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spiff72 · Jul 8, 2006, 09:26 PM

Hey everyone.

I have a 17" PB 1.67 (the one with the original screen resolution) that just started acting strangely.

I started iTunes today to import some songs off from a CD, and first deleted a few old tracks (including sending them to the trash). A few moments later (before I even iserted the CD), a message popped up saying that it was unable to save the iTunes library. I also had a pop up message behind iTunes that said Weatherpop was unable to save preferences.

I closed iTunes, and tried to re-open it, and when I did, the license agreement popped up. I "agreed", and closed it, re-opened, and the agreement popped up again (and again with further restarts of iTunes).

I then decided to try to reboot (bad idea). Now when the computer restarted, the part where it says "Starting OS X" and the progress bar takes FOREVER. Once it comes up, it asks for a name and password. I can't get past this point. I try my username and password, and it won't accept them. It always used to fill in the username, and I just needed to add the password.

It almost seems like it might be a hard drive problem and/or it lost all of my user preferences.

I have already tried booting off from my firewire backup drive, and it seems to keep doing the same thing when I choose my backup partition. It WILL boot, though, from the backup partition for my wife's machine. (This is how I am posting this - booted off her backup).

I tried repairing the HD, and it said that it did do this, but it still won't let me past the login screen.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix? I have already tried accessing the drive when booted off from my wife's backup, but I don't know what to look for.

PLEASE HELP!

mnm2004bft · Jul 8, 2006, 11:19 PM

Hey, I'm not sure if this may help or not, but have you tried Repairing Permissions?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106712

Do the part where it says:

"For Mac OS X 10.2 or later, open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/). Select your Mac OS X startup volume in the column on the left of the Disk Utility window, then click the First Aid tab. Click the Repair Disk Permissions button. You may see an erroneous message."

Since you can't access Mac OS X in the first place, boot up with your Mac OS X installation cd/dvd while holding down the 'C' button. This will boot off of the cd. Disk Utility is located somewhere in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen, I'm not sure exactly where it is, but it's up there.

Sorry I couldn't have been more help, but Good Luck, perhaps someone else can shed more light on this matter

Simon · Jul 9, 2006, 01:25 AM

How full was your drive when the trouble started?

analogika · Jul 9, 2006, 04:33 AM

^^^my thoughts exactly.

Sounds suspiciously like your hard drive ran chock-full.

spiff72 · Jul 9, 2006, 11:03 AM

Thanks for the responses...

I have run the "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions" from Disk Utility on the PB's drive while booted from my wife's backup partition on the firewire drive. The repair disk option did show a couple of invalid names, and an issue with the volume, but it LOOKED like it repaired it.

The disk shows about 31 GB free, so it is definitely not full.

I am going to try digging out my Tiger DVD and run the hardware test.

What I find strangest of all is that I get the same behavior when I try to boot from my computer's backup partition on that firewire drive (which is still 10.4.6. I have upgraded the PB to 10.4.7 since my last backup (at least a month ago).

spiff72 · Jul 9, 2006, 03:22 PM

As much as I don't want to do it, I think I am going to try re-installing Tiger.

I tried the hardware test, and it passed the mass storage test.

I think something in my user accounts got hosed, and it doesn't know what my account name and password are anymore.

I think I need to send it in to Apple again, anyway (the power adapter is only making intermittent connection now (the light in the plug flickers, and changes between 3 colors - green, light yellowish orange, and bright orange).

Are there any utilities that you can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of a drive with for the mac?

Thanks again

Simon · Jul 10, 2006, 01:50 AM

Originally Posted by spiff72

Are there any utilities that you can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of a drive with for the mac?

System Profiler and Disk Utility shows the S.M.A.R.T. status of a HDD.

spiff72 · Jul 10, 2006, 07:18 AM

Well...

I gave up and have now re-installed Tiger. All is well again, but I am still working on re-installing all of my software.

This seemed like a very strange "failure". Perhaps I should have posted this in the Mac OS forum instead of the PB one!

I did look in the System Profiler, but it says that the SMART status isn't supported for this drive.

spiff72 · Jul 10, 2006, 07:35 PM

Update:

I found out about the password reset utility that is on the Tiger install DVD.

I tried it out on the backup partition of my firewire disk and oddly enough, it shows that there are NO ACCOUNTS on the drive. Not even root.

The other partition (my wife's backup) showed that she had her normal account and the root account.

How can this happen?? And how can it happen to BOTH my backup which was a month old, and to the PB??