Hey Mac users! Little help please

[brassburnz]

I've got an older G4 iBook. It was running fine, then started to get a little glitchy on start up. Now it boots to a folder with a question mark. I tried reloading OS 10.4 but it wouldn't work.

Time for a new hard drive or something worse? Thanks.

[OMGofWar]

great, i have an old G4 iBook as well. i wonder if my time is coming as well. either way, instead of trying to reload the OS, you might just try booting off of the OS CD/DVD instead. if it lets you do so, there should be hardware management software on there that you can run on the drive to see if it can diagnose the issue.

if that doesn't work, iBooks make great paperweights!

[Yemff]

It sounds like maybe some of your system folders got deleted or corrupted, maybe this can help

http://8help.osu.edu/1244.html

[brassburnz]

Thanks for the tips and the link. I have the drive backed up, so if I have to reformat the drive, that's OK. Hopefully it's just corrupted files and not a hardware issue. I have Tech Tool so I'll give that a try next.

I have three G4's and one G3 iBook I use for the robotics class I teach. I purchased them out of my own pocket when my district issued laptops started to die. Old Macs seem to have longer lives than old PC's.

Thanks again,

[OMGofWar]

I have three G4's and one G3 iBook I use for the robotics class I teach. I purchased them out of my own pocket when my district issued laptops started to die. Old Macs seem to have longer lives than old PC's.

Thanks again,

if you're interested, i might be unloading my old G4 iBook since i'm now in the market for a new MacBook Pro. it works fine, though it's a bit slow compared to a newer Mac of course.

[Casual_Shooter]

The question mark means it can't find the necessary OS files to start up. Boot off the restore CD/ DVD or some other system disk. Sometimes that's all it takes to kick it back into gear. Some times you need to do a system restore/ clean install.

[imtheomegaman]

I've got an older G4 iBook. It was running fine, then started to get a little glitchy on start up. Now it boots to a folder with a question mark. I tried reloading OS 10.4 but it wouldn't work.

Time for a new hard drive or something worse? Thanks.

The bit about "tried reloading OS...but it didn't work." leads me to the conclusion that your hard drive is dead.

When you boot from the install DVD, you can go to the Drive Setup utility and then you should be able to see if your drive shows up.

[hcbr]

like everyone said, could be files deleted or need a new hard drive.

[sfwdiy]

The bit about "tried reloading OS...but it didn't work." leads me to the conclusion that your hard drive is dead.

When you boot from the install DVD, you can go to the Drive Setup utility and then you should be able to see if your drive shows up.

Sounds about right. The folder with the question-mark shows up when the machine is unable to locate a drive with a bootable OS on it. This is usually caused by the hard drive going tits-up.

Based on the age of the machine, I'd guess that's exactly what's happened. Those iBooks are a pain in the a** to open up, too.

--B

[brassburnz]

I haven't had time to mess with the iBook. Hopefully Tech Tool will solve the problem, but if not, I figured it was the hard drive. Didn't want to hear they were a pain to open up. Oh well.

I did get a new PC laptop from donorschoose.org and waiting for more donations so I can pick up a second one.

Sounds about right. The folder with the question-mark shows up when the machine is unable to locate a drive with a bootable OS on it. This is usually caused by the hard drive going tits-up.

Based on the age of the machine, I'd guess that's exactly what's happened. Those iBooks are a pain in the a** to open up, too.

--B