Mac Mini core Duo chrash

It sounds like it could be a problem with either faulty RAM or RAM that is not fully seated in its slot. Have you opened the case for any reason? It could be that the RAM just got bumped out of it's socket a little and needs to be pushed back in.

 

just out of curiosity, did it crash/start doing this while/after doing updates?

 

Before you do anything else, try booting into Single User Mode and running fsck.

 

Listen to IJ Reilly and report back after you've tried fsck. You can find out how on apple support pages or in the guides section here on macrumors.

 

Just follow Apple's page on fsck. It should work.

You basically just type the following and press RETURN:

Code:

/sbin/fsck -fy

 

Okay, try using the OSX discs instead. Insert the OSX disc, start up holding C and select Disk Utility from one of the menus (Installer menu from memory). Now, select your hard disk on the left side and click Restore Disk on the bottom right.

 

There's definitely something very wrong with your disk. If you have another Mac nearby. you can try to connect the two by Firewire and try to access the borked hard drive through target mode. (Hold down T while turning the computer on.)

If that doesn't work, I think you're going to have to send it to some data rescue company to get any data back, and that's expensive.

 

You have some serious directory damage to your hard drive, but all may not be lost. I would suggest buying a copy of Disk Warrior from Alsoft. This application saved me the last time I had a similar problem.

 

If you verify your disk in Disk Utility, does it come up with any errors? I'm not sure I'd rely on that disk just yet. I'd make sure it's okay first.

 

If the disk was verified in the reinstallation, I think it should be okay. Disk Warrior probably would have fixed this problem; if fact, I wonder if Disk Utility would have done the trick if run on the host Mac in Target Disk Mode.

 

Agreed, it'll probably be fine, but it's always good to check.

 

If you boot from the OSX disc, can you still not repair the disk using the bundled version of Disk Utility?

 

Okay, well try fsck again. Make sure you remember that f before the y. I have a feeling it may have been omitted last time.

 

that hasn't happened to me yet (knocks on wood)
but i have had my share of problems

if you can get it to boot up and you think it is software try putting a different version of firmware on it