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I have an iMac from last summer (2017) and right now, it won’t get past the loading screen of the Apple logo and progress bar.
It was working fine but it got bogged down and slow, which was why I restarted it.
I was making YouTube videos and apparently I tried to save too much content onto the iMac.
I also don’t want to erase everything and reinstall MacOS High Sierra.
Anyone familiar with this?
I’m looking up different ways to start up with different buttons held down.
OK after two days I worked it out.
I first tried stuff that I found just by searching online.
Then I called 1-800-MY-APPLE.
The guy told me to reinstall MacOS High Sierra and he swore that it would not erase all my saved content.
So I did and yes, I still have all my saved content.
Before getting this iMac last summer I was always a Windows guy, and so my idea of reinstalling an OS was erasing everything.
Not sure if anyone has gone through something similar, please post if you did. But my iMac is good now.
:cool:
Sorry I don't use Apple products but just wanted to comment that just last week I was able to do reinstall of Windows 10 by the way of a Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade and did not lose anything but some settings and my Edge Favorites which could have been my fault as after the last reboot Edge came up with some kinda "Welcome To Edge" stuff but closed it before doing anything with it than reopened it later and I was unable to open and connect to web sites so I reset it and lost everything in the Favorites list.
To add an interesting fact, one would think well I'll just go to the Favorites folder and reload them but after some research I discovered that in late 2015 Microsoft ditched the Favorites folder storage system for Edge in favor of something called Extensible Storage Engine Database (ESEE) and the Favorites list is synced to this database. Wherever that might be?
Haha I don't know anything about that. I'm not a very tech-y person, and I've always been behind the curve with computers.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeDeeNo76
Up till 2016, I was using a modern-antique PC from 1999, and it was an accomplishment that I had it running Win XP (which is my favorite Windows OS), along with wireless internet (from a USB receiver thing). Basically anything I could do with it, seemed like an accomplishment lol, especially anything that was not common in 1999, when the thing was made.
2016 my good friend gave me a relatively modern Win 10 PC that his job was throwing away.
Then late 2017 my family bought me a beautiful iMac.
So maybe it's not news to other people, but it's news to me that an OS can be reinstalled without losing all saved content. I was excited to reach a live human at 1800-MYAPPLE, and my iMac reinstalled macOS High Sierra straight from the internet (i.e. not from any physical medium, as previously I've only reinstalled Windows OS's from a CD or from a USB thumb drive).
So it seemed amazing to me, but maybe not so much to other people who are more familiar with computers and Macs. lol.
Up to last week I was unsure that reinstalling Windows also meant I would need to rebuild the system drive by reinstalling all Apps/programs, software and files. I had a Windows Update install go south on me.
I used Windows eXPerience four years shy of you until the end of 2012 and for me was one of few OSes I for a decade.
Yeah, Windows has had the option to reinstall without losing your files for a while now. I think even all the way back to XP/2000 days.
While it's great you got it working, I'll be blunt and say that Modern Apple devices are just overpriced, poorly engineered junk. They go for style over performance and longevity. So as a result many of their computers end up roasting themselves alive from the inside after a few years. This is because they design them to be as thin and small as possible, put little to no air vents in them, and put the smallest fans possible in them to make them run quiet. To add insult to injury, they make it so the fans many times wont actually kick on until the machine is well past the 90C mark, let alone going full force. So you end up with a computer that may be sleek and sexy, but has very poor airflow and ends up burning up from the inside if you do anything slightly CPU/GPU intensive like Video Editing, Graphics Design, or even gaming. They're also known for using inadequate circuit designs that end up failing easily with typical use.
Basically you can build a computer that has better specs and will last longer for far less. If you don't want to build one you can invest that same money for an iMac or MacBook into something like a Thinkpad that again will have better specs but also be built like a tank to take a beating. If you want the OS, you can always create a Hackintosh since Macs use x86 now, allowing you to install the OS on most Intel/Nvidia based PCs.
If you need more info on this, checkout this guys channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8
He runs a shop where he fixes computers and phones. A lot of what he fixes turns out to be Apple products and he has tons of videos documenting the issues their hardware has.
