help, Help, HELP!

[Mango]

I have a PowerMac G4 that's running OS X 10.3. While waiting for the software update to finish optimizing the hard drive (it was at 57% for what felt like an hour!), I tried shutting it down, hoping the update could be resumed later, but it kept cancelling on me. In a fit of frustration and impatience, I manually turned off the computer. Now when I turn it on it doesn't go any further than the grey screen with the apple and the little spokey circle that turns. (If that's really unclear, it's the very first screen that opens up when you turn on.)

What should I do now? Please help.

Kicking myself repeatedly,
Mango

 

[Ric]

Hi there Mango and welcome,

sorry I missed this earlier !

Have you got it running yet ?

regards

Ric

 

[Mango]

Not running yet. Any ideas would be super appreciated.

Thanks so much!

~M

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

try booting into Single User Mode and running FSCK...

Instructions here.

regards

Ric

 

[Mango]

Thanks, Ric. I will try tonight and let you know how it works out.

Cheers!
~M

 

[Ric]

No problem,

let us know how you get on.

regards

Ric

 

[Mango]

It didn't work. I tried it and I'm still having the same issue. Although, the message before I rebooted did indicate that everything was OK.

Is there something else it could be?

~m

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

sometimes it can take a few goes...give it one more try and then let us know.

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

If that still doesn't work, then reboot using your original software disk and run Disk Utility-->Repair Disk and Repair Permissions.

regards

Ric

 

[Mango]

Ok, so here's what I've done. I tried all that you suggested and nothin'. So, I saved my HD to an external drive and reloaded OS X. However, in putting all my HD data back onto the computer, it's now having trouble uploading my 30G of music. I get a spinny ball whenever I try to click on anything and if I leave it for a few hours, the music folder disappears. <sigh> Aside from the 30G of music, there's only 500mb of the other files.

Now what?
By the way, I appreciate all of your help, so far.

Thanks,
~M

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

can you try and copy the Music in stages, it may be that there are bad blocks on the old drive and whenever it tries copy it all over in one go it's hitting the bad blocks.

regards

Ric

 

[Mango]

i will try that and see.
cheers.

 

[Ric]

No problem !

let us know how you get on.

regards

Ric