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Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 01:32 AM

I've been using OS 10.1.4 full time now. I decided to boot up in to OS 9 and delete some old apps I never use anymore to free up some HD room, then boot back to OS X. I got rid of about 350mb of stuff, hit the startup disk and hit restart to boot into OS X.......Well, when it restarted it just shows a broken folder (that looks like the little computer on the starting up process) and it won't do nothing else. What has happened, I need some help asap. Please don't tell me I screwed up OS X, OS 9 stills works fine, but had to boot from my Diskwarrior cd to get back to 9. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

KidRed · Apr 28, 2002, 01:42 AM

Does the X system folder show up in the control panels in 9? If so, then it may not be too bad. However, if you get the broken folder, that means the computer can't read the system folder. Did you trash anything from the X drive? If so, you need to think about what you trashed and somehow replacing it.

or just boot up from a 10.1 CD and install then update. I don't think you'd loose any of your data (tho I'm not sure how X installs, if you lose or not?)

skipjack · Apr 28, 2002, 01:46 AM

Originally posted by Ivan:
OS 9 stills works fine, but had to boot from my Diskwarrior cd to get back to 9. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Did you run DiskWarrior? Something like that used to happen to me when using OS X public beta, and everything seemed fine after running Disk First Aid on the OS X drive or partition.

Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 10:16 AM

In the control panel the OSX folder is still there, but when I still try to boot into it, at the start of the "happy mac" it throws me the broken folder

When I trashed stuff, it wasn't nothing out of the system X folder, it was just some old apps and I was also trashing old installer log scripts that was all in my HD. This is starting to worry me.

Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 01:34 PM

I also noticed something else. I don't know if it has always been like this, but in the control panel/startup disk, it shows the two folders, one says Mac HD system folder 9.2.1, but the other says Mac HD system 10.1.4 *note it just says system and not system folder*

Does that mean anything?

skipjack · Apr 28, 2002, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by Ivan:
In the control panel the OSX folder is still there, but when I still try to boot into it, at the start of the "happy mac" it throws me the broken folder

When I trashed stuff, it wasn't nothing out of the system X folder, it was just some old apps and I was also trashing old installer log scripts that was all in my HD. This is starting to worry me.

Have you tried this Apple help file?

Apple document on broken folder

Xeo · Apr 28, 2002, 04:03 PM

Please try to use more descriptive topics, just as it says at the top of the forum page.

Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 04:59 PM

That's it, that is what I did, I remember now, I trashed a mach kernal, oh $hit, now what do I do?

Xeo, I don't understand what you are saying. It is OS X related and it is a major problem for me and I'm getting help

Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 05:10 PM

Well that's it, I completely F*** up OS X. And what pisses me off is it is something as simple as deleting the machkernal and automount file. It was on my damn OS 9 HD and I was cleaning it up and the stupid things were just wondering around there in the open and they got trashed. Now I have to completely erase OSX and reinstall it. I can't believe this.....it is so easy to screw up OSX, just by trashing a automount while in 9, I'm so mad, I don't even know what to say, and I'm even out of blank cd's to back my junk up.

karbon · Apr 28, 2002, 05:18 PM

Originally posted by Ivan:
Now I have to completely erase OSX and reinstall it.

Who says you have to do that? You can just install Mac OS X on top of what you already have, nothing will get lost. It's not like it's the end of the world. Will probably take you 15 minutes or so...

jason75 · Apr 28, 2002, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by karbon:


Who says you have to do that? You can just install Mac OS X on top of what you already have, nothing will get lost. It's not like it's the end of the world. Will probably take you 15 minutes or so...

According to Apple, if you are running a newer version of OS X than what's on your install CD, then you need to erase before installing again. You can't install an older version of the OS over the top of a newer version.

If it's the same version, then yes, there's nothing to worry about.

jason75 · Apr 28, 2002, 06:47 PM

Originally posted by Ivan:
Well that's it, I completely F*** up OS X. And what pisses me off is it is something as simple as deleting the machkernal and automount file. It was on my damn OS 9 HD and I was cleaning it up and the stupid things were just wondering around there in the open and they got trashed. Now I have to completely erase OSX and reinstall it. I can't believe this.....it is so easy to screw up OSX, just by trashing a automount while in 9, I'm so mad, I don't even know what to say, and I'm even out of blank cd's to back my junk up.

Actually, OS 9 is just as easy to break. The only difference is that people are more familiar with the files needed by OS 9 than they are with the OS X files.

However, I am surprised that Apple didn't makes those files invisible like all the other invisible OS X files and folders at the root of the drive.

Ivan · Apr 28, 2002, 09:12 PM

Now that the damage is done, what all do I need to back up? I had ALOT of shareware that I had bought and registered and alot of other apps and I want to make it just like I had before I "easily"destroyed everything.

Xeo · Apr 29, 2002, 07:46 AM

Originally posted by Ivan:
Xeo, I don't understand what you are saying. It is OS X related and it is a major problem for me and I'm getting help

From the top of OS X Gen:
Second, use descriptive titles so people know what the thread is about (bad titles include things like "HELP!").

Frankly, there are a lot of people who don't like to click into mystery topics. If you had a topic like "Help, OS X won't boot" that would be a lot closer, even if it's still vague. It's for our sake as much as it is yours. What if everyone did it? Well, it would look something like this.

I hope this makes it clearer.