[stigei]

Hey!

After I turned my powerbook off while it was clearing the trash, I got a very strange start-up bug. When the apple is drawn, there is a black square just slightly overlapping it's top, about the same width and 1/6 of the height of the apple. It just stops there.

I tried:
Safe mode, resetting NVRAM, PRAM (or what it's called), PMU, running the start-up hardware check (no errors), trying to re-install OS (it stops after selecting language), trying to use disk utility (it freezes on "gathering disk information")

After that I tried going into my HD externally through firewire and target mode. That didn't work either. So I got a friend to use DiskWarrior, but it didn't recognize my disc. Apparently, my disc is formatted in UFS format, not NFS, so DiskWarrior is of no assistance.

Anyone got any clue on where to go next to try to solve this issue?

[markponcelet]

This sounds very bad. You tried everything I would have, even reinstalling MacOS. Isn't there an Apple Hardware Test application bundled with your laptop DVD? The "About Apple Hardware Test" file on mine says this:

Restart your computer with the media containing Apple Hardware Test. This should be the same media this document resides on. Hold down the "D" key while the computer restarts.

It says the hardware test will return an error code if something is wrong. I'm guessing you can then google the error code to find out what's wrong.

As for fixing the problem ... well, I dunno. If DiskUtility fails, you may be able to use dd in a terminal window to recover the dead drive. Instructions here. (Read the thread below the article for other leads on how to work with a drive in terminal. Hopefully there'll be some mention on how to reformat the drive using the terminal.)