Help! My Mac crashes every time I start it up

mrfixitonline

Registered
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???
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
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