[patzoul]

My ibook doesnt startup anymore. I only get a gray screen or a folder with a question when I try to startup. I also have a Power Mac and a firewire hard-drive. I would like to try to recover files from the HD on the iBook. What is the best way to do that?

So far, I wasnt able to boot from a OSX Panther Install CD. I also wasnt able to mount the iBook HD on my Power by starting it while pressing T.

Should I try to boot off of the firewire HD on which I have installed a version of OSX?
Can I force mount the iBook HD on the Power Mac?

[ManOfSteal]

Try booting off the FW drive and see how it goes.

[patzoul]

I installed OSX 10.3.9 on my firewire HD. I could startup from that OS with my Power Mac but on the iBook, when I press the option key during startup, I can see the circular arrow and the right arrow but it doesnt find any OS.

Can my iBook be so dead that nothing works?

[artaxerxes]

Yes. I have had similar issues in the last two weeks.

If the folder icon with the arrow appears - the hard drive is likely borked but the rest of the machine may be fine.

If it 'starts' to a black screen and there is no chime then the whole thing is likely hosed.

[patzoul]

I do hear the chime and get the circular arrow plus the arrow pointing right that normally appears on the screen to select the location of the OS. Unfortunately in my case, no OS folder appears for the iBook or the firewire drive.