OS X Won't Boot

[lampslide]

Hey guys, maybe you can help me out.

I was fooling around with my Rev. B iMac (233 mhz, 192 mb. ram) in System 9.2 and I noticed that there were random OS X files sitting around in the Macintosh HD. Sure enough, I opened up the Startup Disk control panel and there was a previous installation of OS X on the drive. So, curiosity got the best of me and I rebooted into OS X.

Or, tried to, rather.

Now, after the normal mac chime, I am greeted with a solid gray screen. Nothing moves, no cursor, no activity. The hard drive doesn't get accessed and a CD is read after I put it in, but nothing more. I've tried using various keyboard shortcuts to get back into OS 9 or even boot from the CD and have found little success.

Are there any things I can do to get back into OS 9? I've got a lot of music and stuff in there and I'd hate to have to erase my drive to get it to work again. Thanks for any help you can provide me with.

 

[Thirteenva]

Boot the machine while pressing the option key, you should get the choice of booting into mac os 9 or mac os x

 

[lampslide]

I've tried that and I get no response after the gray screen comes up.

 

[MisterMe]

Hey guys, maybe you can help me out.

I was fooling around with my Rev. B iMac (233 mhz, 192 mb. ram) in System 9.2 and I noticed that there were random OS X files sitting around in the Macintosh HD. Sure enough, I opened up the Startup Disk control panel and there was a previous installation of OS X on the drive. So, curiosity got the best of me and I rebooted into OS X.

Or, tried to, rather.

Now, after the normal mac chime, I am greeted with a solid gray screen. Nothing moves, no cursor, no activity. The hard drive doesn't get accessed and a CD is read after I put it in, but nothing more. I've tried using various keyboard shortcuts to get back into OS 9 or even boot from the CD and have found little success.

Are there any things I can do to get back into OS 9? I've got a lot of music and stuff in there and I'd hate to have to erase my drive to get it to work again. Thanks for any help you can provide me with.

You should try booting from a bootable MacOS 9 CD. Just insert the disk, and hold down the "C" key while it boots. If this doesn't work, then tell us what really happened. It will make figuring out how to fix it a lot easier.