Powerbook won't boot after 10.4.6 update

[sirphuzz]

Big problem with my powerbook!

Last night I wanted to install the 10.4.6 update fråm software update. It found a lot of other updates as well which all went fine. When it was installing the 10.4.6 it suddenly quit and said that some sort of error occured, and the installer had been placed in the bin.

I'm not sure if the installer did install or not, but the computer rebooted, and now it's just sitting at the screen with the grey apple and a spinning wheel under it.

Last night I immediately thought something was wrong so I tried rebooting about ten times without luck, tried getting inte safe mode, but I can't. All I can do is the (Apple + S) mode, whatever it's called, where a lot of text shows up but I never get to a prompt.

So I read through some forums and I found that the boot process may take some time, however, I've left it on for 45 minutes, and it still hasn't booted.

I've tried booting from the 10.4.2 boot DVD that came with it, and did the disk repair and permissions repair, but nothing changed.

Now, the big problem is that I wanted to do an archive and install, but it requires minimum 2 GB, and I don't even have that!

What can I possibly do?

Is there something I can run through the terminal, cause I found that on the boot dvd?

I have a lot of important files (of course not all of them backuped) so I'd be glad if someone told me, "That's easy, just click the apple key twice and say the magic word!"

Please help!

[ecirtap]

Even though it should theoretically work without any glitches, I would personally *not* recommend updating your OS X through the Software Update window.

I would rather download the COMBO installer from the Apple site, and apply that updater, since it seems to be the most reliable one.

Regarding your current problem: I suggest you download the COMBO installer from another machine and hook your machine up to that other Mac (through FireWire), start your machine up into Target Mode, and then apply the 10.4.6 COMBO updater.

That should do the trick.

If you have a spare harddrive around, it would of course not hurt if you also backed up any important data, *before* applying the update.

Hope this helps.

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/

P.S.: you should also always make sure you have at least 15 % of your harddrive's capacity free! (I know it is difficult with all the digital pix, MP3s, etc. etc. etc.)

[sirphuzz]

thanks for the tip, i'll try and get hold of someone with a working mac
If that doesn't work, I'll post again...

[sirphuzz]

I found one of my professors who uses mac, and putting mine in target mode and then running the update from his mac worked!

However, i noticed that after it started some sites in safari show up in really weird characters. Does anyone know why?

[simbalala]

At least you got the machine back up. Stick around, someone will have some ideas about your Safari problem.

I mainly posted to say (I know, I know, it's after the fact) back-ups are NOT optional. You can get a good drive and a FireWire + USB enclosure for around $150. Is your work worth that much to you? All those hours you've got tied up in that disk?

I always, always, back-up before doing any updates to the system. If something goes wrong I can always boot up off a back-up.

[sirphuzz]

yes yes i know...there isn't really any excuse for not having backups, but still I don't. You gotta be taught the lesson before you learn it, huh...