Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 02:15 PM

Since yesterday my powerbook doesn't boot anymore. At least not how it should do it. Something really awkward happens:

1) The light-gray screen appears, but without the dark-gray apple in the middle
2) This takes some minutes
3) This is the weirdest thing: after a couple of minutes you'll see two icons alternating after each other in the middel of the gray screen. First an icon appears that looks like a mac os9 folder with the finder icon on it, then a mac os9 folder appears with a question-mark on it. Then the folder with the finder appears icon again etc.. etc.. They keep alternating. This keeps going on forever until I reboot.

Anyone knows what's wrong or how I can fix this?

pat++ · Nov 21, 2004, 03:19 PM

Try to reset the PRAM (press command-option-P-R during startup until the Mac reboots).
Let us know if this helps.

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 04:25 PM

Nope

I'm pretty sure I have a hardware problem. Before this happened sometimes there were coming loud clicks out of my powerbook and everything would beach-ball. Rebooting often solved the problem though.... until now.

CharlesS · Nov 21, 2004, 04:46 PM

Are you able to boot from a CD?

If so, does your drive mount on the Desktop?

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 06:01 PM

Tried to search on internet and this forum how to boot from a cd, no luck yet. Can you explain to me how to?

CharlesS · Nov 21, 2004, 06:10 PM

Put the Mac OS Install CD that came with your PowerBook into the CD drive, then start the machine up while holding down the C key.

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 07:11 PM

When I try it it starts the installation process...

The odd thing is that when I try to change the boot-hard drive my hd isn't listed, only the install cd or 'from network'. The same with disc utility...

CharlesS · Nov 21, 2004, 07:31 PM

Hmm, if the disk doesn't even show up in Disk Utility with an option to reformat it, the drive mechanism may indeed have croaked...

You might try running DiskWarrior just for the hell of it, but if the drive's not even being recognized by the system, even DiskWarrior may not be able to help. If this is the case, you may have to get the hard drive replaced.

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 07:53 PM

Do you think my data can be recoverred?

CharlesS · Nov 21, 2004, 08:00 PM

Originally posted by Ilja:
Do you think my data can be recoverred?

That's a good question. Your best bet is probably DiskWarrior, but if the drive is damaged at a hardware level, no software will be able to help. There's also the shareware Data Rescue. However, if Disk Utility isn't even giving the option to erase the drive, there's a good chance the disk's hardware may be damaged...

Ilja · Nov 21, 2004, 09:29 PM

that doesn't sound too optimistic

CharlesS · Nov 21, 2004, 09:33 PM

Originally posted by Ilja:
that doesn't sound too optimistic

Well, I'd give DiskWarrior and Data Rescue a try, just in case (DW is a good tool to have around anyway). If anything can recover your data, one of these two utilities likely can. Beyond that, I'd just repeat the standard advice which is to back up your data in case things like this happen...

Tsilou B. · 03:08 AM

I would always try DataRescue first, because it will never make it worse than it is (it doesn't modify your drive, it does only copy your files to another drive like an iPod or something). With DiscWarrior, you can lose all your data even if it would have been recoverable with another utility otherwise.

Tsilou B. · Nov 22, 2004, 03:01 AM

Do you happen to have a IBM Travelstar hard drive? They very often fail with this clicking noise after a few years.

Tsilou B. · Nov 22, 2004, 03:07 AM

By the way, on two of the machines I had with IBM Travelstar drives (and both died after about 1 1/2 years), I could still rescue many files with DataRescue - about 30% of the files were gone on both machines. I bought an external firewire case (for 2,5" hard drives) and a new 2,5" hard drive, installed the new hard drive in the firewire case, connected it to the Powerbook and installed Mac OS X on that drive. Then I rebootet into that new Mac OS X and used data rescue to copy over all recoverable files from the internal Travelstar disk. In the end, I opened the Powerbook's bottom and replaced the Travelstar with the new drive from the firewire case. This method will probably work for you, too.

Good luck!

Ilja · Nov 22, 2004, 04:17 PM

First of all: what kind of harddisc do you recommend me buying?

Second of all: is there another way to try to rescue my data instead these software programs? They are quite expensive...

CharlesS · Nov 22, 2004, 05:18 PM

Originally posted by Ilja:
First of all: what kind of harddisc do you recommend me buying?

Second of all: is there another way to try to rescue my data instead these software programs? They are quite expensive...

DiskWarrior is a program that every Mac user should have. It is essential.

DataRescue, on the other hand, is shareware, so you can at least run it in demo mode, recover one file, and see if it will work with your drive before buying the full version. If it can't rescue your files, no harm done.

Tsilou B. · Nov 22, 2004, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by Ilja:
First of all: what kind of harddisc do you recommend me buying?

Second of all: is there another way to try to rescue my data instead these software programs? They are quite expensive...

A fantastic hard drive is the Seagate Momentus ST94811A (40GB). It's extremely fast, very reliable and it comes with a five-year-warranty, too.

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/...sp?dpno=350967

It looks like your drive does not even show up on the Desktop anymore. If that's the case, I don't think you'll be able to recover any files without the help of DataRescue - at least if you're not a specialist.

As 2,5" external case you could use this one, it's not too expensive:

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/...sp?dpno=266569

Do you have a Firewire drive or maybe another Mac? If so, you could install Mac OS X on it or boot from it's drive with target disk mode, respectively, and install the demo of DataRescue. The demo will find all files the full version would find, but it can only recover a single file which has to be less than 500KB in size. If the demo is not able to recover any file, your data is really gone and you don't need to buy the 2,5" external case. (You could still send the hard drive to a data rescue center, but that is really extremely expensive.)

If you don't have another drive to boot from at the moment, you will have to buy the external case and hope that DataRescue will work. Of course, you should nevertheless try the demo first before spending those $89.

I'm quite sure DataRescue will recover many of your files, but of course I cannot guarantee anything. And don't try to use DiskWarrior or another utility that tries to repair the drive - you will only make it worse, because the drive cannot be repaired anymore.

pat++ · Nov 22, 2004, 07:55 PM

Check this out just in case...

http://www.bombich.com/mactips/openfirmware.html

Since EBCDIC · Nov 22, 2004, 10:13 PM

I have an 80 GB Travelstar which died THREE WEEKS after Apple installed it into my TiPB.

There are three 100 GB drives coming out around now; check them out and / or watch the prices for the 80 GB fall.

Ilja · Nov 23, 2004, 02:43 PM

Ok, I found out that by holding 'x' during startup it actually boots again! That's pretty good news I guess and probably means my data is not lost. My harddrive is screwed anyway so I'll buy a new one.

Where is the best place to buy these things? I'm in Holland, Amsterdam, but the official Apple dealers don't sell them AFAIK...

Tsilou B. · Nov 23, 2004, 04:24 PM

Originally posted by Ilja:
Ok, I found out that by holding 'x' during startup it actually boots again! That's pretty good news I guess and probably means my data is not lost. My harddrive is screwed anyway so I'll buy a new one.

Where is the best place to buy these things? I'm in Holland, Amsterdam, but the official Apple dealers don't sell them AFAIK...

If you can read German, you could buy the hard drive and an external case for copying the data from http://www.cyberport.de - they sell the Seagate Momentus ST94011A for 77.90 Euros and the Sarotech Cutie Deluxe Firewire Case for 49.90 Euros. Shipping to the Netherlands should be about 10-15 Euros, at least that's what shipping to Austria costs. If you enter the coupon code "gz08" you'll get a EUR 5 discount.