I think my iBook just died

Eddieg311

Registered
ok i'm going to make a long story short. If you require more details in order to help me out...just ask



starting yesterday my mac stopped booting up correctly. I tried almost every trick in the book to fix it.

It doesn't seem to be a hardware problem since i ran a hardware test. I wasn't able to boot in safe mode.

I tried to do an ARCHIVE and INSTALL but i didn't have enough space in my harddrive. So my cousin tried to delete some folders for me using his tiny knowledge of Linux............he got frustrated and simply turned it off, when i turned it on again i didn't even get the grey apple screen. I just got the grey screeen.

I tried holding down option to try to boot from the disc and it freezes, i think it can't detect my harddrive anymore. I duno what's going on
 
Long reply shorter.

Never let anyone with 'tiny knowledge' of Mac's and / or MacOS X, touch your Mac.

Boot your Mac in Target mode, and backup (transfer to the host Mac) what you can.

Boot the iBook with your MacOS X Installation CD / DVD inserted and the <option> key pressed. When permitted, select the Installation Disc’s icon and then the '-->' button. During the installation process - click on the 'Options...' button, select 'Erase and Install', and continue through the installation process.
 
I managed to boot up using the disk. I held down C at boot. I tried doing an archive and install and when the select destination option came, the computer couldn't find the drive
 
Hi Eddie G, no, it doesn't kill the RAM, it resets the power memory unit. This usually resolves issues with startup, etc. However your problem sound more software related. I suggest zapping the PRAM. The PRAM is temporary memory. It will not harm your machine in any way. Hold down the following keys just after pressing the power button: "Command (Apple), Alt, P, R" and continue to hold down until you hear the startup tone... continue to hold down those keys until the machine restarts 2 more times. Other possible difficulties could be RAM, or power. Is your machine an iBook or iBook G4? Also, I suggest you follow Barhars suggestion and boot the machine holding down the "T" key which will effectively turn your machine into a firewire hard drive. Connect the laptop to a desktop machine, archive off data and go from there. I feel you have too much information on you machine... OSX requires usually at least 3-5gb of free space to operate correctly.
 
chrisreina said:
Hi Eddie G, no, it doesn't kill the RAM, it resets the power memory unit. This usually resolves issues with startup, etc. However your problem sound more software related. I suggest zapping the PRAM. The PRAM is temporary memory. It will not harm your machine in any way. Hold down the following keys just after pressing the power button: "Command (Apple), Alt, P, R" and continue to hold down until you hear the startup tone... continue to hold down those keys until the machine restarts 2 more times. Other possible difficulties could be RAM, or power. Is your machine an iBook or iBook G4? Also, I suggest you follow Barhars suggestion and boot the machine holding down the "T" key which will effectively turn your machine into a firewire hard drive. Connect the laptop to a desktop machine, archive off data and go from there. I feel you have too much information on you machine... OSX requires usually at least 3-5gb of free space to operate correctly.


thank you for your suggestions
if i have no way of seeing my files now.....what would lead me to beleive that when i do the firewire transfer, i'd be able to access my files that way?
can i do this with an ipod?
or will i need another mac?

I too beleive the problem started becuase i had too much stuff in my harddrive.
 
Nope, you'll need another Mac that will mount your iBook as an external FW drive. *IF* the iBook's harddrive's still readable, that will let you back things up in order to do a clean install on the iBook afterwards.
 
fryke said:
Nope, you'll need another Mac that will mount your iBook as an external FW drive. *IF* the iBook's harddrive's still readable, that will let you back things up in order to do a clean install on the iBook afterwards.


ok thanks

I need to find another Mac user in this country :-(
 
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