Re: How best to boot a sick G4 P'mac ?

David Sankey <D.P.C.Sankey@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (J. J. Lodder) wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

J. J. Lodder <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

JohnB <john.brennand@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Was at my father-in-law's today and his G4/400 (10.4.11) wont
boot. It hangs on the grey apple screen with the spinning wheelie
thing. I can hear the hard drive is whirring and clicking but it
never boots up. I had my Tiger and Panther install discs with me
but restarting with either of those in the drive whilst holding
the "c" key didn't work either - same hang on the grey screen.

Any thoughts on what the problem might be and what I should try
next. I was hoping a "repair permissions" might sort it but I am
suspecting it may be more "terminal.

Not necessarily.
The internal disk (directories) may be damaged too much.

Can you explain how that would prevent the machine from booting off a
CD?

Repair permissions will not repair any disc directory damage. You'd
want to try `repair disc'. I do not quite understand what you're on
about myself.

No, I can't, just experience.
I had a G4 that wouldn't boot in any way.
(not from internal, external, CD, or DVD)
Took the disk out, connected it to another mac
through a IDE - USB converter,
let Disk Util do its thing (lots of red at first pass)
Put the disk back, all problems gone.

I'd second Jan.

Have you also had HDD directory damage prevent a Mac booting from
optical, then?

Sounds like disk directory damage and what you're seeing is it running
fsck.

Hmm! Now there's a thought. Could be.

Might be worth seeing if it'll boot in target disk mode (hold down 'T'
on boot) in which case you won't need to remove the disk to attach it to
another machine to go the Disk Util route. That is, if there can be
another machine nearby.

Or leave it booting for a *long* time to see if fsck eventually works
its magic. On some of our large disk systems it can take several hours.

If it's a badly fscked disc (oh dear), fsck can be expected to take a
very long time, I'd guess. So I suppose that means `try leaving it
booting overnight' or similar.

Rowland.

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