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

[Allan Hise]

I seem to recall Joe saying that the drive can't be seen by any disk
utilities. That makes it difficult to re-install...

I don't know much about the open firmware, but is it possible he did some
wacky open firmware thing. I've heard that removing RAM will reset open
firmware. Perhaps he should try that... But I will admit, this is just a
guess.

Or the hard drive could have just died then.

Is the iBook still under warranty? If so - call Applecare.


On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Richard McKay wrote:

> 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?"
>
>
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