Hey y'all.
A friend's sister has an iMac G4 (Dome base, 700mhz, C.D.) with a blinking folder on start up. I agreed to take a look at it considering I had the same model, and have extensively tinkered around with the guts of it.
First I try target disk mode - Nothing shows up on the host computer's desktop. Hmm...
I boot from the hardware test disc, and apparently everything (including the HDD) is in working order. So I try the OS X installation disc and check out Disk Utility; about a million iNode problems, and (obviously) DU's repair won't fix those.
At this point I decide the pull the drive. If anyone has been inside an iMac G4, it's a marvel of space and organization. I get the drive, pull it, and mount it via USB onto my aforementioned iMac G4 with DiskWarrior 3. I scan it and fix the iNode issues. There are a bunch of system files that ended up in the "Rescued" and "Damaged Items" folders that DW creates. But at least now I can mound the disk and copy off everything else (mostly the /Users/ directory).
My hopes of simply repairing the system are dashed, now I'm about to do a fresh install, but here's where it gets tricky and thought I would ask the collective experience of this forum:
1) Are broken iNodes indicative of impending hardware failure, even though S.M.A.R.T. thinks everything is OK? (I know it should really be called D.U.M.B. though). In other words, should I press her to buy a new drive since I'm doing a reinstall anyway?
2) Since I have a non-booting disk, but it has all her data on it, what is the best way to migrate back to the fresh install? I'm hoping for something that will take over apps and settings if at all possible.
3) She (friend's sister) has no clue what version the O.S., was. While I have the original reinstall disks, I have a feeling she's updated once or twice while in college. I can't get the system up to check, but there has to be a file on the system that I can mount that reveals the system version (kinda like "cat /proc/version to us *NIX heads.)
Thanks a bunch in advance!
A friend's sister has an iMac G4 (Dome base, 700mhz, C.D.) with a blinking folder on start up. I agreed to take a look at it considering I had the same model, and have extensively tinkered around with the guts of it.
First I try target disk mode - Nothing shows up on the host computer's desktop. Hmm...
I boot from the hardware test disc, and apparently everything (including the HDD) is in working order. So I try the OS X installation disc and check out Disk Utility; about a million iNode problems, and (obviously) DU's repair won't fix those.
At this point I decide the pull the drive. If anyone has been inside an iMac G4, it's a marvel of space and organization. I get the drive, pull it, and mount it via USB onto my aforementioned iMac G4 with DiskWarrior 3. I scan it and fix the iNode issues. There are a bunch of system files that ended up in the "Rescued" and "Damaged Items" folders that DW creates. But at least now I can mound the disk and copy off everything else (mostly the /Users/ directory).
My hopes of simply repairing the system are dashed, now I'm about to do a fresh install, but here's where it gets tricky and thought I would ask the collective experience of this forum:
1) Are broken iNodes indicative of impending hardware failure, even though S.M.A.R.T. thinks everything is OK? (I know it should really be called D.U.M.B. though). In other words, should I press her to buy a new drive since I'm doing a reinstall anyway?
2) Since I have a non-booting disk, but it has all her data on it, what is the best way to migrate back to the fresh install? I'm hoping for something that will take over apps and settings if at all possible.
3) She (friend's sister) has no clue what version the O.S., was. While I have the original reinstall disks, I have a feeling she's updated once or twice while in college. I can't get the system up to check, but there has to be a file on the system that I can mount that reveals the system version (kinda like "cat /proc/version to us *NIX heads.)
Thanks a bunch in advance!