On 2014-09-08 Robert Dyck wrote:
For hard drive diagnostics, I use Hiren. But that has never worked on an Intel Mac. Hiren has multiple tools, and I tried Hiren version 9.9,
I take my previous comment back, then. Once again the insolence of Apple reconfirms my long-held opinion that <FlameShieldOn> Apple sucks^H^H^H^H^H isn't that great. Sorry, guys, but $250 extra per PC for the privilege of *not* being able to run standard x86 direct-boot utilities? ...
No. Diags don't run through USB.
Perhaps this is part of the problem. Intel iMacs do not have PS/2. I checked Wikipedia, every model of iMac back to the first G3 in 1999 has been USB only. Power Mac built in year 2000 was the last to use mini-DIN-8 for keyboard. They never used PS/2 (mini-DIN-6).
We weren't talking about USB *keyboards* we were talking about USB hard drives (and docks, etc). What keyboard you have is irrelevant, if (as Adam said) the BIOS does its job correctly. But the HD utilities themselves need to talk direct IDE to the drive, and thus can't go through a USB drive converter intermediary.