Startup problems in OSX (10.3)

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feckless2k1

Registered
Hi guys, I've been having a few panther woes today, hopefully someone here can help!
Last night when I got home I tried to wake up my iBook from sleepy mode, but it would only give me a black screen. Everytime I pressed a key it would beep angrily at me. This lasted for about 10 minutes until I decided to reset the laptop. This was fine except that when starting up, osx freezes on the screen with the apple logo and the little 'loading' disc that spins round (not exactly freezes, the disc still spinds, its just wont progress any further). I tried booting in safe mode (holding down shift) but it doesnt help.

Any ideas? I dont have my restore discs with me (left them at uni so I have no way of reinstalling the OS) and I need to get into my work thats stored on there. (Does using the restore discs format the disc or just erpair the installation?)

thanks for the help
 
Rather than using the restore CDs, use the OS X install CD, but not to install. Start up with the CD, then go to the Installer Menu>Disk Utility and have Disk Utility find and repair any problems. (do not click on the installer screen)

or invest in Disk Warrior or Drive 10. It is a bootable CD and will be able to do the repairs.
 
Techtool Pro 4 would probably be a better choice than Drive 10. That or Diskwarrior as Cheryl said.

Doug
 
I don't know how, but sometimes when you have this kind of problems, if you start up holding down command, option, r and p keys all together and hear your mac starts twice with these keys down everything runs OK. Sometimes if you use Disk Utility repair permissions you can solve this problem.
Francisco
 
Command-Option-P-R for fransico

Feckless - did you have anything connected to the PB when you put it to bed?

Try booting into Single User Mode and running fsck

To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:

1. Restart your Mac.

2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.

You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).

You're now in single-user mode.

Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:

1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y).
(If you're running Panther, v 10.3, then type this "fsck -f"

2. Press Return.

The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:

3. Type: "reboot" to restart,

or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.

4. Press Return.

Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
 
Hi
thanks for the info, i tried running fsck from single user mode, and it said the file system was modified so I ran it again and again but it still said it after ~15-20 goes, and osx still wont start up. Also it is the same set of files coming up (says they're overlapped or something?).

If i type 'exit' from the unix prompt it gives me a lot of starting up babble but then hangs on the message 'cannot connect to default windowserver,' and then it will repeat the message every few minutes.

Should I continue funning fsck or should I get a copy of osx (there are 10.3 restore discs floating around on ebay for £15ish).
 
bobw said:
Get a System disk and reinstall the system reformatting the drive.
Click to expand...
Thats something id really like to avoid, id lose things like my work, but more importantly my photos and music (some but not all backed up :( ) So if there are any more ideas?
 
feckless2k1 said:
Any ideas? I dont have my restore discs with me (left them at uni so I have no way of reinstalling the OS) and I need to get into my work thats stored on there. (Does using the restore discs format the disc or just erpair the installation?)
Click to expand...

You probably will need your install DVDs/CDs to make any progress. Your install DVD/CD #1 can be used to repair disk and permissions. It also will format; however, you don't need to do so in order to repair disk and permissions.

I have heard of cases where individuals, in circumstances similar to yours, have been able to startup in firewire target-disk mode (FTDM) and salvage their files. You might try to do so. Saving your files probably ought to be your highest priority. FTDM is something of a long shot at this point. For instructions on FTDM, do an advanced search here on firewire target disk mode.
 
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