Hey guys,
So the story here is my roomate unplugged my Mac Mini and now it will not boot. I was running some basic network programs such as iChat but I was also running EyeTV with the USB tuner plugged in. The machine will make the startup tone and the screen goes white as in a normal boot. But when the Apple logo should appear instead a strobe of 3 different icons randomly take its place. The icons as far as I can tell are an O with a strike through it, you know the symbol in a 'no' smoking sign or on your iPod when you are synced with itunes. The other icon is a folder, pretty sure there is a question mark on this folder as well.
Now I realize I could take this into the Apple store and get a refurb or something, but this was my main machine and the drive is full of very important content. So, I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this specific error using macintosh machines and if there is a simple way to get out of it.
The other options I can see are perhaps booting off the Leopard Install DVD and perhaps create a window in which I can backup my data to another machine or drive. I am willing to do this I just don't want to screw anything up so tell me if you think doing so might damage something. My other option is taking out the drive and using it as an external to get the content off using some type of protocol.
Any suggestions? Warnings? Anything helps, I'm new here so I really appreciate your feedback. I will list the specs for my Mac Mini below.
2.0 Ghz Core Duo
1 Gb ram
Running OS X 10.4 Leopard
120 Gb HDD
One thing I forgot to mention is that my HDD was pretty much full at the time of failure, I try to keep a reasonable amount of space on there just so it doesn't choke up but I have several podcast constantly downloading and think that perhaps my drive is too full to properly boot. Is this even possible??
So the story here is my roomate unplugged my Mac Mini and now it will not boot. I was running some basic network programs such as iChat but I was also running EyeTV with the USB tuner plugged in. The machine will make the startup tone and the screen goes white as in a normal boot. But when the Apple logo should appear instead a strobe of 3 different icons randomly take its place. The icons as far as I can tell are an O with a strike through it, you know the symbol in a 'no' smoking sign or on your iPod when you are synced with itunes. The other icon is a folder, pretty sure there is a question mark on this folder as well.
Now I realize I could take this into the Apple store and get a refurb or something, but this was my main machine and the drive is full of very important content. So, I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this specific error using macintosh machines and if there is a simple way to get out of it.
The other options I can see are perhaps booting off the Leopard Install DVD and perhaps create a window in which I can backup my data to another machine or drive. I am willing to do this I just don't want to screw anything up so tell me if you think doing so might damage something. My other option is taking out the drive and using it as an external to get the content off using some type of protocol.
Any suggestions? Warnings? Anything helps, I'm new here so I really appreciate your feedback. I will list the specs for my Mac Mini below.
2.0 Ghz Core Duo
1 Gb ram
Running OS X 10.4 Leopard
120 Gb HDD
One thing I forgot to mention is that my HDD was pretty much full at the time of failure, I try to keep a reasonable amount of space on there just so it doesn't choke up but I have several podcast constantly downloading and think that perhaps my drive is too full to properly boot. Is this even possible??