Grey Screen at Boot, Folder Icon w/Flashing Mac & Question Mark

[pimentoLoaf]

Put another way, I can boot CD's, but not the hard drive.

Was running os9.2.2, and had to Force Quit a game, Marathon 2, and this caused the Finder screen to blank, with no icons, the control strip, or menubar, and a funny-looking spot on the screen where the mouse cursor lay.

Nothing happened after a few seconds, so I did a ctrl-command-powerSwitch. Heard the chime, then a ker-chunk noise from the hard drive, the screen flashed light-blue, black, turned grey and the folder icon with flashing Mac icon alternating with a flashing question mark was seen.

Tried holding down the X key at boot up (it's supposed to start-up in osX if one was originally in os9), but nothing changed.

Put the Jaguar CD in, only to find I need to erase 500mb or so of stuff just to reinstall just the os... 'cept I can't, you see, as that requires booting.

HELP!!!

[Sun Baked]

Restart in OS 9, or from the OS 9 CD and rebuild the desktop (near the end of booting press and hold command-option before HD icon appears, and say yes to rebuild the drives).

Then run Disk First Aid, switch to OS X and run fsck -y and then run the repair permissions program.

---

If you cannot see the HD when booting from the CD in OS 9 (try turning off the power strip the machine is plugged into and restarting from the CD, and rebuilding the desktop in OS 9 and then DFA and fsck -y in OS X)

[MacAztec]

I dont know what you should do...

BUT

I saw you were playing Marathon 2....get Marathon Infinity. That was like the best game ever. I used to have like 5 peeps networked and we would all play it about 4 years ago. Ohhh it was sooo fun.

[pimentoLoaf]

Thank gosh for a second computer -- even if it is a PC running WinMe. (Could be worse... I could have WinXP.)

Kinda late to try anything, so I'll wait 'til morning. I might run over to the Apple store tomorrow for a copy of Norton Utilities, as I'm only using Drive10 and it's nothing like Norton on my PC.

---

Regarding Marathon...

Have the Trilogy Box (w/slide-out sides) that came with all kinds of utilities, add-ons, and over a 1000 user levels. I also have Marathon Rubicon from a MacAddict disk, which is even better (yep, you heard me right !!!) than Infinity (there's even an enhancements for the Forge and Anvil editors).

Goto http://www.marathonrubicon.com

[Billicus]

I like Norton personally, but many around here denounce it. :rolleyes: I think Drive 10 is a piece of *****.

[beez7777]

this happened to me a little while back, and since i didn't have much stuff on my computer anyway, i did what they told me to do at the apple store, reformat. so i did using the software restore. didn't know there was any other way of solving the problem. oh well

[pimentoLoaf]

Here's the deal:

Went off to the Apple store & grabbed Norton Utilities.

Thrust the CD in (had to use a paperclip to open the drive), booted, and it came up in os9. Ran the diagnostics and everything was peachy keen.

:confused:

Since the Jaguar install disk said I needed to remove about 500mb of junk first, I ... erased the Games folder under os9applications, iMovie (don't have a DV camera), and that about did it.

Re-ran the Jaguar install, archived the old system folder, and after awhile, rebooted.

Only now I have to reinstall stuff, like StuffIt Deluxe, as all things zipped and stuffed won't unzip or unstuff, and Norton Firewall doesn't work (I'M NAKED I'M NAKED EEK :eek: EEK), and... and...

[Billicus]

Download the updates for Norton. It doesn't work in Jagaur without them. There should be an application here:
Macintosh HD (or other name)
Applications
Norton Solutions
Live Update

Download everything there. It'll work then.

[bmackin]

Just a note:

OS X has a lot of great features, but one of it's weaknesses is a full hard drive, (which it sounds like you have). Hard drive's that are nearly full under OS X fragment very quickly, and usually end up having some severe problems.

[Billicus]

Maybe not so full, because he would have deleted the previous systems folder, since he mentioned the fact that he did a clean install of the software. (Archive and Install)

[pimentoLoaf]

Haven't deleted it yet. Been eyeballin' the thing to see what's in there.

Still on the PC, here. The iceBook is elsewhere, being nursed back to health.

[bmackin]

It's a good idea to keep a minimum of 10% of your total hard drive space free, (20GB hard drive = 2GB free).

I hope you get your files back. Losing a hard drive, can be pretty painful.

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Hmmm - I had the same problem a while back.

