Internal 25 GB HD Of 1999 G4 Won't Allow Booting

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hi all... A friend of mine was working away on his 1999 Power Mac G4 and all of a sudden the Finder gave an error (saying that the Finder needs attention). He's running under Mac OS 9.2.1. The computer then froze... so he simply restarted. Then.... all seemed to go well but he was presented with the floppy disk icon with the blinking question mark. He calls me in a panic and comes over. While still on the phone though before he came over he tried to boot from his PowerMac G4 System Restore CD and it gave him an "unimplemented trap" upon startup. I used Norton SystemWorks on his G4. It doctors it and it finally mounts the drive... All seemed to go well.... BUT.... the internal drive still won't boot and it always resorts to either the Norton CD or my OEM Mac OS 9.2.1 CD. He's in a panic because he's got work on there that has to meet a deadline of this Wednesday. We've so far salvaged some data off the drive... but it still won't boot.



Can anyone help [us] ?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    Try a 'clean' reinstall. It may be that the hidden partitions w/ OS9 HD drivers are fuXxored, and I believe by default OS9 installers 'update hard disk drivers'



    Hope this helps.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    He can't. All the stuff on there is crucial.... We're not able to back up the data well because the OEM OS 9 CD doesn't have drivers for a CD Burner.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    nanonano Posts: 179member
    dose it have fire wire isn't there some key to hold down to make it an external drive? dunno if this helps
  • Reply 4 of 10
    Nano. Yes. I tried the "T" key method and it didn't work.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    No, I mean instead of installing a new Sys folder on top of the old one, have it back up the old Sys folder and start anew.



    The point is that it may be the disk drivers. The only way to fix those is by installing Mac OS over again. (make sure 'Update Apple Disk Drivers' is selected, you may need to click and 'advanced' button on the install window.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    big macbig mac Posts: 480member
    I would get a hold of Alsoft's Disk Warrior, since I swear by it. Norton doesn't have the greatest reputation; Disk Warrior saved me from a similar hard drive issue that prevented me from booting. Th point is there may still be hard drive damage. If your friend simply wants to attempt a clean install, that can be done. He may wish to get a Firewire dive to boot off (if any are available) so that he can continue working before doing anything else to the drive. (You should also ensure that he's made backups of his data.)
  • Reply 7 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Big Mac

    I would get a hold of Alsoft's Disk Warrior, since I swear by it. Norton doesn't have the greatest reputation; Disk Warrior saved me from a similar hard drive issue that prevented me from booting. Th point is there may still be hard drive damage. If your friend simply wants to attempt a clean install, that can be done. He may wish to get a Firewire dive to boot off (if any are available) so that he can continue working before doing anything else to the drive. (You should also ensure that he's made backups of his data.)



    Would updating the hard disk driver using Drive Setup help? And does anyone know what could causes this to happen? Could it have been a virus? Norton has always worked well for me... and last night it was the only thing that could make the drive recognizeable and mountable.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R

    No, I mean instead of installing a new Sys folder on top of the old one, have it back up the old Sys folder and start anew.



    The point is that it may be the disk drivers. The only way to fix those is by installing Mac OS over again. (make sure 'Update Apple Disk Drivers' is selected, you may need to click and 'advanced' button on the install window.




    Heh. Sorry I misread and/or misunderstood your post. It was late and my friend was stressed though relieved somewhat. He doesn't wanna take ANY chances. I'll run that idea to him... I'll see what he says and I'll let you know what's up. Thanks all.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    big macbig mac Posts: 480member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Proud iBook Owner 2k2

    Would updating the hard disk driver using Drive Setup help? And does anyone know what could causes this to happen? Could it have been a virus? Norton has always worked well for me... and last night it was the only thing that could make the drive recognizeable and mountable.



    Updating the hard disk driver wouldn't accomplish anything. The cause of this issue is system software corruption. Anyone who has used the classic Mac OS for any long period of time has likely been faced with the type of crash that damages OS components, requiring a reinstall. Usually a question mark on start-up (conveying that a system folder can't be found) means a system software reinstallation is in order, and clean installs are the best option. In my thirteen plus years with the Mac OS, I've probably done about six to eight clean installs. (I probably wouldn't have needed to do as many if I had owned Disk Warrior earlier on, however.) The only viruses one really has to guard against on the Mac are Word macro-viruses, which only can strike if you're using MS Word. Other than those macro-viruses, there hasn't been a major Mac virus in quite a few years. Obtain Disk Warrior and see if that helps; otherwise either reinstall the system software from the Mac OS CDs or boot from another hard drive. (Remember to use the Mac OS CDs rather than the System Restore discs to perform the clean install.)
  • Reply 10 of 10
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    In any case, if you're able to mount the drive using an alternate boot partition (such as a cd), you should be able to get his stuff off of there with a simple little ethernet cable to, say, your ibook? I know for a fact that the OS 9 boot cds have the necessary extensions and control panels installed on them, so that should work.



    Other than that... once you get the stuff off of there, best thing to do would be a reformat and reinstall. Does he need a lot of apps that might take a long time to reinstall? He could just work with a base system and one or two apps till that deadline's met, and then go from there. As far as I can tell, I'd agree with those here who say this is software corruption (in that the boot blocks of the drive got messed up by something, not the drive hardware), and, for me, Systemworks in OS 9 has been kind twice out of three accidents. Diskwarrior is supposed to be the fix-all of all problems. Surely you have some that lying around somewhere?
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