Help with my friends mac! PLEEEZE

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Blackout76

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My friend forced me to use his mac to complete a DEADLINE oriented video and I'm sooo a PC person. I had the thing up and running for two days and everything was going fine. Then this morning...it crapped the bed! He's up state at a wedding and tells me I need some disk that he can't get to me until he gets back which will be too late.

Basically, when I start it....the screen stays grey and I hear some activity inside the computer then, eventually, a folder will come up and flash a mac face and a question mark at me. There it will sit till I shut it down.

Oh lord, can someone please help me. Like I said, I'm a PC person and so far I'm not converted to this whole "easy mac" thing. I would love for someone to show me where I'm incorrect right now! Thanks for your help in advance!
 
The question-mark indicates that the computer is unable to find a system folder on the drive.

Not knowing anything about your friend's computer, other then it's probably machine with os9 on it.

Try holding delete+option+control+shift when you start the machine up. This will force the system to look to another drive.

This might work, if you mistakenly changed startup drives. But chances are that's not the problem, there's probably something wrong with the system folder, perhaps it's even missing.

The disk your friend was talking about was probably the System CD, which you can always boot to in the event that you have corrupt data on your drive preventing you from starting up.

If your friend knows his mac, and there's no reason to suggest he/she doesn't, then they are probably aware of everything I told you.

The good news is that this is a computer operating error, and your project is still intact on the computer's hard drive. You just, for the moment, have no way of getting to the file.

My advice is to try to find a startup disk, startup from it and copy your project to another computer (or drive).

If you're in a pinch, you might also try zapping the p-ram. This is completely harmless to the computer, and it has been know to fix startup issues.

To zap the p-ram, hold command (that's the key with the apple on it) + option + r + p

Restart the machine and hold all those keys. Hold those keys until you hear the computer chime two times, then let go. Make sure you have the sound on before you restart so you can hear the chimes.

The machine's p-ram should be reset.

If it worked, your computer will start up. If it didn't you'll see the question-mark folder again.

I hope this helps, good luck!
 
First let me thank you for your quick response and especially considering my curt attitude...I'm sure you can sympathise my situation. I have tried your suggestions but unfortunately there is no change. I do however know that he is using OSX if that is any help at all. I did however, locate another friend of mine who is a Mac user who has a start up disc he said I could use. He also knows my friends system a bit. Once he gets this disc to me...what do I do with it? You said that I would reboot the machine from this disc. Will that fix the problem? Can I then shutdown, remove the disc and begin again normally without it? Thank you again in advance!
 
Once he gets this disc to me...what do I do with it?
Click to expand...

Insert Disc. Restart. As computer is starting up, press-and-hold the letter C. Let go once it has become obvious that the sad mac won't be showing up any more. When computer has completely started up, go to the menubar... look for DISK FIRST AID. Select it. Choose to have the disk repaired. Be careful not to end up erasing your buddy's pr0n... :)

Once the hard drive has been repaired... restart the computer without the disc (press the mouse button as the computer restarts, and that should eject the disc). Come back and tell us how things went...
 
Thanks again for responding. I will get the disk in the morning (that in and of iteself is taking some doing) and I'll run the CD as you said. Of course now he's telling me he has some thing that I'm picking up called system works. He said to run that first. I just don't want to format his drive and lose all of his and my work.

Seriusly though...I was forced to use his Mac...we just finished filming a paintball video...which will be in stores in 5 weeks if I can get this fixed! He took all the tape and captured it on a 4 Macs with Final Cut Pro and transfered all the footage to external firewire drives. I have a fully functioning (and battle tested through 3 separated videos) Avid Xpress DV system on my PC. Since I'm not about to recapture ALL 80 HOURS I was forced to use his Mac. Acutally I find the functionallity between ALL non-linear editor so similar that I can pick up any of them in couple hours. I didn't even know Final Cut...but they're all functionally the same. You just have to figure out what their particular icons look like. When functioning...it edited quite well. But currently I'm SOL. With great thanks to you guys I could be back up and running soon though! Thanks again!
 
Originally posted by Blackout76
Thanks again for responding. I will get the disk in the morning (that in and of iteself is taking some doing) and I'll run the CD as you said. Of course now he's telling me he has some thing that I'm picking up called system works. He said to run that first. I just don't want to format his drive and lose all of his and my work.

Seriusly though...I was forced to use his Mac...we just finished filming a paintball video...which will be in stores in 5 weeks if I can get this fixed! He took all the tape and captured it on a 4 Macs with Final Cut Pro and transfered all the footage to external firewire drives. I have a fully functioning (and battle tested through 3 separated videos) Avid Xpress DV system on my PC. Since I'm not about to recapture ALL 80 HOURS I was forced to use his Mac. Acutally I find the functionallity between ALL non-linear editor so similar that I can pick up any of them in couple hours. I didn't even know Final Cut...but they're all functionally the same. You just have to figure out what their particular icons look like. When functioning...it edited quite well. But currently I'm SOL. With great thanks to you guys I could be back up and running soon though! Thanks again!
Click to expand...

...this "problem" is really easy to fix :D BUT... If the thing your friend said is Norton System Works:
-> CAUTION <-

I've seen Macs that were perfectly working until someone used Norton System Works on them :mad:

Anyways, let us know what gives after using ONLY Disk First Aid... :rolleyes:
 
Like hulkaros said, don't use anything other than those discs provided by Apple, unless they don't do the trick, after having tried them. There shouldn't be a need to format.
 
I concur with the previous posts. Norton used to be the end all system utility for the macintosh, but they've had some serious issues with their osx versions.

heed caution when using Norton, as one of the "issues" that has been reported on this forum is that it messes up your file structure, which requires the drive to be reformatted.

To your point, I've done a little video editing myself (I started on an Avid system) and I've also found the editors to be similar enough to pick one up on the fly.

If you're on an osx machine, the machine might have os9 installed. You could always try to start up to that system. Of course, you won't be able to do anything with Final Cut Pro, but it might give you some satisfaction to see your file intact.

If you hold the option key down during restart, you should be prompted for all of your startup items. If I remember correctly, you can toggle between the os9 system folder and the osx system by doing that.

Of course that will only work if your friend happens to have os9 AND osx in their system. That is increasingly becoming a rarity, as most osx users have "killed" os9 as soon as they could.

Lastly, I know what it's like being forced to another platform, I think all of the regular members of this forum could relate. Apple users are forced to use PCs all the time. I'm really sorry that your experience with the macintosh was so, well, crappy. I know the frustration to be on another system and to think, "If I was only on my machine, where I feel comfortable, I'd know how to fix it."

Well, I hope we can -- at least -- help you fix it. :)
 
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