I tried EVERYTHING to get the disk back - and ran Norton Utilities over a dozen times (or more) to no avail - in the end, the drive wouldn't even mount on the desktop.

But I had to bite the bullet, and with heart-in-mouth, I performed a low-level disk reformat with the Apple "Drive Setup" software. Apparently, some of the boot sectors were destroyed, and therefore the computer couldn't recognise the drive. I also had to check the "zero all data" option - and was hoping that I could reclaim some of the documents and photos that I had on the drive with Norton Utilities afterwards.

Luckily, I got it all back, EVEN after reformatting, and zeroing the data. Norton's Filesaver function is a little jem...

:D

[pimentoLoaf]

Most everything is working now, and many drive-hogging programs are on a 30gb external (FireLite from SmartDisk) firewire drive.

It pays to have a bootable os9 to use the likes of Norton. Dunno if TechTool would accomplish the same thing -- anyone out there use it?

When Apple switches to osX-only and os9 is only available via Classic, there's gotta be a way to fix intractable difficulties like this.

[Billicus]

Originally posted by pimentoLoaf
Most everything is working now, and many drive-hogging programs are on a 30gb external (FireLite from SmartDisk) firewire drive.

It pays to have a bootable os9 to use the likes of Norton. Dunno if TechTool would accomplish the same thing -- anyone out there use it?

When Apple switches to osX-only and os9 is only available via Classic, there's gotta be a way to fix intractable difficulties like this.

Just what I was wondering. Will you be able to boot from OS 9 CDs?

[kenkooler]

If you have the Jaguar cds, install it with the backup and install option and you won't lose your data. Just move your files from the Previous System folder back to where they were.

[pimentoLoaf]

Originally posted by Billicus


Just what I was wondering. Will you be able to boot from OS 9 CDs?

I would assume so, unless something is in ROM that would outright deny os9, when discovered to be loading. A computer is essentially nothing without an operating system (though PC's are even less than nothing, as Apple sticks all kinds of routines in ROM for the user interface, while Microsoft has that loaded in with Windows code), and if system software is on the disk, then yes, it should be able to load.

Though... not necessarily. I can stick an old System 7.5 disk from my antique 6100 into my iceBook -- it's recognized as a Mac disk, and some data can be read, but the modern ROM's are geared toward os9.x, not 7.5, so it won't boot.

Apple ties the ROM's to the current system software so everything is up to date.

[Billicus]

Originally posted by pimentoLoaf


I would assume so, unless something is in ROM that would outright deny os9, when discovered to be loading. A computer is essentially nothing without an operating system (though PC's are even less than nothing, as Apple sticks all kinds of routines in ROM for the user interface, while Microsoft has that loaded in with Windows code), and if system software is on the disk, then yes, it should be able to load.

Though... not necessarily. I can stick an old System 7.5 disk from my antique 6100 into my iceBook -- it's recognized as a Mac disk, and some data can be read, but the modern ROM's are geared toward os9.x, not 7.5, so it won't boot.

Apple ties the ROM's to the current system software so everything is up to date.

So, maybe? If Apple doesn't update the ROM for the new computers to support OS 9 then we won't be able to boot to 9 as anything but classic, right?

[bmackin]

Supposedly, Apple has been adding extra code to allow all of the new machines to boot into OS 9. Each computer requires different code, (mirrored front G4s, require different boot code, then say... Powerbooks). In July of 2003 they will simply stop adding this code. I am sure there will be a 3rd party answer for this.

You are definitely right, Apple will need to supply some solution for dealing with problem disks. Apple will have to supply or support some way of creating OS X boot CDs.

[iJon]

Originally posted by pimentoLoaf
Thank gosh for a second computer -- even if it is a PC running WinMe. (Could be worse... I could have WinXP.)


i dont know what you are talking about. from working in pc service as well as mac. windows me was the worse version of windows ever made. it crashed more than anything. from my usuage and i do know everyone has their own opinions but win xp has been the best version of windows so far. runs like a champ on my pc, just as stable as my os x.

iJon

[Billicus]

Originally posted by bmackin
Supposedly, Apple has been adding extra code to allow all of the new machines to boot into OS 9. Each computer requires different code, (mirrored front G4s, require different boot code, then say... Powerbooks). In July of 2003 they will simply stop adding this code. I am sure there will be a 3rd party answer for this.

You are definitely right, Apple will need to supply some solution for dealing with problem disks. Apple will have to supply or support some way of creating OS X boot CDs.

There's a way, but it doesn't work very well. http://www.charlessoft.com/