Mac 101: What's happening when your Mac is starting up?

Recently, in the interest of sleeping soundly through the night, I've been turning off my 27" iMac every night. No, I'm not doing this for energy conservation, but the darned thing used to light up at random intervals in the middle of the night. Since I now have to power up the iMac every morning, I see the bootup process regularly.
You know how it goes. First you hear the startup chime, then you see that gray screen, then the gray screen with the Apple logo and spinning gear on it, then a light blue screen, and finally a login window or the desktop appears. What's actually going on while all of this is showing up on your screen? Well, as those of us who have gone through the training and tests to become Apple Certified Support Professionals are aware, each of those visual cues is an indication that a milestone in the bootup process has been reached.
Follow along as I take you on a tour behind the scenes of the Mac OS X boot process, starting on the next page.
Continue reading Mac 101: What's happening when your Mac is starting up?Mac 101: What's happening when your Mac is starting up? originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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