Apple Mac mini manual Hard Drives Not Recognized, Symptoms Quick Check Drive Is Not Recognized

Mass Storage

Hard Drive(s) Not Recognized

Unlikely cause: power supply, wireless card, fan, speaker

Quick Check

Symptoms	Quick Check
Drive Is Not Recognized	1.	Use a known good mouse. A stuck mouse button
Drive Does Not Boot		will not allow boot.
• Flashing Question Mark	2.	Boot from original Mac mini Install DVD inserted
• Boots to Grey Screen
		in internal optical drive (or in the optical drive of
• Boots to Blue Screen		another computer setup in Target Disk Mode),
		or from and external up to date Mac OS X10.6.X
		drive. Verify S.M.A.R.T. status of drive using Disk
		Utility.
	3.	Repair disk using Disk Utility.
	4.	Erase disk and reinstall Mac OS. Note: Make sure
		data has been backed up before erasing hard
		drive.
	5.	Use Target Disk Mode to attempt to mount user’s
		hard drive on a known-good similar computer. If
		mounted, use Disk Utility on host computer for
		Quick Checks 2, 3 and 4.
Deep Dive

Check		Result	Action
1.	Boot from Install DVD inserted	Yes	Go to step 2
	in internal optical drive (or in
	the optical drive of another	No	Go to step 5
	computer setup in Target Disk
	Mode), or from an external
	drive and run Disk Utility. Verify
	that user hard drive is available
	for Disk Utility to repair.
2.	Run Disk Utility ‘Repair Disk’	Yes	Go to step 3
	function and verify that it	No	Go to step 4
	completes successfully.

Code

2010-08-03 Mac mini (Mid 2010) Symptom Charts — Mass Storage  51