Help! Premature Powerbook Demise!
When I boot up my G4 PB, it sticks on the grey screen, at the point before the spinning grey circle appears. I figure that I might be able to fix this with a software restore, but the PB drive is also not reading any disks - it whirrs loudly and spits them out. Anyone know if it is possible to boot the G4 from an external drive, or using an iMac G5? Many thanks.
Comments
This was obviously the point when I discovered the problem with the disk drive not accepting any media. Hence the need for booting from an external drive. A bit of a 'catch 22' situation.
What I need to find out is a) is it possible to boot from an external drive, b) if it is, do I need to input a set of key strokes to activate the boot up (bearing in mind I can't see the on-screen instructions, and c) is there a way I can control the PB from elsewhere so I can see what I am doing (eg another monitor, or my iMac G5). I have treid rigging my PB to an external monitor, via S-Video, but again only the grey screen appears, so this seems unlikely.
Thanks for your feedback, any more would be most welcome. Cheers.
1. Zapping the PRAM
2. Resetting the nvram
3. Booting with the Option key down to get the Boot Selector firmware screen?
4. Booting into single-user by holding down command-S during boot?
So, at present, have managed to log into firewire target disk mode and the PBook icon is on the G5 desktop. Opened disk utility to repair & verify the disk but when I attempt to do anything on the PB, an error appears: "Verify and Repair disk ? ?
Repairing disk failed with error Could not unmount disk"
An additional problem is that Filevault on the PB is turned on. At present, the only folders I can access are apps, library, system and users.
1. Is there any way I can log into my account on the the PB?
2. Is there any way I can view the PB desktop on my G5?
3. How can i run a disk check with the above error?
4. Is it possible for me to log into system preferences on the PB (NOT the G5) to turn off filevault on the PB. Apple's site seems to suggest this is possible but doesn't say how
Many thanks for your help
com.apple.loginwindow.plist
and
com.apple.windowserver.plist
from /Library/Preferences .
Booting into single user doesn't work?
To do any of the things you mentioned on the Powerbook (remote login, etc), it would have to be booted, and from what you describe we have to get it booted first.
There is a bug in Disk Utility, there are a couple of ways around it. First (what we've been doing) is to simply keep trying. After about the third try it will unmount the disk and go. The second option is to select the disk and click unmount a few times until it finally becomes gray. Then try doing the repair.
Good Luck!
Originally posted by stan
If I follow the path Powerbook - library - preferences the folder is empty! Even more confused now!
Me too. There is no Preferences folder in /System/Library/, so that isn't where you are looking.
Is there ANYTHING in the /Library directory (folder)??
And for some reason you absolutely cannot boot off the system DVD?
And now there's worse news! For some reason, when I boot pressing the T key now, the G5 is telling me that 'the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer'. If you choose 'initialise', disk utility opens, but the PB icon does not appear.
This is driving me nuts now. Is there someway to run thge software restore from another machine? Or anything?!!!
Thanks for your help and patience
Stan
Stan
However, when I boot up the PB I still see only the grey screen. I presume this is because there is no operating system installed on the machine, so I still need to know how to install OSX onto the PB from the G5. I have installed the PB SW restore disk into the G5, but if I try to run it, it does not let me specify a volume, it just asks me to restart the machine to install. I have no way of knowing if it is going to reboot the G5 or the PB, so at the moment I'm not risking it. Looking for advice again chaps..!
Many thanks
Stan
Many thanks,
Stan
Originally posted by stan
Any ideas chaps? I'm stuck now!
Many thanks,
Stan
You know how to boot into FireWire Target mode, right?
Hold down T on the PowerBook as it boots until you see the FireWire logo moving back and forth.
Then boot to the CD on the other machine by holding down C as it boots. When you get to the installer, just tell it to install onto the PowerBook (which it will think is a FireWIre drive).