low-level formatting
Alright, so I guess the only thing I can do now is get my hard drive formatted and see if that cures it. Someone I don't remember suggested I low-level format it. Now I've never done it before and I've read on various places that doing so actually can have negative effects on the disks, rather than "clean" them. So my first question is: is it *advisable* to low-level format (rather than normally partition and format) a laptop's (iBook, 750fx/700 MHz, 12 inch, 20 Gig hard drive, Summer 2002) hard disk?
Second, since I can't get Mac OS X booted any more at all and don't have any Mac OS-related CDs for emergencies here (such as the installation CD), what's the suggested way to do either?
1) do it from the OpenFirmware (if that's possible - after all, some x86 CMOSes let you do that)
2) get some free emergency CD and do it through that
3) get a Linux LiveCD and have it do that
I wouldn't mind living with Linux for a while so I wouldn't mind the third option.
Second, since I can't get Mac OS X booted any more at all and don't have any Mac OS-related CDs for emergencies here (such as the installation CD), what's the suggested way to do either?
1) do it from the OpenFirmware (if that's possible - after all, some x86 CMOSes let you do that)
2) get some free emergency CD and do it through that
3) get a Linux LiveCD and have it do that
I wouldn't mind living with Linux for a while so I wouldn't mind the third option.