Help! Mini hangs on startup

[GanChan]

I'm posting this from my iBook, because my Mini is in a coma.

I was downloading a couple of software upgrades onto my Mini -- the latest version of Safari and a security app of some sort -- when I suddenly lost power. On getting the electricity flowing again, I retstarted the Mini, but it's hung on the opening gray Apple display -- the spinny thing just keeps on spinning, and I get the feeling it's not going to stop.

Did the power outage in mid-upgrade screw my Mini beyond all un-screwing? Should I try putting it in Target mode and running Disk Utility on it from my iBook? What should I do?

 

[uaecasher]

try archive and install?

 

[BlueRevolution]

Interestingly, I had a power outage today too. In my case, my iMac would kernel panic as soon as the Apple logo appeared. I was terrified that the logic board was fried, but it turned out that a simple permission repair solved the problem.

Can you boot to the computer's system restore disk?

 

[GanChan]

Well, I verified the disk as operational via Target Drive mode. I booted from the Install Disk and had it repair a tone of permissions. Then on restart, it was exactly the same problem as before. I tried reseetting the P-RAM, and that isn't helping either. I even tried doing a fresh install of Tiger, but it seems to get stuck on the "Preaping to Install" progress bar.

Any other ideas?

 

[iPhone 62S]

Well, I verified the disk as operational via Target Drive mode. I booted from the Install Disk and had it repair a tone of permissions. Then on restart, it was exactly the same problem as before. I tried reseetting the P-RAM, and that isn't helping either. I even tried doing a fresh install of Tiger, but it seems to get stuck on the "Preaping to Install" progress bar.

Any other ideas?

If it won't work on a fresh install, you may have a hard drive or other hardware problem.

 

[GanChan]

Thanks, all. Reinstalling Tiger finally worked, it just took forever to prepare the HD. I do have one corrupted third-party app that will need to be reinstalled, but everything else seems OK.