Mac mini stuck on booting screen..

[lieb39]

Hello everyone,

This is odd. I got a new powerbook today, so i moved the mac mini to the office. I've been transferring files like crazy, and all. Well anyways, the mac froze up on me when i was transferring a file, and the router went down. I had to do a hard restart. Now the thing just gets stuck on the boot screen, turning it's wheel none stop.

I've worked with PCs forever and macs not long enough. What should I do? I tried to get into Safe mode but no luck.

Help?

Thanks,

lieb39

 

[maverick808]

Insert the original Panther or Tiger install CD you got with your Mac mini and when restarting hold down 'c' on the keyboard to boot off the CD.

Once it boots up, rather than going through the install procedure, just select "Disk Utility" from the menu at the top (I think it might be in a menu called 'tools'). When you get into Disk Utility just select the main drive and pick "Repair Disk".

This will hopefully fix any errors. If it runs through and says it's repaired errors then don't reboot yet. Instead, run "Repair Disk" again until it's getting all the way through without reporting errors or just giving you the same error message each time.

After that, restart and hopefully it will boot fine.

 

[lieb39]

I ran it, didn't report any errors, checked permissions, the usual 10.4.3 permission errors (widgets, etc.) and restarted. Still on the loading screen

I even ran the check disk two times.. nothing either time.

help!

-lieb39

 

[maverick808]

Did you run "Repair Disk" or just "Repair Permissions"? And don't bother with "Check Permissions" or "Check Disk"... always do "Repair".

I don't see why the "Check" buttons are even there.

 

[mad jew]

What's plugged into the mini? Disconnect everything except the power because sometimes devices can corrupt the system. Of course, this only really applies if you've plugged in something different in your office compared with where you used to have the mini.

 

[lieb39]

Nothing new connected.. what's going on?
& I disconnected everything without luck...

-lieb39

 

[mad jew]

I have absolutely no idea why it's done this but it sounds like a corrupted system. I imagine an archive & install would let you get a working system back whilst keeping your preferences or alternatively, you could use a Firewire cable to transfer your settings and the rest of your files to the new PowerBook and then do a complete format and reinstall of the OS on the mini. Quite a weird problem you have there, hopefully someone smarter will come up with a better solution.

 

[lieb39]

At times like this i really wish that I had a working firewire cable.

I think an archive and install may have to do it. I'll do it tomorrow though, with some kind of hope that the problem will disappear overnight.

If anyone has anymore suggestions, I'm very open to them.

Thanks,

lieb39

 

[mad jew]

I'd almost recommend buying one for this just because I'm not sure how reliable the archive & install will be with respect to keeping your files safe and sound considering the circumstances (seemingly random crash, no booting up).

 

[lieb39]

Well I got into single user mode (command prompt) and ran a fsck -f on the drive, same thing [no errors.] This is really annoying.. ah well. I guess I can't do much now..

Off to a install I go

-lieb39

 

[lieb39]

I was just thinking.. is my keychain all lost on my old account after a install? I still haven't reinsalled, running hardware tests that are all giving green out of them.

I have a lot of important stuff in the keychain..

Thanks,

lieb39

 

[GorillaPaws]

I had a very similar thing happen to me a few months ago on my g4 iMac. weird crash durring vlc playing a .avi and did a hard reset. When it restarted the screen would get the blue background like the user list for the login was about to pop up, but it would never appear. I wound up zeroing out the drive (just to be safe) and reinstalling Tiger. Everything's been fine until I installed front row, and then the 10.3 update crashed halfway through the install and left my system really wonky. Safari, Software updater, dashboard all would crash as soon as I opened them. I deleted front row as well as replacing the system file I had to change w/ the original-- no help. So I just re-installed tiger for the second time in 3 months (after again zeroing out the drive), and now my dock's acting weird. I've got the magnification turned on and it won't magnify. Then it magnified the trash when I passed my mouse over it, and it's been stuck like that for at least 15 mins. I just messed w/ the dock settings and got it to snap back to normal size, but now it won't expand again. Hmmmm. Everything else "seems" ok but I'm getting nervous like I may have a harware issue, especially since I've just did a fresh install and the dock's giving me problems.

Edit: I just restarted and the dock's normal. I guess everything's cool. I'm still kinda nervous though.

 

[lieb39]

Hmm there is definitely something wrong with the hardware in your case. The RAM maybe, or maybe the hard drive? Anyways, I'm reinstalling as we speak. Sucks.

-lieb39

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Hmm there is definitely something wrong with the hardware in your case. The RAM maybe, or maybe the hard drive? Anyways, I'm reinstalling as we speak. Sucks.

-lieb39

Wouldn't be the RAM.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[GorillaPaws]

Ok well my machine seems to be running fine but I've just repaired permissions again and got this:

We are using a special gid for the file or directory ./System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock. New gid is 0
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock. New permissions are 33261

among a lot of widget related fixes (which I assume is normal from the earlier posts). So then I run it again and I get the exact same results. What the hell is going on? Is something consistently breaking the permissions on my Dock.app?

Edit: I didn't mean to hijack your thread Lieb39, I hope your reinstall is going ok.