Mac Mini Startup Issues

[ecsrobin]

Hi all this is my first post on here but i have been trawling the site for information on trying to fix my mac mini G4 1.42Ghz 512mb ram although ive forgotten what OS im running

on startup im getting a grey screen with apple icon and then just the spinning wheel at the bottom.

so far i have tried:

booting in safe mode - nothing

Booting from install disc 1 - nothing (well just the grey screen with icon again)

booting with alt pressed down - it brings up harddrive, install disc and hardware test.

Hardware test - both quick test and extended test and everything passed.

NVRAM / PRAM - reset

PMU - reset


so now im at the point of being lost as what to do.

 

[Hellhammer]

When you held down alt and got the install disk option there, did you choose that?

 

[ecsrobin]

When you held down alt and got the install disk option there, did you choose that?

Yes and nothing happened

 

[someguy]

Have you tried repairing disk permissions on your boot disk?

Boot to your OS X Installation DVD, select your language, then run Disk Utility (Utilities menu > Disk Utility). Click on your hard drive in the left pane, then click the Repair Permissions button on the right. Reboot upon completion.

 

[ecsrobin]

Have you tried repairing disk permissions on your boot disk?

Boot to your OS X Installation DVD, select your language, then run Disk Utility (Utilities menu > Disk Utility). Click on your hard drive in the left pane, then click the Repair Permissions button on the right. Reboot upon completion.

Ok so after numerous attempts i managed to do an install and wow i was back in all my old files and everything working fine.

Did a reboot and back to step 1

so im in the OS X installation screen and its all good select my language and so on but then when i click utilities up comes the working icon instead of the cursor and nothing............

 

[ecsrobin]

well i tried to repair disk permissions however it says it was unable to unmount the drive??

 

[someguy]

well i tried to repair disk permissions however it says it was unable to unmount the drive??

Hm. Perhaps there is an issue with the drive itself. I would try running the Repair Disk option from within Disk Utility the same way you did to repair permissions. If it shows an issue with the drive but cannot repair it, I'd probably look into a program called Disk Warrior. They have a bootable version of their app that has come in handy for me a few times when an OS X drive starts acting up.

 

[ecsrobin]

Just an update for you all. after numerous attempts (and thankyou for all your suggestions) i have located the problem to a failed hard drive.

im constantly getting insafe boot : IOATAController device blocking bus


which im led to believe is the failed hard drive. but on a plus note for £40 i can get a 320gb drive so not all is lost


Thanks once again.