I am so glad that I happened across this forum, just hours before I went home and somehow damaged my computer enough that it no longer boots up from the hard drive. Forgive me in advance for being longwinded, I'm trying to think of everything you might need to know to answer this question.
The system: Grape G3 iMac, 400 mHz, 320 megs RAM.
This weekend, I installed OS 10.1 and 9.2 to run classic apps. Installation appeared to go smoothly, with all programs running well. I did not partition the hard drive or do anything other than a basic installation. Prior to this I was using 9.1
Later I downloaded and installed several updates from Apple, including 10.1.1 and a new Airport update that I unfortunately did not get the name of. I do not use Airport. I also installed a hack driver to run my Epson Stylus Scan 2000, making a copy of the ORIGINAL driver that was there and leaving it in place. The hack driver worked. I downloaded Norton Firewall for OS X because I use DSL. Those are the only changes I've made to the OS.
Since installing the new system, I could not sync Avantgo with my Handspring. So I decided to remove Avantgo from my computer and from my Handspring, since I don't use it much anyway. Avantgo says you must restart the computer after uninstalling their application. I did so. Now, my computer will not restart from the hard drive. Instead, I get a blinking question mark in a disk icon. The computer also makes a sound as if the hard drive is spinning up and shutting down, spinning up and shutting down, with a clunking noise at the same time. I turn it off rather than let it continue doing this.
I ran Disk First Aid from the OS X disc. It verified the disk and indicated that there were some problems, but I could not click button to "repair" the disk; it was greyed out. I then ran Disk First Aid from the 9.2 disk. It also indicated there were some problems, and that they were repaired. However, the computer still will not start. Both disk first aid programs seem to indicate that there is no problem with the hard drive.
My questions:
1. Normally in a situation like this I would just reinstall 10.1. However, Apple says specifically NOT to reinstall 10.1 if 10.1.1 is on the system. What should I do?
2. Is this a problem that could be avoided by partitioning the disk or doing some other kind of preventative measure?
3. Would it be wise to do something drastic like erasing my hard drive and installing everyting completely fresh? I know I have a lot of duplicated programs and probably other odd stuff floating around.
4. If a clean installation is advisable, then how can I store my Quicken files, my pictures from my digital cameras, my writings, and other important things I have stored on the hard drive? I have a Imation USB drive, but I don't know if it's supported under OS X.
Thanks in advance for any help you can lend -- I do hope I've been specific enough.
The system: Grape G3 iMac, 400 mHz, 320 megs RAM.
This weekend, I installed OS 10.1 and 9.2 to run classic apps. Installation appeared to go smoothly, with all programs running well. I did not partition the hard drive or do anything other than a basic installation. Prior to this I was using 9.1
Later I downloaded and installed several updates from Apple, including 10.1.1 and a new Airport update that I unfortunately did not get the name of. I do not use Airport. I also installed a hack driver to run my Epson Stylus Scan 2000, making a copy of the ORIGINAL driver that was there and leaving it in place. The hack driver worked. I downloaded Norton Firewall for OS X because I use DSL. Those are the only changes I've made to the OS.
Since installing the new system, I could not sync Avantgo with my Handspring. So I decided to remove Avantgo from my computer and from my Handspring, since I don't use it much anyway. Avantgo says you must restart the computer after uninstalling their application. I did so. Now, my computer will not restart from the hard drive. Instead, I get a blinking question mark in a disk icon. The computer also makes a sound as if the hard drive is spinning up and shutting down, spinning up and shutting down, with a clunking noise at the same time. I turn it off rather than let it continue doing this.
I ran Disk First Aid from the OS X disc. It verified the disk and indicated that there were some problems, but I could not click button to "repair" the disk; it was greyed out. I then ran Disk First Aid from the 9.2 disk. It also indicated there were some problems, and that they were repaired. However, the computer still will not start. Both disk first aid programs seem to indicate that there is no problem with the hard drive.
My questions:
1. Normally in a situation like this I would just reinstall 10.1. However, Apple says specifically NOT to reinstall 10.1 if 10.1.1 is on the system. What should I do?
2. Is this a problem that could be avoided by partitioning the disk or doing some other kind of preventative measure?
3. Would it be wise to do something drastic like erasing my hard drive and installing everyting completely fresh? I know I have a lot of duplicated programs and probably other odd stuff floating around.
4. If a clean installation is advisable, then how can I store my Quicken files, my pictures from my digital cameras, my writings, and other important things I have stored on the hard drive? I have a Imation USB drive, but I don't know if it's supported under OS X.
Thanks in advance for any help you can lend -- I do hope I've been specific enough.