scary image on startup!!

[comictimes]

So apparently my powerbook got unplugged sometime today while I was at school, and as a result when i got home the battery was completely dead. So I forced it to fully shut down, then started it up. However, when I did this, just before it began the regular startup process for about half a second the image of a folder with a question mark flashed on the screen. This was the same image that came on the screen when I had whiped my hard drive then accidentally started up without holding "c", so it kinda scares me.

Was this just a random occurance, or is it a sign that my hard drive is dying and I should start backing up my files speedy-like?

 

[floatingspirit]

Me too

I don't have the answer, but the same thing happened to my iBook when I installed a new battery. Then it transformed into a Globe after a while and then it finally booted up. I never solved this though, so I'm eager to hear any feedback on this topic.

 

[spencecb]

This is not a big issue. This happened to my PowerBook before. I think it can happen when you run into a situation where the battery has been drained of all power. The computer gets confused for a second or so looking for the Sartup disk. Not a big deal

 

[mad jew]

It might be trying to start up from a different location/device or network (in floatingspirit's case). You can reselect your internal hard disk's system folder through the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.

 

[Benjamin]

It's just the icon for the firmware didn't have a set startup disk, nothing bad here imo, just reset your startup disk in sys prefs if you have to.

 

[comictimes]

awesome thanks all. I'm gonna be getting a new computer in 6 months (before going to college) but I'd really rather have this one survive until then, and was rather nervous...

 

[Sedulous]

This suggests the firmware battery is dead.

 

[spencecb]

This suggests the firmware battery is dead.

It doesn't look like it is that old of a computer for the battery to die. I have seen this happen before...just a bit of confusion for the HDD like I stated above.

 

[i4k20c]

It might be trying to start up from a different location/device or network (in floatingspirit's case). You can reselect your internal hard disk's system folder through the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.

yah this happend to me. it tried to randomly start from the network, and i had to re-select it to start from the hardrive. not sure what happend, but yah.

 

[Sedulous]

It doesn't look like it is that old of a computer for the battery to die. I have seen this happen before...just a bit of confusion for the HDD like I stated above.

If it doesn't happen predicitably, then you are most likely right. But not all batteries are created equal... notice the various iPod battery complaints that lace these threads.

 

[annk]

Was this just a random occurance, or is it a sign that my hard drive is dying and I should start backing up my files speedy-like?

Back up the files you can't afford to lose, no matter what. You should always have a back up; it may be too late to think about it first when a problem occurs.