HELP!! Urgent problem. Mac OSX 10.6 Server will not boot! Hangs on startup

[CM786]

Hi guys,

 

Got an urgent problem. A Mac Mini OSX 10.6 Server at a primary school of mine hangs on startup at the apple screen with what I like to call "The Pinwheel of Death" ... it never actually gets to so much as the login screen, it hangs at the main apple screen

 

Obviously this is a major issue so any advice on how to fix it without loosing data? The system was restarted after Apple Updates. Is their a way to restore it back like with Windows System Restore or similar.

 

I am relativity inexperienced with Macs so need as much help as I can!

 

Thanks

cm786

[dayzd]

There is a 'Safe Mode', never used it though so can't help with what'll work/not work...!

Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

[HodgeHi]

Disconnect any devices connected to the machine and try to boot. If this still fails proceed with the safe mode. If this fails pop in the server dvd and then boot from the disc (hold down the c key) and check the HDD using the disk util from the utilities menu.

[CM786]

Thanks for the replies.

 

We managed to boot into terminal. I used fsck to do a basic diagnosis of the disk (th /sbin/fsck -fy) and this said that certain files were missing - off the top of my head DSRunningSP3 or similar.

 

I also put in an OS X installation disc and booted off it and used the Disk Utility to repair the disk which made no difference - it still does not boot. Now the problem we have is that the children's work is on the server on a RAID 1 setup (mirrored) so we need to get the work off and try to get the server up and running urgently. The school have no copy of Mac OS X 10.6 Server CD which the Mac Mini will have come with and I don't have a copy either!

 

Whats the easiest way to get it working again? Can I use a OSX Server disc if I can get hold of one to do some kind of repair installation?

 

Thanks

[pinemarten]

use target disk mode to connect server to another mac and pull off files that way?

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode

[nicklec]

"RAID is not a backup" sounds like the moral of the story!

[kmount]

"RAID is not a backup" sounds like the moral of the story!

 

That's not a very helpful message for someone who is clearly in a spot of bother.

 

Nobody said RAID was a back up, he has asked for info on how to get the data from it, not about how to back it up.

 

To the OP: I don't have any mac experience I'm afraid but pinemarten has made a good suggestion, hopefully you'll get it sorted out.

[tomdawson]

We had a very similar situation with our Mac Mini server - turned out to be the permissions of the drive?!

 

Get into single user mode (Cmd + S on startup), mount your boot drive, chmod to 775, restart the device, job done. No data lost, just restarted as normal.

 

Very weird. Might be of use?

[free870]

I just keep time machine backuping up to a NAS so I can get the server back and working.

[nicklec]

That's not a very helpful message for someone who is clearly in a spot of bother.

 

Nobody said RAID was a back up, he has asked for info on how to get the data from it, not about how to back it up.

 

To the OP: I don't have any mac experience I'm afraid but pinemarten has made a good suggestion, hopefully you'll get it sorted out.

 

Pretty sure this is a case of relying on RAID... (mentions losing data)

 

I just keep time machine backuping up to a NAS so I can get the server back and working.

 

Are you doing that via a 'bodge'? I've not managed todo a distaster recovery from a non Apple source... (although the file retrieval thing still works) - I now use Carbon Copy Cloner.

[CM786]

Thanks for all the help.

 

Just to update everyone Using a Firewire cable and Target Disc mode the data was copied off and then the OS had to be rebuilt from scratch which was time consuming but at least they are back up and running now.