G5 won't boot.

[sandmann41]

My friend has a G5 that crapped out while he was doing some work in Final Cut.
At first it was getting kernal panics during boot up. I used Disk Warrior and repaired the disk. I am now able to browse the harddrive, but it still won't boot. It just hangs on the grey screen with the little animated circle of dashes.
While browsing the harddrive I noticed his home directory was empty, and the icon was just of a folder, not a house.
Anyone have any ideas?

 

[mad jew]

I noticed his home directory was empty...

I think that's your problem albeit I have no idea how this happened. Can you find what should be the Home folder elsewhere? Is there a massive folder somewhere on the hard drive with Music, Photos, Documents etc. on it? If so, you may be able to drag the contents of this folder into your Home folder and try to start up again. It's unlikely though.

Is there third party RAM installed? Could it be a failing hard drive? Could it be a failing logic board? All three of these could potentially delete your Home folder's contents.

 

[osprey76]

I assume you are browsing the hard drive while booting from the Disk Warrior CD. If so, his home folder would appear as a typical folder. The home folder is only shown uniquely for your current account. If you have multiple accounts on one machine, you'll see what I'm talking about in the /Users/ folder. So, if your booting from the CD, there is probably a home folder somewhere in the boot area of the CD.

It sounds like a major problem with something. I would backup anything that you can access and reformat the drive and reinstall.

 

[mad jew]

...his home folder would appear as a typical folder. The home folder is only shown uniquely for your current account....

Very true, but why do you think it's empty? This is weird.

 

[osprey76]

Very true, but why do you think it's empty? This is weird.

I think something is jacked up. Have you tried clearing out the PRAM? Also, did your repair of the drive include fixing permissions? Did he add any new hardware recently?

To "zap the PRAM" hold CMD+OPT+P+R on startup. The machine will give the chime and then chime again several seconds later. After the second chime, let go of the keys and cross your fingers to see if it boots properly.

Permissions are crucial to OS X. If you didn't already, run the repair permissions routine from Disk Warrior if it can do it or from the disks that came with the computer.

 

[sandmann41]

I booted to an OSX install that I have on an external drive. That's how I was able to browse the G5's hard drive.
I fixed permissions. I haven't tried zapping the pram yet.

 

[sandmann41]

any other ideas?

 

[SummerBreeze]

It sounds like a major problem with something. I would backup anything that you can access and reformat the drive and reinstall.

I agree, it seems like the best thing to do would be to start over. I know it's a pain, but that'll probably be the best way to fix whatever's going on here.

 

[Zoowatch]

back up everything... (or leave the data untouched)

use another SATA HD and format it

reinstall Tiger and do all the set-ups

then copy the data from the old HD to the new one

this is the most foolproof solution

 

[ijimk]

check and make sure your ram is in all the way in the correct slots ...