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TICKET ARCHIVE -> PowerMac G5 won't boot

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 12:13 pm

On powerup I see a flashing finder symbol alternating with a folder with ? inside.

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 3:36 pm

Hello bjlatt,

thanks for using macosx.com. I will be happy to try and help you.

That symbol means that the Mac cannot find the System to boot up.

Have you by any chance booted from a CD/DVD or some external drive before this happened?

My first suggestion is to boot the Mac while holding the Alt (also known as Option) key. This should bring up a little graphic showing any hard disk/DVD/CD that the Mac can "see" at this point...

If you can see a drive with the Mac OS symbol on it select it and try to boot the Mac...

If the Mac boots from the "alt/option" select a disk mode go to System Preferences (under the Apple Menu or from Applications - where it will look like a light switch) and make sure that the main hard drive 1) shows up, 2) is listed as having a usable OS and 3) is chosen as the boot disk/partition.

Alternatively if the above doesn't work... boot the Mac with the system installer disk that came with it (put in the disk and boot the Mac holding down the C key) and once it boots go to the menus and look for the Disk Utility, open that and run the "repair disk" Try and reboot the Mac. Hold down the mouse button to make it eject the disk so it will look for an internal HD

If these don't work come back to me and we will explore more options


If you ca

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 5:14 pm

Thank you for your response. When I attempted to boot using the alt/option key I received a screen with a refresh symbol and a forward arrow. When I clicked on the forward arrow nothing happened. It did not show me any drives that had a system symbol.

I attempted to boot using the install DVD. The system went straight to installation. When it attempted to locate a drive for the installation nothing was showing. I suspect that my HD has bit the dust, because the system is not recognizing it.

Anything else I might try before I replace the HD and resintall?

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 5:40 pm

OK, bjlatt

Did the "Open Firmware" boot screen show any disks at all? With or without the OS symbol? From what you say I am guessing not.

I have to say I feared this might happen, boot with the installer and it will go to the install screen, look in the menus for the Disk Utility, this should then launch. Try to use the repair or even partition if you are desperate...

If that cannot see the internal HD at all you do have serious problem... if it sees it but cannot fix it you have a slightly less serious problem...

I have retrieved an apparently totalled HD by using a linux install for PPC before now - but lets not go there just yet...

Do you have any tools like Tech Tool or Disk Warrior? Sometimes they can salvage the situation.

I will be online for several hours now (I am in the UK...) so come back and we will explore the options if you have no real joy.

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 6:19 pm

I used the Install disk, went to disk utility, selected the HD, and selected repar disk. It attempted to repair the disk but returned and error message. It indicated Invalid record count and Volume check failed. It indicated that 1 volume could not be reapired because of an error. What are my next options? thank you for your help, we have a considerable time difference between us.

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 7:12 pm

Yes we have a time difference
but I stay up late anyway especially on a Weekend..

OK the returned message indicates the HDD is damaged in a way that the disk Utility cannot repair...

First of all do you have backups or otherwise have a situation where you can just wipe the HD using the partition or format options from the Disk Utility?

Is there stuff on the HD you really need to recover?

if not we will explore the reformat options

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 7:16 pm

Unfortunately there a few items that I need to recover, they are items that I haven't backed up. I do not have Disc Warrior or Tech Tool.

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 7:50 pm

OK,

right now you need to consider how badly you need to recover these items

I mean like $100 of
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
or
http://prosoftengineering.com/products/data_rescue.php

I am not saying the data can't be got back any other way... but in my experience, with the symptoms you are describing that is pretty much where you are at... and of course even they might not be able to salvage much if the disk has gone totally toasted...

Data Rescue has a demo you can download and possibly try if you have an external way to boot the Mac... (Like by mounting the disk in Target Disk mode -this requires another Mac though)

If you think it is not worth $100 you will most likely have to bite the bullet and consider putting it down to experience.

There are things you could try if you have access to a Mac that could add your drive as a 2nd HDD but not many

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 7:57 pm

I appreciate your help. I think for right now I am going to replace the HD, and possible later attempt to retrieve the files, using this HD as a 2nd drive. I don't know how to use Target disk mode; I do have 2 other older Macs at my disposal.

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 8:10 pm

OK

target disk mode requires you to have 2 Macs with firewire... you boot the "target Mac" holding down the T key till you see the firewire logo on the screen then connect the FW cable to another Mac that should see the Target Mac HD as an external... of course if your Mac won't boot at all that won't work... you could try to boot it into target mode to see it it is possible...

FWIW I had a Mac HD that reported as toast and would not even reformat with the installer or Disk Utility - I recovered it (to usability not the data) by using an Ubuntu PPC installer... this reformats the disk into a totally different format...then I was able to boot it with a Mac installer and "re reformat" it back to HFS+ and reinstall from disk and back ups... and yes that was my last ditch before submitting and buying a new HD - but I knew the disk in question had been fine before a particularly bad Kernel Panic crashed it big time...

Bear that in mind if your disk reports being unable to be either recovered or reformatted... disk drives are cheap it is true - but not so cheap as to be "throwaway".

Sorry I couldn't help more right now

If you are happy that there is no more to be said I will close this ticket... if you wish me to leave it open I am happy to do that too (so you can get back to me if you wish) - it will expire in 3 days if no one makes any comments...

bjlatt - Jul 27, 2007 - 8:35 pm

I attempted Target Mode and received a warning that the device I connected could not be read by this machine. I am going to work with this further. I would like to keep this ticket open, however, I probably will not do anything further this evening. Thank you for your patience and assistance; I will touch base with you later to report anything new.

Serenak - Jul 27, 2007 - 8:39 pm

OK I can open the ticket to other techs if you wish - one may have ideas I don't or I can just leave it for now...

good luck whatever - sorry I can't do more from here...