Help! My Mac crashes every time I start it up

[mrfixitonline]

Hello. I have a B&W PowerMac G3 running OS X 10.4 - I went to start it up yesterday, just like I always do. It got to the white/grey screen with the grey apple in the middle. Then, all of the sudden, out of nowhere, the apple was covered up by a large black rectangle, and the computer froze.

I have a lot of important files on this computer, and, although its old, I need to be able to use it. I don't have the 10.4 install DVDs anymore, so I'm not sure what to do. I do have 10.2 install cds, but I don't want to have to use those, because they would have to erase everything on the G3.

What can I do???

[bobw]

See if you can boot in Safe Mode, holding the Shift Key down while you boot.

Try FSCK;

To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:

1. Restart your Mac.

2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.

You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).

You're now in single-user mode.

Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:

1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y) (without the quotes)

2. Press Return.

The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:

3. Type: "reboot" to restart,

or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.

4. Press Return.

Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.

[mrfixitonline]

It started up in safe mode.

I also started it up with the Command+S, and it started scrolling really fast, but then it froze, and nothing happens after that.

What should I do now?

Thanks...

[mrfixitonline]

Or is there anything I can do in safe mode to make it go back to the way it was?

[ashbradshaw]

take it to one

[mrfixitonline]

umm... besides that.

[bobw]

You need to get a 10.4 disk. Then you can boot from that and try running Disk Repair, or do an Archive & Install if necessary.

You should always have the System disc for your system.