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Please Help (flashing question mark on PowerBook)

D

DrumaChick420

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 7, 2005
25
0
DrummerLand, Connecticut
Power Book 15 inch G4
Flashing Question Mark.
I looked in my book that came with it.
Tried-
-holding option key while pressing power button, the hardrive icon does not come up so I can click on it.
- it also told me to take power cord out, take battery out and then hold power button for 5 seconds...

Now, this morning my computer worked, but was acting weird. I put the OS Disc it came with to start from it to run disk repair/ check..

then the question mark came, so not only do I have that, my disc is now stuck in it.

ANy suggestions?
Bare with me, my boyfriend was in a motorcycle accident Saturday, had his foot amputated and is in serious condition. What a week...
 
G

G-Com

macrumors regular
May 21, 2008
233
0
North of The 'Nati
My best wishes to both of you. :(

Try restarting and after the chime, hold down the spacebar until it ejects.

If that doesn't help: here's what a Google search turned up: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88068

By the way, if the eject icon isn't in the toolbar, it can be found in Macintosh>>System>>Library>>CoreServices>>Menu Extras. Double click Eject.menu and it'll appear in the toolbar.
 
D

DrumaChick420

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 7, 2005
25
0
DrummerLand, Connecticut
I tried the spacebar thing, did not work....
your second suggestion I cannot do because alls I see is a blue screen and a flashing folder/ question mark....So it wont let me get into any menus to try to eject the disk..

I had the flashing question mark problem on my old iBook g3 and was able to fix it, can't believe the ibook is now 11 years old and still semi going strong...

So, my question now it-
Where can I take my Powerbook to try to get the disk out and posiibly save some of the stuff on the harddrive? Is going to an Apple store worth it?

And- should I buy a new hardrive as opposed to buying a new comp all together? I have very limited funds so I doubt I can afford a new laptop..
Any suggestions would be appreciated..
J.


G-Com said:
My best wishes to both of you. :(

Try restarting and after the chime, hold down the spacebar until it ejects.

If that doesn't help: here's what a Google search turned up: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88068

By the way, if the eject icon isn't in the toolbar, it can be found in Macintosh>>System>>Library>>CoreServices>>Menu Extras. Double click Eject.menu and it'll appear in the toolbar.
Click to expand...
 
Neil321

Neil321

macrumors 68040
Nov 6, 2007
3,733
2
Britain, Avatar Created By Bartelby
DrumaChick420 said:
I tried the spacebar thing, did not work....
your second suggestion I cannot do because alls I see is a blue screen and a flashing folder/ question mark....So it wont let me get into any menus to try to eject the disk..

I had the flashing question mark problem on my old iBook g3 and was able to fix it, can't believe the ibook is now 11 years old and still semi going strong...

So, my question now it-
Where can I take my Powerbook to try to get the disk out and posiibly save some of the stuff on the harddrive? Is going to an Apple store worth it?

And- should I buy a new hardrive as opposed to buying a new comp all together? I have very limited funds so I doubt I can afford a new laptop..
Any suggestions would be appreciated..
J.
Click to expand...

I would first ring apple about the data recovery that way you have the answer from the horses mouth ( dunno if you have that saying in the states ) but means from source

If you have limited funds then me personally id look into replacing the drive or getting someone to do it for you,then again when you say limited funds what's limited? as you could try looking around for refurb or secondhand computer/Mac from somewhere & upgrading to intel

Data recovery is unfortunately an expensive business especially firms who specialize in it,so try googling for a free or free ( ish ) solution
 
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