G4 has "lost" the system folder

G

granas

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Hi guy's, back again. Having played around with my newly aquired G4 for the last week, I seem to have "done" something that is stopping OSX from starting up. All I'm getting is the flashing question mark folder. I have tried the usual FSCK thing - which irrespective of how many passes I perform never comes up with the "volume is OK" message. Also tried the "safe mode" which still wont start anything off, and I cannot get the damn thing to force start into OSX with the "X" key.

So....simple question, given that I bought this system S/H and have no system disks, can I take the Tiger disc home from work (I know this will not install on my system) and use the disk utility by booting from this CD? - or will my mac simply refuse as it's not it's "own" system disk?.
 
Since 'searching' is currently disabled at 'macosx.com' I cannot view any of your past posts, and thus I am unaware of the version of MacOS X currently (or assumed) installed on the (unknown model) PowerMac G4. That said ...

... 'S/H' ?, are we to assume 'software and hardware'? I can understand abbreviations [Q codes, etc.] when communicating via morse code, even those who text message; but, when conveying a problem / question - on a web page?

It is best to boot from an installation CD / DVD, or external volume (hard disk drive), which has the same version of MacOS X as that being tested / repaired on an internal, or other external, volume. So, if the PowerMac G4 has 'Tiger' installed - then yes, you can boot from the work DVD and run 'Disk Utility' from it.

As far as '(I know this will not install on my system)', and not knowing your hardware and MacOS X version, this statement is most likely incorrect.
 
S/H abbreviation for Second Hand.
I have a Powermac G4 533 DA system running OSX 10.2 - and as in my previous post, because it is "Second Hand" I do not have any system discs. As for your slightly pedantic comment:
"As far as '(I know this will not install on my system)', and not knowing your hardware and MacOS X version, this statement is most likely incorrect."

I do know that it will not install - primarily because the Tiger disc I have access to is a "bundled with" version and thus not installable on any other system. I appreciate that I do not know anything like as much about macs' as you obviously do - but that does not mean I am an idiot - I regularily use/install Linux, and have wasted many a happy hour compiling my own "flavour" of kernel for myself, So I would appreciate it if you would simply level with me - rather than falsely assuming i'm some kind of "dumbass" newbie. My particular question did not require that you knew what version of OSX I was using, it was a feasibility question for running the Disk Utility to rescue my system.
 
granas, have you tried starting up your mac holding down the option key? This will give you options on which system folder to start up from. If you don't get any options, you may need to come up with a Startup Disk of some kind. Another option is to connect that mac to another via Firewire and run it in Target disk mode and run a diagnostic app on it for bad B-Trees/Volume Headers. Good luck and let us know what does and doesn't work. I apologize for barhar's lack of patience. :) Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for your "human" answer nfxmedia, I tried a Tiger install disk last night, as to be expected it complains and wouldn't install, but it will let me use the Disk Utility - which when run, complains of orphaned files and cannot continue with the repair. I have absolutely no idea how this problem started in the first place, but I think the only course of action now would be to buy Diskwarrior - although given the price I've decided to add "Tiger" to my list to Santa instead and work from a clean install. It means 19 more days without my mac - but it'll keep me occupied on Christmas day :D

Oh, and strangely enough, the disk utility couldn't mount my system partition, whereas using the option key on startup brings up my system disk....strange, but true..
 
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