I accidentally deleted the contents of mac HD! Problems booting! Please help!

[Jmevo]

I was trying to clear memory because my HD was full and I opened Mac HD and deleted it's contents. Now when I try to boot I get a black screen that says "Feb 8 20:25:00 launchd: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: no such file or directory". I got Mac OSX tiger replacement DVD but so far my attempts to boot from disk by holding down 'C' or pressing command-option-shift-delete have proved useless as it just spits the DVD out after three or four attempts at trying to read it. The computer was fine until I shut it off for the first time after deleting mac HD. I don't need any of the stuff on the computer so totally wiping everything in favor of a solution would be fine. Please help!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

With what Mac OS X version came the Mac?
What Mac is it exactly?
And is the Tiger DVD you use, the one for your specific model?
Do you have access to any other PPC Mac?

Btw, "memory" is not the same as "hard drive capacity":

• What is Computer Memory? RAM vs Hard Drive
• RAM vs. Hard Disk

It is recommended, to have 10 to 20 % of the HDD's capacity unused.

 

[Jmevo]

MAC 10.4.11. Yes I have a laptop that is also a PPC mac which I can use. As for the CD it says Mac OSX tiger replacement disk. It was the one the guy from applecare sent to me. I can't be sure it is though but I can't figure out how to verify if the problem is with the CD or my computer.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Both Macs probably have Firewire 400 or 800?
If so, you can start the kaputt Mac in Target Disk Mode and ERASE the HDD in Disk Utility on the laptop.

You could then either clone the laptop's HDD to the kaputt Mac's HDD (if you want) or try the DVD again.

 

[Jmevo]

Thank you

I will go pick up a firewire cable tomorrow from my local radio shack. Thank you for your service. I'll tell you what happens!