A "dirty reinstall" of your OS won't erase anything but your configuration settings, and may remove the registration of your existing user accounts. At least for Windows, their files will still be there, but the accounts would have to be re-created to be recognized by the system. The only time you should buy Apple products is if they're on super-sale at a flea market, thrift store, yard sale, or something similar.
^Thank you for the info, you guys. I do appreciate it.
I have a few different responses:
One, I already have the iMac lol. Since last summer ('17). So there is not a question of whether or not I should buy anything lol. I've had my iMac for almost a year and I love it.
I've heard the criticism that Apple products are style-over-substance, but for me, it's very appealing. The criticism is basically the negative way of acknowledging that Apple products seem to emphasize style more than comparable Windows products and programs.
So it's a definite larger emphasis on style and aesthetics in Apple products. It's not for everyone. But for those of us who find it appealing, then it's great... I mean, it is for me anyway lol. I am always enjoying the aesthetics more than I ever did in any version of Windows. Which I did use for a solid 12 years, I think, before getting the iMac last summer. So I'm pretty familiar with my favorite, Win XP (which unfortunately has become less functional with the web, the last couple years). And reasonably familiar with Win 10, that I used for a solid year and a half, before getting the iMac. (I just never liked Win 10 though, for various reasons.)
So those are my preferences of operating systems. macOS High Sierra is by far my favorite. While my old favorite XP was very functional and clear: macOS High Sierra is very capable (in general) plus it's elegant aesthetically. It comes down to personal preference what OS someone prefers... Right?
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Physically I am also a big fan of the iMac. Sure it's basically a giant sideways tablet on a stand lol, but it works to have it standing at eye-level. I am only a fan of desktops; I dislike laptops and tablets. Heck I don't even like the iPhone very much.
However I do love the iMac. Screen floats at a nice eye-level (when it's set on top of something; I have it sitting on the base of my stereo that it outputs to).
The wireless keyboard and mouse are pretty great. Aesthetically lol. I love that they're wireless; I love that they each have plastic surfaces contrasting with real metal surfaces. The physical feeling is amazing if the air is cool enough to make the metal feel cold. Sorry if this sounds retarded lol. But it feels amazing for the cold metal framing the neutral temp of the plastic. The keyboard is a base of cold metal surrounding neutral-temp plastic keys. And the mouse is neutral-temp plastic, surrounded by cold metal. It's especially great when the metal is legit COLD and the plastic is room-temp. So yeah, not for everyone, but great for those who enjoy it.
The mouse' surface touch-sensitivity (or whatever it's called) is great for jumping a web page back or forth, by simply swiping the top of the mouse. This makes it instant and effortless to jump back a website, compared to clicking the arrows at the top of the screen, which is what I used to do. (And the mouse surface can be tapped twice lightly to zoom-in and -out on websites and images.)
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So for the most part, I'd expect that most strong preferences of OS and hardware come down to personal preferences. I will never like anything other than some kind of desktop, for example.
There was also a specific reason that my fam bought me this last year: My cousin suggested I take up studying and practicing App development for iPhone and Apple products. So I am, and I enjoy it.
So anyway I know people can be die-hard about their preferences but I think it's a bit much to call the iMac garbage, I think it's awesome. If you say the iPhone is garbage then I would believe you lol. But the iMac is great, come on lol.
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I appreciate the info on overheating and ventilation: This has always been something that I've wondered about, just because of how Apple products are designed so thin. The iMac is literally just a standing flatscreen with everything built into it.
So I've definitely wondered about it and maybe I'll make sure to have a fan going in the room, maybe. I will look into this further. I sure don't want it to fry itself.
Your post did make me take the plastic off the top and bottom so the tiny air holes can actually get air lol. I'm still keeping the plastic over the screen. The back has been bare all along.
Price is also a good point, but this comes down to personal preferences and personal circumstances. Yes Apple products are expensive; however, they are guaranteed quality (at least for the iMac). I am not vouching for iPhones or anything else. I just love the iMac, only.
