error 17, i have no name?

[4dogs1pig]

i tried to turn on my mac mini and it took forever to load and when it did i got the message "i have no name error 17" in white letters on a black screen.
it looked like dos. what in the world happened to my mac?
i tried all the start up key holding techniques but they did not work. the day before this happened i downloaded an update for itunes. yikes, could i have gotten a virus from apple?

 

[spinnerlys]

Yep, Apple sends out viruses, especially ones that do not exist, as there are no Mac OS X viruses.

Have you taken a look at this guide and followed its steps?
Mac doesn't boot

And can you give more detail what exact steps you have already taken?

 

[4dogs1pig]

i have no name, error 17

i tried disconnecting my mac mini from the power source for 30 seconds,
i held down the apple key while starting,
i held down the apple, alt key while restarting,
i held down the apple, alt, p and r keys while restarting,
i tried restarting with the startup disc inserted (had a vary hard time getting it out),
the only thing it will do is make the start up sound, show the apple on the monitor and i get the spinner then the screen goes black then the white type error messages appear. it is a sequence of messages but the last one (when it stops) says i have not name error 17.
it looks like the dos side of a pc.
i have never seen anything like this on a mac (this is my 3rd mac, i have had macs since the mid 90's).

 

[mtnDewFTW]

Doesn't sound like a virus to me.
Sounds more like there might be something up with your HDD or possibly the Logic Board.

If I were you I'd call Apple and see what's up.

Something tells me this is a hardware thing, not software/virus.

 

[hamlinspahn]

OS X Virus

Yep, Apple sends out viruses, especially ones that do not exist, as there are no Mac OS X viruses.

There are known OS X viruses Google it.

 

[hamlinspahn]

Error 17

Doesn't sound like a virus to me.
Sounds more like there might be something up with your HDD or possibly the Logic Board.

If I were you I'd call Apple and see what's up.

Something tells me this is a hardware thing, not software/virus.

Error 17 has to do with the boot loader. I could mean a HDD failure but it could be HDD corruption, try to boot with your os x restore media and reinstall.

 

[MacHamster68]

no known widespread viruses for osx , but as more and more windows script kiddies switch to osx because they like the new iMac's and minis and the fact with bootcamp they can run windows on them too .. its only a matter of time before we are haunted by the same problem like windows users

its all apples fault since bootcamp there are the script kiddies coming to osx and bundled apps makes it easy for them to bring trojan virus and worms to osx
Mac's are not safe any longer since bootcamp allows script kiddies to use and abuse Mac's
just read this article
http://www.macforensicslab.com/ProductsAndServices/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&cPath=11&products_id=174


ok there is anti virus software available ... good news these malware is written for snow leopard and leopard and tiger(not many for tiger as its not considered popular) and does not work in older osx versions at all and might not in ppc Mac's

like for example this one here
http://www.securemac.com/applescript-tht-trojan-horse.php