gui break down osx 10.4.8

[Lawrence de Varga]

hello i'm having some problems.
First of all, G3 blue and white 350 MHz, osx 10.4.8 (95% sure).
i was cleaning out my hard drive and i was in fonts unfortunately i was in system fonts(95% sure) and unknowing of the problems it would cause deleted the asian and some of the other fonts thinking i wouldn't need them. shortly after that all of my gui except the right corner(spotlight, time, etc) disappeared. I played around trying to get it to do something but all i was able to do was command option escape and force quit
some apps and relaunch finder. I was wondering if there is any way of fixing it,
i don't need to recover data but i need to have the computer working again.
any help would be appreciated.
Thankyou

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

hello i was cleaning out my hard drive and i was in fonts unfortunately i was in system fonts(95% sure) and unknowing of the problems it would cause deleted the asian and some of the other fonts. Thank you

Hi Lawrence

FWIW, OS X has 3 font folders;

System/Library/Fonts

Library/Fonts

User/Library/Fonts

You can use Pacifist to extract the fonts from your OS disc.

 

[Lawrence de Varga]

Thanks.

I believe (after your message) that i was in system/library/fonts.
deleted some and my GUI has destroyed itself.
I need some way of restoring the operating system without the disc.
I'm not at all concerned with recovering data(that computers just a hobby).
i don't know if thats possible, but is there anything you can do in single user mode.
like restore previous session or something. sorry if I'm asking ridiculous questions.
maybe this will help. i turn the computer on. The gray apple screen comes on, The spinning loading thing comes on. The mac osx loading bar screen comes on but does not load.
The log in screen comes on, with weird fonts. I log in. blue background loads. spotlight, time, flag and volume come on. i can do nothing but, command option escape, that screen comes up the finder icon is flashing. i can close and expand it with the the green plus button.
by the way I don't know if it was the deleting of the fonts that caused this but since all the screen fonts went strange and then the GUI crashed that is my conclusion.
again any help would be appreciated.
out of curiosity what does FWIW mean?

thanks again

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

FWIW means for what it's worth ... IMHO is short for in my honest opinion ... if you ever see something similar and want to know the meaning, just google it ... that's what I've done in the past when I wasn't sure ...

Not having the System Instal Disc is a bit of a problem because they come in very hand like right now .... you really need to source the proper discs for your Mac.

What I'm thinking of now is whether or not you have access to another Mac?

I was thinking of FireWire Target Disc Mode .... you mount your Macs HD on the Desktop of another Mac and copy over the missing files ... here's a link about using Target Disc Mode:

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode

 

[Lawrence de Varga]

Ok I don't have another mac.
I probably could find one.
but from what your saying.
the disc is the only other way.
also i looked at the link and power mac g3 is not on the list so i don't think that's an option anyway.
if that is the case then could you suggest the most affordable place to buy the disc.
thanks again

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

At this link the Mac OS 10.4 System Requirements mention that the mac must have a FireWire port, so as you've been running Tiger, your G3 must be able to use FireWire Target Disc Mode.


Your G3 B/W originally came with Mac OS 8.5.1 installed on it. You currently say that it has Mac OS 10.4.8 installed ....

I found a few Tiger Full Retail Instal Discs on eBay ... they must have a black label with a big silver X on it ... don't buy any discs with a Grey label as they will only work with the Mac they originally shipped with.

The black label/big silver X discs are Universal and can be used to install Mac OS on any mac that meets the requirement.

Here are a few eBay links ... I can't stress enough how valuable they will be in moments like now ... in fact you should have received a set of discs when you were given/bought your G3 ...

Mac OS X 10.4 TIGER DVD Install Disc

Mac OS X Tiger Version 10.4

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger with 10.4.11 updates system DVD

Apple Mac OSX 10.4.6, DVD Full Intall Retail New

NEW APPLE MAC OS X TIGER 10.4 FULL INSTALL 4 DISK SET

As you'll see, the prices vary, as Tiger is still popular for some ... just make sure buy the Full Retail version and you should be fine ...