[opticNERVE]

Hello everyone,

Today I powered up my Mac but nothing happened, it didn't start up like it usually does. What I saw was the dreaded blinking folder icon with the question mark and the MacOS logo.

I didn't do anything to my Mac prior to turning on my Mac today, whether it'd be software/hardware installation. I don't understand why this would happen because I didn't do anything differently.

I booted into OS 9 with my CD so I can choose the OS I want to boot into. First I tried OS 9, after that 10, but it still didn't work. This is the only thing I could think of doing. When booted into OS 9, I see that all of my programs and files are intact as they were before my problem.

Someone on the other forum that I posted on said that I should zap my pram. I don't know what pram is, let alone know how to zap it. Can anyone out there show me how to do this? The same person suggested that I unplug everything, then plug it back and boot up from the CD. What's your take on this?

I have tons of school projects on my Mac that needs to completed by the deadlines. Please, I would appreciate any feedback and instructions on how to start up my Mac again. Looking back I should've backed up anything, but really didn't think this was ever going to happen.

Thanks in advance, and eagerly waiting to get onto my Mac again.

Sincerely.

Karl

p.s. I have a G3 B&W 350 with Mac OS 10.15

[Nobody]

All your files are intact. If something is broken that maybe your system folder. Usually ? means that Mac cant find your system installation. TRy booting from Norton or Diskwarrior or OS 9 install disk and then use aid programs.

Zapping pram is

appleoptionp+r on restart

[ 11-23-2002: Message edited by: carson ]

[Nobody]

Don't panic!! The same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. This is what I did :-

Into System Preferences >> Startup Disk >> select which OS disk you want to use (in my case OSX) then click restart. This fixed my problem, maybe same for you.

Hope this helps.

[Nobody]

ANother way:

during start up, press x. If you have 1 hard disk, then X installation should boot.

[opticNERVE]

When can boot up from both the OS X and OS 9 CD. I ran Disk Aid many many times on both. I got an error message saying;

"Problem: Invalid sibling link, 3, 28
Test done. Problems were found, but Disk First Aid cannot repair them."

On other forums, other people also suggested that I use Diskwarrior. Is it like Norton Utilities? I used Norton last year and it made my Mac worse. What can Diskwarrior do for my Mac?

I also chose my start up disk, I tried both OS 9, then OS X. Still the same logo/question blinking.

As for pressing x on start up, unfortunately that didn't work.

Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it.

Any other suggestion out there?

Karl

[Nobody]

DiskWarrior is much much better than Norton.

[conky]

DiskWarrior is much much better than Norton
======================================

I agree with the above. But one thing Norton does have that Diskwarrior does not is a defrag program. Granted you should never really need that defrag program for OS 10 but it is nice to run it (maybe) once a month.

[Nobody]

quote:

---

But one thing Norton does have that Diskwarrior does not is a defrag program.

---

Actually, if you got Disk Warrior on CD, it does come with a defrag program, called PlusOptimizer.

[Nobody]

Before doing any more troubleshooting, I would boot back into OS 9 using the OS 9 boot CD you initially used to get access to your hard drive. Then I would copy all documents, important files, and the User folder to another disk or CDR. Once you have got all of your important files and information backed up then you can go back to the troubleshooting. Try running Disk First Aid from the OS 9 CD again and if this still does not work, try it from the copy on your hard drive. Other than that you will have to use a 3rd party disk utility.

One other thing you might try, is shutting down your computer then booting with the Option key held down. This should bring you to the startup menu to choose your bootable drive. If your disk is still bootable you should be able to boot into either the OS X system or the OS 9 one.

Good luck,
Chris

[Nobody]

As previously mentioned above, Diskwarrior from www.alsoft.com will repair an invalid sibling link, which is an error in your disk directory file.
Many people believe the error is related to Appletalk, sometimes it is.
basically the error is reated to some sort of interupted network service. It could be a crash while communicating over a network or a crash during an internet session...
In any case DW should fix this for you.
Jim

[Nobody]

If you use a Repair Utility and the problem continues then reinstall your system(s). You might want to write down your Internet settings (TCP/IP) or other 'system' settings first.

It could be much worse (drive not mounting after CD startup).

[ 11-25-2002: Message edited by: surtur ]

[opticNERVE]

GOOD News!

I can't believe! it, I lucked out! My Mac boots up normally again. Nope, I didn't run Diskwarrior or any other utility like that.

Anyhow I tried almost everything (except for Diskwarrior) and nothing worked. I just booted up from OS 9 and started backing up my files. I had backed up about half of what I wanted then shut down my Mac when I went to school. When I powered up my Mac again, it started up normally. I didn't do anything other than backing up and deleting what I didn't want. I guess it was a certain file that was the cause. I'm still going to buy Diskwarrior anyway.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Karl