The flashing question mark appears
during startup
|
| Indications |
Your Macintosh cannot find the startup
hard disk or any disk with a System Folder.
|
| Tips |
- Use the System Installer CD-ROM to start up the
Macintosh and look for the missing hard disk icon
on the desktop.
* If the disk appears, run Apple's Disk First Aid
program to check it.
* If no problems are found, backup your critical
files and reinstall the system software.
- If the hard disk does not appear on the
desktop, you can also try resetting the Macintosh's
Parameter RAM (PRAM) to its factory defaults
to help the computer locate the Startup
Disk.
* Hold down the Command, Option, P and R keys
during start up.
* The Macintosh should chime at least twice
before you release the keys.
- As a last
resort, you can attempt to rewrite the device
driver using a hard disk formatting
program.
* You must completely remove any security programs
such as DiskLock, Empower, or FolderBolt
before updating/installing a new driver.
* For Apple hard disks, use the Drive Setup
program on the System Installer CD-ROM.
* If you have a non-Apple hard disk, you must
use the software that came with the drive
or a third-party formatter such as FWB's Hard
Disk
ToolKit or LaCie Silverlining.
* Use the "Update" or "Install
driver" command in the formatting
software, being careful not to press the "Initialize" or "Format" buttons.
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The Sad Mac icon appears during start
up
|
| Indications |
Either the disk's device driver software is damaged,
or a more serious hardware problem exists.
|
| Tips |
- If the device driver software is damaged, you
can attempt to rewrite/update the driver with the
software that was used to format the disk.
- You must completely remove any security programs
such as DiskLock, Empower, or FolderBolt
before updating/installing a new driver.
- For Apple hard disks, use the Drive Setup
program on the System Installer CD-ROM.
- If you have a non-Apple hard disk, you must
use the software that came with the drive
or a
third-party formatter such as FWB's
Hard Disk ToolKit or LaCie Silverlining.
- Use the "Update" or "Install
driver" command
in the formatting software, being careful
not to press the "Initialize" or "Format" buttons.
|
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|
The error message "The disk is
damaged do you want to initialize?" or
"
-127
error disk could not used/found" appears
|
| Indications |
The directory structure of your disk is damaged and
cannot be accessed in its current condition. Damage
such as this typically occurs when a Mac freezes in
the middle of a program and must be restarted, or if
the computer is not shut down properly. |
| Tips |
- The UnErase program in Symantec's Norton Utilities
can be used to recover drives producing these error
messages.
* It is important that you recover the data to
a completely different drive, NOT the crashed disk
or one of its partitions.
- CAUTION: Do not attempt to repair directory
damage using a commercial disk utility.
They are excellent tools for preventative
maintenance,
but are also capable of "fixing" problems
that render your data unrecoverable in
the case of severe corruption.
|
A removable cartridge (zip, jaz, syquest,
or magneto-optical) doesn't mount on the desktop
|
| Indications |
The device driver or the media may be damaged. |
| Tips |
- Try another cartridge — one that is known to
be good and does not hold irreplaceable data. This
will help you identify if the problem is with the
cartridge or the drive mechanism.
- If the problem is specific to a single cartridge,
you can rewrite the device driver with
the software that was used to format the
disk.
- If you do
not have formatting software, you can use a commercial
formatter such as FWB's Hard
Disk ToolKit or LaCie's Silverlining
program to replace or update a damaged device
driver.
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