Help a Mac user in Manalapan, NJ

L

lexf

Registered
I'm on vacation.

We're at my fiancee's home in Manalapan, NJ, a far cry from home in Los Angeles. I'm supposed to be telecommuting via my TiBook. We watched a movie in OS 9 on the airplane (better battery life than X), and OS 9 crashed and burned at the end of the movie.

Now I need a boot disk. I don't need to steal yours, I just need to borrow it for thirty seconds so I can boot into X, X.2, or even 9. No installations needed. When I start from a CD, I can tell the TiBook to boot from my non-corrupted OS X system folder and be good to go.

None of the other fixes are working, here. Trust me: An OS X or OS 9.2 and higher CD will start my Mac.

My startup disks are in LA. I've learned my lesson. Please help me out. Private message or email me if you can hook me up in or around Manalapan. I'll come to you, or we can meet in a public place. Your startup disk, thirty seconds, and I'll be done. I'll buy you coffee!

Thanks.

-Lex
lexf@thefriedmans.net
 
maybe you should detail what the 'other fixes' are so we can be sure you haven't missed one.
 
Fair enough.

The Mac crashed while shutting down in OS 9 with very little battery power left. On restart, it displayed the Folder icon with the flashing question mark/system folder icon. That message means, of course, that the Mac can't find or doesn't know which system folder to use to start up.

So I started up holding down X. No dice.

I started up holding down Option, to pick which OS to boot into. I get the proper buttons, but not the right display to select an OS.

I tried to start from old boot disks that neighbors had -- 8.6 and a G3 install, but the TiBook nees 9.2 or higher.

I also tried prayer ;)

I'm open to other ideas, but I even caved in and called Apple Tech Support, and their parting advice was: Get your hands on a startup CD and you'll be all set. I'm back in LA in two weeks and have my Jaguar CD there, but that doesn't help me here. And since my fiancee uses PCs, you know I can't get any real work done using these boxes!

-Lex
 
sounds like a bad jam. hopefully someone can help you. but i guess as a last resort you could always break down and invest in a repair app that includes a startup disk - never a bad investment anyway. (unless you get norton)
 
this sounds like the pram was corrupted when u'r shutdown failed

(if u haven't tried this already)

zap the pram

turn it on, and hold down apple, + option + P + R

you will here a chime.

you may want to do this 2 or 3 times consecutively

hopefully it's this & not system software corruption.

good luck.
 
I had reset the P-RAM, and couldn't boot into single user mode.

Neither system folder was being found, and neither would be till I got a startup disc.

I went to a CompUSA, but they claimed to be using their Jaguar install CD on a slow G3 in the back. Tried a few other computer stores, and then finally at some PC Warehouse where they don't even sell Macs, a Mac-using manager had his iBook there and let me power up from his 9.2 CD.

I selected my 10.2.3 system folder as the place to start up from, and now things are working smoothly again.

Thanks all for the advice.
 
glad to hear you're back in business. so i'm guessing a copy of a boot disk is going to be added to your packing list in the future :D
 
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