when i read this in the external firewire hard drive thread, it startled me into something i never thought about before: the poster said, " If you get a flashing question mark instead or a blank folder, just wait for fifteen or twenty seconds, and the computer startup script will give up on your preferred choice, and move along to the internal HD or the CD-ROM drive. If the flashing question mark persists, restart the computer holding down the C key, to get the CD system loaded. Once you have your Desktop back, open the StartUp Disk CDEV, and re-select..."
I beleive my machine- a performa 6360-was run in system 7.6.1, OS 8, 8.1, 8.5, 8.6, OS 9, 9.1, and attempted with OS X, all at different times before i recieved it. Its previous owner was not tech inclined. Ever since i got it home It would never get beyond the flashing <?> at poweron, and since he didn't give me the OS disks he used on it, I was stymied as to why it was stuck on that and why. He could not recall what he was running it on at the time he unpluggd it and stored it away before handing it to me. Until i saw this post, I had never known that the machine would present the <?> for a certain length of time, and failing a command, would then go looking for a system folder on its own, or a cd in the reader, from which to boot itself. that is new news for my longstanding perplexion. all the past system folders are probably on the hard drive, because he used each of them as they came out. i know about using the C key on startup to direct the machine to boot from a disc. are there any mac keyboard commands that could direct the machine to go to a specific operating system? say, to look for "system 7" or OS 8 or OS 9? man if there aren;t there should be.... the fact that the apple filing system changed from HFS to HFS+ at OS 8 further stymies me, since they can't read each other's files. I'd have to have the system discs for both types to be able to get in there and see what he left on the HD. does the <?> mean that there isn't a system folder that was left 'blessed' at the time of last power off? alternately,is it possible to leave more than one system folder 'blessed', thru ignorance, or some other happenstance? if there's no blessed system folder, but you know there are several system folders on the hard drive-- or more than one, is there a key command to tell the machine how to pick one and boot it? or is an external OS, on cd, the only way to crack the blockade? -janet- ��� ~~ -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.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/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
