Question : Problem: Mac Mini Will Not Boot

My Mac Mini (Core Duo 1.67) will not boot, which is annoying.

I get a flashing question mark on a folder icon on startup and it progresses no further.

It does however start from CD unaided (without having to C-poweron).

Apple Hardware Tools (D-poweron) says everything is OK.

The reinstall CD starts and I can get to the part that asks me to install OS X, and/or use the disk checker. Both the installer and disk checker tell me the machine has no hard drive - it just doesn't see a hard drive as present.

Zapping the cmos (alt-command-p-r) didn't help.

I then gave up and handed it to the office IT people. They took the drive out (it appears to be a standard 2.5" 60GB fujitsu SATA hard drive, also used by PC laptops) and shoved it in a PC. The PC detects the drive and can view the contents (via low level disk diagnostic software; Windows XP itself just says "I don't do Mac filesystems, want me to format this for you so I can use it?")

IT guys think it's a drive controller failure, or a loose connection (though they can't see one) or some weird firmware corruption. We can't upgrade the firmware as the mac wont boot and we couldn't find a bootable firmware upgrade CD.

So, is this a "Back to apple" job or is there something we have not done?

Thanks,

Sandy

Answer : Problem: Mac Mini Will Not Boot

How long have you had the machine, and what was the situation the last time it actually booted? Can you boot it into Target Disk mode when it has the drive in, and mount it on a remote machine (hold down T when booting, and connect using firewire).

If you have only recently received the machine, I would send it back to Apple.

Cheers,

Joel