Q: Infamous Question Mark Battles Disk Tools....
I have a '91 version of a PBook 140 that began giving me a single disk icon with a question mark in its center at every attempted startup about 10 years ago. Nothing else on the desktop--just the single disk with the flahing question mark. No hard disk icon...no nothing.
So, I instantly gave up, bought another computer and moved on. Now to my great surprise, I seem to need documents from that laptop. Assuming zero help was out there, I typed 'powerbook question mark' into google and found this incredible forum.
The best thread I could find was the same problem posted 04/13/06 by spavati and answered by Jan Hedlund & AppleIIfreak. I tried their solutions, and actually got it to boot to the 7.0.1 disk tools disk. But now, that disk tools icon the only thing that will come up, regardless of what I do. I can open it with no problem. And I know to drag the system suitcase into the system folder of my hard disk, but I have no hard disk icon. No trash icon. Zero.
So close....hopefully. Can anybody get me out of the mess I've created?? (Hard to type those question marks).
So, I instantly gave up, bought another computer and moved on. Now to my great surprise, I seem to need documents from that laptop. Assuming zero help was out there, I typed 'powerbook question mark' into google and found this incredible forum.
The best thread I could find was the same problem posted 04/13/06 by spavati and answered by Jan Hedlund & AppleIIfreak. I tried their solutions, and actually got it to boot to the 7.0.1 disk tools disk. But now, that disk tools icon the only thing that will come up, regardless of what I do. I can open it with no problem. And I know to drag the system suitcase into the system folder of my hard disk, but I have no hard disk icon. No trash icon. Zero.
So close....hopefully. Can anybody get me out of the mess I've created?? (Hard to type those question marks).
PowerBook140, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, Older PowerBooks and LC's
Posted on Jan 3, 2009 7:36 PM