Crashed in OSX
I just bought a new iMac, which is also my first experience with OSX. All in all, I love it. But...
After having it for about a week, somehow I hurt the system, and got the awful blinking question mark in the disk when I tried to start up. It's being repaired at TechServe in New York, but I'm hoping someone out there will have insight into what I did that was wrong, so I don't repeat my mistake.
In the days prior to the crash, I had installed various OSX and system 9 applications: OSX--Microsoft Office, Stuffit, MacLink, Virex, iPhoto, Palm. System 9--Quark, Photoshop.
All was going very well.
Then I installed a program needed to upload photo's into my Palm, which is called MGI Photo Suite. I installed it into the System 9 applications folder.
Right after that is when the system went down.
Any thoughts from anyone on why? Also, just before the crash, I had tried to print a photo from iPhoto to my printer, which never made it there, and never even showed up in the queue.
Much thanks for any insight.
After having it for about a week, somehow I hurt the system, and got the awful blinking question mark in the disk when I tried to start up. It's being repaired at TechServe in New York, but I'm hoping someone out there will have insight into what I did that was wrong, so I don't repeat my mistake.
In the days prior to the crash, I had installed various OSX and system 9 applications: OSX--Microsoft Office, Stuffit, MacLink, Virex, iPhoto, Palm. System 9--Quark, Photoshop.
All was going very well.
Then I installed a program needed to upload photo's into my Palm, which is called MGI Photo Suite. I installed it into the System 9 applications folder.
Right after that is when the system went down.
Any thoughts from anyone on why? Also, just before the crash, I had tried to print a photo from iPhoto to my printer, which never made it there, and never even showed up in the queue.
Much thanks for any insight.
Comments
When you get the blinking question mark, that means that the computer can no longer find the system software it uses to start up (the OS). If you're running only OS 9, you can reinstall the original CD and boot up from it by holding down the "C" key during startup, I believe. I haven't had this problem with OS X, so I'm not sure if the same thing applies with the OS X CD. It probably does. Once you do this, you can reinstall the system software (a clean install is recommended in this case).
Your problem is not based on hardware... unless something's wrong with your hard drive. If it's a newer Mac, however, a bad hard drive probably isn't the problem. It sounds like something you installed hosed your system.
I suggest shelling out about $50 or so for a good Mac book, preferably one with a good troubleshooting section. A simple book will often help you out better than any utilities software ever could.
I learned this leason when I installed OS 9 drivers after booting into OS X, figuring that the iMac would realize this and simply start up OS 9 for the install and away we'd go. The end result was a clicking disk and a flashing question mark. I eventually had the Apple Store Genius Bar repair things for me.