# mac problems



## mac1150 (Mar 9, 2005)

Hello all, I own a mac G4 running OS 9.1 and I'm having some problems that no one has been able to figure out. The main symptoms are these:

1. The hard drive is not being recognized (I get the flashing ? and folder).

2. When it does recognize the drive and I can get everything back up and running, I run norton Disk Doctor and find out that there is a 'major' error in the catalog B-tree.

Once I get to this point and fix the catalog b-tree error, everything runs fine. In about 15-20 minutes, Norton will popup and tell me that the 'catalog b-tree' is corrupted again. This goes on and on untill finally the mac frezzes up and I have to start the whole process again. 

Does anybody have any suggestions regarding what the problem('s) might be? Any advice would be appreciated!!!


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

mac1150, first, welcome and greetings to TSG! 

secondly, why oh why are you using Norton!!!  disembowl, throw away, burn, and disengage that hideous program!!! and also uninstall that nasty thing!!! its nothing but trouble!!! Ok, I think maybe went too far, but hopefully you understand by now that Norton is NO GOOD!!! Esp. on a Mac. Ick!!! 

ok, seriously, couple things:
1. how long has this happened?
2. recall of any changes that may have triggered this to occur?
3. oh, and why do you have norton on there? 

Go to http://www.alsoft.com/ and get Disk Warrior. Run it. Now. From what I know, your situation can be described as very serious. Do you have all your pertinent files backupped? Not to scare you, but just in case my gut is correct, this is not a good omen to see this occur.

Also, btw, some love, but many others fear/hate Tech Tool Pro from http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/4307 so be warned, and go in careful w/ that application if you choose that. Use it as a secondary attack, after Disk Warrior.

No matter what you do, PLEASE read and understand each and every part of the compatibility of these programs, and how they interact w/ your machine. If not, further/other damage can happen... just a friendly warning! 

Best of luck! :up:


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## MSY-Houston (Dec 5, 2004)

Can you bootup from a CD (have System CD in drive, restart holding down C key)? If so, bootup from the CD, then do the following.

On the Hard Disk:

Go to the System Folder and open the Control Panel folder.

Find, then click on Startup Disk.

Make sure that the Hard Disk icon is highlighted. If not, click on it. Close the window.

Go to the System Folder and open the Preferences folder.

Drag the System PREFERENCES and Finder PREFERENCES files to the Desktop.

Restart your computer.

If everything bootsup okay, drag the preferences files on the desktop to the trash.

Good luck!

Houston

PS: Was that really Hobbes ranting and raving about Norton?


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## MSY-Houston (Dec 5, 2004)

Hobbes is absolutely right about one thing. If you get that puppy up, backup your data asap.

Also, if you haven't already, you really need to switch to OSX. It is a much more stable system than OS9. And, you can leave OS9 on your computer so you can use programs that are built for it.

Been using OSX for almost a year now with no problems like the one you're experiencing (knock on wood!), and I used to have weird stuff like that all the time. 

It is worth changing to OSX.


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## Raijin Z (Mar 9, 2005)

....but good ****ing luck intalling OSX onto a pre-existing and possibly failing hdd, with possibly important files on it. Don't forget that it requires a full 8GB partition to itself, 40% of the reason why 9.2.2 is the OS on my iMac and not OSX.


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

MSY-Houston said:


> ...snip bunch of important gibberish...
> Good luck!
> 
> Houston
> ...


  ummm, who, me rant? 

 ok, maybe just a tad more than a little bit, but durn it all, I can not stand an application that promises goodness, but does nothing but hurt.


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## MSY-Houston (Dec 5, 2004)

I agree, mon. Just kidding with ya'.

m


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

MSY-Houston said:


> I agree, mon. Just kidding with ya'.
> 
> m


Hey there! G'morn...


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## mac1150 (Mar 9, 2005)

I can boot up from a c.d. (norton, G4 software restore) but once it's up I can't find my hard drive. I've tried scanning for it after I'm up with no luck! But the odd thing is that every now and again the drive will show up! It's really bizzare. I thought maybe it was a hardware problem (i.e. the ATA cable) but after throughly cleaning the cable/connections I had no change in luck. 
The problem has been going on for about a month and a half, but it seemed to snowball! At first it was a rare thing, then it became a weekly, daily, hourly, etc... 
I'm not interested in saving any of the data on the drive, I have everything backed up!


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## MSY-Houston (Dec 5, 2004)

You may have a power supply problem. Or the hard disk could be going out. I'd take that puppy in to be checked out.


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## MSY-Houston (Dec 5, 2004)

Or, bootup from a System CD and reformat the hard disk. 

Also, install OSX if you can. It's a much more stable system than OS9.


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