Review the troubleshooting section of the manual that came with your machine.
For the experts here, please provide more detail. What model iMac or Mac do you have? Does it have any hardware upgrades? Any of these just recent? Are there any USB peripherals attached? Have you tried to startup with all external devices unplugged? Was there a lightning strike nearby about the time of the freeze up? Kenneth Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I was running OS 9.2 as a startup disk with Netscape 6.2. Everything froze > up and I had to power down. Now my hard drive won't start up and is not > recognized. When you powered down, how? Did you pull the plug? Command-Option-Escape to force quit? Lenghty press on the power-on button? To start up, did you try with Extensions off -- while pressing the Shift key? Did you try resetting the PRAM -- while pressing the Command, Option, P, and R keys until you hear three or four gongs? (This trick is not for a few old PowerBooks.) What about the Command, Control, and power key combination? Does anything happen at all? Do you get a Sad Mac icon on the screen? A blinking question mark? Does it seem to start up and crash again? Prior to the freeze-up, did you experience any symptoms of a bad PRAM/clock battery? A suddenly dead battery might cause startup issues. When you say your hard drive is not recognized, do you mean that you have started up with an OS 9.x install or restore CD-ROM and that your hard drive does not show up on the desktop? Will the machine start up with a test/diagnostic CD like DiskWarrior, TechTookPro, or Norton Utilities? What about the Apple Hardware Test CD if your machine came with it? Try the CD while pressing the C key. If you can start up with a CD but the hard drive does not show up on the desktop, try using the CD's Disk Utility to the point short of hitting the buttom to reformat; does the hard drive show up in the little window for selection or highlighting? If you are caught in this situation, I cannot help, but the experts here can if you describe what is going on. > > How can I get back to OSX without losing my files. I booted from the > Panther disks but it wants to "initialize" my entire hard drive. That means > I lose all my files (most not backed up... I know, I should have...) Since the problem occurred while running OS 9.2, I would focus on solving the 9.2 problem first. If your machine is one of those that came only with an OS X startup CD so that it installs your OS 9.2, then I do not have any quick answers for you. But start looking at Apple's web site with keywords such as "OS 9 Startup Problem." Good Luck, -- Al Poulin Anger, hate, and revenge are for the devil, forgiveness is for God, proactive self-defense is for the rest of us. -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
