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need some major help with my powermac g4!

I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
JSchwage said:
Oh, wow. That's weird. I can't eject disks in my MacBook via the keyboard button until I'm in OS X. Or so I thought. I'll have to try it later.

Anyway, repairing disk permissions is always a good thing to do often when you have problems with your Mac. In most cases you won't need to boot off the DVD though. You can find the Disk Utility in your Utilities folder in your Applications folder.

Repairing the disk will find and fix any problems on your hard drive.

Please report back to let me know if it fixed the problem or not! :D
Click to expand...

how long should the permission repair take? Its been about 10 minutes and it hasn't finished.

Thanks
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
imaketouchtheme said:
how long should the permission repair take? Its been about 10 minutes and it hasn't finished.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Well if this is the first time you've done it, it may take a while. I don't have any idea how long it will take though. It should definitely be less than an hour though. You won't need to let it run through the night if that's what you're worried about. :cool:
 
I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
it finished the permissions and now its doing the disk repair. What should I do after it finishes?

Thanks
 
I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
I'm getting an error on the disk repair. It says the under lying task reported failure on exit. And it says it could not be repaired!!

Thanks
 
B

bigbird

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2007
381
0
Canada
imaketouchtheme said:
I'm getting an error on the disk repair. It says the under lying task reported failure on exit. And it says it could not be repaired!!
Thanks
Click to expand...

Then try Diskwarrior. It's a diagnostic and repair app that you must purchase. It may be cheaper/easier to just buy a new hard drive and start over.
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
Ouch, yeah, sounds like your hard drive is on its way out. Somewhat of a weird coincidence that it'd fail after you installed different RAM though. Would you happen to have a Windows PC? If you do, I can recommend a couple of great programs to recover your files.
 
I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
this is some crap. So could I try using the restore or erase thing and maybe that would help?

Thanks
 
I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
bigbird said:
Doubt it. Disk Utility has indicated a malfunction on your hard drive. Erasing or restoring won't fix that.
Click to expand...

so my only option is buying a new hard drive in which I don't have the money for?? Macintosh is my life and if I don't have a computer then I might die.
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
imaketouchtheme said:
so my only option is buying a new hard drive in which I don't have the money for?? Macintosh is my life and if I don't have a computer then I might die.
Click to expand...
You can get hard drives at BestBuy. Calm down. :p Just run out somewhere and get one if you don't want to order one online and wait for it.

You can actually put two drives in your Mac at once. You can install OS X onto a new hard drive and then see if you can transfer some of your files off your old one.

EDIT: Oh wait. You don't have money. Sorry, I went right over that.

If you have a Windows PC, you could stick your hard drive in it and run SpinRite on it. But then again, SpinRite also costs money...

Or you could ship it to me and I could see if I can fix it. But that's probably not anything you'd want to do. haha
 
SuperCompu2

SuperCompu2

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2006
852
1
MA
JSchwage said:
Oh, wow. That's weird. I can't eject disks in my MacBook via the keyboard button until I'm in OS X. Or so I thought. I'll have to try it later.
Click to expand...

For future reference of anyone having a similar problem, you can eject a disk before boot by holding the primary mouse button down on startup. This works on both laptops and desktops.

As for the OP, sorry to see the HD failing. Luckily for you the spacious QS tower will allow you to set the old HD to slave when you get a new one, so you can grab all your info without having to invest in an external enclosure.
At least you know your RAM is fine!

Good luck!
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
I've had the same issue with errors during disk repair. I changed the HD. But I then put the HD into my old iMac 350 and did an erase and install. The HD has been working flawlessly since. About 9 months now.

Very basically I think the issue is that Disk Utility can't replace bad blocks where the OS is if you're running the computer from that drive. The erase and install bypasses the bad blocks.
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
bartelby said:
I've had the same issue with errors during disk repair. I changed the HD. But I then put the HD into my old iMac 350 and did an erase and install. The HD has been working flawlessly since. About 9 months now.

Very basically I think the issue is that Disk Utility can't replace bad blocks where the OS is if you're running the computer from that drive. The erase and install bypasses the bad blocks.
Click to expand...
But if you boot off of the OS X DVD, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to replace all the bad blocks.
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
JSchwage said:
But if you boot off of the OS X DVD, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to replace all the bad blocks.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the bit I can't figure. I guess if they're bad blocks they can't be repaired if the OS is on the bad area. As it'd need to rewrite the info somewhere but it can't read the affected area. Does that make sense?
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
bartelby said:
Yeah, that's the bit I can't figure. I guess if they're bad blocks they can't be repaired if the OS is on the bad area. As it'd need to rewrite the info somewhere but it can't read the affected area. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
Or the sector could be so bad that it can't even write to that area of the disk anymore.

But nonetheless, the conclusion is that you need a new hard drive. You could even get a cheap 10 GB hdd for using temporarily.
 
motulist

motulist

macrumors 601
Dec 2, 2003
4,235
611
If you care about any of the files on your disk, then you must NOT do ANYTHING more with that computer until you've backed the disk up. And when I mean don't do anything, I mean don't do ANYTHING, not even trying to start your computer up.
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
JSchwage said:
Or the sector could be so bad that it can't even write to that area of the disk anymore.

But nonetheless, the conclusion is that you need a new hard drive. You could even get a cheap 10 GB hdd for using temporarily.
Click to expand...

Yes. An erase and install will buy you time, possibly a large amount of time. But I wouldn't trust the drive 100%
 
G

GhostWhoWalks

macrumors newbie
Dec 10, 2007
21
0
Can you get hold of a utility program disk that can boot your computer from the cd drive? I have had mixed results from the Mac Os X disk at resovlving disk issues. It is worth a shot before you try to erase or replace hardware. It takes a while to finish but it usually resolves odd issues such as this.
 
I

imaketouchtheme

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2007
1,097
4
omg!!!!

I might of fixed it!

I chose the startup disk to startup in classic, and it loaded flawlessly!!

I can do stuff in it like make photoshop pictures and stuff!! So could it still be the hd??

Thanks!!
 
JSchwage

JSchwage

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2006
580
33
Rochester, NY
imaketouchtheme said:
omg!!!!

I might of fixed it!

I chose the startup disk to startup in classic, and it loaded flawlessly!!

I can do stuff in it like make photoshop pictures and stuff!! So could it still be the hd??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Yeah. I'm guessing that the OS X part of your hdd has some damage.

Now back up any of your important files using OS 9.
 
motulist

motulist

macrumors 601
Dec 2, 2003
4,235
611
I'll say it again so my advice doesn't get lost in the mix. If you care about any files on that computer, do not pass go, do not collect $500, but you absolutely must backup your files immediately.
 
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