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mac mini stops at prohibited screen at boot.


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Hi, i just bought a Mac Mini late 2006. i was told it had the core2duo up grade and 3 GB ram.  it ran fine when i got it.

I am new to the Mac OS , i bought this to learn and get familiar with it.

now to my problem. i let it do a software update and after that it boots to the grey prohibited screen. i didnt get a mac keyboard with it so i am using a HP i had lying around. holding "command R" at boot does nothing. it stays on the grey screen. if i hold "option"/Alt key at boot i get to installer menu. i have tried several times to reinstall from the partition labled "Mac OS X base system" it will go through the install process installing to the partition "Mac OS" however it still boots to the prohibited screen.

i downloaded Snow Leopard set it up on a USB stick and tried to install but it still gives prohibited screen after reboot.

so far i am learning what not to do. im sure there is something obvious to a seasoned user that i am missing. all help appreciated .

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been on the road. When you get the installer one of the pull down menu is Disk Utility run First Aid on the name of the drive ex: Macintosh HD or whatever the drive is named NOT the restore boot may say OSBoot.

Since this is an old Mac its possible the drive may be failing. Also check iFixit and you tube  on taking it apart; you'll need a flexible metal  putty knife the flexible the better. The link should give you some tips.

Remember drives are mechanical and if its 2006 its old.

Edited by LouCioccio
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i think the drive has been replaced as its a 250GB Hitachi and i dont think they  come with that size originally? trouble is the mac booted and worked fine for a day or two. then it said there was a software update available. so i let it do the update and then no more booting. 

i had run the verify and repair disk permissions as well as repair disk.

i have used the disk utility to erase the partition and reinstalled from the base system partition. several times. i have tried to reinstall Lion from a USB stick using transmac on my windows PC .

i have tried to do this 

trouble with this is it seems to assume you have a working version of OS X already running.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

have tried to boot from a USB. the mac mini sees the USB disk and will install from it but at boot goes back to the grey screen.

there is a imac at work. i will try to get the files edited on that and try again.  

just frustrates me that a software update broke it. it wasnt even an OS update as far as i saw... should never have let it do the update...

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