Cant' boot, system freezes

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Hello Everybody,
I'm new to the site but I have a problem getting my OSX to start up. When I hit the power key I get the usual grey apple and spinning wheel. Then I get the blue screen and progress bar with the mac osx white box. the progress bar goes all the way to the end finishing with something about a firewall.

After that is where the problem happens. I get this completely blank blue screen. I can move the cursor around the screen but theres nothing there and it never completes the bootup. I read and tried all the solutions on the mac site support page for this blue screen syndrome but none have helped me break through to the finder.

Does anyone have any advice? I can boot up in OS 9 and I have 2 seperate hard drives for 9 and x. The biggest problem is I have a third drive that has work I need to get and OS 9 wont recognize that drive. thanks for reading.

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[idea_hamster]

Since you can go through the boot sequence...

I would first try starting up from your OS X CD by inserting the CD and holding down the "C" key during start-up. That OS X start-up should be able to see your third drive partition. I would take this opportunity to copy the files you need to a USB memory stick (not too expensive if your files are not too big) or an external CD burner if you have/can borrow one.

Then I would try doing a re-install of OS X on your OS X partition. Since the Darwin kernel and the rest of OS X are (theoretically) separated from the rest of the Mac's files, it's my understanding that a reinstall will simply overwrite only the area(s) of OS X that aren't working.

Then I'd got to Apple's website for an "all-in-one" OS X update to the newest sub-version of either 10.1 or 10.2.

Best of luck!

 

[bousozoku]

It sounds as though Finder is looping, that it's been damaged somehow. I went through this during 10.1.x. I haven't had it since 10.2.x.

You can use DiskWarrior or Drive 10 to correct any problems on your drives, and if that works, you should also repair permissions.

There is also a .plist file that controls what is executed as the Finder in a preferences directory. I've substituted Terminal to get to that level of services. If you're comfortable using a shell, you can also hold down command-s on boot and you might be able to copy your files from there.

 

[MacBoyX]

There is a post just like this in the Software forum and I had alot to say on the issue...here's a link if you want to check it out...it has happened to me a few times...

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35553

MacBoyX

 

[MetallicPenguin]

I had this exact thing happen to me once. I didn't read through the rest of the thread, but I just had to do a complete reinstall.

 

[idea_hamster]

Originally posted by MetallicPenguin
I just had to do a complete reinstall.

The nice thing with OS X is that a "complete" re-install of a *nix system doesn't affect all that much outside the OS (in theory, it shouldn't affect anything, I think). Much, *much* better than that CD that I got with my Performa 6100/60 which could only revert the entire machine to "factory fresh". The two times I had to do a system re-install with that, it took me a day to put everything back where it was (for me) supposed to be!

 

[small]

I had to do a complete reinstall but as someone said, if you use archive you don't lose anything. I want to thank all of you for replying and its nice to know that when I can't get tech support or wait on the phone there are great people like yourselves who will respond to problems. Thanks again and best wishes to all of you.

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[MetallicPenguin]

Your welcome

 

[MacBoyX]

Any time!

MacBoyX