So for me the larger price makes sense for the aesthetics that I enjoy, the user-friendliness (which gets criticized by some folks, as overly user-friendly or something, but I like it). The reliable performance which is expected (at least of the iMac).
Apple products are also more monolithic than other lines of products, so that makes iMacs more consistent with each other, for example. (Whereas Win can be in almost any kind of PC with varying degrees of performance.) Together with the higher price point, that's just how it is.
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I like it because for all 12 years or so that I was using Windows XP and then 10: Never, ever did those PC's ever run very smoothly. This is biased in my personal experience, for various reasons, yet that is still all 12 yrs of my experience with Windows PC's.
One reason is that neither PC was really official in any way. The 1999 machine came from a college throwing it away, and the Win 10 came from my friend's job throwing it away. So both were outdated off the bat by at least a few years, and both were basically homemade computers. The '99 machine actually always ran quite well and consistently, though a bit slow with less than 1 gig of RAM.
The Win 10 machine became glitchy within maybe 2 or 3 months that my friend gave it to me. There was never ending problems with its graphics drivers never quite working right lol. The hardware was always fine for every type of diagnostic, but somehow, the accompany drivers would inevitably experience growing problems. It would get glitchier and slower until I'd have to just wipe everything clean with a new install of Win 10. Though even a brand-new install could be glitchy, so I had gotten used to trying to disable as many optional features as I could, to try to make it run better, including disabling all possible updates. The most basic install of 10 seemed to work best, and would continue to work ok if I managed to avoid updates.
So the long and short of it is that my experience has been unquestionably biased against Windows lol. But that's my experience anyway. I never quite got any Windows machine to work quite right, and XP always ran much better for me than 10.
It's biased based on how I was always using outdated and unofficial hardware... Plus unofficial versions of Windows. So that certainly didn't help anything and is probably the big reason that I didn't know that normal people can reinstall their OS without deleting content. When my running Windows OS went bad, it always seemed to require a total clean install. (Probably mostly because it was always unofficial versions of Win operating systems.)
Anyhow thanks for the info, those are my personal experiences with the iMac and previous Win PC's. The iMac happens to be great for me, especially after 12 yrs of Win never quite working for me lol. Not for everyone but great for the folks who like it.
It can be called overpriced but that's not a reason to call it garbage lol. It can be overpriced and also be a great product.
I will say that I usually dislike iPhones though. I could much more easily be convinced that iPhones are garbage products lol.
If you have any other info or suggestions then let me know. Thanks.
Louis Rossman's channel (already linked) has more than enough information on Apple's anti-consumer practices. Windows 10 is complete trash. This is documented by many who have worked on it. Windows 7 is the last iteration I will use, and that was only after blocking updates and gutting it by hand. Microsoft doesn't need to see a screenshot of everything I install. Not even Linux is free from this nonsense, and the hardware itself has been compromised for many years.
I noticed a slightly interesting quirk: My new install of macOS High Sierra reports my hard drive having 20GB of empty space available.
Whereas before, it seemed to keep thinking that the storage space was practically all used up.
It's got a whole TB built-in but I did use up a lot of it quickly, because I had an external hdd (500GB) that I copied onto the iMac, for example, and then I ran Photorec on that hdd for a month (lol) and it deposited a lot of recovered data including a lot of stuff that I had not been trying to recover.
So with all that, I did use up a lot of the TB, but then I was deleting a lot of stuff, including a lot of movie files, and so I should have seen its storage space open up.
The new install reports 20GB free so it seems that the OS was glitched in the last install, not properly seeing its storage space, or not properly deleting things that I was deleting, or something along those lines.
Anyhow I'm happy that it worked out.
What kind of lies are you guys feeding him lol. Winblows will remove everything when it installs clean. The install that leaves your files is more of an upgrade, and like all Windows upgrades, is broken.
Macs and Apple are wonderful. I still have to use Windoze at the hospital for work, and it sucks. The new Apple File System is crazy fast, and much more space efficient.
