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Apple notebook G4
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: San Diego,California
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I have a problem with my notebook, when starting,nothing comes on the screen except a small file with a face and changing to a ? mark, can you help me?
regards
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Moderator  Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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Your computer can't find a valid operating system on the disk. If the machine has worked previously and now has this problem, there may be an issue with the hard drive. Back up that drive (if it isn't already) ASAP. You can then reinstall the operating system. But if there is a drive problem and you reinstall, know that the drive could completely fail.
Might be time to look for a new drive or computer.
Steve
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Celebrating 10 years and 4000 posts on MacNN!
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Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Land of Enchantment
Status:
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_Steve is right, the question is, how do you even get to the drive. But first, try this: reboot holding down 4 keys Option+Command+P+R which resets some stuff that can get corrupted. If all goes well, you'll here a chime, do it 2 more times and see what happens. If you can boot, backup first thing before you do anything else. If this does not work, do:
Start up from the original Install DVD. Do this by restarting while holding the Option key, this should bring up bootable volumes. Your HD pro won't show, but it's a small diagnostic step. Select the DVD, boot and then see if the HD appears in Disk Utility. If it does, try a repair. If not you will need special software to attempt data recovery, such as DiskWarrior or TechToolPro.
Do and post back, we're here 
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
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The drive quite probably is dead, but there's a small chance disk recovery software like Disk Warrior could save it. An OS 9 installer once crashed and managed to stomp on my disk catalog so badly that my iBook restarted to a question mark, but Disk Warrior saved it. No reinstall necessary. The very same stock hard drive is still in that iBook, and if I bothered to turn it on it would boot up-after 12 years.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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