I wouldn't go to Apple. I
would install a new Hard Drive then begin to
install Lion then use the Lion Installer to restore
from your Time Machine back up.
_________________
2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:45 am Post subject: Re: Bad Hybrid HD |
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| billb wrote: | That Seagate Hybrid Hard Drive isn't known
as being very reliable. When you get the Gray
Screen with a spinning wheel your mini is looking
for a Hard Drive with your OS on it to boot from.
The fact that it doesn't boot is a strong indicator
that the Boot Drive is bad. If its under warranty
Apple should replace the Hard Drive with an OS
on it. You can then restore from your Time Machine
drive when you first boot your new drive.
Wait a minute, you had to have installed that
Segate Hybrid drive. So, nothing is probably
under warranty. I wouldn't go to Apple. I
would install a new Hard Drive then begin to
install Lion then use the Lion Installer to restore
from your Time Machine back up. |
Bill
You have stated pretty much what I figured I would have to do. I believe the drive is under warranty so I'm going to check into an RMA with Seagate. Thanks for the input.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:52 am Post subject: Re: Bad Hybrid HD |
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Booted from a Lion dvd and loaded Disk Utility. I then ran all of the tests and repairs on the boot drive and everything checked out OK. Unfortunately, when I tried to boot from the disk drive the same problem was experianced. Well, I have a 320gig laying around so I guess I'll install Lion on that and then restor the rest from Time Machine. I'll then see if I can read the disk a recove anything that wasn't backed up. Then I'll RMA the drive.
Thanks to all for everything.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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philiparcario
Veteran Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2006
Posts: 4567
Location: Howell NJ USA
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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| JimT wrote: |
Philip
With the exception of the recent locking problem, the Magic mouse had been working flawlessly.
I do not have a recent clone but I do have Time Machine running all of the time, I've recovered from Time Machine in the past, all it requires is patience. I do agree that it looks like it may be a drive issue.
Thanks for the input.
[Edit] By the way, I do have the keyboard you mentioned, I like the fact that it has the extra keys and only wish that Apple would have also made a Bluetooth like it instead of the one they do sell. I feel somewhat shortchanged about that.
Jim |
yeah I had a lot of magic mice. they eat batteries and they break in about a year. the wireless keyboards have been a lot better then the magic mice have.. the logitech use 1 battery not 2 and the batteries last a lot longer. the logitech don't break can use them for years. I would live with the magic mice eating the batteries but all of the ones I have owned ( 3 or 4) die off. As for your other problem the hdd if you look at my rants against seagate 500gb 7200 rpm hdds from 2008-2009 you will feel i am not a fan of them.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd
promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I swapped out the hard disks, loaded Lion and then restored from Time Machine. Everything is back to normal.
I took the Seagsate and put it in an external USB case. I can acces the drive and I see everything on it. I guess the drive is not toast, just something that is needed to boot. I'm going to play around with it and see if I can figure it out before I attempt to get an RMA for it. I'll keep you informed.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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Fox
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Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 2630
Location: Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:28 am Post subject: |
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This could be the result of a bad sector; I had that happen to my XT. Since one can reformat and block out bad sectors, I asked a few tech friends advice on what to do. They suggested RMA'ing the drive; once you get one bad sector, others follow. The replacement drive has been trouble-free.
If I recall correctly, Seagate's has a testing utility on their website.
_________________
Mini 1: 2.3 ghz Core i5; 8 gb RAM, Corsair 240gb SSD, 500 gb Seagate XT
Mini 2: 2.26 ghz Core 2 duo, 8 gb RAM, 500 gb Seagate
Also a Cube, 13" MacBook Air, 20" 2.66 ghz iMac & 11.6" Acer 1810TZ running Ubuntu, Mint & openSuse |
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JimT
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2008
Posts: 27
Location: Winter Springs, FL
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| Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:26 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: | This could be the result of a bad sector; I had that happen to my XT. Since one can reformat and block out bad sectors, I asked a few tech friends advice on what to do. They suggested RMA'ing the drive; once you get one bad sector, others follow. The replacement drive has been trouble-free.
If I recall correctly, Seagate's has a testing utility on their website. |
After putting the drive in an external case I again went into Disk Utility. I ran Verify and then Repair. There was some message about the fixing something in the boot area. I can now boot up from the drive externally. I,m still not sure if I should replace it or just use it. For now I'm just going to use it. I now have a good and recent bootable backup image. Thanks to Phil for reminding me I should do that. Time Machine is good for backing up all of my data but there's nothing like an easily accessible bootable external drive.
Jim
_________________
1 - Late 2009 Mini 2.53ghz C2D with 8GB of AllComponents DDR3 memory, 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 and 500GB Seagate XT
2 - MB Pro 2.26ghz C2D with 4GB of Crucial DDR3 memory and WD 320GB 7200rpm
3 - iPhone 4S 16GB
4 - iPad 3 64GB - Wi-Fi + Cellular |
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philiparcario
Veteran Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2006
Posts: 4567
Location: Howell NJ USA
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| Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:40 am Post subject: |
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yeah a fresh clone for boot backup is a must. I am glad it helped.
_________________
2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd
promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station |
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Bandit Bill
Veteran Member
Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 5793
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:28 am Post subject: |
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| JimT wrote: | | Fox wrote: | This could be the result of a bad sector; I had that happen to my XT. Since one can reformat and block out bad sectors, I asked a few tech friends advice on what to do. They suggested RMA'ing the drive; once you get one bad sector, others follow. The replacement drive has been trouble-free.
If I recall correctly, Seagate's has a testing utility on their website. |
After putting the drive in an external case I again went into Disk Utility. I ran Verify and then Repair. There was some message about the fixing something in the boot area. I can now boot up from the drive externally. I,m still not sure if I should replace it or just use it. For now I'm just going to use it. I now have a good and recent bootable backup image. Thanks to Phil for reminding me I should do that. Time Machine is good for backing up all of my data but there's nothing like an easily accessible bootable external drive.
Jim |
The drive may have just needed repairs via software.
I'd keep booting and running from the external for a while until you are 100% comfortable with it. If you add data to the external drive during use (ie. bookmarks, emails, docs etc.) you can always clone the entire contents of the external, onto the internal drive, then switch back over to booting from the internal and then carry on using the external as a backup once again. |
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macmanmacman
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Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Posts: 1681
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| Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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i hate seagate i went threw 30 of them.
Let me explain what happened to mine i found out from a online source that certain sea gates need a firmware update for use on macintosh or they corrupt i went to go download the firmware update and found a problem you have to have a windows machine to upgrade the firmware then transfer the hard drive back into the mac and start again.
the only issue with this unless you have a laptop to sata adapter you can't run windows and update the hard drive firmware.
so on seagate i gave up i went western digital |
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