Member Avatar for juicejam

i bought an Ibook G4 in late 2005. It crashed about 2 months ago while I was in the middle of editing some video and now only boots into the Darwin/BSD mode. I am able to login and get the bash prompt.

Someone told me it has to do with lack of space on my HD.

I have tried everything under the sun thats available at the Apple site but I am really a total amateur when it comes to Darwin commands. I did run the fsck checks and there is no problem on my disk.

I am lost in Darwin's world right now and all I want back is my OSX interface.

Can anyone help me please??

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Member Avatar for John A

Some of your critical boot files have been corrupted, which is why your Mac is unable to boot OS X. The best thing at this point would be to wipe the drive and reinstall Mac OS X.

If you have critical files on there... well, there's a number of ways to do it. Probably the easiest way if you have another Mac would be to use a firewire cable to connect your Mac to another one, and then start up your Mac with the 'T' key being held down. This will make its hard drive appear on the other machine, which you can then use to copy your data. If it so happens that you are unlucky enough not to own another Mac, the only other alternatives would be to move the hard drive into another machine, or get a professional to do it for you.

Member Avatar for juicejam

Thank you so much for your response. I do have an IMac but no firewire cable. Will see if I can get one as I do need to get some important files off the HD.

Other problem I have is that I have missplaced my original OSX installation disks. Let me cross the first bridge before worrying about that little problem.

Thanks again my knight...

Member Avatar for John A

>Other problem I have is that I have missplaced my original OSX installation disks.
That's kind of important... ;)

>Thanks again my knight...
Don't mention it.

Member Avatar for juicejam

Me again. Managed to get the files I wanted off the crashed Ibook. Your instructions were great Joe!!!

Issue is I still cant find the startup dvd's for that came with the Ibook. Tried inserting those for my IMac but nothing happens.

Is there anyway else for me to troubleshoot this problem without the startup DVD's? Pls dont tell me I have to go buy a retail copy of OSX to get my Ibook working again.

Thanks in advance...

This damsel is still not quite out of the woods as yet.. lol

Member Avatar for John A

>Your instructions were great Joe!!!
That's good to hear.

>Tried inserting those for my IMac but nothing happens.
Probably because your iMac is an Intel?

>Pls dont tell me I have to go buy a retail copy of OSX to get my Ibook working again.
Hmm, well the only other way of installing OS X without going out and buying yourself a copy is if you get an Apple store to do it for you.

Do you live nearby an official Apple store (not just a store that sells Macs; one that is owned by Apple)? If so, you're in luck. Apple stores have this thing called the "Mac genius", which is completely free technical assistance thing for your Mac. You simply bring it in, and they do whatever they can to fix it. In this case, all they'd have to do is lend you a Tiger disc and reinstall it.

They came in handy once when I was on vacation, and I was playing around with my wireless drivers because I was bored. Silly me. :rolleyes: Pretty soon I ended up in the situation you have now, where OS X is unable to boot. Brought my MacBook to a nearby Apple store and the Mac Geniuses reinstalled OS X for absolutely no charge.

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