URGENT: Pismo won't boot!

amoryaamorya
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My Pismo won't boot anymore.



I was installing Riven to see if it worked, as my friend's copy appeared to be damaged. So, I perform the install (in Classic, under 10.1), and she's right, it doesn't run. Namely, it asks for disk 2 then won't accept it.



Well, I guess it might be an OSX/Classic problem, so I decide to boot into OS9. I change the startup disk, then click Restart. It quits some apps then hangs, as it sometimes does. I force restart, and get a flashing ??.



I've tried:
  • Zapping the PRAM. No luck

  • Installing OS9 on an iPod and trying to boot off that. The pod sits there saying OK to Disconnect. (There's no special key to press to boot off firewire is there?)

  • Restarting on an OS9 CD (holding C). No CDs will start, except one called Apple Hardware Test which pops up a box saying "Not compatible with your machine - restart?" - all the rest still go to the ??

  • Holding down option at startup - no disks appear

  • Connecting the pismo to an imac and trying firewire disk mode - the iMac is silent. But as soon as I remove the connection, the iMac says "Unreadable volume - open disk utility?"

  • Tried going into open firmware and resetting the NVRAM - no luck

What can I do? As is always the way, I need to finish some assignments for tomorrow which are stored on there... (there's no negotiation, it's an exam board deadline that my college has no control over - I don't get it in, I fail.) My backups are a few weeks old, and some things that I've done over Christmas are not backed up.



I have access to a number of bootable CDs... OS9 ones and 'Software Restore' ones. I can't find my OSX ones - if I do, I'll have a set of 10.0 disks and the 10.1 upgrades.



Any suggestions?



Amorya

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    hmm, that's a pretty impressive list of things you've tried.



    with the iMac in target disk mode, you turned off the pismo, plugged them into eachother, then turned it on and held down the "T" key?



    from that you then get nothing, is that right?



    if so, you might want to open up the disk utility on your iMac. it sounds like it can see the other machine, but just isn't mounting the drive. let me know if it can see your pismo or not.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    [quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:

    <strong>hmm, that's a pretty impressive list of things you've tried.



    with the iMac in target disk mode, you turned off the pismo, plugged them into eachother, then turned it on and held down the "T" key?



    from that you then get nothing, is that right?



    if so, you might want to open up the disk utility on your iMac. it sounds like it can see the other machine, but just isn't mounting the drive. let me know if it can see your pismo or not.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah, that's what i did for target disk mode. I got a floaty firewire symbol on the Pismo screen, but nothing on the iMac.



    I did open Disc Utility, but it hung (no disks appeared) until I disconnected the Pismo... when I disconnected it, I got a message about an unreadable drive (from the OS not disc utility) and then the iMac's partition mounted in disk utility like normal.



    Amorya
  • Reply 3 of 7
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    BTW, I've never used Target Disk Mode before... I'm using the cable that came free with an iPod, because it's the only one I have. That should work, right?



    Amorya
  • Reply 4 of 7
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    yes, that works. do you have access to a copy of Drive 10 ?
  • Reply 5 of 7
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    [quote]Originally posted by Defiant:

    <strong>yes, that works. do you have access to a copy of Drive 10 ?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    At the moment, I have no disk utility programs. I've been recommended DiskWarrior, so I might end up buying that...



    Amorya
  • Reply 6 of 7
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    check your pm's
  • Reply 7 of 7
    slick501bslick501b Posts: 54member
    Hi, I have had the exact same problem several times. What you need to do is boot into the OSX disk and use the disk utility that is included and repair the disk.



    You don't need to reinstall X, just use the disk utility. It's in the upper left menu.



    [ 01-06-2003: Message edited by: slick501b ]</p>
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