I sure hope you don't work for anyone important. You are asking to be penetrated by every type of malware by doing that.Quote:
Windows 7 is the last iteration I will use, and that was only after blocking updates and gutting it by hand.
I don't think my 2010 MacBook Pro I use almost every day got that memo.Quote:
So as a result many of their computers end up roasting themselves alive from the inside after a few years. This is because they design them to be as thin and small as possible, put little to no air vents in them, and put the smallest fans possible in them to make them run quiet.
I like how this thread started as a simple tech question but derailed into a windows vs. mac slapfight.
Dirty Linux user here. Windows has been going downhill for a while, but I'll never touch anything from Apple.
Or just use the best one that suits you personally. Whatever.
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/up...ows-vs-mac.jpg
It's not a lie. I've reinstalled Windows 7 plenty of times, and there's always an option to not wipe the hard drive and overwrite all your files. XP and 2000 had the upgrade option, but I believe later versions of XP had the option to not wipe the hard drive when you reinstalled. Anyways what PC user doesn't partition their HDD to allow them to keep most of their personal files separated from the Windows Partition so they can wipe and reinstall the operating system without having to worry about losing any personal files?Quote:
Originally Posted by Blades
As far as the OS goes, to each their own. I personally don't like Mac OS because I can never find anything I'm looking for in the system settings and I find it slow and frustrating at times. Honestly I've had a Mac lock up on me more than my Windows PC at home. At work I use Linux and I find it fine to use for software development. It's fast, simple, and straight to the point. However I don't use it at home as the problem with any non Windows OS is that you're pretty much screwed if you want to play any games outside of the handful that are available on Steam or the few MOBAs, Blizzard games, and some Sims games available for Mac/Linux.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blades
Not if you're not at idiot. It's not like Malware just appears on your computer. Most of the time you have to do something to allow it to get there. Don't install software you don't know where it comes from, don't go to extremely fish sites, actually pay attention to what things are being installed on your computer, keep on top of your firewall settings and you should be fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blades
Do you do any actual CPU intensive work on it like Graphics editing, video editing, gaming, etc? If not and you only use it for simple internet browsing and watching youtube then you probably wont have that issue. But still watch the video I linked above, the guy goes into excruciating detail of why any Apple computer made in the last 10 years is overpriced crap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blades
I could really care less about the OS. People have their preferences and that's fine. I'm specifically talking about Apple's Hardware, which is pretty much overpriced junk. You can build your own hackintosh with better specs for far less than what you'd pay to get a Macbook or iMac. If you have to have a laptop, I'd say you're far better off putting that $2000 or so you were going to spend on a Macbook Pro into a Lenovo Thinkpad T/P series instead.Quote:
Originally Posted by ComradeOj
I still use it for most of my mobile work. Lots of MATLAB and medical imaging. Huge processor and memory loads. Sure it's slow these days and I usually have to run that crap in Windows anyway. I don't use it for processing a lot, because it would take decades on this aging computer, so it's mostly for meeting notes and presentations these days, but it has never let me down on a hardware level. Granted, I've replaced almost everything (battery, SSD, optical drive, etc.), but the Logic board is original.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118
If you want to talk specs, the GPU in my MacBook is the 320M, a custom chip that was the most powerful integrated GPU available for a 13" notebook at launch. The Latitude's crappy NVS 160M at the time couldn't even come close. I played games on it back then, but not lately. The fan is also super loud when you stress the GPU, which is pretty annoying.
I'll give you one thing. The strongest component of my old MBP was the serviceability. Everything is replaceable and easily so. On the new ones, everything is soldered in. This is unacceptable as someone whose needs vary over time for a notebook. Since I'm considering a new mobile computer, I don't know if I'll go with Apple again simply for this reason, and might have to bite the bullet and get a crappy Thinkpad.
HDD? What year are you living in?Quote:
Anyways what PC user doesn't partition their HDD to allow them to keep most of their personal files separated from the Windows Partition so they can wipe and reinstall the operating system without having to worry about losing any personal files?
Clearly the best operating system for any personal computer is AmigaOS. :p