Ibook won't allow me access

H

hibbyz

Registered
Hi

This should keep you on your toes! I have an ibook 500mhz which I have purchased in a private deal second hand. It was running osX.1.x only (no os9). I needed classic so loaded the os9 software. This obliterated os10 use. The machine worked fine under os9. I then decided I would like to see what osX was all about so reloaded this. The machine promptly refused me any access to system preferences - nothing now works.

It only boots up in X and allows me to log in but denies me any use of applications or utilities. I have tried a variety of ways of restarting the system but to no avail. I've tried rebooting from the os disc but it won't read the disc (every disc I have is unreadable) and pops it out. I've tried to do a targeted firewire mode access, no luck. tried accessing via the root - nothing. I've tried booting from another computer again nothing. Basically all I want to do is wipe the hard drive and reintall the system from scratch but I'm being blocked from every angle. Is there any way of getting around this? Apologies if this doesn't make any sense.
 
I would reload, and partition your drive. ( Mine is 4 gigs for OS9, 15 gigs for OSX and the rest is DATA for back ups ) Loading the OS's on 2 partitions serves 2 purposes.

For one if there is an issue with one OS you can boot into the other and do some repairs -- and / or save your data and reload with out messing up your other partitions.

example; I did some hacks in OSx that imediatly killed the OS... I was like, oh well ~ booted in to OS9 (tooks all my apps and other stuff I needed and put them on DATA Drive) I popped in the OSX cd reloaded and was up and running in 30 minutes ... My OS9 partition never lost anything. I dragged my apps and data off the DATA drive and I was back in business

Second disk utilities work better. cause you can "unmount" the drive and do what you need to it.


Good luck
 
1. Check the discs will read on another mac and aren't scratched or wrecked.

2. Reset the PRAM by holding P and R while switching on the power.

3. Boot from the CD of the OS you are installing by loading it into the drive (don't worry if the system doesn't recognise it yet), shutting down, and holding the C key while you start up.
 
Thanks guys but these are things I've already tried. No one can get the sucker to accept any method of entry. I'm thinking I may need to replace the hard drive and start anew.
 
The ibook will not read any cd's or external hard disks. Apparently somehow the firmware has been password protected by a previous owner. I don't know this password. Is there a command routine I can run in single user mode to get around this? At the moment its looking like I'll have to send it back to Apple to get it unlocked (very expensive) - buying a new hard drive probably won't help.
 
Are there any unix guys out there that can tell me how to figure out what the root user passwd is in single user mode? Be gentle I'm not that unix savvy. Ta
 
Try posting the Unix question in the Darwin forum, you will probably get more answers there.
 
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