[Aiakos]

Hey guys... I need help. I was trying to reinstall my OS because I kept getting the file with a question mark in it on start up. So I put in the OS 10 disk I got with my 700 mhz Ibook and now it won't even recognize the partition to install a clean version of the OS to. HELP ME... what do I do?

Thanks,
Sean

[Big Mac]

Your disk has been corrupted. The first thing to try is Disk Warrior, and if that doesn't work and you don't have a backup, Data Rescue II.

Incidentally, what was the last thing you did before you found you could no longer boot?

[Aiakos]

i forget... its been a couple of days. It's a work computer so I don't need the info on the drive. I don't care if it all gets wiped, I just want to be able to use it again. So you don't think I will need a new hard drive?

[Big Mac]

No you don't need a new drive - the chances are it is a relatively minor problem. If you don't care about the data on it, boot from a Tiger disk and reformat the drive. There is, however, a chance that there's a real problem with the drive that could recur. I'd do the reformat and reinstall (or preferably restore from backup) and just check to see if any unfixable drive problems are found by the software.

[Aiakos]

Ok, so how do I get it to recognize the partition. I went for a clean install and it doesn't see any partition to save it to.