Help!!!! Os X Won't Boot!!!

[mindbend]

Sorry for the excitement, but I'm panicing.

I restarted my Dual G5 2.7 this morning just to clear out an audio error. It then got to the Apple logo and spinning circle thing. And that's it. I left it for an hour or more.

Things I have tried:

reset P-ram
booted to CD, ran disk utility to repair permissions and repair disk
ran Disk warrior, found lots of errors, rebuilt directory
removed everything connected (usb, firewire, ethernet, etc.)
reset the PMU button inside the computer (but I just pressed it once while machine was off, is there another way?)
removed extra RAM, left default RAM in
removed third party PCI card (extra firewire ports)

Haven't tried yet:

Firewire target disk mode, not sure if I have compatible boxes to do this

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The hard drive chatters somewhat normally. It doesn't exhibit that repeated ca-chunk indicative of a dead hard drive. Plus Diskwarrior seemingly repaired it properly, so I don't think it's a dead drive.

OMFG, help!

 

[mindbend]

Question: Can I reinstall just the core OS onto my drive and keep all my other files intact?

Question 2: Can I install a base OS X on an external HD (firewire) and boot to that so that I can pull all my files off the troubled drive?

 

[Kees Buijs]

Question: Can I reinstall just the core OS onto my drive and keep all my other files intact?

Question 2: Can I install a base OS X on an external HD (firewire) and boot to that so that I can pull all my files off the troubled drive?

1st - use archine and install to do preserve any system stuff to be preserved.

2nd - yes, although starting it might be a bit tricky. Press the ALT key during mac launch to get an overview of the available boot drives. You can also install the external drive with the problemsome mac from cd/dvd.


Good luck, Kees