[SOLVED] Apple iMac only boots to utility screen

silversmithy

Distinguished
Nov 13, 2012
458
12
18,785
First off I have very limited knowledge of the Apple iMac and the Apple OS.
So a friend of mine stated he had a Mac computer that would not boot, or just kept rebooting. He had mentioned he had sent it back to have it looked at, (where sent I cannot confirm). Anyway apparently issue not resolved, so he decided to just get another, He has given up, but I thought I would see what I could do.
I picked it up a few days ago, and was very surprised that it is a 27inch iMac model 2834 and it's a very dusty but great looking machine.
I got around to powering it up yesterday and after approximately 2-4 minutes it boots to the MacOS Utilities screen. There are 4 options, Restore, Reinstall, Get help, and Disk Utility.
I do not know which OS this is running, and again this is basically all new to me so I appreciate any advice on possibilities of getting it up and running. Thank you.
 
Last edited:
Solution
First off I have very limited knowledge of the Apple iMac and the Apple OS.
So a friend of mine stated he had a Mac computer that would not boot, or just kept rebooting. He had mentioned he had sent it back to have it looked at, (where sent I cannot confirm). Anyway apparently issue not resolved, so he decided to just get another, He has given up, but I thought I would see what I could do.
I picked it up a few days ago, and was very surprised that it is a 27inch iMac model 2834 and it's a very dusty but great looking machine.
I got around to powering it up yesterday and after approximately 2-4 minutes it boots to the MacOS Utilities screen. There are 4 options, Restore, Reinstall, Get help, and Disk Utility.
I do not know...
First off I have very limited knowledge of the Apple iMac and the Apple OS.
So a friend of mine stated he had a Mac computer that would not boot, or just kept rebooting. He had mentioned he had sent it back to have it looked at, (where sent I cannot confirm). Anyway apparently issue not resolved, so he decided to just get another, He has given up, but I thought I would see what I could do.
I picked it up a few days ago, and was very surprised that it is a 27inch iMac model 2834 and it's a very dusty but great looking machine.
I got around to powering it up yesterday and after approximately 2-4 minutes it boots to the MacOS Utilities screen. There are 4 options, Restore, Reinstall, Get help, and Disk Utility.
I do not know which OS this is running, and again this is basically all new to me so I appreciate any advice on possibilities of getting it up and running. Thank you.
The disk became corrupted, it may still have things on it but as far as fixingthis issue. If your not knowledged in mac it will be a pain taking task to correct and regather the boot partion and re format the system without losing data the best way to fix is restore to default.
 
Solution

silversmithy

Distinguished
Nov 13, 2012
458
12
18,785
The disk became corrupted, it may still have things on it but as far as fixingthis issue. If your not knowledged in mac it will be a pain taking task to correct and regather the boot partion and re format the system without losing data the best way to fix is restore to default.
Got it. So I clicked on disk utility, and then on the first aid tab and as you stated it shows corruption on both HDD, Mac OS, and Hybrid. I tried to reboot into recovery, but honestly not sure if that it worked as it seems to have booted directly to utility screen again. Anyway I again clicked on first aid and briefly glanced at the details. I happened to notice a brief line regarding journaling. I went to the top and enabled journaling . I re-ran first aid on both drives and now they are showing without any errors.
My friend states that there are no important files or documents needed off of the HDD's and as it shows only approximately 6.0+ gb of space used I am guessing there is little of anything on the drives.
Will go ahead and choose reinstall option, (High Sierra), and see how it goes. Thank you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: white.a.drew