Please help (ibook died...)
I came across this site when trying to diagnose my dead ibook; I'm very impressed by the expertise of those who post. Having said so, I'm at wit's end with my ibook.
I've read other postings on this site where similar problems to mine have been addressed, and I've tried all of the solutions I could find. I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to give me some advice (though I'm an inveterate mac user, I'm the village idiot when it comes to anything beyond basic technical knowledge)
Here's my problem:
My G4 800 ibook won't reboot. The problem started a few days ago when it re-booted very slowly a few times, then I got the dreaded "flashing globe" which wouldn't complete the re-boot, so I went into Disk Utility on the startup disk, switched the startup disk from the one with the question mark over it to my regular 10.3 Panther, and still nothing happened. Upon trying to re-boot with the 10.3 Panther choice instead of the one with the question mark, the flashing globe was replaced this time by the perpetually spinning "clock" beneath the apple logo on the startup screen. My warranty has recently expired, and I'd like to fix this without great expense. I had a similar flashing globe problem during the time my ibook was still under warranty, and had to have the harddrive replaced. If this is the case again, I will not be leaving another post here, as I will be jumping out the window! Help....please!
Here's what I've tried:
-disk utility (repaired permissions--successfully--tried to repair disk, but got an error message saying it had an "incorrect key length" and that the hard drive needed to be repaired.....in ominous red letters)
-zapped pram (nothing changed)
-single user mode (/sbin/fsck -fy, which prompted an message which read "Can't find Library")
--Archive and Install (the startup disk seemed to perfom half of this task before an error message read "Can't perform Installation: please try to re-install")
One of the suggestions someone here gave (for a similar problem) was to try to press the "t" button on startup and use a firewire cable to connect to another mac, and thus transfer all of my files before doing a clean install. I haven't tried this yet, and wanted to know if this is a good course of action given my computer's symptoms.
If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful.
Thank you.
I've read other postings on this site where similar problems to mine have been addressed, and I've tried all of the solutions I could find. I wonder if anyone would be kind enough to give me some advice (though I'm an inveterate mac user, I'm the village idiot when it comes to anything beyond basic technical knowledge)
Here's my problem:
My G4 800 ibook won't reboot. The problem started a few days ago when it re-booted very slowly a few times, then I got the dreaded "flashing globe" which wouldn't complete the re-boot, so I went into Disk Utility on the startup disk, switched the startup disk from the one with the question mark over it to my regular 10.3 Panther, and still nothing happened. Upon trying to re-boot with the 10.3 Panther choice instead of the one with the question mark, the flashing globe was replaced this time by the perpetually spinning "clock" beneath the apple logo on the startup screen. My warranty has recently expired, and I'd like to fix this without great expense. I had a similar flashing globe problem during the time my ibook was still under warranty, and had to have the harddrive replaced. If this is the case again, I will not be leaving another post here, as I will be jumping out the window! Help....please!
Here's what I've tried:
-disk utility (repaired permissions--successfully--tried to repair disk, but got an error message saying it had an "incorrect key length" and that the hard drive needed to be repaired.....in ominous red letters)
-zapped pram (nothing changed)
-single user mode (/sbin/fsck -fy, which prompted an message which read "Can't find Library")
--Archive and Install (the startup disk seemed to perfom half of this task before an error message read "Can't perform Installation: please try to re-install")
One of the suggestions someone here gave (for a similar problem) was to try to press the "t" button on startup and use a firewire cable to connect to another mac, and thus transfer all of my files before doing a clean install. I haven't tried this yet, and wanted to know if this is a good course of action given my computer's symptoms.
If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful.
Thank you.
Comments
It is very worrying that fsck didn't work.
It could just be a bad block tho.
A full format can fix this (as can fsck normally).
Are you able to try disk warrior as this is super with fixing index and inode problems.
Dobby.
I really appreciate your assistance.just have to run out and buy a new firewire cable...again, thank you in advance for the time and effort!
Thanks for the tips; I learned alot.
Here's what's happened:
I am now getting a "S.M.A.R.T. status failing" warning (I know--gulp--what this means).
I ended up--with your tips--using Firewire as a slave drive to a friend's G5, thus saving all of my data (hooray), reinstalling system software again and again (it kept dying), finally learning how to make a bootable disk, upon which I installed Diskwarrior and Onyx.
Question: anticipating the death of my harddrive, I used the bootable disk to run Diskwarrior and try to rebuild my bad blocks, etc. but it wouldn't complete a rebuild, saying that harddrive's death was imminent and that I should back up all data (already done). Should I therefore just buy a new drive now, or wait for it do die? (I've been told that the S.M.A.R.T. status warning is not always accurate) Can I have a drive from my old 500 G3 ibook transplanted to my current 800 g4 ibook in order to save some money?
My ibook is no longer under warranty so I'll have to pay for the replacement........but for the time being my ibook is working like a dream, and all vital data has been backed up.