my hd murder mystery

pink · 07-19-2003, 04:42 PM

the actors: a b/w G3/350, 12 G HD with 3 partitions: one (10 G) with 10.2.6; one (1 G) with 9.2.2; and a Heidelberg Linoscan 1200

The plot: trying to establish the scanner; there are no drivers for osx (don't believe what they say, Vuescan does't work either). So I tried to install with the original install cd under classic. The installer crashed twice when "finishing installation". So I thought, maybe it is better booting from os9; set the startup disk to the os9 partition, rebooted -and was greeted by the flashing question mark (actually, it was the question mark in the folder first, then, for some seconds, a smiling mac, followed by a greyish screen with the flashing question mark in a floppy disk...). From then on, the computer refused to start from its HD - neither os9 nor osx.
Tried the various key combos during startup (single-user, extensions disabled, force boot from osx etc) - nada.
Booted from the original install cd (os 8.5) - disk utility says the HD is not initialized. Tried two different os9.2 cds - one would bomb during loading, the other one gave the same result as the 8.5 cd.
Booted from the Jaguar install cd - the HD was recognized. did disk repair and repair of permissions twice each - nada.
Ended up doing an archive and install, now it works again.

Nevertheless I would like to understand what was going on. Am I on the right track assuming that this was a firmware problem ? (Please don't tell me that this could have been fixed by trying to reapply a firmware update or by resetting the pram...)

cheers, pink

DeltaMac · 07-19-2003, 05:11 PM

When you booted to single user, did you attempt fsck? ( /sbin/fsck -y ) If so, were any errors reported?

pink · 07-19-2003, 05:42 PM

Quote:


	When you booted to single user, did you attempt fsck?

no, cause it wouldn't boot...
But disk first aid fixed some "missing headers" (if I remember correctly) in its first run, no problems reported afterwards.

cheers, pink

mclbruce · 07-20-2003, 12:02 AM

If you can get a Disk Warrior CD to boot, run that. It may be your only hope. Zapping PRAM wouldn't hurt either.

pink · 08-10-2003, 02:48 PM

Now we're getting closer: I was (unwillingly) able to reproduce the problem by simply resetting the pram. After that, I had exactly the same symptoms as described above and had to do another archive and install.
Can it be that resetting the pram prevents the firmware from recognizing the HD on this G3 ???

cheers, pink

07-19-2003, 04:42 PM	#1
pink Major Leaguer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 441	my hd murder mystery the actors: a b/w G3/350, 12 G HD with 3 partitions: one (10 G) with 10.2.6; one (1 G) with 9.2.2; and a Heidelberg Linoscan 1200 The plot: trying to establish the scanner; there are no drivers for osx (don't believe what they say, Vuescan does't work either). So I tried to install with the original install cd under classic. The installer crashed twice when "finishing installation". So I thought, maybe it is better booting from os9; set the startup disk to the os9 partition, rebooted -and was greeted by the flashing question mark (actually, it was the question mark in the folder first, then, for some seconds, a smiling mac, followed by a greyish screen with the flashing question mark in a floppy disk...). From then on, the computer refused to start from its HD - neither os9 nor osx. Tried the various key combos during startup (single-user, extensions disabled, force boot from osx etc) - nada. Booted from the original install cd (os 8.5) - disk utility says the HD is not initialized. Tried two different os9.2 cds - one would bomb during loading, the other one gave the same result as the 8.5 cd. Booted from the Jaguar install cd - the HD was recognized. did disk repair and repair of permissions twice each - nada. Ended up doing an archive and install, now it works again. Nevertheless I would like to understand what was going on. Am I on the right track assuming that this was a firmware problem ? (Please don't tell me that this could have been fixed by trying to reapply a firmware update or by resetting the pram...) cheers, pink __________________ "And what have we got in here ? - Ahh, things.." (Louis (2), inspecting kitchen cupboards.)

08-10-2003, 02:48 PM	#5
pink Major Leaguer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 441	Now we're getting closer: I was (unwillingly) able to reproduce the problem by simply resetting the pram. After that, I had exactly the same symptoms as described above and had to do another archive and install. Can it be that resetting the pram prevents the firmware from recognizing the HD on this G3 ??? cheers, pink __________________ "And what have we got in here ? - Ahh, things.." (Louis (2), inspecting kitchen cupboards.)

07-19-2003, 05:11 PM	#2
DeltaMac League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 8,531	When you booted to single user, did you attempt fsck? ( /sbin/fsck -y ) If so, were any errors reported?

07-20-2003, 12:02 AM	#4
mclbruce Hall of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 3,878	If you can get a Disk Warrior CD to boot, run that. It may be your only hope. Zapping PRAM wouldn't hurt either.