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Impossible blinking question mark problem
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Oberlin, OH, USA
Status:
Offline
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Okay, here's the deal. I was working on my computer, and it crashed. So I pressed cmd-control-power. The next thing I see is the blinking question mark.
This is the second time I've had this problem. The first time, I fixed it by fooling around in Open Firmware and setting the boot-device to something I knew wouldn't work, but for some reason it did. However, at the moment, the internet connection is down and I don't remember any of the commands.
I try booting off the Norton, DiskWarrior, and System CDs and running Norton, DiskWarrior, and DFA, but nothing even recognizes the drive. I can't even reformat it.
Next I try booting off the OS X CD and running Disk Utility. Again, same problem. Can't even see the drive to reformat it.
I try pressing T at startup to put the system into FireWire target mode. This doesn't work. The system just shuts down. Instead, I decide to put my desktop into FireWire target mode. The iBook then boots fine. When I start it up, the drive is recognized by Disk Utility, but with some weird name and with a capacity of 0 bytes. pdisk will not read /dev/rdisk0, and I can't manage to open it either.
Now, the internet connection comes back up. I boot into Open Firmware, and try setting the boot-device to various things, but none work. The system just flashes the question mark and system folder.
I've tried:
setenv boot-device hd:x,\System\Library\CoreServices\BootX
Where x is from 0 to 15. Nothing works.
I'm sure the drive works, and I'm sure the system isn't corrupt, but it's not working. I'm thinking it's probably a corrupt partition table, but I'm not sure, since the drive really doesn't work at all. Any ideas?
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Oberlin, OH, USA
Status:
Offline
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Forgot to mention, it's DiskWarrior 2.1 (not 3) and runs in OS 9.
I also tried the hardware test CD, and it doesn't say there are any problems.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Connecticut
Status:
Offline
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woah...you did everything under the sun..
but reset the PRAM 
anyway, from everything i've read it sounds like the HD is dead...how can you be sure its working? the most compelling argument for it being dead is it not showing up in OPEN TARGET mode...
might be time for a new HD...i know i just replaced my mom's in her iBook
and she had all the same symptoms 
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Oberlin, OH, USA
Status:
Offline
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I suppose I didn't reset the PRAM, but I reset the NVRAM from Open Firmware and it didn't help.
Well, it happened once before, and then for no particular reason it started working again. That and it was working just fine until the computer crashed (mount_webdav crashes the computer when a connected server is no longer available). I suppose it's possible it just died on me then and there, but it would be odd. The reason I think it may be a partition map problem of some kind is that according to this lack of OS 9 drivers can cause a similar problem.
Perhaps I should try pulling the HD out tomorrow and putting it in my G4 to see what happens. Anyone know a good guide for opening up an iBook?
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