Mac won't start up from HD...

[audioferrit]

Hi,

My G4 won't start up !!

I was downloading a small (2 MB) .pdf file last night and left my Mac and went to sleep.
When I tried to wake it in the morning, it froze (not that un-common) so tried a forced re-start. It now only gets as far as the old Mac SE icon and the mouse disappears ??

I tried 'restoring in place' the System Software from my Software restore CD, that didn't work. Then I tried Restoring a complete standard set of System Software from the CD, which also hasn't worked. I've deleted any apps I've installed over the last day or so, got rid of extensions etc, what could it be ?????

It starts up fine from the CD, but not from the HD, which is only 2 weeks old !!!!

Any ideas please !!

Jon
_____________________________________
Jon Bennett // Interactive Designer
jon@ASnative.com // ASnative.com // UK

[rockmeister]

What do you mean by the Mac SE icon, do you mean that the little mac classic icon flashes with a floppy disk icon with a question mark?

Does the hard disk appear on your desktop alright when you boot up from the CD?

Have you done a complete reinstall of the system software from the 'Software Install' CD where it moves the old system folder and replaces it with a completely new one?

[audioferrit]

Yeah,

It's that icon but it's not flashing between the folder and ? (that means the system doesn't have a blessed folder I think) it just hangs and does nothing.

I've tried re-installing my entire OS from CD but it didn't work, but I still get the same problem with the cursor disappearing and it just hanging.

The drive shows up fine on the desktop when I boot from the CD. I can move, delete files / folders, I've run Disk First Aid etc.

When I tried re-installing the OS, I did it from the software "Restore" CD rather than the software "Install", would that make a difference ??????

What do you recomend ???????

TIA

Jon
_____________________________________
Jon Bennett // Interactive Designer
jon@ASnative.com // ASnative.com // UK

[Urbansory]

My system crashed 3 times over the past 2 years since I bought my G4. With the flashing icon, the restore worked, but recently a crashed forced me to wipe my harddrive. I used norton to retrieve all my data to a new hard drive and after reinstalling my OS and all my apps, those saved files were damaged. The file directory became damage, so there was no way for me to open the right file.

I also left my computer on the night before the crash, I can not recall the other 2 crashes circumstances. I know i filled my hard drive while exporting a large video clip.

Whatever you do, do not defrage your hard drive until you back up that data, then ,ake your repairs. Good luck.

[SJT]

Try-

zapping the PRAM, hold down apple-option-P-R during startup, wait for your mac to chime 3 times.

Force scan for bootable Hard Drives; apple-option-shift-delete during startup.

Have you tried cold starting your machine?
(turning it off completely, then starting it up, instead of just restarting)

[me2222]

Another option:
Shut down your Mac, unplug the power cable, open the Mac. Next to the battery there's a little button, press it some seconds (the location may differ depending on the Mac model). Then remove the Battery for some minutes. Replug the battery and the power cable. Start your Mac.

If that all doesn't help its time to backup important things and reformat your HD.
I recommend installing the latest OS (9.2.2) and updating the HD driver to the latest version (from drive setup shipped with OS9.2.2).
There's also a firmware update for G4's available.

good luck
m