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Please help, computer won't boot

C

camking

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 4, 2006
36
0
Cambridge, UK
Just got my MBP and My old G4 has died before i could transfer all my files over! It is just giving me a picture of a floppy disk and a flashing question mark when trying to boot. The superdrive has broken so I can't try and and boot it from the that.

Any ideas? Think most stuff is backed up but . i've lost the essay i've been working if the disk really has died......... plus the rest of a weeks work atleast.:(

I don't own an external DVD drive, if i buy one can i boot from that or has it got to be down from the internal DVD drive? Don't suppose i can use my laptops DVD can I?

Is it worth leaving it to think in the hope it might start or maybe turning it off for a while, then trying again. any tips?

Please, please help
 
What model G4?

If it's a PowerBook, you can start it up in Firewire Target Disk mode by holding down the "T" on power-up. Connect it to your MBP via Firewire and (hopefully) it's harddrive will mount [on the MBP] just like any other external drive.
 
The flashing floppy disk with a ? is a bad thing. It means that your HD is damaged severely, or at least its enough to where it screwed up the file system so it can't operate correctly. If you have any hard disk utilities like DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro 4 then they may be able to help you, but its not guaranteed when it gets to the point your HD is at. It may not even work enough to mount and show up to get fixed.

You can try target disk mode, but if the HD is dead then it won't show up on your new Mac.
 
Yes, any Mac with Firewire can be started up in target disk mode.
 
Target Disk Mode will definitely work, but as I said, IF the HD is dead or damaged enough to not work properly, then its not going to show on the other computer.

But it never hurts to try it...
 
Thanks guys i gave it a try but no luck, the question mark symbol didn't come up while i was holding down 't' but nothing else happened. i've got another 120gb disk full of stuff but i can't access that either,

I don't keep my backup disk at home so i'm dying to check whats on there like i say i know i've lost the last week or so's work but also stuff like email address and bookmarks and little bits I didn't bothered backing up :eek:

Oh well to look on the bright side at least my MBP came this week. I couldn't live or work without a computer.

Hopefully I can get an extension on my essay. Maybe I should take a photo of my screen!

Oh well it's fault for not having a back-up of it
 
Sorry more questions

Will my local authourised apple repair guy be able to get the data off the start up disk of if it's damaged or has it gone for ever? Will it be expensive?

I can at least take the other disk out of the machine and get the data off that, Do i need to get an enclosure to be able to connect it to my MBP? Could maybe even use it as an external with my laptop for extra backup or something

thanks for all your help anyway
 
Odd. You should get the Firewire symbol on your display regardless of the harddrive state.

But, yes, you should be able to put the harddrive into an external case (USB2 and/or Firewire).
 
When you put your PowerMac in Target Disk Mode any HD's should appear on the Mac connected to it. If that didn't work, just for ***** and giggles, take the bad HD out, and then put your other HD in as the master HD and try that.

When your PowerMac goes into Target Disk Mode it should have a purplish screen with the FireWire Logo on it going around the screen, kinda like a screen saver does. This will tell you that its truly in Target Disk Mode.

You can probably get the data recovered, but depending on how damaged it the HD is, it can be expensive. The way the Apple file system (HFS/HFS+/HFS+ Journaled) works, can make it hard to recover data off it compared to a Windows file system (FAT32/NTFS).
 
nice one. hard drive won't mount but kind of got it to work , the fire wire symbol has come up anyway, so maybe if i swap the hard drives over at least i can get the data off the good one.
 
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