My Mac wont start!!!!

[skot-himself]

Hi, If there is anyone out there who can shed light on why this has happened and more importantly how to fix it I will be forever in your debt!

Basically, I am a student photographer and have taken loads of live images of gigs at a club. The club want to use them to make a massive mosaic on the wall behind the bar. I started up photoshop and started putting the thing together 100% size, my Rom went from about 25GB free to 600MB. I closed it down and went to restart the computer as this was obviously a bit ambitious for my machine and now it wont start.

The screen reads this:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x002E1EC4): Unable to find a driver for this platform: "powerbook3,4".

Latest stack backtrace for cpu0:
backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095A10 0x00026898 0x002E1EC4 0x002C1068 0x002C1AD0 0x002C20DC 0x000A9714

Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x0052CA00)
PC=0x00000000; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0x00000000; DSISR=0x00000000; LR=0x00000000; R1=0x00000000; XCP=0x00000000 (unknown)

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root: xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC

No debugger configured - dumping debug information
MSR=00001030
Latest stack backtrace for CPU 0:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095BF8 0x00026898 0x0002E1EC4 0x002C12A0 0x002C1068 0x002C1AD0 0x002C20DC 0x000A9714
Proceeding back via exception chain:

Exception state (sv=0x0052CA00)
PC=0x00000000; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0x00000000; DSISR=0x00000000; LR=0x00000000; R1=0x00000000; XCP=0x00000000 (unknown)

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root: xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC

panic: We are hanging here...

if anyone can help, again I will greatly appreciate this. Admittedly, I don't know much of how to fix macs at all and if I can't get the thing working, is there any good advice on how to get my files from the hard drive?

cheers

[jose456891]

ok, looks like you have a software problem to fix it you need to re-install the OS. Before you do anything try these tips:

1) boot into restore CD/DVDs. select language, continue. From the bar on top of the screen select Utilities>Disk Utility. In Disk Utility select repair. once process is done, restart and hopefully it's fixed, if not continue to the next tip.

2) Reinstall- backing up HDD is recommended!!- boot from restore CD/DVDs and follow onscreen instructions. Select only the basics and reinstall.

3) buy an HDD external case. swam out the current HDD and insert it to the external case. Buy a new HDD and insert it in the computer. Boot up from the restore CD/DVDs and install OS. once you are finished boot up and configure tyour new settings. Plug in the external HDD to a firewire/USB port and you will see all your old stuff. copy and paste your project to the desktop. done!

4) call apple support

5) pray and have faith

[atlex2]

Hook it up to a (2.5?) sata external enclosure if you're using a macbook(pro) and connect it to another mac. If your using a desktop, open it up and move the drive over to another mac (windows can't read the operating system)(if you don't have two towers then get a 3.5 inch external enclosure). Then copy over your files. If your hard drive can be read then take everything you need and use diskutility to format the drive as extended journaled and make sure to zero the drive first. If it can't be read I suggest picking up a copy of spinrite, it can fix (reroute) bad sectors of harddrives and is such a life saver. You'll need to run it on a PC though.

Good luck bud,
when my mac goes down, it goes down hard.

[ZakAdelman]

I agree with the Archive and install but it does sound like the disk may not be spinning correctly. It seems more likely the system files got messed with during a bad closing of PS. I can't stress enough Backup backup backup what is important. Mac or not HD fail and buildings burn down you need to be able to pick up where you left off when the crap hits the fan. I mean crap in the most technical sense possible of course.

[atlex2]

You should really format. Archiving does not fix filesystem problems.

[ZakAdelman]

Archive replaces system files and leaves your home folder and apps in tact so personal pref files that are corrupt can still cause the problem if it is now. I have used this method often when I went digging is system files.

If HFS is broke then you will need to format, this didn't sound like the problem to me but it is worth a shot if the archive and install does not work.