[P1] Friend has dead ibook (*yipes*)

[Richard McKay]

Joe,

Lets hope that it is something minor (I don't think so though).

You mention that he was *tinkering* in terminal! (without a complete backup
yipes is the right word)...what probably happened is that he deleted the OS
by using the remove directory system command.

To find out more type the following in a terminal window

man rm

rm can be executed to delete the OS without asking for confirmation. It
would be a particular stroke of bad luck to have typed the right combination
by mistake but it is possible.

To stop this I read somewhere how to put in a verbose command link to make
sure that you don't do it unintentionally...I will check the books and post
again when I find it...

Another less likely possibility is that he managed to change the files
listing the links to volumes (either hard or symbolic) and therefore during
startup the OS can't find the disk as it doesn't know where to look? He may
have also changed a configuration file which listed the volume to mount and
its location...

On the bright side, a clean install after formatting the drive with zeros
will certainly bring the iBook back to life...

To help in the problem solving can you ask him if he had activated the
superuser root at some stage? Does he remember what he was experimenting
with just before...directories/programs/commands in terminal? Did he use
emacs, pico, bbedit or other editor to view and change any files?

HTH,

Richard
--


Joe wrote the following:

> Here's his explanation:
> 
> "I was tinkering with the terminal in bed one day. I let myself get
> distracted and may have hit a few keys before i decided to put my iBook
> on the table. The next morning it won't start up. (I get the Folder/"?"
> Icon blinking at me)
> 
> I managed to start up with a backup Zipdisk and Firewire Drive. My
> Normal HD isn't showing up. At all. not in disk warrior, or norton, or
> First Aid, or even Apple System Profiler. IT doesn't have an ATA drive
> listed.
> 
> Could it have been.. unplugged? Any ideas as to what happened to my my
> dear ibook?"