Major Major Issue!! Please Help...

Y

yfnb707

Registered
So the other day I'm on my mac g4 using Pro-tools(music program). Then the session freezes like usual, so I hit the power button to turn it on and off. But this time once it turns back on, all I see is the a gray screen. And in the middle of the gray screen is a folder with a question mark? This gray screen with a folder and a question mark been the same since day one of this fiasco.

I have no idea what to do? I really need to fix my computer to atleast transfer music files. PLEASE ASSIST! Thank you!
 
That screen you are describing means the computer can't see any hard drive to start up. If you have your original install disk for the operating system you are using put that in and start up.
Select your language.
Ok everything until you get to the first screen with the toolbar on the top of the screen. Then select Utilities>disk utility
run the repair program that is there.
Then Quit the installer. you do not want to actually install anything.
When you start up again everything should be ok.
If you cannot open the disk drawer to put in you disk start up holding the left mouse button down. It will then open the drawer for you during attempted start up.
Good luck
R
 
1st off thank you for responding!

Only thing now is I just moved, so now I'm looking for the start up disk. Couple questions? Is this a major problem? And what caused this to happen?
 
Did you jar the machine cause the physical palters in the dive to go out of alignment? Was the drive shock proof?

Boot with the install disk and us the disk's Disk Utility application (you can get to from the install menu) and test/repair that drive.
 
Another question... so in case I can't find my start up disk can I use my brothers? He owns a mac also?
 
Yes, if your computer will boot to it, your brothers startup disk should work.

Another option worth trying is to boot into single user mode:

1. Shut down the computer if it is on.

2. Press the power button to start the computer.

3. Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and the "s" key (Command-S) - you should now see a black screen with white text.

4.at the #, type fsck -y -f and press enter - if it shows errors, then keep
entering fsck -y -f at the # until it does not show any errors.

5.type exit at the # and the computer should boot into GUI mode
 
Last edited:
yfnb707 said:
So how did this happen? And how can I prevent this from happening again?
Click to expand...
My guess is that it was caused by unplugging your computer. You may prevent your problem by never doing this again.

To kill a misbehaving app:
  • Click its Dock icon and select Quit. If this does not work, then
  • Click +[opt]+[esc] to bring up the Force Quit dialog box. Select the misbehaving app to kill it. If this does not work, then
  • Press the power switch before until it shut downs the computer.
 
yfnb707 said:
So the other day I'm on my mac g4 using Pro-tools(music program). Then the session freezes like usual, so I hit the power button to turn it on and off...
Click to expand...

If you normally expect your computer to freeze 'like usual', then you have to force the system to shut off - that's just not good on your hard drive, and the system. System freezing is NOT normal, and you should then expect more problems if the freezes continue on a regular basis. You will begin to get some damage to your hard drive directory, and possibly corrupt some of your major system files. This problem does not fix itself, and will only get worse over time.
Booting to your install disk allows you to try to use your Disk Utility to repair the hard drive. You may find that you have problems that DU will NOT fix, and you would need a repair utility that is more specialized, such as Disk Warrior.
 
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