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BillTchr · Mar 18, 2006, 04:15 PM

Trying to help my mother and her iBook through a crisis...

Her computer all of a sudden refused to start up...gave her the blinking question mark. She started from her install disk that came with the computer, repaired permissions, verified and repaired disk, did the hardware test, etc. Permissions fixed a bunch of things, repair disk and hardware test all OK.

I checked the Knowledge Base articles, and had her try the startup with option key down...she only got the 2 arrow icons, and no system visible to choose from.

When she tries to do an archive and install from the install disk that came with her machine, the Options button is greyed out, and the hard drive has the red [!] icon in it and the message "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. You cannot startup your computer from this volume." She also checked the log after this, and found this message: "Bootstrap_Look_Up (): unknown error code".

None of the information I have been able to find here, or from Google seem to apply to this situation.

Any ideas on what to do?

Thanks for your help,

Bill

Tuoder · Mar 20, 2006, 01:11 AM

This sounds like a hardware problem to me. Was this thing dropped (especially while on)?

BillTchr · Mar 20, 2006, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by Tuoder

This sounds like a hardware problem to me. Was this thing dropped (especially while on)?

No, never dropped. The Hardware Test came back with everything positive.

hookem2oo7 · Mar 20, 2006, 10:25 AM

do you have another mac to try to get your files off using target disk mode?

Tuoder · Mar 20, 2006, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by BillTchr

No, never dropped. The Hardware Test came back with everything positive.

You can still have a head crash and have the computer report nothing wrong. It could have some bad sectors as a result of a head crash. As hookem2oo7 said, it would be a good idea to try to get anything off of it that you can with target disk mode. After that, I would try a reinstall of OSX. That may or may not work. If it does not, I'd say (definitively) that your HDD is (permanently) screwed.

BillTchr · Mar 20, 2006, 07:22 PM

What else might have caused a head crash besides a drop? Mom does not remember anything out of the ordinary happening...it worked one time, the next time she started it, the blinking question mark came up.

It will be a little hard to do the target disk mode, as she is in Rhode Island, and I am in SW Connecticut, but that thought had occurred to me as well...just pull off anything necessary and then start from scratch!

Originally Posted by Tuoder

You can still have a head crash and have the computer report nothing wrong. It could have some bad sectors as a result of a head crash. As hookem2oo7 said, it would be a good idea to try to get anything off of it that you can with target disk mode. After that, I would try a reinstall of OSX. That may or may not work. If it does not, I'd say (definitively) that your HDD is (permanently) screwed.

Big Mac · Mar 21, 2006, 01:52 AM

I'd try Disk Warrior. Does your mother have any backups of her data?

amazing · Mar 21, 2006, 10:06 AM

sometimes the blinking question mark is cleared up by starting in safe mode, when even doing fsck doesn't help.

Hold the shift key down during startup and hopefully after maybe 3-5 minutes the login screen will come up. Has worked for many friends.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393

BillTchr · Mar 21, 2006, 04:37 PM

Thank you! Sounds potentially promising. Is there anything to do in particular once started in safe mode, or do you then just restart normally?

While I'm at it, when/how do you do fsck? Does it do anything different than Disk Utility/Repair Disk?

Originally Posted by amazing

sometimes the blinking question mark is cleared up by starting in safe mode, when even doing fsck doesn't help.

Hold the shift key down during startup and hopefully after maybe 3-5 minutes the login screen will come up. Has worked for many friends.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393

BillTchr · Mar 22, 2006, 05:34 PM

Alas and alack...

Answered my own questions with some further wandering around in the KB articles, and got a phone message that it didn't work anyway. She said it went to a different startup screen for a while, then back to the blinking question mark.

I also got a fax from her with some more details:

When she tried the archive and install, when she tried to select her HD as the destination, she got the message Cannot install OSX on this volume. Cannot start up computer using this volume. Options button greyed out. Error Log Message said "bootstrap_look_up():unknown error code" and Everything Log said (among other things) "Requirement: requires certain Volume Check criteria FAIL for root=/Volume/[her HD], domain=0"

Any thoughts on what this might mean?

She is exploring how she might be able to offload her home folder by FW Disk Mode and start from scratch...Macs are a bit thin on the ground among the people she knows.

Thanks for all the ideas!

intervenetd2 · Mar 26, 2006, 12:29 PM

ok wow this sounds like a similar problem to mine.... BASICALLY I tried to update a powerbook G4 from 10.2 to 10.3.9 and basically I put in my Panther disk and everything....during the installation...around at 18 percent it said disk error and didn't move for maybe 10 minutes so I finally jus held the power button to start over and now It wont get past the very first screen where its grey with the apple logo and the timer thing keeps on ticking around an around. I TRIED TO GO INTO SAFE MODE....and right as I hold shift it says that "you need to restart your compter. HOold down the power button bla bla bla" (it says it in like 3 or 4 other languages so I know if ur a mac user you've seen it. SOOOO now what??

Big Mac · Mar 26, 2006, 06:40 PM

Well sure, if the installation failed 18 minutes in, the OS on your disk is worthless. You need boot from a different drive and backup your data (unless it already is backed up, as it should be) and then reformat or physically replace that drive.