[jbianchini]

I have a three and a half year old iMac, running 10.3.6, that in the last month or so has been giving me trouble, alternately freezing on startup or giving me the message that I “need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button” in four languages. Up until a few days ago I was able to get around this by doing a Safe Boot, but the computer no longer responds to that. I have tried running Disk Utility from the system software disc, but that also no longer is able to fix any of the many problems it identifies. I have also tried starting up in Single User Mode and using fsck (fcsk?), but it also professes to be helpless. It has been suggested to me to use Lsoft Disk Warrior, but I really can’t afford to spend $130 on a program that may not even be able to help. Thus, thed only remaining options are, at the least, reinstalling the system software or, at the most, reformatting the whole damn thing, The main obstacle here, however, is that I have nothing from my 20 gig drive backed up, nor can I figure out how to do so without the benefit of having access to my desktop.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Randman]

You don't have a backup plan in place??? Why??!! Get one. You could try updating to 10.3.7 and see if that works. If not, I'd do an archive and install and start over again.

[jbianchini]

Unfortunately, updating to 10.3.7 isn't an option, unless there's a way to get to the software updater without having to actually start up the system.

And perhaps this is a stupid question, but is it at all possible to archive without having access to the desktop?

[Ayers]

If you can access another Macintosh, maybe you can have the faulty computer on disk target mode?

[jbianchini]

Thanks. That sounds like a good suggestion... but what's disk target mode?

[Detrius]

Originally posted by jbianchini:
Thanks. That sounds like a good suggestion... but what's disk target mode?

Several things here:

Your directory structure is hosed and fsck can't fix it. Neither can Apple's Disk Utility. You have two options: buy DiskWarrior, or format the drive. You have other options before formatting the drive, but DEFINITELY DO NOT DO AN ARCHIVE AND INSTALL! The directory structure is not replaced when reinstalling the OS, so these problems will still be there, and they will likely be significantly worse.

Target disk mode: If this is a firewire iMac, you can boot the machine holding down the T key. This brings up a blue screen with the yellow FireWire logo. This effectively turns this box into a FireWire hard drive. If you then connect the machine to another Mac, it's hard drive will show up on the desktop of the booted/working Mac. You can then (assuming the directory structure isn't too hosed for this to work) copy all of the files you need off the drive.


Another thing to note: Bad RAM will cause all of the problems you have mentioned. If you have an Apple Hardware Test CD, run it. If you find bad RAM, remove it. Then you will still need to format and reinstall.